Getting Defensive
October 16, 2006 01:14 PM | General
October 16, 2006
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| Casteel |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – So what’s wrong with the West Virginia defense? You hear it wherever you go: West Virginia can’t get off the field on third down, the secondary gives up too many big plays; there are too many personal foul penalties.
True, opponents are converting 43 percent of its third-down tries so far this year and the West Virginia secondary has been susceptible to the long pass, particularly in its last two games against Mississippi State and Syracuse.
The defense has given up 20 plays of 20 yards or longer so far this year – 18 of them coming by way of the air.
“Sometimes the other team will complete a route,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel. “They’ve got guys on scholarship too. We’re not going to go out and just stone everybody on third and seven or third and nine.”
That said, did you realize that this year’s defense is actually statistically better than last year’s nationally ranked unit in almost every category?
It’s true. West Virginia ranks 18th in the country against the run giving up just 88.3 yards per game – an improvement of more than 21 yards per game over last year’s total.
The pass defense is allowing 193.3 yards per game, or a 7.8 yards-per-game improvement over last season’s total. WVU’s defensive pass efficiency this year is ranked 10th in the country, 20 spots better than last year’s rating.
After a two-week sack binge, WVU is right back on pace with last year’s sack total of 29.
And most impressively WVU is ranked 10th in the country in scoring defense giving up just 13 points per game. Last year’s unit was ranked 13th giving up 17.8 points per game.
The sky may not be falling.
“We always play with confidence,” said Casteel. “Those are the kids that played on the (15th) ranked defense in the country last year and they understand what needs to be done to play and they’re doing some good things now.”
What Casteel and his defensive coaching staff are presently contending with is an extremely young and inexperienced secondary that needs some time to develop and grow. West Virginia came into this year having to replace four of its five starters in the defensive backfield that had a combined 100 career starts between them.
Eric Wicks, the lone returning starter in the secondary from last year, entered this season with only 11 career starts. Consequently, the defensive coaches are reluctant to introduce a lot of exotic defenses until they are completely certain their young DBs have a good handle on the base defense.
That inexperience has led to some defensive breakdowns.
“We’ve just had some breakdowns at inopportune times,” Casteel said. “People want to talk about the third-down defense and that’s understandable – I have no trouble with that – but you’re talking about two or three plays a game and you covert two or three plays a game and you go to being a very good third-down defense.
“By and large our kids understand what they need to do to be successful because they have been successful over the past three or four years.”
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| Craig Wilson and the West Virginia defense held Syracuse to just 38 yards in the second half last Saturday.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
In the second half of last Saturday’s game against Syracuse, West Virginia completely shut down the Orange. After a couple of missed assignments in the first half that allowed Perry Patterson to complete two long passes that led to touchdowns, the Mountaineer defense gave up just 38 second-half yards. Syracuse’s only points in the second half came on a field goal after an Ed Collington fumble gave the Orange the ball at the West Virginia 17.
The openings Patterson saw in the Mountaineer defense in the first half were gone in the second half.
“When you watch them on film they’ve got some weaknesses but they were able to make adjustments at halftime,” Patterson said. “That’s a credit to their coaches and players.”
The defense cleaned up its act in other areas as well. The unit was flagged just once the entire game after enduring a penalty-plagued effort two weeks ago at Mississippi State. And the one pass interference call on Vaughn Rivers midway through the fourth quarter was questionable. Casteel sees progress being made.
“I thought they did a better job (Saturday) once they settled in,” he said. “I don’t know what they ended up with but we gave up two big balls there that set up the two touchdowns. Really when you go back to the Mississippi State game there were two big plays there that were 45-yarders. Those are things that we have to continue to get better on.”
Syracuse’s pair of big plays on Saturday was simply the result of missed assignments.
“We didn’t do a good job on the scramble situation,” Casteel said. “We just left guys. He threw the first one and there was nobody around. The kid jumped down on an under route and left the deep one go.”
Most pleasing to Casteel was the way his defense fought back after enduring an entire week of criticism.
“You’ve got to give our kids credit for hanging in there,” he said. “It’s been a tough week on them and to come out and have some adversity obviously in the first quarter and not hang their heads, we’re really proud of that – the way they finished the game. Those are plusses and those are things that we want to build upon.”
The defense has also played better when the outcome of the game has still been in doubt. The defense came up with big turnovers to stop second-half drives at East Carolina and Mississippi State, and permitted Syracuse just four second-half first downs last Saturday.
This Friday, the assignment gets tougher for the Mountaineers at Connecticut. Statistically, the Huskies are the best offense West Virginia will have faced this year averaging 357.3 yards per game.
After that, the Mountaineers have to contend with the No. 2-rated offense in the country in Louisville (507.8 ypg.), the No. 20-rated offense in Pitt (409.3 ypg.), and the No. 35-rated offense in South Florida (379.4 ypg.).
“The biggest thing was for our kids to settle in and understand that they just have to make their play,” Casteel said. “I think we had some guys that were trying so hard to do things well that at times they would be over the top and make somebody else’s play and we’d get beat on something else. Once they understood that and settled in and played some team defense, that’s really what turned the corner.”
| 2005 | Category | 2006 |
| 109.7 (19th) | Rushing | 88.3 (18th) |
| 201.1 (34th) | Passing | 193.3 (51st) |
| 310.8 (15th) | Total Defense | 281.7 (23rd) |
| 31 | Turnovers | 13 |
| 66 of 179 (37%) | 3rd Down Defense | 35 of 82 (43%) |
| 10 of 22 (45%) | 4th Down Defense | 5 of 10 (50%) |
| 29 (2.41 pg.) | Sacks | 11 (1.83 pg.) |
| 17.8 (13th) | Points Allowed Per Game | 13.0 (10th) |
