True story and hope he improves on that. The Lacy family are great folks so I have a vested interest in seeing him succeed.
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To which freshman are you referring?
Trace Ford.
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If you subtract the first half of the Tulsa game, the defense was the best I have watched since 2013. Against Tech, the numbers are going to be distorted when Spencer has 5 turnovers. Against Baylor, Spencer had another 5 turnovers. The Baylor game was certainly a weaker performance on defense, though.
Advanced statistics show that this defense was much, much improved and that Knowlesâ system can work with his personnel in it. Iâll agree that âamazingâ could possibly be considered over the top, but he most certainly did a great job following the TU game. Our defense gave us the chances any other OSU offense in yearâs past would need to win games. Knowles wasnât the issue.
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Most important thing in the defensive side is stops. Third down defense is a pretty good indicator but not comprehensive. Donât know what our 3 down defense number was this year but it sure seemed significantly improved. Until we rolled over in the bedlam game plan, I would say we played better defense than any time in recent history.
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Wow ever didnât have 5 TOs vs Baylor but your point still remains.
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I think prior to the 2nd half of the Tulsa game people had reasons to gripe about the defense (there were good reasons why we had struggles but it wasnât looking pretty up to that point). After that halftime, a new defense came out and minus games where the defense got tired we looked very improved over last year. Really looking forward to next season.
Youâre right. Still had 3 turnovers. One being that scoop and score (that turnover was my main example of not being the defenseâs fault).
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Another aspect that I think is often overlooked is how many time teams get into the scoring zone (TDL defined area from the 25) and how often they come away with 3 or less. There were several huge stops down at the goalline this year where even the old âbend donât breakâ defenses would have likely caved. Knowles has me excited about our defense because I can see him trying to use the same kind of creativity on that side of the ball in scheme and deception that we normally would expect from the offense. Heâs building something and I think weâre going to look at 2019 as a year we turned a corner on D.
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Solution would be less emphasis on schemes and fixing the wheel by hiring the Gleesonâs and Yurcichs of the world and more joe DeForest and Kendall briles. Go get dudes. Scheme doesnât matter when you have better players.
Right. Like Miami and La Tech right??
No more like Oregon
@Helper totally agree give Gundy some credit! People forget how we felt after last season ended. We were plays away this year from being a 10 win team this year! (Texas, Tech, A&M) Gundy is doing straight up witch craft right now and people need to appreciate it. Next year could be huge for OSU!
Also helping handâŚ
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Donât drop Kendal Briles on here. Youâll lose a lot of credibility.
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Whatâs the metric? If itâs YPG you arenât working in a 2020 frame of mind.
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Oh no
Mike Holder deserves an awful lot of credit in keeping Dunn these past 2 years. The best news in all of this is the fact Mike and Mike are working together.
We donât have many coaches that other top programs want and Dunn is one of them. Great news we did what it took to keep him.
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Alright, I took the time to calculate the Defensive PPD for the year. All drives counted except for garbage drives leading to halftime or end of game.
Defensive PPD:
Games 1-7 (removed the McNeese State game) - 2.52 PPD
Games 8-13 - 2.04 PPD
Thatâs what we call an improvement, everyone.
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Everybody puts up points/yards now. Itâs back to being an accurate metic in 2020.