Couple interesting things (IMO) in breaking down the D tape:

[1000_OaksLion]

I think you could replace Farmer with "all current PSU LBs"

Earlier in Koa's career he took reps in the box and CJF commented that he did not play well in traffic so he was moved outside. He plays better in space. Makes you wonder how bad our box LBs are if he was moved inside. I think the biggest problem with the run defense was the DTs we're not gap sound. Attribute that to the mlb not getting them into alignment or just young DTs making mistakes or a combo of both.

 

[blion72]

1) On the Overtime possession (5 defensive plays):

The personnel in there for "do or die" time:

Miller Windsor Ellison Matos up front (Hansard came in on the last play for Ellison)
Farmer Brown and Johnson at LBer - but after the first two plays, PSU took out Johnson and went Nickle)
The secondary was Fields and Omani at corners.... Taylor and Scott at S - - - - No Reid.
and even when they went Nickle for the last 3 plays, it was Johnson (#2) who came in, not Reid.

Was Reid banged up?


2) On 81 Defensive Snaps (Note: I also looked at plays that may have been negated by penalties, so that may not be an exact match for the official stats) …… PSU played AT LEAST 32 different combination of personnel in their defensive front 7 (some of that was due to Nickle and Dime configurations).

I think everyone noticed the large numbers of personnel groupings..... not sure if I have ever seen that many different ones in a single game. The staff has always liked to rotate a lot of guys on D - and I think that is a sound philosophy.
But, eventually (like, by Saturday), the staff has to start figuring out who their players are.




I didn't see any link to the breakdown that that one writer does (with "snaps" played and what not)…
So for anyone interested:



DE:
Miller - 58 (WAAY more than you would have liked to have seen)
Matos 46
Toney 29
Tarburton 6
Joseph 23

DT:
Windsor 54 (again, WAAY more than you would like to see)
Ellison 34
Hansard 27
Shelton 27
Mustipher 11
Joseph 2 (slide inside for a couple snaps)
Matos 5 (I believe all of these where when they went to three man fronts in Nickle and Dime)

LB:
Brown 68 (he musta' slept well on Saturday)
Farmer 58
Johnson 47
Parsons 22
Ellis 17
Miller 4 (made a couple plays - was surprised to find out he only had 4 snaps)
(none for Luketa aside from ST, which I was slightly surprised by)


Losing Cothren/Cothran/Chavis/Cabinda/Smith to graduation - - - - - and then losing Bucholz, Brown, Givens, Bowen this summer - - - - - - we all knew that the front 7 would be thin, and green as grass.
A lot that needs to be done - fortunately, most of these guys are just getting started on the steepest end of the growth curve, and they do appear to have some natural ability.


Getting Givens Back for 40-50 snaps (with maybe a few of them at DE) would be HUGE.
If you also get back Simmons for 15-20, all the better.

the pre-season rags all had us 10-14 and they assumed we would have Bucholtz, Brown at full strength and Givens/Simmons available. Some even have Bowen as a roster player.

add those four players at full strength and you have a completely different defense. if the pre-season ratings of 10-14 depended on that level of D, then right now we are not in that category as a team yet. we have the talent on the team to grow into that level of D, but it may take all season to get there.

currently we have experienced players who may not be as good as we think:

Koa - i have been a big fan of his physical skill but not sure if he is at the level to lead.
Brown - still seems skinny for LB and at times lost for a JR
Toney - situational guy that got alot of reps by necessity. he did not get much pressure for being a rush DE
Windsor - got pushed around more than i would think for being one of the leaders
Johnson - seems to be too slow although is a good tackler when he can break down in small areas. not good in open field.
Lamont Wade - i know he was 5* but seems a bit slow to react and in open field could not get to their QB.

hopefully this is also a first game thing.

 

[psuno1]

Definitely would like to see more of #9 at LB.

Only LB that got off blocks and made plays, should play more.

 

[83wuzme]

Looking back over the game, I must say that App St had some really great QB play. Even the 4th down when Thomas went out, their backup QB came in and dropped a perfect throw to their WR #4 who was well covered by Scott. These guys were as accurate and sharp as anybody we are going to see.
But again, it was the combination of a lack of pressure by our front four and DB blitzes on our part that led to most of ASU’s biggest plays in the passing game. We probably aren’t going to see an offense quite like this one the rest of the season, but we are going to have a lot of problems on defense containing good passing teams.

 

[fastlax16]

Did we start subbing in backups once we went up 14?

 

[Custerdome]

Picture this - you have a green DE, lets call him Nick - and Nick is seeing his first game action, and things are going 100 mph.

As the offense is shifting, and audibles are being called, the LBer behind Nick is Jason Cabinda, and the DT to his side is Curtis Cothren........ and as things unfold they are smacking Nick and the helmet, or tapping him on the side, and saying “you’ve got contain”, or whatever codes they have for various responsibilities.
Playing with the same experienced guys around him, it’s a lot easier for Nick to not get all tied up in his own underwear.

Now, consider a situation where all this is going on - and the guys around Nick are:
Not only changing from series to series - but are also other green guys who may not even know for sure what THEY should be doIng?


That’s what the PSU D was faced with on Saturday - for any number of reasons.
That stuff isn’t going to magically resolve itself in 1 week - - - but there could be marked improvement, given this was the first time out for so many.

75% of that problem gets solved if Kevin Givens is one of those guys next to him.

 

[Bob78]

1) On the Overtime possession (5 defensive plays):

The personnel in there for "do or die" time:

Miller Windsor Ellison Matos up front (Hansard came in on the last play for Ellison)
Farmer Brown and Johnson at LBer - but after the first two plays, PSU took out Johnson and went Nickle)
The secondary was Fields and Omani at corners.... Taylor and Scott at S - - - - No Reid.
and even when they went Nickle for the last 3 plays, it was Johnson (#2) who came in, not Reid.

Was Reid banged up?


2) On 81 Defensive Snaps (Note: I also looked at plays that may have been negated by penalties, so that may not be an exact match for the official stats) …… PSU played AT LEAST 32 different combination of personnel in their defensive front 7 (some of that was due to Nickle and Dime configurations).

I think everyone noticed the large numbers of personnel groupings..... not sure if I have ever seen that many different ones in a single game. The staff has always liked to rotate a lot of guys on D - and I think that is a sound philosophy.
But, eventually (like, by Saturday), the staff has to start figuring out who their players are.




I didn't see any link to the breakdown that that one writer does (with "snaps" played and what not)…
So for anyone interested:



DE:
Miller - 58 (WAAY more than you would have liked to have seen)
Matos 46
Toney 29
Tarburton 6
Joseph 23

DT:
Windsor 54 (again, WAAY more than you would like to see)
Ellison 34
Hansard 27
Shelton 27
Mustipher 11
Joseph 2 (slide inside for a couple snaps)
Matos 5 (I believe all of these where when they went to three man fronts in Nickle and Dime)

LB:
Brown 68 (he musta' slept well on Saturday)
Farmer 58
Johnson 47
Parsons 22
Ellis 17
Miller 4 (made a couple plays - was surprised to find out he only had 4 snaps)
(none for Luketa aside from ST, which I was slightly surprised by)


Losing Cothren/Cothran/Chavis/Cabinda/Smith to graduation - - - - - and then losing Bucholz, Brown, Givens, Bowen this summer - - - - - - we all knew that the front 7 would be thin, and green as grass.
A lot that needs to be done - fortunately, most of these guys are just getting started on the steepest end of the growth curve, and they do appear to have some natural ability.


Getting Givens Back for 40-50 snaps (with maybe a few of them at DE) would be HUGE.
If you also get back Simmons for 15-20, all the better.

I may have missed it during the week's info leading up to the game, but was Culpepper hurt? He did not play, and it seemed that we needed as much depth as possible. Maybe he is just not yet ready? Or maybe they want to use his 4 games at another point in the season.
Thanks for any info/update on him.

 

[Bob78]

Looking back over the game, I must say that App St had some really great QB play. Even the 4th down when Thomas went out, their backup QB came in and dropped a perfect throw to their WR #4 who was well covered by Scott. These guys were as accurate and sharp as anybody we are going to see.
But again, it was the combination of a lack of pressure by our front four and DB blitzes on our part that led to most of ASU’s biggest plays in the passing game. We probably aren’t going to see an offense quite like this one the rest of the season, but we are going to have a lot of problems on defense containing good passing teams.

App State's coach may have his pick of open P5 HC positions if their season continues to be this impressive. He was well prepared, had an aggressive offense, a unique defense at times, stayed calm, expected to win. If he goes somewhere where they have some semblance of a base of talent in place (e.g. not Kansas and the like), he will do well early and often.

 

[fastlax16]

Under CJF, PSU subs on D, liberally and early, all the time.
Always has, even during the sanction years (when most of the second team was grossly overmatched)
It’s just their philosophy.

Usually, for the DLine especially, NO LATER THAN the third possession (maybe earlier if there was a long drive).
That’s just the way they’ve operated (which is, IMO, largely beneficial)

I may have phrased the question incorrectly. I meant deeper bench beyond the normal rotation if you will. Remember that coming up at some point during the in game thread.

 

[bdgan]

Bowen chose to leave the team. It wasn’t Franklin’s decision.

You get almost as many things wrong here as you do at the Test Board. Try to pay attention. SMH.

I suspect that Franklin allowed Bowen back on the team but he wasn't going to play the first 3 or 4 games. I suspect that's the reason Bowen left. Of course I don't know for sure but why would he work hard to make his way back only to leave after a week or two? Apparently you know exactly what happened. SMH.

 

[Marylovesthelions]

Just rewatched the 4th quarter. Defense looked tired and confused. App St very sharp.
Flounders said on Pennlive that Reid was hurt. No idea how bad.
Jarvis Miller looks like he should be getting more snaps. Cam Brown often looked lost despite 68 snaps.
Windsor had a rough 4th quarter. Maybe time to stop the bragging.

Windsor spent all day Sunday extracting his foot from his mouth. Time to shut up and put up!

 

[uPBRmeASAP]

Did we start subbing in backups once we went up 14?

We subbed often, but we had basically all starters out there down that horrible stretch.

 

[Nittany Ziggy]

Bowen chose to leave the team. It wasn’t Franklin’s decision.

You get almost as many things wrong here as you do at the Test Board. Try to pay attention. SMH.

Obviously!

 

[Ian]

We subbed often, but we had basically all starters out there down that horrible stretch.

They subbed the entire game. It wasn’t clear who were the one’s after the first series and who deserved to be out there in the end.

 

[PSU08Iraq11]

App State's coach may have his pick of open P5 HC positions if their season continues to be this impressive. He was well prepared, had an aggressive offense, a unique defense at times, stayed calm, expected to win. If he goes somewhere where they have some semblance of a base of talent in place (e.g. not Kansas and the like), he will do well early and often.

Maybe Satterfeld will get the Michigan job when Harbaughcle gets lifted? How Ironic....all these years after their Big House disaster....App State takes over at UM.

 

[83wuzme]

Maybe Satterfeld will get the Michigan job when Harbaughcle gets lifted? How Ironic....all these years after their Big House disaster....App State takes over at UM.

Harbuncle ?

 

[PSU08Iraq11]

Harbuncle ?

Harbinger

 

[RT87]

Harbinger

As in 'debacle '....