Howard Richards Lays Blame On Missouri DC

3 man or 4 man or stacking the box (Mizzou did each) is irrelevant. The goal of any offense is to read what the defense is doing and choose the weakest option. The job of the defense is to hide your defense and shift in and out constantly. I think Mizzou tried to do that but failed. Just as offenses routinely have their coaches read the defense and change the call at the line, defenses do the same and shift in and out to hide themselves. With Auburn, that's impossible. You basically call a play and run that play until they let you change plays.

Mizzou's defense is about quickness with smaller DEs, allow yards but get stiff in the red zone, rotate players out to stay fresh. That's just contrary to what Auburn's offense is about. They smash it down your throat, no breaks and no player exchanges and when you get to the redzone, you are spent. Look at their play list - 25 seconds from snap to the next snap (including the play) is routine. That's beyond Big12 quickness. It just destroys the line.

JMO but Mizzou needed two 350 lb type DTs and better OLBers to compete. Mizzou's DTs aren't 2 gap type DTs and our OLBers aren't equipped for Auburn's power, speed and misdirection.

quote:

---

Same I have said horrible scheme and little to no adjustments

---

Yes. And we just lacked the personnel we needed too. Our DEs are great. The tackles aren't quite at that calibre. Brantley and Augusta will be beasts next year, but VIncent got blown off the line repeatedly by Auburn's tackle. That created the hole they needed. The personnel was a bad matchup.

quote:

---

JMO but Mizzou needed two 350 lb type DTs and better OLBers to compete. Mizzou's DTs aren't 2 gap type DTs and our OLBers aren't equipped for Auburn's power, speed and misdirection.

---

This was my initial reaction immediately following the game - we simply didn't have all the horses to stop them. At least not the right ones physically, size-wise, in this particular match-up.

That said, it was plain to see Missouri needed to do something - anything different to try to slow them down. Hearing Richards articulate what he thought went wrong finally started setting my blood to boil a little. Reality is, it was probably equal parts coaching and personnel.

My only hope is Pinkel uses this as a wake-up call for the D-coaching side of the ball and recruits accordingly.

Great post.

Sorry Wtodd, that's just crap. Steck has attempted to establish the 3-3-5 all season. It just hasn't worked. We had the capability of stopping Auburn. We had the right players. They were simply used wrong.

Ironically, there were no secrets in this game. Auburn announced what they were going to do before the game. And they did it. Again and again and again. Even if you give Steck the benefit of the doubt for the first time, or the second time, every person watching the game knew that the third time it was going to be a run. For crying out loud, even the announcers pointed out that Mahlzan was signaling roll it. Don't ya think that maybe one of our coaches ... maybe the defensive coordinator, perhaps, should have picked up on that?

SINCE EVERY FRACKING BODY ELSE ON THE PLANET DID.

I'm sure Pinkel had a talk with Steck about it. And I am just as sure that we will never know the contents of that talk. I hope it worked.

Oh and the "they didn't make adjustments" claim is junk when the announcers pointed out during the game when they didn't like the adjustments made.

The Tigers used a 4 man line with linebackers stacked up against the line and linebackers off the line.

The Tigers used a 3 man line with linebackers stacked up against the line and linebackers off the line.

The Tigers used a 5 man line.

Pinkel talked about the adjustments they made.

What exactly does it mean when people say they didn't make adjustments when Gary Danielson showed during the game the adjustments made that he didn't agree with.

This is not pointed at you ZouTigers but..Sorry watched the 4th Qtr this morning and many times I counted 6 in the Box,6 in the fricking box vs a team rushing for 550+ yards. If anyone knows jack shite about football you know you have 8 in the box every play you can vs a heavy run team. Hell Seattle in the NFL is running a 6-2 to stop runs with their cover corners. Steck gets no pass on this game, None if you do not see that then you just don't know football.

Saban has more talent then any team in CFB, are you seriously arguing that 8 man in the Box is not the right call? Hell maybe Saban should have put an 8th in as they got gashed for 300+ themselves

Considering that 8 men in the box would have been an adjustment I do not see your point. Hey I am no college coach but I coached football for 20 years so I am not just a "poster" on the net. I am telling you 6 in the box was a huge mistake. Listen we run a 3-4 all I would have done was put those OLB/DE's up into a press on the LOS. Then roll the safety up and have him run the alley that is what is the SOP on how to stop an option. I understand what Steck was trying to do, the e DL were to eat up blocks allowing the 4 backers & Safeties to pursue the ball. All that tactic did was allow an easy Combo Block for the AU OL and the uncovered OL to get to the 2nd level with ease. To top it off the pursuers were lost in their reads (coaching problem) and then to make matters worse the tackled poorly. If it was me I would have ran the 3 front with Vincent @ NG, Hoch and Brantley at 2Techs and then used our athletic DE's to play outside leverage. Then allow Wilson and Bonner to flow to the play. The Safety should have rolled up to run the alley and support the run.

quote:

---

Tackle74

---

That sounds very reasonable to me.

SEMO I agree with you our personnel at DT & MLB were blown up, I am not saying changes I would have liked to seen would have equaled a victory, just thought the game badly mismanaged and I am far from the only one.