In-Game Thread: Louisiana vs. Boise State

[Just1More]

Well, I'm never sure. Especially when CC and some of the others have argued with me ad nauseum about the prospective talent of that group.

Understood. My post wasn't an obvious add on to yours. I was thinking more in terms of how that's been going on a very long time (practice creating illusions of sufficiency).

I'm not convinced we lack athletic talent on defense. It's just horribly coached. There is almost no chance of not fielding athletes on defense in south Louisiana. When you see defenses unable to do jack squat... it is a coaching issue. It takes all 11 players to make the system function. We have way too many fans that watch one player... or a group (ie secondary) and get massively confused on how defenses work. It is a net that with holes in any part of it... can and will be exploited. Our defense has coaching holes. The talent is inexperienced and hasn't worked as a unit for long... but the coaching is not there. And it is obvious.

I hope Lucas can at least see the basic breakdowns and get enough defensive cohesion working to give McNeese's offense some difficulty. If there offense has some schemeology to it... Lucas has his work cut out. Boise was not operating anything fancy. They were all simply following their assignments to the letter... seeing what we weren't doing well... and exploiting it.

[zephyr]

Understood. My post wasn't an obvious add on to yours. I was thinking more in terms of how that's been going on a very long time (practice creating illusions of sufficiency).

I'm not convinced we lack athletic talent on defense. It's just horribly coached. There is almost no chance of not fielding athletes on defense in south Louisiana. When you see defenses unable to do jack squat... it is a coaching issue. It takes all 11 players to make the system function. We have way too many fans that watch one player... or a group (ie secondary) and get massively confused on how defenses work. It is a net that with holes in any part of it... can and will be exploited. Our defense has coaching holes. The talent is inexperienced and hasn't worked as a unit for long... but the coaching is not there. And it is obvious.

I hope Lucas can at least see the basic breakdowns and get enough defensive cohesion working to give McNeese's offense some difficulty. If there offense has some schemeology to it... Lucas has his work cut out. Boise was not operating anything fancy. They were all simply following their assignments to the letter... seeing what we weren't doing well... and exploiting it.

Athletically, I think the defense is fine with the exception of the DL. In my synopsis of the game i posted last night, I mentioned that the DL just looks sluggish and slow to come off the snap with no explosiveness whatsoever. We have talent, even in the secondary which was torched. I also mentioned S. Thomas in that review. He got burned several times and by my estimation, he cost us 2 TD's directly. He also made some nice plays and tackles. Savion Brown was probably our best CB on Saturday but he almost got burned on a deep pass that was overthrown. Why? because he got all twisted up and basically had to rotate his hips 360 degrees to get back in place and by that time the receiver had developed some space. Its not athleticism, its just overall fundamentals.

[Just1More]

Athletically, I think the defense is fine with the exception of the DL. In my synopsis of the game i posted last night, I mentioned that the DL just looks sluggish and slow to come off the snap with no explosiveness whatsoever. We have talent, even in the secondary which was torched. I also mentioned S. Thomas in that review. He got burned several times and by my estimation, he cost us 2 TD's directly. He also made some nice plays and tackles. Savion Brown was probably our best CB on Saturday but he almost got burned on a deep pass that was overthrown. Why? because he got all twisted up and basically had to rotate his hips 360 degrees to get back in place and by that time the receiver had developed some space. Its not athleticism, its just overall fundamentals.

Even with the long TD passes, I wasn't that disappointed with our secondary. I could see that they had speed and athleticism. Boise was the best QB/WR group we'll see this year. But you are right, our DL and the lack of pressure off the line once again killed us. Our secondary definitely lost assignments... but in the past it was both the athletes and the fundamentals. I think it's more on just fundamentals right now.

It gets old blaming the offense... but I was much more aggravated with our play calling, false starts and lack of execution on offense. AJ played well for his first UL start.

[ManAboutTown]

Athletically, I think the defense is fine with the exception of the DL. In my synopsis of the game i posted last night, I mentioned that the DL just looks sluggish and slow to come off the snap with no explosiveness whatsoever. We have talent, even in the secondary which was torched. I also mentioned S. Thomas in that review. He got burned several times and by my estimation, he cost us 2 TD's directly. He also made some nice plays and tackles. Savion Brown was probably our best CB on Saturday but he almost got burned on a deep pass that was overthrown. Why? because he got all twisted up and basically had to rotate his hips 360 degrees to get back in place and by that time the receiver had developed some space. Its not athleticism, its just overall fundamentals.

Savion Brown was our best CB? He was abused more than anyone. Troy McCullom was the ONLY person making plays in the secondary.

Thomas has good coverage several times, he has just not been coached to find the football in the air. It happened at least 3 times.

Atheltic ability is irrelevant when your coaches have you in no man's land.

[zephyr]

Savion Brown was our best CB? He was abused more than anyone. Troy McCullom was the ONLY person making plays in the secondary.

Thomas has good coverage several times, he has just not been coached to find the football in the air. It happened at least 3 times.

Atheltic ability is irrelevant when your coaches have you in no man's land.

Yes. I can say this because I watched the game very closely again. So if Thomas has good coverage skills but can't find the ball in the air, what does he have? LOL. Brown was making plays by tackling well and minimizing big plays. I saw Thomas give up 3 big plays in the first half alone, Brown did not and considering that McCollum had more interior help from the safeties as he was playing the nickel back, I'd say that Brown was better this game.

[ManAboutTown]

Yes. I can say this because I watched the game very closely again. So if Thomas has good coverage skills but can't find the ball in the air, what does he have? LOL. Brown was making plays by tackling well and minimizing big plays. I saw Thomas give up 3 big plays in the first half alone, Brown did not and considering that McCollum had more interior help from the safeties as he was playing the nickel back, I'd say that Brown was better this game.

You are certainly entitled to that opinion..