FluffHead Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 is there something fundamental about why teams that run the spread offense generally struggle defensively? this seems to be particularly evident in college. Oregon, Ok St, West Virginia, Texas AM, Mizzou, Clemson, many others, all run spread and every year struggle defensively. The Bills and Panthers run the closest things to a college Spread in the NFL and have been consistently terrible defensively since doing so. So I ask, is there something about facing spread personnel every day in practice that makes a defense particularly soft, or staright up sucky? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 (edited) Good offenses lead to shootouts? You really just named a huge variety of teams with an array of different problems though. Edited November 4, 2012 by NoSaint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FluffHead Posted November 4, 2012 Author Share Posted November 4, 2012 Good offenses lead to shootouts? You really just named a huge variety of teams with an array of different problems though. They're all soft defensively, year in and year out. When has any of those teams had a defense that won games for them ala Bama, LSU, Mich st, etc there are exceptions to every example. Just trying to ignite some conversation. Seems to me spread offenses genereally produce soft defenses. Certainly is the case here in Buffalo the last three years. We have had bad defenses in the past, but never this soft until the spread came in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronc24 Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 Because they practice vs the spread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaattMaann Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 in Oregon's case id guess its because they score every 45 seconds, so they dont get much of a breather, so they play defense when they are tired....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 (edited) Variety of issues, again. Oregon for instance runs a hurry up offense and sees a ton of snaps. Further, a lot of times when trying to run a big score offense you don't build a grind it out defense - you try to get pressure and turnovers as the other team will be taking shots downfield. That tends to be built different on D. Think about the colts of years past with the cover 2 behind - great with a lead soft in a close game. Some of those are purely talent issues. Hard to address a bunch of teams on multiple levels of competition. Edited November 4, 2012 by NoSaint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sodbuster Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 Florida didn't struggle on d when meyer was running the spead down there. But they were mostly running out of the spead. So that might have something to do with it. Maybe it isn't so much a problem with the spead, but with a pass heavy offense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 Florida didn't struggle on d when meyer was running the spead down there. But they were mostly running out of the spead. So that might have something to do with it. Maybe it isn't so much a problem with the spead, but with a pass heavy offense. It seemed he was avoiding the spread option in the question? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FluffHead Posted November 4, 2012 Author Share Posted November 4, 2012 It seemed he was avoiding the spread option in the question? not trying to prove a point or avoid any argument...just throwing a theory out there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 not trying to prove a point or avoid any argument...just throwing a theory out there Didn't say you were but a spread option that's predicated on running zone read is waaaaay different than the spread you see with a qb throwing 50 tds. Especially if you are talking about the defense getting soft. Tackling tebow or cam or todays posterchild, klein, every day at practice is different than facing 5 wides. Two totally different schemes and I'm assuming you are talking the more wide open pass happy ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_offense More info on the wide variety of spread offenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterpan Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 They dont run the ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANCOCK Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 12 !@#$ing running plays. Chan gailey is a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjg1993 Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 i have thought about this too and would like a good answer. i know there a lot of factors that play into it, but a simple explanation would be the lack of talent of those spread schools. many of the schools that you mentioned are not at the top of recruiting. They are typically getting second tier recruits. Ok St and Missouri are getting Oklahoma's leftovers, Texas A&M loses out to Texas and TCU, and Clemson to every SEC school in the area. I think that the spread is a creative offense designed to do a lot with little talent. That is one reason why i still like Chan : he takes a talentless offense (best skill position starter was drafted in the 7th, remember?) and gets them to score 22.5 points per game. There is no defensive system that can overcome this same talent barrier. So, teams that have bad offensive recruits have bad defensive recruits, leading to defenses. Only problem is, that doesn't explain Oregon or WV or our bad defense. we have a lot more talent on defense than offense. So, like i said, i think there are a lot of factors, but this is the only one that i could come up with Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffOrange Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 i have thought about this too and would like a good answer. i know there a lot of factors that play into it, but a simple explanation would be the lack of talent of those spread schools. many of the schools that you mentioned are not at the top of recruiting. They are typically getting second tier recruits. Ok St and Missouri are getting Oklahoma's leftovers, Texas A&M loses out to Texas and TCU, and Clemson to every SEC school in the area. I think that the spread is a creative offense designed to do a lot with little talent. That is one reason why i still like Chan : he takes a talentless offense (best skill position starter was drafted in the 7th, remember?) and gets them to score 22.5 points per game. There is no defensive system that can overcome this same talent barrier. So, teams that have bad offensive recruits have bad defensive recruits, leading to defenses. Only problem is, that doesn't explain Oregon or WV or our bad defense. we have a lot more talent on defense than offense. So, like i said, i think there are a lot of factors, but this is the only one that i could come up with Good analysis. The recruiting point was evident for a long time with Notre Dame up until this year. They could score when Weiss was the coach, but couldn't stop anybody without top talent. The other thing I'd say is that there is very little defense in college to begin with. Alabama & LSU are much more the exception than the rule. Oregon did defend Cam Newton a lot better than the SEC teams 2yrs ago for what that's worth. The Redskins having their 2 best pass-rushers injured hurts them a lot too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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