defensive thoughts

I want to start by saying the coaches, the players, everyone, is really playing this week's performance up. But all along we've looked better vs 10 personnel than 12 or 11 or god forbid Bama's fricking 22. Confidence matters. And the fact that we were able to consistently play some one-dimensional players on defense without much concern makes things a lot easier. Guys like Askew, Hall, and even Claiborne are plus players in passing situations but haven't yet shown to be average against the heavy packages. But this week's film should give them confidence which is huge.

DE - our starting DEs still lack much pass rush. Both played okay but I was really surprised we didn't see more Hall early in the 3-3 stack. His length and first step might have been useful. Tyrone Taylor got in late and he was pretty good. His lack of size is not exposed against a smallish SMU front. Both he and Hall took turns getting pressure on their own but both showed something that is a huge concern - they hit GG and yet he didn't go down and it didn't affect his pass (Askew was the same). This is alarming. Gilbert is a big kid but you've simply got to knock his arse down when you get a clean shot. There is really no value to getting there if you have no impact.

DT - Zo Williams had a great game. He was often doubled and at times he was still making his presence known and did a real good job emulating JJ Watt. I think he swatted 3 passes himself. The face mask was a shame because he blew up that play. This wasn't Kirby's kind of game really but he was fine. When Golden came on he just oozed talent. I felt sorry for those poor SMU lineman because he seems kinda mean Gonna be a special player.

LB - we did a lot better here getting drops. It's a lot easier when you don't have to worry about the run though. Also we played an awful lot of cover 2 which we have always excelled in. It was obvious we played super vanilla early on but that's okay. This game was about experience and confidence. Jenkins had a good game after a pretty poor start last week (his play in the 1h last week was flat out awful). Claiborne looks comfortable. And more than anything, that's important. Askew was good and his size and athleticism makes him seem to cover a lot of ground. He lacks physicality but that's not really surprising. I noticed we continued with Baggs in the middle. I thought he'd play WLB. Jenkins also played a series in the middle (with Claiborne at WLB) and I think that was just to get looks. Sounded like Snyder is committed to sticking with Claiborne going forward even if he's massively undersized vs the bigger teams we're going to face. I think Sanders (who is starting to find his comfort zone) will probably start at SLB next week vs Arky but Askew definitely showed he can be a plus player in passing situations.

CB - I haven't watched the replay yet but I don't remember Harris much at all. That's usually a pretty good thing for a corner. Most every time I looked he seemed to have his guy on lockdown. Jacobs on the other hand....yikes. He showed more physicality and awareness than last week but it was obvious that no matter where he was, SMU made his guy the first read. His game was really all over the place. Sometimes he had his guy on lockdown. Others he tried to guess the route and really was scary (I counted 3 times he tried to jump a route and was dead wrong on the route). Against a better team there'd probably be 35 threads on him. He was much better vs the bubble though (but I imagine they hammered him for it after last week). Based on this week and last, if he's out there, I'm alternating bubbles and double moves on him until he proves he can stop them so he better get prepped for that.

S - Matthews continues to be a mystery. I didn't think he was poor or anything but he doesn't show any of the aggressiveness that he did last year. I want to see him blow someone up like he did vs Bama or OU. Instead he seems too chill. Deshazor is just an elite football player. He could almost line up at DT and I'd expect him to be All-SEC quality. The game just seems super slow mo to him. He's really not an exceptional athlete. He's not big or super fast. He just seems to get football in ways others don't. He makes it all look so easy. I don't even know what to say really. I have a massive mancrush on him because he just does everything well.

We're going to see a lot of 21 this week so we'll have to see if they can be effective in those situations. I think we'll see some different personnel too. My guess is we'll see Honeycutt back out there for run support. Arkansas really can't pass and having a corner that can own the edge and eliminate the bubble is important. Deshazor on the edge is probably more important than over the top like against an all-passing team in SMU.