Big plays hurting Cajuns

[NewsCopy]

As UL celebrated its 55-44 win over Arkansas State on Tuesday night, Ragin' Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth was busy breaking down what went wrong on some of the big-gain plays the Red Wolves were able to enjoy.

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[CharlieK]

We are clearly still adapting to the new scheme(s), and that is leading to some big plays. But there is a kernel of a salty defense there now. We used to never be able to get anyone off the field on 3rd down, and we did really well there. We struggled on 4th down, but that won't come up as often against normal teams. We got pressure on the QB two games in a row....had turnovers two games in a row (and dropped two sure interceptions late, as well). We are gang tackling more now, and in general the defense just looks better. That's hard to say after giving up that many yards, but I really think we are heading in the right direction. Once we clean it up, we will have a decent defense. Our team, with a decent defense, will be hard to stop.

[DocCajun]

We are clearly still adapting to the new scheme(s), and that is leading to some big plays. But there is a kernel of a salty defense there now. We used to never be able to get anyone off the field on 3rd down, and we did really well there. We struggled on 4th down, but that won't come up as often against normal teams. We got pressure on the QB two games in a row....had turnovers two games in a row (and dropped two sure interceptions late, as well). We are gang tackling more now, and in general the defense just looks better. That's hard to say after giving up that many yards, but I really think we are heading in the right direction. Once we clean it up, we will have a decent defense. Our team, with a decent defense, will be hard to stop.

Agreed. And even though we will give up a few big plays here and there, the last two weeks have shown this D's potential. Lots of positives that they can build on.

Even against stAte where we gave up 40 points, that doesn't tell the whole story. The D came up big many many times of Tuesday night

[Big Buds]

I thought the final was 55-40?

[CajunRage]

I thought the final was 55-40?

Buckley wrote the article. What do you expect?

[MelRock]

I thought the final was 55-40?

Once again Bucky doesn't let facts get in the way of a story.

[Turbine]

Didn't y'all hear? The refs gave them 4 more points in post game.

[CajunAmos]

I told a coworker this morning that I thought that was the best looking defensive performance I've seen who gave up 600 yards and 40 points. Until halfway through the fourth quarter, ASU had no drives where they marched down the field. It was one play and then a 60+ yard play with plenty of defensive stops in the game.

[CrazyCajun]

I told a coworker this morning that I thought that was the best looking defensive performance I've seen who gave up 600 yards and 40 points. Until halfway through the fourth quarter, ASU had no drives where they marched down the field. It was one play and then a 60+ yard play with plenty of defensive stops in the game.

thats a matter of one gy missing or over running his assignment, very fixable. the more I watch the defense, it is so critical for every guy just to do his job and stop trying to account for other guys jobs.

[CajunAmos]

I also thought for the most part the defense against ASU was based on looking to protect against the run first, so the safeties were playing close to the line leaving a number of one-on-one's on some of the outside guys. We got caught a few times with the slants with no one over the top.

[MetryCajun]

Maybe something didn't translate over the airwaves that did live, but I saw a bad defense with very slow DB's. Sure we made some nice plays behind the line of scrimmage (Ringo, Hamilton and Boris were solid), but there is nothing positive about 600+ yards and 40pts. IF we had scored our usual 30-35 points we would be freaking out about how bad our defense is.
If I played us I would go four downs on anything under 6 yards. I would be shocked if we could consistently stop it. Going forward I expect any QB who can execute a short/intermediate passing game to have a ton of success against us. Like Tuesday, we will just have to hope Broadway and Company can continue to execute the offense.

[CajunRage]

Maybe something didn't translate over the airwaves that did live, but I saw a bad defense with very slow DB's. Sure we made some nice plays behind the line of scrimmage (Ringo, Hamilton and Boris were solid), but there is nothing positive about 600+ yards and 40pts. IF we had scored our usual 30-35 points we would be freaking out about how bad our defense is.
If I played us I would go four downs on anything under 6 yards. I would be shocked if we could consistently stop it. Going forward I expect any QB who can execute a short/intermediate passing game to have a ton of success against us. Like Tuesday, we will just have to hope Broadway and Company can continue to execute the offense.

3 runs and 2 passes accounted for 328 yards. That left 267 the rest of the game. I'm not excusing the 5 plays, but there is a big difference between what we did and getting manhandled up and down the field. A few blown coverages and big plays were the reason we gave up 595. We aren't the steel curtain, but no one was claiming we were. All we need our defense to do is hold them enough for us to outscore our opponent.

Edit: Additionally, when you score as fast as we were, you can expect your defense to give up a little more yardage/points. That's the same as continually going 3 and out.

[Bandwagon King]

Coach just play your game & quit worrying about your long irons. If UL can play way better defense by being super aggressive, then giving up a big play every now & then won't hurt them. It's the twenty five plays of the fifteen & twenty yard variety that killed this team on their tail spin. Don't break what's fixed trying to fix something you can't. The year the Saints won the Superbowl, they gave up big plays all year. But it didn't matter because they owned the football most of the game, won the turnover battle, & made hay with the ball when they had it in their possession. And that miracle touchdown where the guy was tackled but wasn't on the ground probably won't happen again until that refereeing crew calls another one of our games at least.

[MountainDew]

I liked what I saw from the defense. ASU scored on a play where everybody in the stadium thought the runner was down. They scored on a busted assignment on a QB keep from the read option. They also had another big play on the QB keep that we ended up tackling him before he got to the endzone. That's probably close to 150 yards just on 3 plays. And other times when stAte had a big play, our coverage was great, our pressure was great. It forced the QB to scramble and the receivers to break off their routes. The 600 yards of offense for stAte didn't feel like 600. If that makes any sense.

[CajunJack55]

Maybe something didn't translate over the airwaves that did live, but I saw a bad defense with very slow DB's. Sure we made some nice plays behind the line of scrimmage (Ringo, Hamilton and Boris were solid), but there is nothing positive about 600+ yards and 40pts. IF we had scored our usual 30-35 points we would be freaking out about how bad our defense is.
If I played us I would go four downs on anything under 6 yards. I would be shocked if we could consistently stop it. Going forward I expect any QB who can execute a short/intermediate passing game to have a ton of success against us. Like Tuesday, we will just have to hope Broadway and Company can continue to execute the offense.

Winning the turnover battle is key to our defense..not saying you are completely wrong but we are able to control the clock the way we played Tuesday night as opposed to other games. It's not always about the amount of yard giving up.