Our defense is in need of...?

[MamaMia]

?

[SoonerEmpire]

Mike Stoops

[OUmillenium]

1) a coordinator rather than a great LB coach and recruiter
2) at least 3 healthy Linebackers - big credit to Ryan Reynolds for fighting through the injuries
3) tighter coverage by our cornerbacks

They played a better 2nd half v. Uterus so the "minor" halftime adjustments helped

just my opinion, Boomer Sooner

[Doged]

The horsepigs were at the last two RRS games and the wrong team won. Someone "in the know" arranged for them to miss this year's RRS game and the right team won. Coincidence? I think not!

;)

[LittleWingSooner]

We need to use Nic Harris more. He is good in coverage but he's the best thing we've had since Roy Williams as a blitzer. When he gets in the backfield he makes plays. He might be better in coverage than Roy was.

[tnraider1]

Need more pressure from the front 4. Our scheme only works if the front four can get pressure with out additional help. Step it up fellas, we know you can.

[yermom]

our defense needs swagger

[EnidHighSooner]

I'd say our secondary need some work Dj and Marcus will be gone next year, we need to start recruiting some true cb's and db's. OUr defensive line is pretty good, but i think it can be better.

[GottaHavePride]

Cookies.

[silverwheels]

Focusness.

[tulsaoilerfan]

Maybe 4 DB's that were all recruited as DB's would help; don't think OU has had that yet since Stoops has been here.

[Collier11]

Maybe 4 DB's that were all recruited as DB's would help; don't think OU has had that yet since Stoops has been here.


Very Few schools do that anymore, they want great athletes. OUr Corners are good but we play too far off in our zone. It seems like our spacing is just bad at times?

[Widescreen]

Brand-name juiceboxes instead of the crappy Tom Thumb brand.

[jduggle]

The DB's play off because IMO that's how Venables teaches his base cover 2. He plays the guys back in order to keep the play in front of them...then they can use their speed and athletic ability to converge on the receivers after they see the play develop. The problem with this is that it leaves a lot of space in the transition seams behind the linebackers and in front of the db's. That's why Finley killed us on Saturday. It's just wide open as a result of playing zone defense. It relies on a strong pass rush in order to force the QB to throw the ball before the receivers can find the open spaces. This is why Mizzou is so dangerous...if Daniels gets time to throw, he'll pick us apart. Venables biggest job is to figure out how we can effectively put pressure on Daniels. Just my two cents...

[sooner-n-ga]

Someone beside's Reggie Smith playing.

He gets be in coverage and he also doesn't stupid things on punt returns which puts the defense in bad positions (see Colorado). His backwards return saturday was almost as bad, but the offense bailed him out.

[sooner-n-ga]

Someone beside's Reggie Smith playing.

He gets beat in coverage and he also does stupid things on punt returns which puts the defense in bad positions (see Colorado). His backwards return saturday was almost as bad, but the offense bailed him out.

[TMcGee86]

Teddy Lehman.

[Widescreen]

Someone beside's Reggie Smith playing.

He gets beat in coverage and he also does stupid things on punt returns which puts the defense in bad positions (see Colorado). His backwards return saturday was almost as bad, but the offense bailed him out.
Making this dumb post once wasn't good enough, huh?

[soonerboy_odanorth]

Someone beside's Reggie Smith playing.

You mean someone who against that South Florida Miami speed could almost completely lock down one half of the field to allow guys on the other side to make plays all day?

You mean someone who could pull out a huge pass breakup against a player like Limas Sweed, who has about 4 inches of height on just about every defensive back in the country, that otherwise would have led to about a fifty yard gain and/or a touchdown?

You mean someone who, as most great players do, sometimes plays a high risk/high reward return game that on a rare occasion leads to a costly mistake, but that more often than not tips the field position balance strongly in favor of OU?

Let me think. I wonder if there are any players I can think of that could fill that roll....

Well... there is this guy right out of the OKC metro area I heard of...

Reg... Reggie.... somethin'. Hey someone want to help with the name?

[LittleWingSooner]

Reggie Smith, Nic Harris, Curtus Lofton, and Auston English are our best players on defense. If Reggie Smith isn't playing we lose to Texas.

[soonerboy_odanorth]

And to clarify my vote....

Not a different defensive coordinator, per se. Just another defensive coordinator. I get the impression that Venables still has just a little too much on his plate. Not that he isn't a truly great linebackers coach and recruiter. Make no mistake, we need him on our staff. He's young and firey and it is clear he recruits and relates with the guys well. I just think that he is lacking that little something extra. Like he still is developing a feel for the game and the calls that need to be made during the course of it.

And I believe that "extra" could be simply an experienced extra set of eyes. I don't know if he's getting that from Bob or not, with everything the HC has to manage. He could get it from Mike, if he is let go from Arizona. But the problem then is, who leaves? Bobby Jack stays, his recruiting expertise is invaluable. Jackie Shipp being let go would be a PR nightmare. Chris Wilson, too, though not to the same degree as Jackie.

Regardless, we have one of the best staffs in the country, with or without extra help for Venables. So I don't really expect any change unless someone leaves voluntarily.

[Ash]

You mean someone who against that South Florida Miami speed could almost completely lock down one half of the field to allow guys on the other side to make plays all day?

You mean someone who could pull out a huge pass breakup against a player like Limas Sweed, who has about 4 inches of height on just about every defensive back in the country, that otherwise would have led to about a fifty yard gain and/or a touchdown?

You mean someone who, as most great players do, sometimes plays a high risk/high reward return game that on a rare occasion leads to a costly mistake, but that more often than not tips the field position balance strongly in favor of OU?

Let me think. I wonder if there are any players I can think of that could fill that roll....

Well... there is this guy right out of the OKC metro area I heard of...

Reg... Reggie.... somethin'. Hey someone want to help with the name?

You're thinking of Reggie Harris. I'd just add that Nic English is one of the best DL in the country and has done a bang up job this year. I love Auston Walker playing the nickelbacker, too.

[rhombic21]

I'm not sure that Reggie Smith is as good at corner as he was at safety, and I haven't been super-impressed with DJ Wolfe. Smith has great ball skills and makes some big plays, but I don't know that he has the speed necessary to play corner. He seems to let guys get behind him a lot, which results in him playing further off to try and compensate. I also can't help but wonder if his play at corner hurts his ability as a return man. There was one return Saturday where he had just finished defending Sweed on a go pattern, and he has to go back and field a punt immediately afterwards.

With him at safety, it allows him to be around the ball a lot more and force interceptions or make tackles. He's playing pretty well at corner, but I don't know that Wolfe is playing nearly as well at his safety spot. In our scheme, which relies a lot on safeties to make plays both against the run and the pass, the safeties are extremely important.

Seemed like our pass defense got a lot better last year when we put Smith at Safety and put Holmes in at corner.

[southern sooner]

Would like to see a new scheme at def secondary. BJW may be ok, just not 100% on him the last couple of years.

[mightysooner]

We need a whole new defensive philosphy. One that is aggressive and attacking. Our defense seems predicated on rushing 4 and sitting back with 7 in a soft zone that any average receiver and run to the holes in and stand there. This is why it appears receivers are always uncovered.....because they aren't. They run to the holes in that sorry zone and stand there. That's just not a difficult scheme to beat and if your front 4 aren't generating enough pressure...the opposing QB can just stand there and wait for WR's to hit those soft areas in coverage and shred it.
Our defense has been roasted for 300+ yards through the air in two games this year. Even though we won both games....that's TERRIBLE! We need some press coverage mixed in. Playing "scared of the deep ball" is weak and if you're defensive scheme is soft...your players will play soft.

I dunno if any of you watched Mizzou....but Chase Daniels will destroy that sorry zone of Vulnerable's if we just stand back there in our zones and let them run free all day. Just my opinion....

[OUmillenium]

I hear ya mightysooner. Venables was very adamant in an interview a few years back when he said "we run what we run (on defense) and we don't change." Yikes

[mightysooner]

I hear ya mightysooner. Venables was very adamant in an interview a few years back when he said "we run what we run (on defense) and we don't change." Yikes


People who "don't change" scare me. I can't accept that mentality. When your philosophy isn't working....you've GOT to change. That's what's wrong with this staff is their lack of openness to changing anything. Infuriating...

[goingoneight]

You're thinking of Reggie Harris. I'd just add that Nic English is one of the best DL in the country and has done a bang up job this year. I love Auston Walker playing the nickelbacker, too.

Anyone know how Patrick Allen is coming along? I hear he's a pretty good safety.

[crawfish]

MORE COWBELL.

[Jewstin]

Focusness.

I think you mean focusosity. It's much more potenter than your standard focusness.

[SoonerBBall]

Can we please stop acting like Mike Stoops was the be-all end-all of defensive coaches? Mike's defense got burned deep just as often as Brent's and gave up plenty of yards to teams we shouldn't have. Do you think we'd be complaining like this if Brent had the equivalents of Roy, Derek, and Rocky on this defense? Those three guys did quite a bit to make Mike look like a genius. It seems like nostalgia for the NC season of 2000 has nearly blinded most of us.

[MamaMia]

Can we please stop acting like Mike Stoops was the be-all end-all of defensive coaches? Mike's defense got burned deep just as often as Brent's and gave up plenty of yards to teams we shouldn't have. Do you think we'd be complaining like this if Brent had the equivalents of Roy, Derek, and Rocky on this defense? Those three guys did quite a bit to make Mike look like a genius. It seems like nostalgia for the NC season of 2000 has nearly blinded most of us. I don't believe we have player problems. Our secondary defense has been having problems since Mike left. We can not defend against the pass on a consistent basis and that is, and has been our biggest problem for a long time now. We will never win a National Championship until this problem is fixed. Passing teams will pick us apart, up one side of the field and down the other...all... day... long.

[SoonerBBall]

Our secondary defense was having problems before Mike left. A&M 2002 anyone? Coincidentally, our problems started to be terribly exposed once Derek and Roy were gone.

Wait, did I say coincidentally? Because it isn't a coincidence. It also has to do with getting consistent pressure on the QB and stopping the run game, but Derek and Roy made Mike Stoops look good.

Anyways, it seems to me that coverage problems are much worse with our linebacking corps than with our secondary. Shore that up and we are giving up far fewer yards and a lot fewer first downs.

[sooneron]

Our secondary defense was having problems before Mike left. A&M 2002 anyone? Coincidentally, our problems started to be terribly exposed once Derek and Roy were gone.

Wait, did I say coincidentally? Because it isn't a coincidence. It also has to do with getting consistent pressure on the QB and stopping the run game, but Derek and Roy made Mike Stoops look good.

Anyways, it seems to me that coverage problems are much worse with our linebacking corps than with our secondary. Shore that up and we are giving up far fewer yards and a lot fewer first downs.
You also forgot osu 2002.

[yermom]

for the most part passing teams aren't the problem

our record against Tech is pretty good, and it's not like it's from outscoring them

if we don't have to worry about stopping the run, bad things happen

[Scott D]

MORE COWBELL.

this is the only correct answer to this thread people.

[JiuJitsuSooner]

2001 and 2002 we did lose a couple games we shouldn't have, and yeah our secondary was toasted a few times.. we didn't have that great of an Offense those years which could've helped

[LittleWingSooner]

2001 we only lost because the offense didn't produce.

Nebraska beat us with a late pass to Crouch but outside of that they had their worst offensive game in like a decade or so.

OSU beat us with a couple late drives but we had no offense in that game.

Our defense did give up points against KSU, UNC and one other game.

2002 we had to replace Roy Williams. Found out that was kinda hard.

[starrca23]

I was hoping by the end of the post he was gonna say..."like 10 other Reggie Smith's. Wow that one should go in the posting hall of fame (shame).

[SoonerBBall]

2001 we only lost because the offense didn't produce.

Nebraska beat us with a late pass to Crouch but outside of that they had their worst offensive game in like a decade or so.

OSU beat us with a couple late drives but we had no offense in that game.

Our defense did give up points against KSU, UNC and one other game.

2002 we had to replace Roy Williams. Found out that was kinda hard.

Roy Williams is my favorite player ever. I say this so that you take full meaning from this next statement.

We missed (still miss in fact) Derek Strait more than we miss Roy. His cover skills were unreal.

[SoonerBBall]

2001 we only lost because the offense didn't produce.

Nebraska beat us with a late pass to Crouch but outside of that they had their worst offensive game in like a decade or so.

OSU beat us with a couple late drives but we had no offense in that game.

Our defense did give up points against KSU, UNC and one other game.

2002 we had to replace Roy Williams. Found out that was kinda hard.

Roy Williams is my favorite player ever. I say this so you take full meaning from my next statement.

We missed Derek Strait more than we missed Roy Williams. His coverage skills were unreal.

[yermom]

i'd say what we need is a deeper rotation at DE and more health and experience in the LB corps

[yermom]

Roy Williams is my favorite player ever. I say this so you take full meaning from my next statement.

We missed Derek Strait more than we missed Roy Williams. His coverage skills were unreal.

combine that with the fact that if there was a loose ball, it seems like Strait there

i think he was a huge difference between 2003 and 2004

[goingoneight]

Strategery, trickeration, fundamentalness and more playing in great ways.

[Will]

Put in MIke REED

[mustangsooner]

The horsepigs were at the last two RRS games and the wrong team won. Someone "in the know" arranged for them to miss this year's RRS game and the right team won. Coincidence? I think not!

;)

Oh the horsepigs were there. I saw it with my own eyes

[LittleWingSooner]

Roy Williams is my favorite player ever. I say this so that you take full meaning from this next statement.

We missed (still miss in fact) Derek Strait more than we miss Roy. His cover skills were unreal.

He was also a great tackler. He took over the LSU game. If OU could have come back and won he would have been the MVP of that game.

But without Roy in 2002 we weren't as good on defense. We got Pool in 2003 and 2004 so we adjusted some. Pool is the only thing we've had close to Roy since he left till Nic Harris.

Now some people will negspek me to put me back in the red.

[ouwasp]

Boz' attitude
Dante Jones' hitting
Reggie Kinlaw's meanness

[Crucifax Autumn]

What we need is to play aggressive consistently and not go all conservative just because we get burned once or twice. If we maintain the "we're gonna get the QB" attitude we'll scare offenses, force early passes, and most likely be in position to stop the run at the point of the pitch or handoff.

Those great defenses we had early this century were greta because they KNEW they could make the play...not because they were skittish and afraid they'd get burned.

[westcoast_sooner]

Look, I'm not so sure about a lot of the criticism lately. OK, we've been torched by a couple of teams, and play a softer zone than I'd like, and our front 4 aren't getting consistent pressure on the opposing QB. But I just finished watching the RRS I recorded and noticed some different things we're doing that seem like Venables is changing.

The last few years, it seemed like in a 3rd and long situation, we're coming on a corner blitz, and we telegraph it every single time. This year, I'm noticing that we're mixing up coverages, bringing pressure from all over the field. We don't do as good a job of getting to the QB as we should, even with the extra pressure, but we do seem to be mixing things up a little more, and personally, I like it.

One other thing is that opposing O-Lines are doubling our DEs, and our front 4 just aren't getting in the backfield. Once in awhile we get through and get the sack or stuff a draw, but struggle doing it consistently.

We do a decent enough job getting LB support to stop the run, but not enough to keep the soft zone from allowing big gaps in the secondary when the opposition passes.

Is this a youth/lack of depth issue or is it a scheme issue? I can't say, probably some of each. We've won a lot of football games playing this scheme, but that's not to say we can't tweak and get better. We can probably change to play more man, try a few more twists and stunts by the front 4, and gamble with blitzes from all over the field. I'm not a defensive guru.

[Crucifax Autumn]

Me either, but more man and lots of pressure seems to be a good idea. and mixing up where blitzers will come from and when is sound defense in any case.

[LittleWingSooner]

We've done a good job applying pressure with our front 4 a lot of times. But I would agree we need to send our LBs and DBs more. Reynolds seems to be a really effective blitzer and Nic Harris is a killer blitzer.

[Crucifax Autumn]

We've apllied a ton of pressure, but I'd like to see us actually nail the QB a bit more frequently. Between our front 4 and mixing up an extra blitzer or 2 we'd accomplish that.

[PLaw]

At the end of the day, SUC exposed the weaknesses of the scheme. Others have since caught on. The base defense on 1st down with nickel on long yardage 2nd and 3rd is fine. Just need to account for athletic, fast TE's.

I understand the desire is to have pressure on the QB with the D-line, but we need to do beter disguised blitz packages to the point that we can hear Bowden say "we couldn't figure out where they were coming from". I don't think Bowden is stupid, so we were doing something right.

The game evolves - what worked in 2000 may still be sound, but not as effective.

Oh yeah, for a Christmas present I would like to see Mike as an assistant head coach / co- d coordinator.



BOOMER
PLaw

[Crucifax Autumn]

I think Bowden is stupid...But you are right otherwise. I don't really think we need Mike back, though it would be awesome, but what we DO need is a co-Coordinator with a scrote the size of Alaska and a crazy streak. Think of a genetic experiment blending Buddy Ryan, a rabid dog, and Mike Stoops, and have him learn football from George Bush, Brian Bosworth, Ron Paul, and Charles Manson.

[insuranceman_22]

I think Bowden is stupid...But you are right otherwise. I don't really think we need Mike back, though it would be awesome, but what we DO need is a co-Coordinator with a scrote the size of Alaska and a crazy streak. Think of a genetic experiment blending Buddy Ryan, a rabid dog, and Mike Stoops, and have him learn football from George Bush, Brian Bosworth, Ron Paul, and Charles Manson.

We don't need a co-def. coord. like that, we need a couple of linebackers like that!

I do however like your train of thought!

[Crucifax Autumn]

I'd agree, but we'd get in trouble after the 4th or 5th on-field beheading. Especially once those linebackers started eating their prey!

[OUmillenium]

I think Bowden is stupid...But you are right otherwise. I don't really think we need Mike back, though it would be awesome, but what we DO need is a co-Coordinator with a scrote the size of Alaska and a crazy streak. Think of a genetic experiment blending Buddy Ryan, a rabid dog, and Mike Stoops, and have him learn football from George Bush, Brian Bosworth, Ron Paul, and Charles Manson.


Post of the year candidate? Methinks yes!

[Crucifax Autumn]

Wow...re-reading my post I actually scared the crap outta myself...That would be one scary dude! And a perfect linebacker or DC! Sometimes a moment of pure brilliance comes from one too many beers.