Defense? You want to talk to me about defense? 2011 K-State defense part 1

“K-State held Kent State, Baylor, Missouri, KU, Texas A&M, Texas, Iowa State and Alabama…”

“K-State’s rushing D was 38th in the country, while the passing D was 102th. Kent State, Iowa State and Alabama all passed…”

I wonder if this D could have been better if they actually bothered to defend the short and medium range passes. How many times did we see an easy completion and then a tackle (or in the case of Hartman, an attempt to injure himself and then bounce off)? Here’s a thought, don’t allow completions!

you might want to look at running the numbers on the Passing game defense and stats from D-Linemen…just saying

Our ability to control the pace and keep the opposing defense on the field as long as possible was critical to us having the success we had this year. Without that, we would have had more episodes of OK in the second half.

As a former FS and TB and currently the Defensive Co. for my old High School, I’m a firm believer in the Defense winnig the games and putting the Offense in positions to score. The defense is the group that decides filed position. Keeping the opposing offense inside the 30 keeps the ball in favor of our offense when it’s punted or in short 4th down situations. The “Bend but don’t break” approach seriously sickens me. Sure, keeping a team that drives the filed to a FG is considered a win but what if the opposing offense punts the ball from 30 and below? Answer: field position win for the Wildcat O. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that with the way Bill Snyder schemes and the way the Offense is built, is for methodical play making and drives down the filed. We seen too many games where the opposing team makes 3 passing plays and suddenly they’re in the red zone ready to score. All the game won this year by 7 pts or less is the reason why KSU wasn’t touted as a high impact team. Had the D held teams to minus their avg yards per game then they would have been a force to be reckoned with and had a BCS game vs MI or GA. Both teams easily could have been beaten. Although the D stepeed up in the Cotton Bowl. Imagine that same style of play all year. Cosh needs to blitz more and create opening gaps for the faster more althetic backs. Whether it be the 2nd or 3rd tier of the D. The team that I help coach scheme more defensive bllitzes and coverages than any other team I’ve seen. Simply for the confusion of the offense. That being said, I understand the different levels of play here but I can’t stand seeing a throwing QB stand in the pocket for 4+ seconds, unafraid of the rush because the D backs are dropped 7-10 yrds in coverage just to PREVENT the long ball…

I’m surprised I’m the first to rec this effort. Really nice.

Secondly, I’m glad to see someone be balanced about Cosh and the defense. This bunch wasn’t close to being lights out and it was sometimes frustrating to watch. But hell, I’ll give it a B- and maybe even a B, which is a HUGE step after after last year’s F-.

Yes, it gave up yards and sometimes seemed like it would never stop anyone. But it was incredibly opportunistic and stepped up in a monumental way on a handful of occasions. The goal line stand against Miami was one for the ages. Interception Griffin and then stopping him on four downs defined the season. I finally had a chance to watch a tape of the Texas game and there is just no way the Cats deserved to win that game. Even though I knew the outcome, I was almost sure that Texas would have to find a way to cross the end zone on one of their last four or five opportunities, especially as the offense was a three-and-out machine.

Anon’s main point is the one that sticks for me—this was pretty weak offense that was outgained by virtually every team it played and, still, the team went 10-3. The Cats were never in the Arkansas game (and that certainly wasn’t the D’s fault.) The second half against OU was a debacle, but it was a total team collapse, so that ain’t on the D either. They couldn’t stop OSU, but virtually no one could this year.

Still, the OSU game is the only one on the season in which better defense would have meant a win. Throw out the two blow out wins and Chris Cosh’s defense did exactly what it needed to to win the game eight times out of nine. And that makes for a good year, regardless of how overmatched they looked at times.

And as a final note—this was probably a defense with limited talent. Aside from AB, it was mainly juco transfers and converted QBs. I don’t mean this as a slight at all, but only one player walked on to campus ready to be a star. The rest had to be molded by a coaching staff and Chris Cosh was the head of the unit.

Defense: B
Offense: B-
Special Teams: B+ (Cotton Bowl dropped them a bit)

Overall: B+
Overall accounting for expectations: A