Topic: WV MetroNews: Defense thinks it can be better

[ZackUSAF82]

By Dave Wilson in Marshall Sports

HUNTINGTON W.Va.—Last Saturday was by far and away the best performance by Marshall’s defense in more than a year.  Miami was limited to 239 yards of total offense and 92 of those yards came on a pair of big pass plays.

So, in week two where does Marshall want to improve?  It is limiting big plays down the field.

“We had those two big plays, if we tighten those up they could’ve had less than a hundred yards in the game,” says defensive end Jeremiah Taylor.  “You can always get better fundamentally and there’s no telling where we could be.”

For the most part defensive coordinator Chuck Heater liked what he saw from his unit in its first test of the season.  After converting two third downs in the first quarter, Miami went 0-for-9 on third downs the rest of the game.  The Redhawks had just 74 yards rushing and only ran 57 plays in the game.

Link: http://wvmetronews.com/2013/09/06/defense-thinks-it-can-be-better/

[phillyherdfan]

In fact, no defensive player was on the field for more than 36 snaps against the Redhawks.

Wow.  Even though the 4th quarter was played with mostly 2nd and 3rd guys.... that is still an amazing stat.

[IM4DHERD]

Heater is a HUGE upgrade over Rippon, but depth and injuries certainly were a big factor in what happened last season.