Where did the defense go?

[CoachGugs]

Watching the bowl games and these scores I'm sad to say Big D has left the building.  Shouldn't be long until there is no hitting in football.  How long until it hits youth football?

[CoachShad]

Funny I said the same thing to a few friends the other day.  Somewhere Tom Landry, Jim Johnson, and Fritz Schurmer are hanging their heads in shame.

After watching this, need one wonder any longer why defenses in the NFL are slowly degrading? 

[Coach D]

While I agree with you guys, we still have the championship left with the possibility for a defensive stand-off...

Unfortunately it is what the average fan wants.  They wanna see lots of scoring not lots of 3 and outs.  It happened in baseball too.  Baseball was dying before the home run race between Sosa and McGuire.  I'm not gonna get into a steroid debate,  but I found it interesting that the guys who did what they did which ultimately saved baseball, got them crucified for it.  I hate to say it but football is not really any different. 

What do you guys think is the cause?  Is it more clever offenses or is it rules that are hamstringing the defenses a bit?  Or both?     

[CoachGugs]

I can tell where the Avg fan can go [you know where]... I do know that Offense sells tickets and Defenses win Championships maybe that is why the 2 best defenses in college football are playing for the National.

"helping West Virginia break the bowl record for points established six nights earlier when Baylor beat Washington 67-56 in the Alamo Bowl."
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=320040228

It makes me sick!  Defence wins Championships and to me is more fun to watch.  I wouldn't be supprised if we see the 49ers in the Superbowl for the NFC.  I have lived in DC my entire life and growing up watch the skins in the 80s did nothing for me.  That is why I am a Giants fan!!

I just want to know how long do I have until our Youth Football is messed up as well?

[CoachCalande]

The cause is that the spread and hold tactics are not only tolerated but encouraged. Did you see the splits that WV was using last night?

[CoachDoc]

I think it is because the defenses seem to lack the speed to keep up with the new offenses. 

[ltlacy]

Well in my conference that been telling me for yrs to calm my team down hitting and attacking so hard. At our All-Conference game on kick-off we did a roller ball and got a good bounce and I told one of my Head Hunters you got him and he leveled him and the announcer said,"Soon that will be a flag in our league!" Well I sent a left split left crash and the CR or S blitz and destroyed the RB and was warned for unnecessary roughness! It's coming our way VERY SOON! I will be done because I can't stand arm tackling!

Also in that WV game did you see the Clemson player non-chalantly try and push the WV player out of bounds and gave up the score and the Clemson player tackle the WV only to have him bounce of him and keep running(I tell my players you always pin them to the mat(wrestling))!!!!!!!!!!! <----- DISGUSTING!

[ltlacy]

I think it is because the defenses seem to lack the speed to keep up with the new offenses.

I think when you have a player worrying about to hit another player to hard, high, what angle, helmet to helmet, can't bump BUT WR can create space, the unprotect man (bang bang situation)and all these other terms it makes them second guess not physically but MENTALLY and when a defensive player start thinking he has lost half the battle and it's turns into 3/4's b/c then the game speeds up on them while they are thinking instead of slowing down when they can pin their ears back and ballout!

[CoachCalande]

its really easy to outrun defenders who are being held. 

[mahonz]

I can tell where the Avg fan can go [you know where]... I do know that Offense sells tickets and Defenses win Championships maybe that is why the 2 best defenses in college football are playing for the National.

"helping West Virginia break the bowl record for points established six nights earlier when Baylor beat Washington 67-56 in the Alamo Bowl."
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=320040228

It makes me sick!  Defence wins Championships and to me is more fun to watch.  I wouldn't be supprised if we see the 49ers in the Superbowl for the NFC.  I have lived in DC my entire life and growing up watch the skins in the 80s did nothing for me.  That is why I am a Giants fan!!

I just want to know how long do I have until our Youth Football is messed up as well?

G

As long as the quality of officiating stays....bad.....the youth game is safe. 

[Coach D]

I suppose it doesn't help that you can be fined a lot of money if your helmet is a couple degrees off! 

I have been saying for years that the NFL is getting soft (I'm sure you guys have too) and it is disappointing!   If i have time today (or if one of you guys do - hint hint) I wanna find out if the college score averages have really gone up that much in the last 20 years, and then compare that with the NFL.  May be interesting. 

[Mike ODonnell]

Personally, I think there are some great hitters and hitting going on in the NFL but, that being said, there are fewer and fewer classic tacklers. It appears that in the college game, there is also fewer teams tackling and more trying to just "hit" the ball carrier down.

I think what will turn the game around to stress more productive defense will be when some of the outstanding defensive teams pound the spread offenses and force them out of their comfort zone. Defenses were sent packing because they did not match up well with nifty, nimble receivers in space. Without a doubt, the pendulum has swung in favor of the offenses.

As excited as I am about LSU meeting Alabama again (and I am excited about this one), these are two outstanding defensive squads getting after each other. A better situation would have been to hav Oklahoma State (for instance) facing either LSU or Alabama and West Virginia or Baylor facing the other.

Some of you may remember when the Split-T came into being in the late 1940s and through the 1950s. It was going to revolutionize the game and make it faster and better. Much the same was said back in the early 1940s (I am old but not that old) when the Bear's T formation with a man in motion challenged the single wing for dominance.

Move ahead to the late 1960s and 1970s . . . the wishbone and split back veer was putting good defenses into unusual situations that couldn't be handled by traditional (at the time) defensive planning. Teams adapted to slow down the offensive threats and people found that if you didn't have a quality quarterback, you could have significant problems with the triple option attack.

It may well be the same that not all signal callers are destined to be the next great performer in the spread option offense. While I like the points explosion that teams like Oregon, Houston, etc. generate, I also like thinking about how to stop the high octane attacks that you can see even down to the youth leagues. As good as West Virginia was last night, they did lose some games during the season as did all of the spread attack squads. While the spread offense people are certainly able to put points on the board, certain other teams they play have their number defensively.

[CoachGugs]

I remember the reason the Giants won the Super Bowl against the high powered Pats was because they beat up Tommy!  If you look at the best Offences in the NFL they never win the Super Bowl unless they have a good to great defense to back them up.  Pats… Vikings… Indy (they didn’t win until their Def came alive)

[ZACH]

I had a team that did not like defense at all! Drove me nuts...but they loved offense

[bignose]

Mike, since you and I both qualify as senior citizens, I'm sure you remember the offensive explosions that the option teams had during the the late 1960's. Eventually, as you mentioned, the defenses caught up with them to a point. The Triple option has certainly stood the test of time. I see today's Zone Read Option as an extension of the Outside Veer that I made a living off of for 15 years.

Football is cyclical. The next "great offense" has a run of a couple of years, and then some smart defensive coordinator comes up with a scheme that works for him, and everybody imitates it.

Currently, it seems that teams are placing all of their best athletes on offense, and the accuracy of many contemporary QBs is astonishing. Maybe because nobody can rush them due to legalized holding as currently permitted. Sooner or later, the rules will be revised to level the field. (I hope, as some of these displays of offense is not good, overall, for the game).

Like the option offenses, these Spread teams are totally capable of beating themselves, and since many aspects of the games trickle down, it's always interesting to see teams that lack the overall talent needed to be successful running these schemes.

Additionally, most High Schools and youth programs cannot devote the amount of time needed to perfect this type of game, due to practice and limited number of players available. For example, we have 2 1/2 hours of practice daily, and almost all of our kids are two way players. Compare that to the colleges with 100+ kids and 20 hours of practice time. Try explaining that to parents!