This defense reminds me of Brian Knorr's first year and the D handled by Tim Kish. playing huge cushions off of receivers and getting picked apart by short passes. unable to get off the field on any 3rd down, no matter how long. Still managing to get burned deep in 3rd and long situations.

I'm sure Cincy has a decent O-line since they are a good running team, but are they amazing pass blockers too? we got NO Pressure saturday. even if you give a bad quarterback that much time, he's going to find somebody.

Yup! And that 77-yard TD pass to start 3Q ... that came on 3rd and 12.  😝😝😝😝

In the second half, UC figured out that Ohio was not going to cover the tight end. It was available every time. So there was almost no chance Ohio was going to get a stop on defense.

I will say this, if anything is leading us to problems this year is our linebacker core. I get it, our corners aren't doing the job. But the last few years the linebacker core had covered a lot of ground and filled gaps like no other in our defense. I remember when the linebacker core was out at BGSU a few years back and we got stomped for 60 points. If anything, that group covers for a lot of sins committed by our defense. With no linebackers, you're finding out the value of the corners and d-line.

You can't lose a guy like Poling and somehow not take a drop off. I don't care how talented the guy behind him is. Not to mention losing Chad Moore and Blair Brown recently as well.

Coaches make mistakes, being accountable for those mistakes is the sign of leadership,, regardless the execution by the players has to improve. [/QUOTE]Well put.

The entire front seven is a problem. Just 4 sacks in three games, 102nd in 1A. Little pressure on the opposing QB, so the receivers have enough time to get open. There's also poor tackling and coverage technique generally on defense. Lots of missed tackles and there have been several little flair passes that have gone for big gainers (including the last TD vs UVA) because defenders missed tackles or covered at the wrong angle.

Until this year, I don't think Ohio has had three straight games where each team scored 30+ points. Given what happened last year, this could be four straight. But there's also an opportunity here for the D to finally get on track. Until last week vs Charlotte (which beat ODU, which beat VaTech), UMass had not scored more than 24 pts vs a 1A team this year. And none of their losses have been close (34, 21, & 39-pt margins). The D needs to give 60 minutes vs UMass like they had for the first half vs Cincy.

I honestly expected them to bring in Maxwell and run a sneak not once but twice or fake it the second time.

Ohio will win this game by 14-20 points barring a ton of turnovers. Based on the first three games, Ohio has one of the best special teams and offenses in the MAC, even though the offense has not been as consistent as it would like. The defense got scorched in the first half and part of the 2nd half against Howard and the first 20 minutes of Virginia. We lost the virginia game on the basis of the play of the defense in the first 20 minutes. And the overall 3rd down conversion rate against the defense cannot continue. However, there have been a number of signs the defense is improving significantly based on a fair review. Also, there are a number of really positive signs which bode well for the defense in conference. The main issue has been defensive inexperience: the talent is there on defense as is the coaching. Vs Howard, due to injury and graduation, the Bobcats started 8 or 9 players for their first starts on defense. Out of the alarming 645 yards gained by Howard, 100 (15%) was gained on the first 2 plays alone. Out of the total of 645 yards, a full 40%+ of the yards, probably more, can easily be traced to rookie or youth mistakes. When comparing the 1st and 3rd games in terms of defensive performance, improvement is very significant. The linebacker play for all players not named crouch was light years better despite errors in the 4th quarter. Jared Dorsa has improved vastly in just 3 weeks. Right now, the defense has 6 players who are freshman or sophomores who are currently playing who will make an All-MAC two-deep in their careers: Ogun, Evans, Hudson,Dorsa, Caesar, Conner. There are so many factors that go into a units numbers including the play of the other units. In the first half of the Hampton game, the defense was clearly struggling but the offense did not pick up the defense there going an alarming 1-8 in 3rd down conversions. It is no mystery that the defensive numbers looked better vs Cincy as the offense was significantly better in possessing the ball and converting 3rd downs. Much easier to be the 2017 Ohio defense when your offense is averaging 250 yards rushing a game....

I'm a fan that likes defense. A team like 2006 competed for the MAC with a not-very-good offense because the defense kept them in games. I enjoyed that year very much. By contrast, I can't get excited about a team that gives up 600 yards a game.

I stand by my statement earlier that the team can not compete for the MACC unless the defense gives up ~350 yards a game or less. If the defense starts making some plays, I will be the first to admit I was wrong. I do believe that the defense has some talent, so we shall see how it goes.

Wow, who the heck poisoned your kool-aid?