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The Bucket Postgame Thread


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13 minutes ago, Proud2BAHoosier said:

I guess if that's the way you want to spin it, have at it.....

But it's the same every year. IU can score, keeping the other team from scoring? That's another thing.

This year's defense is 38th in the country. Last year's finished 81st. Call it the same old story if you want, but this year's defense is improved.

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1 minute ago, Zlinedavid said:

This year's defense is 38th in the country. Last year's finished 81st. Call it the same old story if you want, but this year's defense is improved.

Statistically I agree but the defense we have seen the last two weeks has been down right atrocious.  Still, we’ve seen that before and IU finishes 4-8 or 5-7.  So, while I want to see the defense improve, I’m still ecstatic about the season!

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Part of the defensive ranking being good obviously came from the UCONN, EIU, Rutgers, and Northwestern games where we held them to a combined 6 points.  Most other years, even when we play really bad teams we don't shut them out, so that is definitely an accomplishment.

However, we did struggle in some of the meaningful games.  I think that is the product of a young defense that has a lot of potential.  Talented enough to dominate the bad teams, but not experienced keep up with the better teams.  I look for next year's defense to show quite a bit of improvement.  We only lose a few guys on defense who played this year.

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10 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

Part of the defensive ranking being good obviously came from the UCONN, EIU, Rutgers, and Northwestern games where we held them to a combined 6 points.  Most other years, even when we play really bad teams we don't shut them out, so that is definitely an accomplishment.

However, we did struggle in some of the meaningful games.  I think that is the product of a young defense that has a lot of potential.  Talented enough to dominate the bad teams, but not experienced keep up with the better teams.  I look for next year's defense to show quite a bit of improvement.  We only lose a few guys on defense who played this year.

Well said.  The only thing I’d add is that we could use more speed on defense.  It really show up in the pass rush and with our safeties.

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4 minutes ago, thirdgenhoosier said:

Well said.  The only thing I’d add is that we could use more speed on defense.  It really show up in the pass rush and with our safeties.

Coach Allen needs to schedule some more trips to Florida. That's where the speed is.

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I’ve seen several times the notion that our safeties aren’t athletic.  That’s simply not true.  Our safeties across the board are pretty good athletes who were well regarded recruits.  

What is getting glossed over is that the staff puts them into one on one coverage on receivers a lot.  Other teams hide their safeties in coverage or certainly don’t put them into high leverage coverage situations.  They might shadow a back or tight end, but you see our guys put into pressure coverage against good receivers, often in the slot but even on the boundary, e.g., when the corner comes off coverage and blitzes.  

The fact that they get those responsibilities is a testament to their potential and that the coaches trust them.  Our defense is so much more athletic now than it was pre-Wilson (yes, I mean Wilson as that’s when our recruiting started up-ticking) that it’s not even funny.  Guys that started would be walkons now.  Right now, we don’t seem to ever play with four corners out there, so the safeties are covering elusive receivers.  

In today’s football, you’re just not going to see 13-10 games against good teams, week in, week out.  It’s a different world now with all the spread offenses.  Even Alabama and Auburn are giving up 40 plus.   No, we don’t have a defense full of five stars like you see at Clemson or Ohio State, but the talent level is way better than it was historically over the past 25 years.  To say otherwise is just not functioning in reality.   I love the vision and expectation Tom Allen has in terms of the type of athlete he wants and the opportunity he will have to show his stuff.  He’s not going to play chicken bleep football.  

To me, the area we still need to bring up to another level is the trenches, on both sides of the football.  On defense, our pass rush needs to be much more dynamic.  If it were, you’d probably see much better coverage by our safeties.  I’m excited about the defensive tackle we just landed and that we are still working on some electric ends.

We could stand to get better and badder on the offensive line too.  Bedford and Caleb Jones are a good start there and hopefully Cronk comes back.  But we’ve recruited a ton of guys the past couple of years and hopefully some of them will shine.  Trenches both ways to me would be the area I’d like to see take another step up.  

 

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4 hours ago, Leathernecks said:

Part of the defensive ranking being good obviously came from the UCONN, EIU, Rutgers, and Northwestern games where we held them to a combined 6 points.  Most other years, even when we play really bad teams we don't shut them out, so that is definitely an accomplishment.

However, we did struggle in some of the meaningful games.  I think that is the product of a young defense that has a lot of potential.  Talented enough to dominate the bad teams, but not experienced keep up with the better teams.  I look for next year's defense to show quite a bit of improvement.  We only lose a few guys on defense who played this year.

This.

Years past, we would beat FCS/Mid-major teams, and if we weren't the bad B10 team, we'd usually beat them as well. This year, we beat that collective group CONVINCINGLY.

We weren't going to hang with OSU and that's nothing to be ashamed of this year. We won the two 50/50-60/40 games that we would have lost in years past (Nebraska, Maryland). We hung with two solid if not great teams on the road (MSU, PSU) and arguably should have won one of those two. With Purdue, toss everything else out. That's a blood game. The only game I was really disappointed in was Michigan.

There is still progress to be made. Lots of it. Namely, can we win 8 or 9 again next year. One good year is fun. Doing it consistently is success.

That said, I'm going to enjoy the fact we have a shot at a mid tier bowl and a 9 win season.

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15 hours ago, Zlinedavid said:

This.

Years past, we would beat FCS/Mid-major teams, and if we weren't the bad B10 team, we'd usually beat them as well. This year, we beat that collective group CONVINCINGLY.

We weren't going to hang with OSU and that's nothing to be ashamed of this year. We won the two 50/50-60/40 games that we would have lost in years past (Nebraska, Maryland). We hung with two solid if not great teams on the road (MSU, PSU) and arguably should have won one of those two. With Purdue, toss everything else out. That's a blood game. The only game I was really disappointed in was Michigan.

There is still progress to be made. Lots of it. Namely, can we win 8 or 9 again next year. One good year is fun. Doing it consistently is success.

That said, I'm going to enjoy the fact we have a shot at a mid tier bowl and a 9 win season.

Agreed

The only game I was disappointed with was the Michigan game.  I wrote that one off as "overlooked" since we had the bucket game the next weekend.  

If we can complete at this level consistently then I feel like we have turned the corner.  This needs to be the norm for a few years and then build on this to occasionally beating the Michigan's, OSU's, and Penn State games.

I thought we were going to blow the bucket game but several of the players came up big to hold off the surge.  Great team win imo.  Was a little concerned we went away from the run to start the 2nd half.  I felt like that was the turning point that gave PU the momentum shift.  

 

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