re: Golding is underwhelming!

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Yep. Not sure what fans were expecting with this defense this year after the losses of McMillan and Moses.

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What I wanted was a defensive identity that took advantage of our mismatches. We talk about our 2 freshmen LBers and discuss it like it's an overwhelming issue. As if it's completely shutting off any type of imagination or aggression to attack the enemy with what we do have. Which I'm saying is still more talent than most teams in America and the SEC.

What about Jennings and Lewis? 2 years ago they both were terrorizing QBs off the edge. Now we seldom discuss the overwhelming advantage we should have for 2 mismatches that actually stayed for senior seasons. Instead, we're actually discussing why our defense can't contain the edges. We lost containment on the edges about a dozen times Saturday. Those are execution issues, with seniors in place pure and simple. Where do execution issues come from unless it's when things aren't clear and simple and it's not allowing our defense to play fast and reactionary? Does Golding really think by not dictating the terms to the offense everything is going to be cool?

Our DBs are a strength. They are playing man to man at least 75% of the time. How are we not scheming up blitz packages to take full advantage of our backstops on our D? With pressure, our ILBers have to cover guys about 2 seconds, without pressure we are getting lost in coverage. How is pressure on the QB, not the best friend 2 freshmen LBers could have in coverage?

In truth, coach Saban has always been a conservative defensive coach. He doesn't want to stab you to death, he would rather cut your air off and have you slowly suffocate. We had two problems when we met up with the Johhny Footballs of the world. We were too slow on the edges and we wanted to circle the enemy. For 2 years Johnny made our eyes bleed. LSU would go and attack the guy and roughed him up and easily won both games. Did anyone notice the blueprint? To a degree, but we still have that slow, methodical, circle mentality against running QBs.

I honestly don't believe Golding is calling his own game, philosophically, from the type of reviews he got elsewhere. But it's still his job to stop these spread teams and you aren't stopping them without crossing the opponents LOS and making life scary for the QB, who CANNOT protect themselves in these RPO concepts.