And to the point in bold, most of the top defenses don't have much offense. Definitely the year for Day to seize a title if there ever was one. Just posted in the offense thread, but our defense is #16 overall in the nation. That is a huge improvement from last year even considering we have not faced a top offense...even throwing aside our defensive rating, we are flying to the ball and look like a completely new defense, our talent is being freed up to go make plays. Most points have come against us in garbage time (not all, but most) or on random plays where we were mostly in the right position and someone just made a play on the opposing offense.
BUT...I will be fair and do the same thing I did in the defensive thread to give context to our defensive performance by noting the opposing offenses overall ranks that we have played: Notre Dame (#95, yikes), Arkansas State (#51), Toledo (#29 and I think the best offense we've faced by a lot), Wisconsin (#56, surprised they are that high), Rutgers (#104, yikes again) and Michigan State (#93, yikes again again). In other words, we have played nothing but garbage offenses so far. Coming up, there will be few challenges for our defense unfortunately. We have: Iowa (#127, almost dead last), Penn State (#37, respectable), Northwestern (#122, yikes), Indiana (#98), Maryland (#40, respectable) and *ichigan (#7, easily the toughest challenge). So we have some above average offenses in PSU and Maryland, then what appears to be easily the toughest challenge with *ichigan to end the season. Hate to say it, but *ichigan is going to be a hell of a challenge for the defense and I hope we are up for it.
Good news is we have some gaps in the schedule for the defense to keep improving and gelling (and hopefully Burke has a "come to Jesus" moment and finds his game again). Iowa we should absolutely stifle, might be the worst offense I have ever watched in CFB. Then PSU will be a big test on the road, but their strength is more in the run game and I am confident we can stop that. Then NW and Indiana we should shut down before a test that is probably bigger than most think in Maryland on the road right before The Game, so it could be a trap game and I have watched Maryland enough to know their offense is seriously good and they will test our CB's if we don't improve quickly there. Then *ichigan has a lot of ways to hurt you...McCarthy is a huge improvement at QB (though he has erratic moments we can capitalize on), Corum is seriously a stud and Eichenberg better be in his face all game, and they have a great TE (Schoonmaker) and their WRs are pretty solid (Bell, Wilson and Henning are good, but there are others with capability).
My hope is our starting CB play improves dramatically and we should be able to get the job done with our explosive offense. But I really think Burke and Brown have to just step up and play the ball better in air...they are in position, they just don't get their heads around to play the ball. I do not think JK, Hancock, J Brown or Turner are ready to face the better WRs that we are going to run into the rest of the season quite yet, or at least wouldn't be an improvement over Burke and Brown. Point is, I don't think we can bench Burke or Brown if they are healthy, best bet is to coach them up best we can and try to get it corrected. Namely, the back shoulder throw needs to be defended much better. MSU torched us with that because they knew their WRs wouldn't win deep unless it was a back shoulder throw...every time we were in position and the failure to adjust to that was baffling...of course they are going to do that because they don't have the athletes to actually beat us deep. I hope the CB play gets better, but each week I am losing a little bit more confidence that it will.
), South Carolina(#42), Kent St(#83), Missouri(#97), Auburn (#112). The fact that they even scheduled a freaking FCS school is just disgusting for any team that considers themselves elite or in the hunt for an NC or even conference title. They almost lost to Kent State and Mizzou, 2 teams who will be lucky to get into the Duke's Mayo or Gasparilla Bowl.
), and Stover and Scott at TE. I have yet to see who the dominant WRs are for UGA and Bama. I actually don't even know what both of those teams do well/great on offense, its more that their defense keeps them in games and the offense makes enough plays to win. But Gibbs is the entire offense for Bama and Bowers is mainly was UGA has. It's going to be interesting to follow the rest of the season, because I could see both having regular season losses, neither seems to be their dominant selves of years past. Day and Knowles just need to keep the team focused, and not lose focus like past talent-laden OSU teams.
