1376961 This weekend I watched three ball games, being Cincinnati at Syracuse, USC at Oregon, and Miami at Wake Forest. Firstly Oregon far and away overpowered USC in every way, as we often see in college football, some teams are just clearly better on a particular day than their opponent. Yet on the other side of the spectrum, in the case of the other two games, Syracuse and Wake Forest, by way of coaching, preparation, and execution played near perfectly, yet lost their games only on the few lapses of execution and mistakes because their opponents were clearly talented enough to get the job done with the limited opportunities they had. Like playing with fire, Syracuse and Wake Forest both knew that they were facing teams which could explode offensively and had to contain them by controlling the ball, through effective defense and long offensive drives. Syracuse did this extremely well, yet fouled out on six plays and the Bearcats made them pay for it. The same is true for Wake Forest where they had done a terrific job of keeping Miami’s strength off the field, yet lost in the waning moments of the game. Cincinnati is clearly a talented, well coached team with an explosive offense and stout defense with outstanding play from their linebackers. Miami on the other hand is a team which needs to find an identity on defense. The offense is clearly the team’s strength, but for a program which has been perennially tough on defense top to bottom, they seriously lack the teeth of the viscous beast they once were. Is it lack of talent, or coaching? Miami traditionally, could utilize a 4-3 defense, shut down running games with their defensive ends, tackles and middle linebacker read, leaving their outside linebackers in zone coverage underneath and their corners in man coverage allowing one safety to help in run support and another to float as a hat in deep coverage. This formula worked well for Miami and FSU for years. Today it doesn’t work for either team. How much has the game changed, that a proven base set now is mostly in effective. I know Miami is riddled with injuries on defense, but they have players. Typically it’s only a matter of time before we know who the stars are. This year we are still waiting for them to arrive. Sam Shields is improving, and had a good game against the Dec’s; he is turning the tide of being the obvious weakness in the secondary. Defensive tackle Joe Joseph and defensive end Allen Bailey are playing well also, but as a whole the defense is allowing too many plays to be successful, as most of the tackles taking place in the secondary. I have to question the coaching at this point. The only game the defense looked really prepared for was against Georgia Tech. The Cane’s defensive line got penetration and shut down pitch lanes, and the linebackers shadowed backs well. However, Clemson attacked the linebackers with a short passing game, and Miami’s defensive ends couldn’t pose a threat. I have been looking for a pass rush from the quarterbacks left side several times that just doesn’t seem to exist. Every time a linebacker moves in to help, a back or tightend is released and there is a completion to that position. Most of the woes on defense could be alleviated through better defensive end and linebacker play. Zone read offensive plays are premised on position and lean of the defensive ends, not that Miami faces a lot of zone read plays, but there is something that the ends are doing that is making them ineffective. Their stance, lean, or not pulling up to appear to be looking to block off a passing lane before rushing in, all of which is on coaching. It has to get better, and I know it can, as 1st and 2nd down defensive play has been mostly solid. It’s mostly on 3rd down where the defense has just been getting beat up. true 2009-11-03T15:34:07Z 97803 0 2009-11-03T15:34:07Z