Defense looks to improve at tackling

Heading into the final week of spring practice, several questions still loom over the… Heading into the final week of spring practice, several questions still loom over the Panthers’ football team, but the defense is starting to answer them. While the offense has improved since the start of spring ball, the defense continues to dominate.

Last Saturday’s scrimmage was filled with defensive mistakes, missed tackles, and blown assignments, all of which the offense took advantage of. That was the first time the offense bested the defense all spring, and if Tuesday’s mini-scrimmage was any indication, it might be the last.

“The defense dominated the scrimmage today; after Saturday you can tell that [the defense] worked hard in the film room,” head coach Walt Harris said.

Not only did the defense outplay the offense today, they crushed it with several big hits. Many of the big hits came in the backfield at the expense of Panther running backs, who had nowhere to go and no time to react, and were dropped immediately. The other big hits came in the secondary, courtesy of defensive back Sam Bryant. Bryant teed off on the Panther receivers and forced two big incompletions during Tuesday’s scrimmage.

The defensive line and linebacking corps has been key to the Panthers’ defense stopping the run, but the secondary shined on Tuesday. Besides Bryant’s big plays, other members of the secondary have roles to fill and big plays to make because of their experience.

Two starters at cornerback, Shawntae Spencer and William Ferguson, were lost to graduation. Corey Humphries, who also graduated, played significant time, and that leaves the Panthers with two safeties who have to lead the secondary — Tez Morris and Tyrone Gilliard.

“Having them for leadership is big,” said Harris.

Following a year in which the defense struggled, it is very important to have two safeties who can tackle, and that seems to be the defensive goal for the season — tackle.

“Tackling is the emphasis this year,” Gilliard said. “The big hits are nice, but we need to tackle. The big hits will come then.”

“We need them to come up and tackle, cause when those guys miss, big plays happen,” Harris said.

Tackling will be important for the two returning safeties, but they have another job, as well: Prepare two young cornerbacks.

“We lost two defensive backs, last year, who were very important; now we’ve got two more people playing,” Gilliard said. “With two good, elite, experienced safeties helping, hopefully we make the defense more confident, and can help our defensive backs.”

The help provided by the safeties seemed to pay off on Tuesday, as Josh Lay made a few nice plays during some seven-on-seven drills. Lay was able to come up and break up several pass plays without interfering.

Perhaps one of the best plays of the day occurred late in the scrimmage when the Panthers’ offense tried to throw a fade from the 20-yard line. The pass from quarterback Luke Getsy was there, but Lay made a play on receiver Greg Lee, causing the incompletion.

The secondary made many important plays on Tuesday, but also missed a couple of them. Interceptions are big plays in football, and the Panthers lacked them last season. Several times, the secondary had chances to pick off passes, and dropped them, including Gilliard.

“I got greedy,” Gilliard said with a big smile. “My eyes got too big, and I just dropped it. At least I was not alone today. Misery loves company.”

The Panthers final spring practice is Thursday at 2:40 p.m. Spring festivities will conclude this Saturday, April 10 at 1 p.m. at Heinz Field.