You are quite correct go guins. It may be 1st-game excitement, but we were so much more opportunistic on D as well...very exciting to watch. Although we paid for it twice. That will diminish with experience.
I have no loyalty to coach M once he left, I only follow YSU. Why do you guys get so bent out of shape that a coach would call plays similar to the guy he trained under? Why would you even care that I made a comment. Heck I simply ignore comments on topics that I do not care for. Every single coach does the same thing. The mere fact that we had 2 NFL-caliber DE's shows you how difficult & limited our defensive schema is.
In 2016 we gave up 20ppg average. We gave up an average of almost 5 (yes 5) first downs per game on defensive penalties. We gave up an average of 3.8 ypa rushing and 7.2 ypa passing (5.2 yards per play given up by the 2016 Penguin defense) In short, it took less than 2 plays (on average) to get a first down against us. Well, the rules allow 4 tries to get a first down and averaging 5.2 per snap is basically allowing your opponent to score every time they get the ball, so we better have darn good special teams. These are not good, but acceptable numbers by today's standards. Conversely, Heacock's 1990's defense set an NCAA record for fewest PPG ...at the end of regular season it was 7.8 and jumped to 10.2 for the season. (1994 I think). That defense gave up and average of 3.2 yards-per play. On average, 3-plays that year did not yield a 1st-down against YSU.
So, clearly football has changed over the past 20+ years. However one thing has never changed ...The bottom line is that a team's defense needs to average less than 10-yards per 3-downs or be prepared to score often. It was that way in the 90's & is that way in today. This is called winning the game in the trenches it is what YSu has always done better than most.