Lots of moaning about team speed this year on defense

[Volznut]

Yet you have to consider that this same team, with a 4-3 defense, was ranked 28th in the country last year, and they got zero help from the offense. Plus they were much greener last year and did not have as much depth on the DL.

My question: How much was it team speed, and how much of it was players reacting too slowly and not being able to catch up? In other words, not "playing fast" because they were thinking too much?
 

[UTnbama]

I don't feel that thinking was exactly this team's "forte".

[73Volgrad]

Tell me.  When did you see a linebacker or defensive back actually be in position or take the proper angle to cut off anyone?  It is hard to catch someone when you are running toward the line and having to turn around and start your run when the RD or WR is already past you and at full speed.  When anyone broke past the line of scrimmage, there was zero effort to try to catch them. This defense just was not smart and played out of position most of the season.  If you do not know what to do, you play slow.  This defense did not play like they had a clue.

[LouisVOL]

No hiding LB and DB speed is not SEC caliber, BUT, you can cover a lot of that with scheme and smarts--we did neither, just the opposite.

[Volznut]

Tell me.  When did you see a linebacker or defensive back actually be in position or take the proper angle to cut off anyone?  It is hard to catch someone when you are running toward the line and having to turn around and start your run when the RD or WR is already past you and at full speed.  When anyone broke past the line of scrimmage, there was zero effort to try to catch them. This defense just was not smart and played out of position most of the season.  If you do not know what to do, you play slow.  This defense did not play like they had a clue.

That's what I am saying

[BanditVol]

While  I am one of the first to point out that we had a decent defense last year, it was actually helped by the offense in the sense that teams did not have to score that much to beat us and often called off the dogs early.     We had the opposite problem this year.

Last year's D was still far better than this year's, but I suspect if we had this year's offense with last year's D, their stats would drop a bit.