Army is coming off a 44-7 rout by then-#19 Boston College. Boston College scored touchdowns on their first 4 drives of the game, putting Army in a hole early. A Field goal would put BC up 30-7 (with one missed PAT) at the half. And then they cruised, to touchdowns in the third and fourth quarter... Army's defense gave up 464 yards of offense (175 rushing/289 passing), which is actually an improvement from last year when they averaged giving up 491 yards a game. They also did not show the discipline of a Bobby-Ross coached team, with 6 penalties on the defense. They are switching from a 4-2-5 to a 4-3, which may explain some of the problems, but Baylor fans shouldn't really have too much to worry about, even if the team plays as poorly as they have thus far this year.
Let's break it down by position group:

Defensive Tackles

Starters are Tony Fusco (6-1 295) and Tommy Ryan (6-2 275). They combined for 2 tackles against BC. The backups at DT are Doug Meyer (6-5 263) and Seth Lotts (6-3 243). Meyer and Lotts did a little better, combining for 3.5 tackles against BC. Meyer, Lotts and Ryan are all seniors, with two letters earned each. Fusco is a SO without any experience until they played BC.

The two deep at DT averages 269 pounds. For comparison, Samford averaged 289 for their two deep at DT. I'll give Army some benefit of the doubt that they are a little better athletically than Samford, since they are D1-A(I know, it's not a sure thing, but for the sake of argument). They are still giving up 20 pounds per man MORE than Samford is. Baylor's guards and center average 331 pounds a man, so they will have 62 pounds per man on Army's defensive tackles.
Army also did not hurry or sack BCs QBs. I don't see them getting pressure on whoever is playing QB. The line has only given up two sacks this year, one in each game, and that was late in the game with Parks at QB and the second and third teamers in the game.

Defensive Ends

Army starts John Wright (6-2 248) and Cameron Craig (6-3 247) at defensive end. They combined for 5 tackles and 1 TFL for a loss of 1 yard. Peter Harrington (6-4 253) was the only backup DE to make it in the game, according to the participation report. He finished the game with 1 tackle, a TFL for a loss of 2 yards.

Army will need to get a lot more production from their defensive line if they have any hope of staying in the game. They don't carry a lot of weight, and should struggle against the run. They are giving up an average of 71 pounds per man to the Baylor tackles Travis Farst (329) and Nick Pace(308). Craig is a veteran DE, earning two letters in his first two years, but Wright is a young player, a sophomore who has yet to earn a letter.

The defensive line as a whole will need to work to keep Baylor offensive line off the very undersized linebackers, as well as getting pressure on the quarterback. They will have to sell out on either the run or the pass to stop it, and it will be up to Baylor to exploit that mismatch for big gains. I don't see Army managing more than 1 sack and a few tackles for loss. We should see a ton of blitzes, but if they only rush their front four, there should be no problem giving Bell or Parks plenty of time to throw the ball.

Linebackers

Army's linebacking corps is undersized as a group, but MLB Cason Shrode (6-2 246) has good size and should be good at stopping the run up the middle. He finished with 8.5 tackles against BC, including splitting a TFL for a loss of one yard. The other linebackers are less intimidating, size-wise. Strongside LB Charlie Rockwood (6-2 214) and weakside LB Barrett Scruggs (6-0 209) start at the other linebacker positions. Rockwood finished with 6.5 tackles and .5 TFL against BC in a good showing against a ranked team. Scruggs wasn't as productive, finishing with only 2 tackles (only 1 solo).

The linebacker will be forced with taking on trapping and pulling guards that outweigh them by 130 pounds in most cases and will have to keep their heads about them to be productive. They are also going to have a long day pulling down Paul Mosley, Brandon Whitaker and Jacoby Jones as Baylor will likely pound the ball to open up the passing game, and to finish the game late.

After the starters, Army has little to speak of: three players that are all 6-0 and average 220 pounds. Most of them have some experience, but I wouldn't expect any of the linebackers to be gamebreakers.

Secondary

Ray Stith (5-9 176) is the leader of the secondary. He is a senior CB with three earned letters. Starting across from him is another senior CB, Dhyan Tarver (5-11 186). He also has three letters earned and they should play a solid, if not spectactular, game. Backing them up are the Grevious brothers, juniors Sean Grevious (5-10 173) and Chris Grevious (5-10 177). Sean earned a letter last year, but Chris has yet to play enough to earn one. There should be a decent dropoff when they are on the field, but they are at least as athletic as the starters.

The safety positions are manned by Randy Chasten (6-2 205) and Caleb Campbell (6-2 233). Like Baylor, the safeties are the strength of Army's defense. Campbell led the team in tackles with 11.5, and also recovered a fumble by BC. Chasten only had 1.5 tackles on the day, spending most of his time in coverage. They should be able to bottle up any long runs and punish the receivers that come across the middle. Campbell is decent in coverage, but really excels in run support from his strong safety position. Behind them are Jordan Murray (6-0 200) and Rob Davis (5-11 201). Baylor fans should hope that these guys see the field plenty, because there is a significant dropoff when they are subbing in.

Baylor will need to improve its down-the-field blocking to counter the strength of Army's defense. If Whitaker and Mosley are to have long runs, Jason Smith, Trent Shelton and Zeigler are going to have to get down the field to throw some blocks on these safeties. The good news is that if the safeties are making all the tackles, then we've already had a good run.

Overall

Baylor should be able to run on this defense very effectively. The run should set up big gains in the passing offense, if we can get the ball down the field. If Bell can find Shelton and Smith for the long gains he missed this past weekend, then we should have a big day offensively against a very undersized defense. If we don't take advantage of this defense, then Bobby Ross's scheme could limit us, like Samford did this past weekend.

I don't see Army being able to stand up to the pounding. They should give up big yards in the rushing game in the second half when backups are forced to play some major minutes.

¶ 9/12/2005 0 Comments