Our D wasn't the best last night but we got the crucial stops when we needed them and got the W. My question is did the triple option make our defense look worse than it actually is and I don't have to worry about it because we most likely won't play another triple option offense the rest of the year? Or do we have some serious issues that other teams are going to exploit? I'm hoping it was just the style of offense that AF runs. Maybe some of both?

IMHO, you can't judge what the offense or the defense did last night. AFA is its own beast, others will say the defense sucks. Which, discipline and execution, they did, but with the talent we have on defense, I have a hard time believing what we saw last night is our true defensive capability.

Aggie19 wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 7:49 am

IMHO, you can't judge what the offense or the defense did last night. AFA is its own beast, others will say the defense sucks. Which, discipline and execution, they did, but with the talent we have on defense, I have a hard time believing what we saw last night is our true defensive capability.

What I saw in the second half was the whole team was so focused on not getting beat outside that they were abandoning their gaps and assignments and reacting to every move of the AFA QB allowing that counter and the QBs cuts to the middle to be wide open. Obvioulsy pitch remained a huge issuethe first half and tackling got bad as they got tired.

BSU is a different animal. Bachmeir is not mobile and took a lot of hits both out of regular 4 man rush and stunts and blitzes last night. Their run game seems a bit down from past years too. They are verydangerous and the D is going to have to get AFA out of their heads and play an agressive D. Also you know BSU is going to see all the misdirection problems the Aggies have had so far so they have to get some discipline.

There are 2 basic defensive concepts a coordinator utilizes. The first is defending with assignments against an offensive scheme and the second is ignoring what an offense is trying to do and making them react to you with your agression and unpredictability. Banda definitely is in more in the 2nd category rather than the first and that's not a D obviously that is going to be successful against a good triple option. Obviously the Aggies were trying to play disciplined last night but that's not their DNA at the moment.

I think they will be better next week although I see Boise dialing up some of the old Boise trickery as well as more simple counter and misdirection after seeing the film from the last 2 games.

I think that will far and away be our worst D outting of the year and we find a way to win. That part at least is a good sign. We ALWAYS struggle with the option.


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We'll be fine. The service academies always average 300 plus yards rushing every year. You have to consider the game an outlier. We're going to be scored upon by teams that are good, but keep in mind the fact that we are also going to score upon them. Once we turned it into WACtion last night and focused on outscoring air force, we did fine. You won't often beat air force 14-7. If you turn it into a race, the quick-strike offenses will always outscore the triple.

Our defense isn't bad. We just have to minimalize the explosive plays. There have been way too many the first three games. The Borghi touchdown run was a blown assignment. North Dakota ran misdirection and our secondary had terrible eye discipline in that first quarter. Air Force was a combination of missed assignments and lack of eye discipline. It was disappointing to see Air Force convert 3rd and longs. I do like their mentality and ability to adjust and make that one play in the fourth quarter to win us some games.

Aggie84025 wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 11:42 am

We had a pretty good 4th quarter. They got the stops when they need them most. Certainly lots to improve but it's easier to stomach when you win and still gave up all those points.

One of those stops was self inflicted. AFA had no reason to throw a pass. The second was Rice at work. Had he been unable to knock it out AFA would have scored and won easily. The D was horrible last night aside from 2-3 key plays. Lets not try to put lipstick on a pig.

That said, I think they will be comparable to the 2018 D against Boise and Boise isn't quite as good. I think there are a lot of plays to be made although Boise will get its yards and points. Will be telling. They absolutely need to keep their gap assignments in this D and not react to every move of the QB, and the secondary needs better eye discipline and stay home.

hickaggie wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 11:56 am

Aggie84025 wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 11:42 am

We had a pretty good 4th quarter. They got the stops when they need them most. Certainly lots to improve but it's easier to stomach when you win and still gave up all those points.

One of those stops was self inflicted. AFA had no reason to throw a pass. The second was Rice at work. Had he been unable to knock it out AFA would have scored and won easily. The D was horrible last night aside from 2-3 key plays. Lets not try to put lipstick on a pig.

That said, I think they will be comparable to the 2018 D against Boise and Boise isn't quite as good. I think there are a lot of plays to be made although Boise will get its yards and points. Will be telling. They absolutely need to keep their gap assignments in this D and not react to every move of the QB, and the secondary needs better eye discipline and stay home.

HIck, your comments were not easy to read but overall your take seems solid and accurate. Is there a possibility we played too hard and actually thought about vs just reacting to the plays run against us? This Air Force game may prove to be a learning experience for a team that has shown spark and tenacity, and now needs to mature into a more consistent group of defenders.

I do believe Air Force is its own unique beast, and those players are very intelligent and committed athletes who have been selected to participate at an elite institution.

hickaggie wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 11:56 am

Aggie84025 wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 11:42 am

We had a pretty good 4th quarter. They got the stops when they need them most. Certainly lots to improve but it's easier to stomach when you win and still gave up all those points.

One of those stops was self inflicted. AFA had no reason to throw a pass. The second was Rice at work. Had he been unable to knock it out AFA would have scored and won easily. The D was horrible last night aside from 2-3 key plays. Lets not try to put lipstick on a pig.

That said, I think they will be comparable to the 2018 D against Boise and Boise isn't quite as good. I think there are a lot of plays to be made although Boise will get its yards and points. Will be telling. They absolutely need to keep their gap assignments in this D and not react to every move of the QB, and the secondary needs better eye discipline and stay home.

The sentence I highlighted in bold is hyperbole. First, the way Air Force had moved the ball they very well may have scored but they needed a TD and not a field goal so we still had plenty of chance to stop them. Secondly, even if Air Force scored, how much time is left on the clock? I would have to think with as well as our offense was moving if we had over a minute we could have scored again with our hurry-up and timeouts. So to say that Air Force would have won easily is not correct.

Coloraggie wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 9:46 pm

hickaggie wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 11:56 am

Aggie84025 wrote: ↑

September 19th, 2021, 11:42 am

We had a pretty good 4th quarter. They got the stops when they need them most. Certainly lots to improve but it's easier to stomach when you win and still gave up all those points.

One of those stops was self inflicted. AFA had no reason to throw a pass. The second was Rice at work. Had he been unable to knock it out AFA would have scored and won easily. The D was horrible last night aside from 2-3 key plays. Lets not try to put lipstick on a pig.

That said, I think they will be comparable to the 2018 D against Boise and Boise isn't quite as good. I think there are a lot of plays to be made although Boise will get its yards and points. Will be telling. They absolutely need to keep their gap assignments in this D and not react to every move of the QB, and the secondary needs better eye discipline and stay home.

The sentence I highlighted in bold is hyperbole. First, the way Air Force had moved the ball they very well may have scored but they needed a TD and not a field goal so we still had plenty of chance to stop them. Secondly, even if Air Force scored, how much time is left on the clock? I would have to think with as well as our offense was moving if we had over a minute we could have scored again with our hurry-up and timeouts. So to say that Air Force would have won easily is not correct.

Airforce was moving the ball and scoring at will. They had 15 yards on that run alone. All they had to do was keep running that counter or the regular dive.. Usu had 1 TO left. Whether they would have had time would have depended only on how fast afa scored. I watched what our inside lbs were doing on that counter and was so confused. They presumably had fb assignment but they were either following the decoy wing back out of the play or stood there trying to catch him flat footed with 7 yards of a head of steam instead of attacking their gaps and assignments. Why were their eyes on the wing back and why were they following him instead of attacking the FB?

That said, I think this D is better than that and will bounce back with an aggressive approach next week.

The defense was quite terrible. I'm not shocked either. It seems that is what Air Force does to us every year. There are times this group plays with less discipline. They typically get burned by it. Luckily, they are also to make a fair amount of that back with good athleticism. I hope they bounce back, but I think it is who we are on defense.

The DL didn't get a ton of push consistently. This will cause us some challenge this year. I give the LBs credit as they flashed consistently even though they were dealing with a challenging scheme and OL flow that wasn't eaten up by the DL. The DBs were out of position on a number of pass plays but I think that was largely driven by their focus on the run primarily. I saw on a number of the pass plays that they bailed into coverage and lost some receivers off the line. If the DL can ramp up play then I think we can stay in enough games to be competitive.

cbingham wrote: ↑

September 20th, 2021, 9:14 am

The DL didn't get a ton of push consistently. This will cause us some challenge this year. I give the LBs credit as they flashed consistently even though they were dealing with a challenging scheme and OL flow that wasn't eaten up by the DL. The DBs were out of position on a number of pass plays but I think that was largely driven by their focus on the run primarily. I saw on a number of the pass plays that they bailed into coverage and lost some receivers off the line. If the DL can ramp up play then I think we can stay in enough games to be competitive.

I think they had OLinemen diving at their legs all game.