I agree with Tango's premise, although I wouldn't say it hurt the defense as much as challenged them. People who are slamming the defense need a little more perspective on what the defense dealt with yesterday, and what they actually accomplished given their circumstances.
First, given that we could now start a new segment titled "Knights In the Lockup," the communication and experience required of the secondary wasn't there, and it isn't their fault that they were thrown into the fire without the benefit of experience.
Second, three turnovers put the defense back on the field without a rest.
Third, Wazzou's air attack meant the secondary had to do roughly 50% more tackling than usual, since the line typically handles the run game.
Fourth, there were at least four 4th-downs that Leach went for it and for which we stopped them. Normally those are punts, and the defense had to be on the field for those plays. (I'm not sure if there were additional fourth downs that they made it and extended the drives.)
Fifth, as Tango pointed out, were Grant's two returns for TDs, which put the D on the field right away.
Sixth, Wazzou had 19 incompletions, which stopped the clock. I'm not sure what the number is, but if the league average for a game is 12 incompletions, that's seven more stoppages of the clock, which extends the game.
Seventh, the anchor of our D-line, Hamilton, was out, and the other playmaker, Turay, looked like he was still hampered by an injury.
Eighth, we had a QB starting his first game ever, which made for an ugly first half (not unexpected). This put the D back on the field sooner.
So the result was that the back four (back seven if you include the LBs) were up against it the whole game. I am more frustrated as a fan of the Rutgers program than I am unhappy with the defense I saw yesterday. Just when we seem to have more pieces come together to make progress, something unexpected and unusual goes wrong. Arrests? Really? I know it's going to take more time before we have money to do more things well, but it is frustrating that we don't have two sides of the ball functioning at at least a medium level at the same time. When our defense is dominant, our offense struggles. When our offense is good, our defense struggles. Yesterday our offense was okay, our special teams were very good, and, given the circumstances, our defense was better than people are giving them credit for. Without the arrests, I can only help but wonder what that game would've looked like, but I doubt we would've played a soft zone the whole game.
