The Bobcat Nation

I believe we have three sacks this year total. Today their QB had all day. Not only did we not sack him (unless you count the fumble) but we never pressured him or got within five yards. I unfortunately missed a game for the first time in a long time (FLU) so I watched it at a bar here in Minneapolis with 200+ NDSU fans. They kept commenting that their QB has never had this much time to throw. The new defensive scheme is better against the run but the pass rush does not exist. What will Meyer do to us if this does not change??

I agree that has been our weakness this year so far. But I also believe it as part of the gameplan against NDSU to not blitz that much, same with SFA. Those are two running teams and we wanted them to beat us through the air, and neither one was able to, although NDSU came close. CP is another running team, and so is OSU. We have played nothing but teams that are known for run run run.

I think (I hope) once we play a BSC team we will pin our ears back a little and send guys blitzing. We have to send at least 3 other guys besides the 3 down lineman to have a chance to get to the QB.

We did force Walker out of the pocket a lot though. Our coverage was great until he bought himself about 7 seconds worth of time.

Gtapp, I think that we could have been a little more aggressive but most importantly, we won the game. On the other hand, to say that we had no pressure on the quarterback is not true. How many times did Walker scramble out of the pocket and complete a big pass. I think the only reason to leave the pocket is if you are pressured (correct me if I am wrong.)

gtapp,
He was pressured on a a few occasions. But, I was one of the ones at the game who was wishing there was more heat on him. The only time that big gains were made in the passing attack by NDSU was when their quarterback was given waaaaaay too much time.

I can see where celticcat is coming with his thoughts. But, when it's 3 and forever, you need to attack the quarterback. Or, whenever it's an obvious passing down, I say bring the kitchen sink.

MM7CAT wrote:Gtapp, I think that we could have been a little more aggressive but most importantly, we won the game. On the other hand, to say that we had no pressure on the quarterback is not true. How many times did Walker scramble out of the pocket and complete a big pass. I think the only reason to leave the pocket is if you are pressured (correct me if I am wrong.)

You will not get a deep push from the front 3 in the 3-4 scheme. They are ther solely to plug the middle. The only way you get a decent pass rush in the 3-4 is to blitz the LB's. We didnt' do that a whole lot, but when we did we were able to get pressure. So I think it was a set generic defense to NOT blitz very often as they run the ball 70% of the time anyway. I agree with that as it makes your run defense a lot more sound to misdirection/busted plays etc.

I think this game and the SFA game were both aimed at stopping the run first. NDSU was primarily a run offense. When a front 7 (plus 2 safeties) are looking for the run first you don't have a lot of rush of the passer. Also for those there, they will remember that much of the passing was rollout by the QB opposite the play action. Thus the LBs were flowing with the play action, the QB then passed or ran a fair amount.

MSU did what they wanted with the D (given Lowe - one of the main pass rushers was out, along with Kolone).

This does say they will have a pass rush when they need it, but in this game, that was NOT a priority it appeared. You can't do everything. You can limit their main rusher to 3.5 yards per carry and no big ones. You can also win the game.

BobcatLionFan wrote:I think this game and the SFA game were both aimed at stopping the run first. NDSU was primarily a run offense. When a front 7 (plus 2 safeties) are looking for the run first you don't have a lot of rush of the passer. Also for those there, they will remember that much of the passing was rollout by the QB opposite the play action. Thus the LBs were flowing with the play action, the QB then passed or ran a fair amount.

MSU did what they wanted with the D (given Lowe - one of the main pass rushers was out, along with Kolone).

This does say they will have a pass rush when they need it, but in this game, that was NOT a priority it appeared. You can't do everything. You can limit their main rusher to 3.5 yards per carry and no big ones. You can also win the game.

Exactly. You take away what the team does well and make them beat you with what they are not used to beating teams at. If we had scored a TD on that drive Lulay fumbled I think we would have beaten this team by more as they would have had to start passing more. We shut down the run and made them beat us with the pass on their last drive to end the game (although we almost gave it away on that darn 4th and 19 pass to the 45-50 .. ).