Defense

[YesAppCan]

Last night the defense gave up 437 yards to a less than stellar team. I'm sure Woody won't be too happy about that. Elon gashed us up the middle on the run far too many times. My question is; were we giving up the run to run more time off the clock and not give up the pass? It appeared to me Elon had 6-7 on the offensive line where we only kept the three down linemen and brought in a 4th from LB position... Those odds don't favor a stop for the defense. Elon certainly did not bring an impressive running game resume to the table prior to this game. On another note, John Law played a stellar game last night... Beastly!

[Yosef84]

I was very concerned with the D's performance...especially the inability to stop the run. I wonder if their previous ineffectiveness running the ball had led us to under prepare for that possibility. I also wonder how much the absence of Blair might have been a factor. He is a stud when he's in there.

[AppAttack]

Blair being out and us jumping out to such a huge lead probably led to a soft run defense. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I'm just so excited about players like Law, Cox and Price. We'll see if Woody's experience gives us an advantage against option teams like CharSo, GaSo and Wofford. That will be the true test of the run D.

[AtlAppMan]

I am a total Woody supporter and acknowledge our D is a work in progress with a long way to go, however, we gave up 400+ total yards, 4.9 yds/carry against a weak FCS team. If I were Elon, I would have run it and run it until we stopped them which wasn't very often. We appeared to regress from game 2 to 3.

[firemoose]

Been waiting on this thread to pop up.

Losing Blair hurt and we were rotating several different lineups on the front 3, trying to find the best combo. Deuce was hurt for a few plays but did come back in some. I'm not sure how many plays as it was in the 4th and the video feed sucked. Not going to blame the D too much for giving up yards in the 2nd half because of the weather. Weather is the great equalizer and it showed in the second half. Those who have not played the game do not understand how difficult playing in sloppy conditions is for the defense. Defense is all about read and react. Hard to react when your slipping all the time (My playing days ended during a very rainy game). The O just has to hold on to the ball. They already know where they are going.

Personally my biggest concern moving into the meat of our schedule (other than kick coverage which never seems to change) is the lack of a dominate nose tackle. Even Brownie brought it up several times. No matter what variation of the 3-4 you play it starts with the NT. If he doesn't command a double team for the majority of the time then teams are going to be able to run on us and our QB pressures will be limited. That's not a good thing with 4 TO teams coming up. Hopefully they saw something last night in all our rotating and maybe can fix upon the right combination. We'll see starting next week.

[Appalachman]

I think a large part of it was strategy and math. They played two safeties deep and wide and OLBs wide to keep everything in front and inbounds. Game management kicked in early and went more conservative both ways. I am sure Scott wanted a W bad and played that way rather than a true killer instinct. Seemed to apply both sides of the ball. Kids didn't look tired even after those drives. I believe opposing coaches will be way more concerned about facing this D than the fans in this thread think.

[Kgfish]

Come on people. We're 3 games into a season with a new coordinator playing a new alignment with infants in terms of college experience. Going into Elon Robinson, Ross and Scott were the chiseled veterans of the group with 9 starts for Deuce & Joel and Scott had 8. After those 3 we are crazy young. Bronson and Frazier have 4 - 2 of Frazier's were in 2009, Anderson - Gray - Law - Townes - Walton were making their 3rd start and Blackmon making his 1st. Woody played a lot of back ups in the second half, esp on the line. This is still an extremely young unit.

[asutrnr81]

Fire, I too knew this one was coming....I was on row "B" at about the 47 yard line "behind" the defensive bench. Woody was the most composed defensive coach I can remember.

He was continuously calming down the troops....Pointed to his head, and (with my limited lip reading)...kept saying think, calm down, they can't beat you!

I think he was a lot more confident than I was! He was always in control!

However, people keep talking about the weather. The weather did not get bad until after the game. I was misty, and a few heavier showers but no downpours.

We blitzed a few times but we were trying to keep things in front of us!

I will agree, Law was a beast....and he played with a pulled hammy for 3 quarters. Every time after the 2nd quarter when he came off the field it was to the attention of the trainers.

One other point. Townes appears to have a serious knee injury. He was playing well!

[Goapps15]

Until App got soft in the 4th quarter Elon only had 240 yards with 10 minutes left. We got soft too early but it happens with young players. 210 came in the last 8-10 minutes. We basically dropped into a prevent zone.

The thing that continues to be my problem is not yardage but the fact that we have no pass rush. Our front 3 isn't getting anything done. They are getting manhandled. The back 8 has been solid and will continue to be. I also believe App prepped for a pass-first gameplan and that had something to do with them running so well. Plus no Blair was a big issue. He requires a double team at all times.

[firemoose]

Fire, I too knew this one was coming....I was on row "B" at about the 47 yard line "behind" the defensive bench. Woody was the most composed defensive coach I can remember.

He was continuously calming down the troops....Pointed to his head, and (with my limited lip reading)...kept saying think, calm down, they can't beat you!

I think he was a lot more confident than I was! He was always in control!

However, people keep talking about the weather. The weather did not get bad until after the game. I was misty, and a few heavier showers but no downpours.

We blitzed a few times but we were trying to keep things in front of us!

I will agree, Law was a beast....and he played with a pulled hammy for 3 quarters. Every time after the 2nd quarter when he came off the field it was to the attention of the trainers.

One other point. Townes appears to have a serious knee injury. He was playing well!

I wasn't there so I was basing my comments on the weather from what the video showed of the field and plays (it sucked) and the comments from DJ, Dad, and Brownie about the second half. From what you say they made it sound worse than it was (I know it really starting pouring after the game but they did mention the rain several times in the second and threw to the sidelines a few times to talk about it) but I did see several of our LB's and DB's slip when trying to react. I was just trying to point out to others that us going "soft" could have been at least partly weather related and that, with the Blair loss, we were rotating many different sets on the front 3. Those two things combined were enough for us to give up some yards. Although there will be some mistakes we will be ok on D, especially getting Blair back. Next week will show what we do against a primary running attack.

[DaphneUrquhart]

There was some solid rain in the third, but it didn't hang around. It looked to me like the coaches kept ... well ... coaching the whole game. I did see some outward enthusiasm from Coach Ledford as well. Each week there is something else that isn't perfect. Each week there's something improved from the week before.

Our D definitely had some Not Top Ten moments yesterday. They also had a few pretty sweet plays. Law is going to be fun to watch over the years if he can keep his head on straight. It's great to be a Mountaineer!

[AppAttack]

I'm not buying the weather as an excuse for the defense giving up so many yards. Gardner-Webb's D didn't seem to have any trouble in much worse conditions. Shutting out Wofford still blows my mind. We're just young and inexperienced and learning a new scheme. I'm a 4-3 guy, but we'll see. Let's give it time.

[firemoose]

I'm not buying the weather as an excuse for the defense giving up so many yards. Gardner-Webb's D didn't seem to have any trouble in much worse conditions. Shutting out Wofford still blows my mind. We're just young and inexperienced and learning a new scheme. I'm a 4-3 guy, but we'll see. Let's give it time.

Never used it as an excuse. Said it could have contributed. Also gave other reasons why and youth, inexperience, and a new D were all listed. And since I wasn't there I was going off comments made on the radio. I now know that it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Other things come into play as far as rain. Some grass fields hold up better than others in rain. All one has to do is look at San Fran and Pittsburgh during the rain to see that. And I'm also biased since I had a multiple compound tib/fib fracture playing on a rain soaked field. I guess I shouldn't have tried to give the D a little support. I'll know better next time.

[WataugaMan]

There was some solid rain in the third, but it didn't hang around. It looked to me like the coaches kept ... well ... coaching the whole game. I did see some outward enthusiasm from Coach Ledford as well. Each week there is something else that isn't perfect. Each week there's something improved from the week before.

Our D definitely had some Not Top Ten moments yesterday. They also had a few pretty sweet plays. Law is going to be fun to watch over the years if he can keep his head on straight. It's great to be a Mountaineer!

Special Team play still has me concerned. The fElons almost ran another back Saturday. Also, one of the reasons we seem to continually have bad field postion is due to Special Teams, why do we only rush two on punts. Punters have all day, need to put more pressure on them, maybe the field position situation would improve.

[YesAppCan]

I will say tht on that kick of return, elon had 2 major "blocks-in-the-back" that should have been seen by the stripes. Still, I old my breath EVEY time we punt or kick off. The solution, for the kickoffs is to kick it out of the endzone---if kicker can do it.

[asutrnr81]

I wasn't there so I was basing my comments on the weather from what the video showed of the field and plays (it sucked) and the comments from DJ, Dad, and Brownie about the second half. From what you say they made it sound worse than it was (I know it really starting pouring after the game but they did mention the rain several times in the second and threw to the sidelines a few times to talk about it) but I did see several of our LB's and DB's slip when trying to react. I was just trying to point out to others that us going "soft" could have been at least partly weather related and that, with the Blair loss, we were rotating many different sets on the front 3. Those two things combined were enough for us to give up some yards. Although there will be some mistakes we will be ok on D, especially getting Blair back. Next week will show what we do against a primary running attack.

..and you know, maybe it was slicker than it appeared to me at the game....there are always different POV! Brownie never did like playing in the rain! Wooos!

I do think we softened up the intensity though!....probably to avoid injury as we looked to be developing depth!

[JTApps1]

Fire, I too knew this one was coming....I was on row "B" at about the 47 yard line "behind" the defensive bench. Woody was the most composed defensive coach I can remember.

He was continuously calming down the troops....Pointed to his head, and (with my limited lip reading)...kept saying think, calm down, they can't beat you!

I think he was a lot more confident than I was! He was always in control!

However, people keep talking about the weather. The weather did not get bad until after the game. I was misty, and a few heavier showers but no downpours.

We blitzed a few times but we were trying to keep things in front of us!

I will agree, Law was a beast....and he played with a pulled hammy for 3 quarters. Every time after the 2nd quarter when he came off the field it was to the attention of the trainers.

One other point. Townes appears to have a serious knee injury. He was playing well!

I wasn't there so I was basing my comments on the weather from what the video showed of the field and plays (it sucked) and the comments from DJ, Dad, and Brownie about the second half. From what you say they made it sound worse than it was (I know it really starting pouring after the game but they did mention the rain several times in the second and threw to the sidelines a few times to talk about it) but I did see several of our LB's and DB's slip when trying to react. I was just trying to point out to others that us going "soft" could have been at least partly weather related and that, with the Blair loss, we were rotating many different sets on the front 3. Those two things combined were enough for us to give up some yards. Although there will be some mistakes we will be ok on D, especially getting Blair back. Next week will show what we do against a primary running attack.

There were also some very heavy downpours a few hours before kickoff that had to soften up the turf a good bit.