Beat Temple = AAC East Title

[GaUSFBull]

2 minutes ago, BullyPulpit said:

We are 47th in the nation, allowing 3rd down conversions 35.65% of the time. I think what makes it seem worse is that a lot of the conversions have come on 3rd and long. Also making things worse is the fact that we have the 101st ranked 4th down conversion defense, with opponents converting a whopping 13 out of 21 attempts. I believe the high rate and percentage of 4th down conversions is a result of having built big leads in many of our games, playing a bend but don't break defense, and our offense scoring so quickly leading to a somewhat tired defense on the field. 

To provide some additional perspective, our opponents converted on 3rd down last year 37% of the time and on 4th down 59% of the time. However, this season, we have seen as many 4th down conversions through 7 games (13) as we did all of last season, including the bowl game. 

Wow, that's not as bad as I thought for 3rd down conversions.  And I believe you are correct, the quick scores we get on offense is leading to defense being on the field longer and getting tired.  

I liked what I saw when we brought the blitz against UConn.  I have a feeling we're going to need to see more of that against Temple in order for us to get a W.  

[OcalaBull2]

1 hour ago, BDYZR said:

Discipline and gap responsibility. While I love the fact that we're aggressive, any decent (UConn or ECU) team will get big gains on us. A good (Temple) team, or really good (FSU and Navy) team will destroy us. 

Thank goodness we have an offense. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned for the Temple game. These screenshots prove that big adjustments STILL need to be made. I saw that play and my jaw dropped as to how baffled the defense looked. 

[DELdaBull]

6 hours ago, tampatony said:

We have shown 3 weaknesses so far this season:

1. Short to intermediate passing - Teams are playing off of our WRs and making us drive it down the field. Our counter to this has been running the hell out of the ball to the tune of around 300 yards a game the past 2 weeks and using the screen pass and quick passes to the flats. It's worked okay but is contingent on Flowers being able to make that pass. Hopefully this continues to be successful against a little bit more challenging teams like Temple, Navy, and Memphis.

2. We've been fumble prone - Mack has turned the ball over twice after big plays, hopefully we don't run him right after he gets a big run again for a bit. It seems he may be susceptible to getting winded and not securing the ball as well. Adams has coughed it up a bit and will definitely be targeted quite a bit going forward. Lastly Flowers also has fumbled the ball when in space. Ball security has to be a priority going forward. 4 turnovers versus any of our next opponents probably will earn us a big fat L.

3. Defensive Line play - We have been able to do better against the run the last two games but I'm still not impressed and Temple could really put a hurting on our line play this week, not to mention what Navy will do to us. Outside of playing a 3rd linebacker I'm not sure what else we can do. We have to tackle in space and it appears our back 7 has been much better at it. D-line play on passing plays has been horrible when it's only the front 4. Without the blitz our team has not been able to get any push at all. Thankfully Woodie has been dialing up the blitz from all over the place. Only issue is if we aren't pulling a lineman into a zone style coverage or if we continue to rush 5-6 people we're going to get gashed for big plays against good teams. 

Fumbles seem fluky but Flower's ability to make those short to intermediate passing is going to be a problem if we're unable to get stops on the other side. Our defense will have to continue to get stops when our offense has issues moving the ball just like they did in the first and second quarters against UCONN. Lets see if they continue to improve and can continue to keep teams out of the endzone. We'll find out in 4 days what this team is made of. Hopefully we'll be happy with what we see.  

Mack is a beast. The key is to get him the ball more and get him not to fumble. 

[IBulleve]

Jahad is one to worry about, but if we can continue the aggressive style of play on defense PJ will turn it over to us. Just have to make sure we don't give it back. 

[bullsmeanbusiness]

Speaking of Temple, I'm surprised/disappointed in the lack of "Girls of" thread. In fact this whole season, the "Girls of" threads have been practically nonexistent. 

[IBulleve]

Just now, bullsmeanbusiness said:

Speaking of Temple, I'm surprised/disappointed in the lack of "Girls of" thread. In fact this whole season, the "Girls of" threads have been practically nonexistent. 

Because we actually have football again

[Bulls1181]

Is it Game Day yet? 

Beat Temple and its pretty much done in the East..

It really is fun to watch our offense in open space 

 

[Roaming Bull]

2 hours ago, OcalaBull2 said:

Thank goodness we have an offense. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned for the Temple game

Not concerned about this game. I don't think they've gained any speed since last year. The weather will be warm with a chance of showers. Our boys will be a full go and we should stomp some owls. I'm pretty excited. We get another chance on a big stage so hopefully we make the most of it.

Go Bulls! Beat Temple! 

[BDYZR]

5 hours ago, OcalaBull2 said:

I saw that play   two plays in a row    and my jaw dropped as to how baffled the defense looked. 

Discipline! There's no way in hell that somebody doesn't have containment responsibilities. 

We've seen it every week so far, so there's no reason to think that that play or the off tackle play to the right won't be the first play run on Friday.

[USFBulls727]

20 hours ago, OcalaBull2 said:

 

We also need to avoid plays like this. This was a play early on when UConn's running back, Newsome, was given TONS of open space. All of our guys are in one spot completely ignoring other aspects of the field. 

Our defense has a lot of trouble stopping any off-tackle run plays, no matter who it is. We have the talent to beat anybody on our remaining schedule, but this is one of the reasons I don't see any of these games as a lock. Seems there is just nobody in place, just like you see in the pictures here. It was extremely obvious vs. FSU