TicketsFor the first five games of a season a steady stream of pocket passers lined up across from the Bearcats. That won't the case the next two weeks. Far from it. How the Bearcats defense adjusts could be the difference between winning and losing.
CINCINNATI -- The Bearcats defensive conerns became abundantly clear following the loss at Tennessee. This team needs to rush the quarterback. It needs to do so now.
For the next three weeks, the defensive line and linebackers spent their time playing capture the flag. Full-speed ahead, eyes centered on the object stationed in the middle of the pocket.
That object wasn't going anywhere.
Akron QB Clayton Moore tried to run, but forgot to take the ball with him.
N.C. State's Mike Glennon moved about as well as Mike Brown. Endured about as many hits as the Bengals owner does on sports talk radio as well.
Miami's Zac Dysert could move out of the pocket a little bit - more often than not moving backward.
During the last three games the Bearcats sacked the quarterback 14 times. The job came with simple rules. See that spot five-to-seven yards deep in the pocket? Get there.
The next two weeks, the game changes.
Instead of playing capture the flag, they'll be playing capture the fly.
"Those guys were not mobile like these guys," DL Derek Wolfe said.
Few in the country are as mobile as Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater and South Florida's B.J. Daniels. Bridgewater scrambled 25 times in the last two games and that's not counting the numerous moments the elusive freshman dipped around a rusher to throw on the run outside the pocket. Anybody who watched Daniels throw three touchdowns while running for three more the last two games against UC knows all too well his athletic ability.
The days of chasing the statue have been temporarily shelved.
"If you are going to work a move its got to be perfect," Wolfe said. "Because if not he is going to put the moves on you and you are going to look stupid on TV."
Rushing the passer and forcing sacks has become as much a part of UC football's current surge as defenders watching Isaiah Pead's No. 23 grow smaller in the distance. The 9.3 points allowed across the last three games solidify that.
The key to rolling momentum into the opening two weeks of conference play will be how the defense adjusts to containing these mobile QBs. Chasing and adjusting to extended plays represents one of the few tests the unit has yet to take.
And an important one.
Take into consideration the success athletic, mobile quarterbacks enjoyed last season. The two most obvious were N.C. State's Russell Wilson and Daniels. Wilson scrambled around and threw for 333 yards, three TDs and no interceptions while taking off eight times for 33 more yards. Daniels ran for two and threw two touchdowns in a 38-30 USF win at Nippert.Now, many quarterbacks enjoyed successful nights on the Bearcats defense last year, but those were particularly impressive.
A unanimous thought from the players on this defense is they are more prepared to take on the athletic quarterback challenge this year than previously.
The logic runs like this: with experience comes discipline; discipline equals contained QB.
"It's all about discipline," Butch Jones said. "It's discipline on your points on the quarterback and it's something we stress from Day One. It's just the discipline of the rush; it's the secondary with their eye discipline and not coming out of coverage."
The message sounds much the same as it does for any other week.
"You have to stay technique-sound and stay on your points," DB Chris Williams said. "Whenever we have a quarterback that can do different things as long as we stay technique-sound and defensive line plays their gaps, we should be able to contain a quarterback on offense."
For team sack leaders like Wolfe and Dan Giordano, who both have four, adding to the total involves rushing in their lanes and not getting caught up making moves outside their gaps.
"When the other guy likes to sit in the pocket, you can kind of get up field and you can run around a little more freely," Wolfe said. "With a guy like Bridegewater and Daniels, all four guys have to be at a point. All it takes is for one guy to get off point and he is out of there."
And when he's out of there, improvisation like Bridgewater and Daniels were recruited for can leave any perfect defensive gameplan on the editing room floor. Much like it did last year.
"We know what hurt us last year," Bomar said. "We have made adjustments so we can be more successful on the defensive side of the field. We aren't going to let anything like that overcome us this time."