Beavs secondary coach Rod Chance emphasizes importance of speeding up the QB
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In his conversation with the media on Wednesday, secondary coach Rod Chance talked about some of what the defense did well last Saturday against Houston. In particular, he emphasized their improved pressure and containment of the quarterback, and how recreating this will be a big factor against the Mountaineers this weekend.
What did you see watching back film of the Houston game?
"I saw a lot of good stuff on tape. I think it's easy to focus on a small sample of plays, as coaches we want to critique the negative, but I also think it's important that we highlight the positive. I thought there were some good things that happened out there with light bodies in the room in terms of the secondary. And we just gotta make sure that we harp on finishing. That we were right there, we just lacked detail at times, and it showed up at the wrong time."
On being able to keep an elusive quarterback contained in the pocket
"We don't align or design our defenses to allow the quarterback to get out. It's about understanding how to balance the rush and play off of one-another, if we can get a three-by-one box where we emphasize that the quarterback is gonna escape in that backside b-gap, and guys really responded to that particular point of coaching. Those three sacks, they came from defensive tackles working the backside b-gap."
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Boise State was able to generate a lot of turnovers against App State, what did you guys see from that game that you might want to implement against them?
"I wish I could come up here and say that they had some exotic coverages that made it so difficult, but I think that rush and coverage work together. You rush the quarterback and get pressure, you force him to throw the ball when he's not ready or you force him into a poor decision, I think those are the things that you saw consistently[that Boise State was able to do against App State]. So the rush got hot, I think the defensive line did a nice job, sped the quarterback up, and then obviously defensive backs were opportunistic in making those plays."
What is the availability in the secondary looking like for this week?
"We gotta role with who we got, gotta role with what we've got and what we've got is enough. Obviously we got younger guys playin' that probably wouldn't be in that situation if everything was ideal, but that's college football all over the place. Nobody cares if Trey is only 18, nobody cares about any of that stuff. So with availability, obviously we'd like to have a full stable, but nobody has a full stable this time of year. We got seven games of football left. If we could get some people back that would be great, but I think we have enough to win the football game that's in front of us."
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Ben Pahl is a sportswriter and broadcaster based in Portland, Oregon. His work covering college and professional sports has been featured by the Orange Media Network at Oregon State University as well as KBVR.fm. His other career stops in sports include the Portland Pickles baseball club and the NBA G-League's Rip City Remix.