Defense 2019

[TheMagi]

I was just wondering if others on this board witnessed what looked to me like a huge decline in the ability of defenses to slow down or stop offenses during the 2019 high school football season. My observations are based strictly on games and teams that I have seen this season. Most of those teams were from the Suburban 1 conference. I have seen a lot of players not getting in to a good position to tackle, leaving them to lunge and reach to try to make a tackle.
What are the reasons? Have the coaching techniques changed because of the fear of injury? Have the offenses just outpaced the defenses? Is this just an invalid perception on my part? It seems like there were a lot of high scoring games this season.

 

[new2pa]

WPIAL 6A Championship with a defensive battle. I think a lot has to do with so many blowout games in general, not specific to defense or offense. At least the games I saw out west.

 

[roxychknpoxy]

I was just wondering if others on this board witnessed what looked to me like a huge decline in the ability of defenses to slow down or stop offenses during the 2019 high school football season. My observations are based strictly on games and teams that I have seen this season. Most of those teams were from the Suburban 1 conference. I have seen a lot of players not getting in to a good position to tackle, leaving them to lunge and reach to try to make a tackle.
What are the reasons? Have the coaching techniques changed because of the fear of injury? Have the offenses just outpaced the defenses? Is this just an invalid perception on my part? It seems like there were a lot of high scoring games this season.

Magi - I believe it’s a combination of the above. A number of teams adopting the spread and/or RPO can leave parts of the field vulnerable and certain players isolated. It takes a defense time to adjust over a season and scores can easily get up there. Proper tackling is something else that has modestly evaporated. Heads Up technique should be practiced every week but I’m not sure that’s the case. Lastly, I’m not sure the best athletes, or as many athletes are playing the game any more.

 

[pclfan1]

I think the new practice rules have a lot to do with it. Not sure any high schools tackle to the ground in practice anymore, and if so maybe a short time each week.
Pretty much every tackle now is an arm tackle as the head is now really out of the equation. Add to that the year round training that qbs are doing more and more, same for wr's, and it is really hard to cover. I was surprised when I saw some low scoring playoff games. I expect to see scoring rise and stay there.