This week, when asked about the defensive performance the Pirates put forth in Philly in a blowout loss to Temple, Defensive Coordinator David Blackwell said, “I’m mad as hell!”
Blackwell’s passion may be strong enough to bring “anger” his Pirates.
Until last Saturday, the Pirates defense has been attacking, physical and pretty damn good. They played angry. Then, a visit to the Linc and the unit was transformed into a soft shell of themselves. They were torched…badly. Yeah, we could spend a full blog post on the consistent horrible hand the offense dealt the defense, but the regression back to 2017 form was particularly hard for Pirate fans witness. It was déjà vu all over again and the result was a wild swing from full on love for the D to tearing up the tickets and tossing them overhead. A massive, collective reaction to witnessing a ridiculously wide swing of the pendulum right there in front of them.
“Mad as hell.”
Maybe a weak of ridicule and derision will, well, maybe it will piss the defensive players off. Maybe, it will make them very mad. Maybe, angry.
The Pirates D needs to morph back into the bad-ass unit they were in the first 4 games this season.
Forget the eye black on Saturday. Instead, go with GREEN…angry green. Perhaps show the kids a movie on Friday night…may I suggest The Hulk. Remind the kids what playing angry is like. They know it, because they have played angry all season…till Saturday.
Anger and a huge chip took the worst defense in 2017 to top-25ish form through its first four games in 2018. Then, they looked like they mailed it in against Temple. Maybe at the end of the season, Temple will be a special team. But, I didn’t see anything special about them particularly on Saturday. A good high school team could have taken advantage of the soft coverage on display. The tenacity and passion were gone…as if someone had put a restrictor plate on them.
It was evident. Our corners through the first four games were jamming guys, playing physical all over the receivers and were being rewarded by the officials by being allowed to play. What happened? It is hard for me to believe that Coach Blackwell pulled the reigns back…he wants to attack. But if it wasn’t strategic, then what happened out there? Perhaps…scary thought here…but perhaps the kids felt all they needed to do was show up. Temple had lost two very embarrassing games to start the season and we has smacked UNC-CH and beat the team that smacked Virginia Tech…so maybe, crazy as it sounds, our defensive players thought the chip could stay home.
Maybe our team should sport some green in their unis this weekend and channel the Incredible Hulk…maybe they should be angry. Opponents wouldn’t like them if they were angry.
Give the Cougars a lil’ bit of this:
I’m hoping the Pirates Defense bounces back for Houston. That would make it a worthwhile watch. No guarantee if they do that a win would follow, but sure would be better than what we all witnessed at Temple.
Think Green Pirates…think Green!
