Apparently you missed the Hawaii, USF, and Toledo games. In the last two we lost to a team who could barely throw.


an underrated part of the issue last year was the alignment in the box against the run on run downs. We’d often have 3 DL and 1 lb in the middle with 2 olbs playing back 8 yards. So essentially 4 defenders in the box against 5-6 blockers. It was an easy 5 yard rush gain if the offense would take it. Even on short distance we’d sometimes only bring 4-5 up into the box to try and stop the run. This is why our rush per carry defensive was up last year and it resulted in a pretty high third down conversion rate for the opposing offense, and more ball possession that kept our offense off the field. Our total number of offensive plays was limited by the conservative nature of our defense giving up time consuming drives.