Bend but don't break....

[SaturdayGT 719]

  I cringe at this concept...I used to be a huge Miami Dolphin fan as a kid...Loved Dan Marino as a QB! Then  ESPN became a 24 hour program, ... athletes had to fake who they were to be TV worthy..Dan fell short, he could sell some gloves. But he  was a well hidden, class A plus A-hole..... ..Marino was a once in a lifetime QB, regardless.....Tom Olividotti was the DC, and I'm not sure if he coined the term "bend but don't break"..but either way....that BS defense is why Marino never had a super bowl!....Im hearing this now with ours......I mean, I thought I'd never hear the term again....to me, it sounds like smooth over way to say the D sucks! Lol

[AUght2win 6,919]

Yeah I agree. "Bend but don't break" is like saying "get stabbed but don't die". 

Attacking, aggressive defenses that occasionally give up home run balls are my favorite. John Chavis at LSU - Blitz. Every. Play. I guess it's hard in the RPO era.

[AUx 3,016]

[woodford 3,688]

It’s just awful. Derek Mason is a fraud. Spare me the 4th in SEC scoring defense stat. 
 

What’s our stuff rate, explosive play given up rate, plays in the backfield? There are other metrics that could expose the defense. Did you see the angles we were getting on the ball carriers in space? Trash. 
 

“21 points against USC was plenty enough to win” Yeah, in theory except they had their 3rd string guy in who was an FCS transfer. They should’ve scored 0 touchdowns!

I cannot believe I fell for the Mason hiring  I knew deep down that was an awful hire and I fell for the hype. 

[creed 1,697]

I understand everyone wanting an "aggressive" defense, but you have to have the right personnel. Our DL is so weak right now we would need multiple people blitzing on every play to be "aggressive" and even then that wouldn't help too much.  We're almost required to play bend until better DL are recruited.

[tigers23 679]

The bend but don't break wears out your defense. You cannot continually give up 10-15 play drives and not be tired in the 4th quarter. Especially when you never rotate players.

[AuburnEagle79 2,171]

8 hours ago, AUght2win said:

Yeah I agree. "Bend but don't break" is like saying "get stabbed but don't die". 

Attacking, aggressive defenses that occasionally give up home run balls are my favorite. John Chavis at LSU - Blitz. Every. Play. I guess it's hard in the RPO era.

The RPO era has slowed down linebacker play. The minute you send your mike on a blitz you might as well expect the slant behind him against a lot of teams. 

[aubaseball 2,714]

40 minutes ago, woodford said:

“21 points against USC was plenty enough to win” Yeah, in theory except they had their 3rd string guy in who was an FCS transfer. They should’ve scored 0 touchdowns!

I agree with everything you said, but I think he wasn’t even FCS.   I believe he was D3.  

[EastAl_Tiger 228]

21 minutes ago, AuburnEagle79 said:

The RPO era has slowed down linebacker play. The minute you send your mike on a blitz you might as well expect the slant behind him against a lot of teams. 

wait, what!? that's allowed?

Edited November 22, 2021 by EastAl_Tiger

[SRBautigerfan 1,040]

20 minutes ago, AuburnEagle79 said:

The RPO era has slowed down linebacker play. The minute you send your mike on a blitz you might as well expect the slant behind him against a lot of teams. 

Honest question from a self proclaimed schemes novice but would it make sense to fake like it’s going to be a blitz but drop in coverage instead or look like we’re going to be in zone but instead switch to man at the snap?  

[AuCivilEng1 11,115]

I’m not buying the Mason hate for the SC game or this season in general. Who gives a s**t what anything looks like as long as you’re stopping teams from scoring. At the end of the day, our defense has played two bad games Georgia and Miss St. 

We have been losing games because our offense goes in the dumpster in the second half of football games. It’s as simple as that. 

[abw0004 10,140]

I just don't care for it because it almost guarantees every opposing offense that they will at least be in range to kick a field goal on every drive.

[aubaseball 2,714]

18 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I’m not buying the Mason hate for the SC game or this season in general. Who gives a s**t what anything looks like as long as you’re stopping teams from scoring. At the end of the day, our defense has played two bad games Georgia and Miss St. 

We have been losing games because our offense goes in the dumpster in the second half of football games. It’s as simple as that. 

Auburn let a walk-on running back, playing for GA State run for nearly 200 yards.   It allowed a D3/3rd string qb to generate 21 points.   I’m not saying the offense is without blame but why doesn’t the blame go to everyone?   It all sucks at the moment and that’s just what it is.   

[Tigerpro2a 5,650]

33 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I’m not buying the Mason hate for the SC game or this season in general. Who gives a s**t what anything looks like as long as you’re stopping teams from scoring. At the end of the day, our defense has played two bad games Georgia and Miss St. 

We have been losing games because our offense goes in the dumpster in the second half of football games. It’s as simple as that. 

On one hand, I agree. I am big on "the only real stat that matter is PPG" but I just am not satisfied. Yes Our offense has collapsed completely the last two games in the second half and also failed us miserably in the Texas AM game, but If Mason's D gets 2 stops on Miss St we win. He is not without fault.

A bigger concern I have is just the lack of adjusting, period.

[AuburnEagle79 2,171]

53 minutes ago, SRBautigerfan said:

Honest question from a self proclaimed schemes novice but would it make sense to fake like it’s going to be a blitz but drop in coverage instead or look like we’re going to be in zone but instead switch to man at the snap?  

Those slants happen so fast, even being close to the line of scrimmage at the snap could put you at a disadvantage. 

Defense is just hard now. 

[SaturdayGT 719]

1 hour ago, abw0004 said:

I just don't care for it because it almost guarantees every opposing offense that they will at least be in range to kick a field goal on every drive.

Exactly, and it puts pressure on the Offence to have to respond....and if the the defense is out on the field bending and not breaking 60 to 70 yards a pop, the offence cant get in any rhythm. .....I didnt get to see the MSST game, and I didnt care to watch what I recorded, but 10 bucks says thats exactly what happened in that game....We came out fresh and did great,  the defense became gassed, the offence lost their rhythm...and POOF! we turn to crap..... 

[W.E.D 11,070]

Maybe I really misread articles on Mason's defense before the season, but I don't think I read much of anything that he was an extreme bend/don't break philosophy.

Seems like a lot of articles that he'd attack the offense w/ multiple levels/angles.  I came away from a lot of the articles that it was more attacking than sit back/react.  How much of it is personnel or learning?  We don't have massive NFL talent everywhere, but I also don't think we are a complete disaster at all 3 levels.  I don't think we're going to have a massive upgrade in the next 1-2 years.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

 bend and break. 

[e808 3,028]

The bend but don’t break is a slow March to the inevitable. The theme is Auburn has no dept so how is the bend but don’t break helping the situation. By the 4th quarter they are worn out for being on the field to long. Why not try to speed the other team up and hope for a mistake instead of giving a guy all day to throw.

[DAG 34,119]

18 minutes ago, e808 said:

The bend but don’t break is a slow March to the inevitable. The theme is Auburn has no dept so how is the bend but don’t break helping the situation. By the 4th quarter they are worn out for being on the field to long. Why not try to speed the other team up and hope for a mistake instead of giving a guy all day to throw.

Because when you do things like that you have players who screw up and give up touchdowns on 4 and whatever like they did with South Carolina. Then you have people complain “ why aren’t we covering the flats?!” We are scheming to cover them, players keep screwing up. Not holding the edge , keeping their eyes in the backfield and not following their man in a pressure man to man defense, etc. It is not as easy as many on here want to make it out to be. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

3 minutes ago, DAG said:

Because when you do things like that you have players who screw up and give up touchdowns on 4 and whatever like they did with South Carolina. Then you have people complain “ why aren’t we covering the flats?!” We are scheming to cover them, players keep screwing up. Not holding the edge , keeping their eyes in the backfield and not following their man in a pressure man to man defense, etc. It is not as easy as many on here want to make it out to be. 

So srs question....we saw the points you're making and I don't disagree.  Is it pure talent or lack of coaching where our guys aren't grasping it?  Maybe a little A, little B, little need more time in the system?

I think I'm leaning towards Mason coming back/getting year 2 in a system and hopefully taking a step forward.  It hasn't all been bad, but the bad has been really really really bad.  Dumping Bobo for Kiseau probably isn't a huge transition for the offense and maybe the play calling gets better, but not totally convinced. 

Edited November 22, 2021 by W.E.D

[e808 3,028]

1 minute ago, W.E.D said:

So srs question....we saw the points you're making and I don't disagree.  Is it pure talent or lack of coaching where our guys aren't grasping it?  Maybe a little A, little B, little need more time in the system?

I think I'm leaning towards Mason coming back/getting year 2 in a system and hopefully taking a step forward.  It hasn't all been bad, but the bad has been really really really bad.  Dumping Bobo for Kiseau probably isn't a huge transition for the offense and maybe the play calling gets better, but not totally convinced. 

My question is if depth is an issue why Hunter or Brooks weren’t given some opportunities if it won’t count against them

[DAG 34,119]

Just now, W.E.D said:

So srs question....we saw the points you're making and I don't disagree.  Is it pure talent or lack of coaching where our guys aren't grasping it?

I think I'm leaning towards Mason coming back/getting year 2 in a system and hopefully taking a step forward.  It hasn't all been bad, but the bad has been really really really bad.  Dumping Bobo for Kiseau probably isn't a huge transition for the offense and maybe the play calling gets better, but not totally convinced. 

It’s probably both but I am thinking it’s more so lack of freaking talent . Sorry I don’t like calling players out but there is one specific safety that, not only does not cover well, he can’t tackle well. How do you scheme for that? You put him in zone and pray he keeps everything in front of him. I watched one of our transfer lose containment on the edge a couple of times and it is like “how many dang times are you going to let a player cross your face mask?”

on one of the TDs a defensive back is completely on his heels and let’s a guy own an dig route on him for an easy TD. These guys just aren’t as good as we thought they would be. But also it’s coaching too. It’s a perfect storm of failure . The problem is there is no light at the end of the tunnel because the recruiting is bad. I would feel better if I saw that we had their players coming in but we aren’t seeing that either. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

6 minutes ago, e808 said:

My question is if depth is an issue why Hunter or Brooks weren’t given some opportunities if it won’t count against them

The staff's lack of desire to rotate guys has been pretty odd.  Don't disagree on those too.  Maybe Brooks is behind Leota/Height.  Seems like we could use another DT besides JJ/Fair

[jj3jordan 2,110]

2 hours ago, AuburnEagle79 said:

The RPO era has slowed down linebacker play. The minute you send your mike on a blitz you might as well expect the slant behind him against a lot of teams. 

Exactly so why not tell the corner you are blitzing and he will be ready for the slant!! How hard can this be? You take away the hot route by playing close press for 2 seconds and you can get to the qb.  But no we don’t we cushion 5 yards away and it’s an easy play for pretty much any qb.