What can be done to tighten up the defense?

I know we were spoiled by the last few years, and we're still a good team, especially with the offense we have, but I wonder what needs to be done to shore up the back seven of our defense. Seems like we're really feeling the loss of Bullough, Lewis and Dennard's experience and leadership back there. 

Does anyone think Nicholson maybe should start over Williamson? He seems to be making a few mistakes (though safety play in general has probably been our defense's biggest weakness). He was good as a nickelback last year and maybe moving him back there would stabilize things a bit.

I think Waynes and Hicks are a good duo at CB. Waynes has been great, and I'm pretty satisfied with how Hicks is progressing, especially given his inexperience.

As for the linebackers? I don't really know. I see that Reschke and Jones rotated a bit at MIKE linebacker. Though Harris has been pretty solid so far, could moving Jones back to STAR stabilize the defense, too?

I don't know. Just was wondering what you all thought we should do. Maybe it's stay the course, who knows. I just know that I'm pretty worried about Nebraska now after seeing the same mistakes over and over again from the defense.

This would be the perfect thread for SpartanRocky to enlighten us with one of his long ass posts.

I do have a question, what is up with Thomas? I haven't watched complete games but rarely hear his name mentioned. What's your take on him so far?

steveschneider wrote:This would be the perfect thread for SpartanRocky to enlighten us with one of his long ass posts.

I do have a question, what is up with Thomas? I haven't watched complete games but rarely hear his name mentioned. What's your take on him so far?

I can't say I'm too unhappy with Thomas. DT isn't as flashy as DE, so you won't hear his name as much as say Calhoun. Looking at yesterday's stat he sheet, he only had two tackles, but not much else, but it was similar to a lot of our defense given how Coach D has been pulling starters early and rotating a lot on defense.

As long as he's doing well enough to command attention from the OL and open things up for Calhoun more, and playing sound in stopping the opponents' running game, I can't be too unhappy with Thomas. More would be nice, though.

Heat Miser wrote:You know we gave up 17 to YSU last year?
And 13 to Western?

How'd that turn out?

Different defensive players and not much else to talk about thus far

Maybe I'm a homer, but I think it's a good thing our safeties got burned a few times yesterday. They'll have some film to look at and make corrections.

The real season starts next week.

If you recorded the game, go and watch the Wyoming TD run. Watch Jones plug the hole. Watch how he is "removed" from the hole. And judge for yourself the validity of the back judge, same one who flagged Jackson for 3-4 penalties.

Same thing with the second long run, watch LT.

As for the safeties, that is 100% on Williamson for not having proper form on tackles and for not reading his keys. Coachable, but troubling. EMU missed 2 first half bombs/potential TDs where the WR was 3 steps behind Williamson.

And that said- MSU's D is designed to force defenses to connect on the long balls under pressure. Hardest throws to continually hit. They want the QB trying it. Sure, the coverage was not great, but the concept was.

We have up 14 points and people are freaking out.

Wow.

Honestly, can you name 5 defenses nationally you'd take over MSUs?

The_Dude wrote:Honestly, can you name 5 defenses nationally you'd take over MSUs?

After watching a lot of other games yesterday, not really. The sec looks mediocre, fsu wouldn't go undefeated in any other conference, I'm not sure the big 12 knows what a defense does. Pac 12 is probably one of the only other conference playing d right now.

Mentalstate wrote:If you recorded the game, go and watch the Wyoming TD run. Watch Jones plug the hole. Watch how he is "removed" from the hole. And judge for yourself the validity of the back judge, same one who flagged Jackson for 3-4 penalties.

Same thing with the second long run, watch LT.

As for the safeties, that is 100% on Williamson for not having proper form on tackles and for not reading his keys. Coachable, but troubling. EMU missed 2 first half bombs/potential TDs where the WR was 3 steps behind Williamson.

And that said- MSU's D is designed to force defenses to connect on the long balls under pressure. Hardest throws to continually hit. They want the QB trying it. Sure, the coverage was not great, but the concept was.

Reffing. Classic

InTenSity wrote:
After watching a lot of other games yesterday, not really. The sec looks mediocre, fsu wouldn't go undefeated in any other conference, I'm not sure the big 12 knows what a defense does. Pac 12 is probably one of the only other conference playing d right now.

Stanford and Bama are the only two I can think of. Georgia, LSU, FSU and USC are all not that great on defense so far this year. OU is good. But it's hard to find 5 this year id game over MSU.

I'm just thinking against a solid o line and a good qb, a lot more of those passes get completed. That's where my issue is with the secondary.

Mentalstate wrote:If you recorded the game, go and watch the Wyoming TD run. Watch Jones plug the hole. Watch how he is "removed" from the hole. And judge for yourself the validity of the back judge, same one who flagged Jackson for 3-4 penalties.

Same thing with the second long run, watch LT.

As for the safeties, that is 100% on Williamson for not having proper form on tackles and for not reading his keys. Coachable, but troubling. EMU missed 2 first half bombs/potential TDs where the WR was 3 steps behind Williamson.

And that said- MSU's D is designed to force defenses to connect on the long balls under pressure. Hardest throws to continually hit. They want the QB trying it. Sure, the coverage was not great, but the concept was.

Lol. The problem is we keep getting victimized by these blatant holds and bad reffing year after year.

Bend don't break. We will give up long plays but then hold them to s field goal. Williamson needs to improve, d line needs to get pressure, secondary needs to stop looking in the back field.

Even before the season started, I thought the Nebraska game was going to the most challenging of the season.  We can still win the division even if we don't win, but this probably won't be the last we face them.  IMO, Nebraska is easily the best team in the West.

Their RB's are the best we will face all season.  And Gregory is the best DE in the conference when he's at 100%.

Safeties have to play assignment football. We've had breakdowns there. I think they want to make big plays and big hits, which is all well and good, but damn know your assignment first.

The kids just need MOAR reps which they're getting each game.

Maybe we're spoiled by last year. Coach D says that the defense we had last year was special and hard to duplicate. 

"We as coaches and maybe we as a general Spartan public are spoiled by some of the things last year," Dantonio said. "There's going to be breakdowns and things that happen, the important thing is getting them fixed and not seeing them happening on a consistent basis."

I think that right now, most of us are giving the team a pass. We trust that the D is going to improve and the O has been so good that we aren't sure what to expect. I think this week is one of the final tests that the team has. If they can dispatch of Nebraska easily, I'll be at ease and look forward to the B1G championship (as a fan I can look ahead). If its close and close because of defensive breakdowns, I'll lower my expectations and hope for a Florida bowl game. If they lose, because they are outplayed, then I'll probably be pretty disappointed.