Does anybody play defense anymore?

[NA Jacket Fan]

Posted in Chief Bojack's thread a moment ago about the lack of defense in high school football these days. I would argue that great defensive showings these days are more often than not a lack of talent and ability by the opponent than great defense. Do you guys see any great defenses out there? Is it more a lack of talent, coaching, or the proliferation of the spread offense? Defending the pass is much more complex and difficult than stopping the run. There are teams that can still dominate with the run (goose creek) but those teams are few and far between as most don't have the hogs to continually run effectively. What do you guys think?

[SF Band dad]

Our defense has impressed me this year. The most we've given up is 21. Our opponents are averaging 9.5 points per game, and a lot of those were late in the 4th quarter.

Granted, our schedule has been pretty weak this year, but that hasn't stopped us from giving up a lot of points in previous years.

[DeCav]

I was wondering about this earlier this year. At first look I thought the Dorman D was pretty stout this year but half way through I thought, "Man we look pretty good every Friday night and the D puts us in positions to win games but we're still giving up a lot of points."

I think it's just a simple ebb and flow. It's easy in high school football to look at a bubble and think it's a trend or the way of the future.

Just 3 years ago Byrnes only managed to score 14 points against Dorman. Of course later that year they blew us out. You see a focus on different areas of the game and then schools kind of flock to that and then the focus needs to go in the other direction. I think one of the elite programs will see that scoring on every drive isn't enough anymore and will throw their weight at the defensive side of things. Of course many programs in the state already boast very good defensive programs but I do wonder what margin there is for improvement.

It might just be the nature of the game today. In the NFL, rules are tweaked every year to keep certain things in check and provide balance. I believe we'll have to wait about 3 years and see what the trend is. Like a lot of the teams this year, Dorman has been able to score on teams but we're not so prolific that we don't need a stronger defense. It's our new DC's first year this year. I'm really hoping we slope upward from here and that we're not on a plateau.

I think what we're seeing isn't a drop off in defense but a real escalation of offense. Byrnes seems to be going in the right direction though. They have definitely improved on defense and tightened things up from where they were against teams like Woodruff and Northwestern.

[trojangrad78]

Just my rambling thoughts. These, and $1 will get you a drink from the vending machine

The spread offense requires talent at the skill positions. It can also mask issues with the offensive line. Always starting from the shotgun gives the qb time to make the quick throws before the dl can get to him. A team with a prolific spread offense may have problems with the running game, especially in short yardage situations. It always kills me to see the shotgun in 3rd and 1, or the deep handoff on 3rd/4th and 1. Without any running game, the defense just sits back with 8 defenders......very tough.

Lack of defense, or a "bad" defense may be in the expectations of defining what makes a great defense. With so much more passing, a "great" defense may be one that holds opponents to a low enough score such that a victory can be achieved. As was mentioned, GC runs the old school smash mouth bruising running attack. A "great" defensive effort would be easy to see as GC, for example, would have a lot of punts, probably many incomplete passes, a low score...10 or less..., and would just look out of sync. On the other hand, using NW for example, their defense has been "bend but don't break". They give up a lot of yards to the run, but few points. Byrnes scored 35 and Fort Mill scored 20.....and we know that Fort Mill is NOT equal to Byrnes. NW is 8-0 and has given up 104 points. York is 8-0 and has given up 177 points. Byrnes is 7-1 and has given up 184 points. South Florence is 8-0 and has given up 76 points. Goose Creek is 8-0 and has given up 152 points. (Stats from Maxpreps) Does this mean that South Florence has the "great" defense?

Will we ever see a game like the 1993 state championship game where the defenses absolutely and totally dominated....final score NW 2 Gaffney 0?

I know the old saying that offense puts people in the seats, but defense is what wins championships. Watching a 52-49 game can be just as gut wrenching as watching a 10-7 game.

Maybe it is time to look at things from the perspective of "a win is a win". Stats are for analysts. Polls are for spectators, fans, bookies, and gamblers. That "W" is for the participants.

So, does anybody play defense anymore? Yes. It is just more difficult with today's passing offenses. It takes more talent than it used to. It takes better coaching than it used to. The bottom line is that "W", and as long as a team's record is ??-0, they can be said to have a "great" defense.

[movethesticks]

Good points, T78.

Coaches are putting their better athletes on offense. Spread teams require 4-5 receivers and a RB, plus subs to keep them fresh. The old days, you had two receivers and a couple of backs, the rest you put them on defense.

7 on 7 passing leagues. Sure the defenses are also getting some reps, but it's not the same without a DL to get in the face of the QB, or flush them out of the pocket or hurry them. Huge advantage for the offense to fine tune their skills.

Last great defenses, in my opinion, was Jim Ringer's Rock Hill teams that won state in 2002 and 2004.