How good do you think the defense is?
- Thread starter Nitt1300
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It will come down to the DT position and they look pretty stout. Chavis was a nice surprise. The dude's a house. They have some depth too. The secondary, in spite the loss of Reid, should be good. They have depth there too. #21 has always looked like a good player when he's seen time. He was hungry out there today. LB? Just depends on how well some guys learn to play their position. The talent is there.
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We're going to have a very fast, athletic and aggressive D. DT should be a major strength and stopping the run across the front 7 should be very good and improved. Question marks still are the pass rush. I think one will develop, just not sure to which degree it will. Secondary overall will be very good, but until a lockdown CB emerges that we can put to shut down other teams top playmakers I'm still worrying the loss of Reid. FS is another question mark, but I think we'll turn out okay there as far as coverage goes. LB's have some very athletic bodies to accompany Cabinda in the middle and could end up being better than anyone could've expected. Overall I see a top 25 defense in the 15-25 range. Not elite, but improved and pretty good especially when coupled with our O. Hard to really get an accurate feel of the ceiling based on the type of opponent we played, but the floor has definitely risen compared to my pre season expectations
Apke, not great.
Bucholtz is an under the radar player, same as last year.
Not concerned about the corners.
They'll be fine against the OOC schedule and the lower tier B1G teams. Against Michigan, O$U, and other elites, their success depends on the matchup.
Bucholtz is an under the radar player, same as last year.
Not concerned about the corners.
They'll be fine against the OOC schedule and the lower tier B1G teams. Against Michigan, O$U, and other elites, their success depends on the matchup.
Hard to tell based on today? The defense only gave up 159 Total Offensive yards on 63 Offensive Plays from scrimmage by Akron - that's an average of only 2.52 yards surrendered per opponent offensive snap, which is insanely good (for contrast PSU put up 569 yards Total Offensive Yards on 65 Offensive snaps from scrimmage or 8.75 yards per offensive snap!). The earlier poser trolls who claimed that PSU's LBs and Defense (and OL) performed poorly today might be two of the stupidest posts of all time as the ACTUAL statistics demonstrate! PSU held Akron to 73 yards rushing on 34 rushing attempts (2.1 ypc) and only 89 yards passing on 14 of 29 attempts, 0 TDs and 1 INT. OTOH, PSU racked up 247 yards rushing on 34 attempts (7.3 ypc) and 322 yards passing. But according to the posing-trolls, PSU's LBs and front 7 had trouble handling Akron's running game and PSU's OL was struggling to create running room for PSU's rushers??? Utter moronic inanity as the ACTUAL numbers and statistics unequivocally demonstrate.
Need more of a pass rush id say, someone will need to step up and be a force. Overall impressive today. Rotation is good on D line.
I agree Chavis is a nice surprise and Yetur Matos looks like a man child. Shaka Toney gets out of the blocks like Usain Bolt but needs to develop an inside move. Miller was OK and I didn't notice Torrence Brown much. Kevin Givens looks a little more stout and still has that nasty lateral quickness. Shane Simmons didn't seem to be playing fast enough (extra weight or adapting to playing speed?) Ryan Bucholz had a nice game just eating up space, but I agree, with the Cothren brothers and Chavis we should be pretty good up the middle.
Hard to tell yesterday, but I just have a feeling this D is going to be just fine all year. OSU and UM will test them for sure, but they looked much bigger and faster than teams in recent memory (which makes sense). Plus they had a game like yesterday where they had a chance to get a lot of guys in the game but also identify a lot of coachable moments. They will definitely be better for it.
This can be a top 20 Defense if it can avoid the injury bug. Still a little worried about LB depth but liked what we saw from the DL across the board. It's a very athletic unit up front and will match up well against most of the schedule while it gels.
Definitely can't base much on Akron. That being said I think it's good enough to win most games with this offense. Whether it's good enough to win against Top 5 teams, not sure.
An area for improvement is creating turnovers. We had one interception and forced a fumble (recovered by Akron). The D will need to generate turnovers to kill opponents' drives and create opportunities for the offense as we get into the tough part of the B1G schedule. Example: what Alabama did vs. Florida State last night.
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