2023 Defense Thoughts

Just thinking about this seasons defense and trying to be objective as possible.

On a scale of:
Poor / Average /Good /Very Good

DL- I feel they were in between average and good. Probably top 25% in D1. Just didn’t have a dominant player to hold it down and disrupt consistently.

Lbs- I feel they were also in between average and good. A little weaker DL than the last 2 years hurt this group IMO. Opposing teams OLines were getting some extra push and disrupting our LB pursuit angles a lot. Plus just being younger and less experienced played a role. Out of position a good bit. Talent wise I think they were good enough to be dominant had they had a JD or JC type linchpin on the line.

DB- very good rating and I believe the group was so strong that it covered up a lot of the issues going on in the front 7. We had some really great stretches of defense as a result of tremendous coverage efforts and open field tackling on the edges and after short to medium length receptions. This group carried the defense so much that they brought the entire defense unit up to being one of the top units in the country.

Considering everything together, I feel the defense was good enough to carry us through to a 3rd title. I did have flashbacks of the 21 SECCG and didn’t like the scheme against Bama. It was very similar to 21 where we just tried to contain Young with few blitzes and a spy in the middle. I feel like you make a guy like Milroe beat you by facing some havoc in his face and if he does tip the hat. We weren’t real aggressive. In fact, pretty vanilla and still almost won. It’s really a testament to how good our DB was this year that they were able to do what they did Saturday with the scheme we employed. I can stomach a loss better knowing we took an aggressive stand and the guy was good enough for the occasion. Might have caused some errant throws resulting in an Int or a fumble in the backfield. Just seemed we played real conservative on both sides of the ball most of the night.