By By Ken Filler | Tampa Bay Sports Journal
TAMPA — For three quarters Saturday, USF’s offense gave Bulls fans plenty of reasons to stare at the television and wonder when something would go right.
The defense gave them a reason to keep watching.
And that is becoming the story of Brian Hartline’s first season.
While the offense searches for consistency, the defense keeps a bad series from becoming a lost afternoon.
At Bowling Green, that meant turning a 6-0 deficit into a 14-6 victory.
USF is 4-0, and its defense deserves considerably more attention than just an afterthought.
This defense has become the Bulls’ safety net so far this season.
Keeping a bad afternoon from getting worse
Consider the position the USF offense put its defense in Saturday.
The Bulls lost two first-half fumbles, failed on a fourth-down attempt near midfield, and went into halftime with 83 yards of offense.
Bowling Green had six points at the half.
The Falcons managed only 67 first-half yards, converted two of eight third downs, and punted four times.
Yet, the Bulls’ defense kept answering mistakes with stops.
Bowling Green finished with 207 total yards. But the Falcons never reached the end zone.
Bowling Green held USF scoreless for more than 47 minutes and still could not build a lead larger than six points.
That is a miserable afternoon for an opposing coach. Bowling Green got the mistakes they wanted, the field position they wanted, and an offense on the other side of the ball that couldn’t get anything going.
Yet the game was within one play away from changing.
For Bulls fans, that’s worth appreciating.
Josh Aldridge’s plan is showing up
Before the season, defensive coordinator Josh Aldridge made his intentions clear.
“We’re going to be the aggressor. We’ll swing first and ask questions later,” Aldridge said.
The point was to create plays that force an offense off schedule. A tackle behind the line changes the next call. Pressure makes a quarterback hurry. A pass breakup that sends everybody on to the next down.
Those plays also give a struggling offense another possession.
USF recorded 11 tackles for loss against Bowling Green, matching its total from the previous week.
Through four games, the Bulls were averaging 8.3 tackles for loss, seventh nationally, according to USF’s Monday review.
That shows a defense doing more than waiting for somebody else to make a mistake.
The most important example came as the fourth quarter began. Bowling Green faced fourth-and-1 at its own 45.
Asani Redwood broke through, and he and Sam Robinson brought down Austyn Dendy for a loss.
The Bulls offense finally had the opportunity they needed.
There is no touchdown attached to Redwood’s name on that play. No extra point followed his tackle. But if you are explaining why USF came home unbeaten, you had better start somewhere near that fourth-down stop.
The support is coming from several directions
Redwood supplied a crucial late sack, too. Zavier Hamilton finished with a career-high 11 tackles.
Ayden Jackson contributed seven tackles and two pass breakups, while Robinson added six tackles.
Disruption up front loses its value if nobody finishes the tackle behind it.
Coverage cannot hold forever without pressure. A defense becomes dependable when one player’s work gives the next player a chance to finish the play.
For a team still developing under a new staff, that matters.
The offense does not have to solve every problem on its next snap. It can regroup, correct it, and get another chance.
That does not excuse offensive mistakes. It keeps those mistakes from deciding the game before the offense can recover.
We saw the value of that in the opener, too.
USF beat FIU 19-9 despite producing only 208 total yards.
The Bulls forced three turnovers and held the Panthers to 80 rushing yards.
Eight of FIU’s 11 possessions ended with a punt, turnover, or turnover on downs.
Four games into a season, this is starting to look like an identity.
The numbers come with a responsibility
Through September, USF allowed 56 points in four games, an average of 14 per game that led the American Conference.
The Bulls also left Bowling Green having gone six consecutive quarters without allowing a touchdown.
Those numbers deserve praise, but they do not mean the defense has finished developing.
Against Delaware State, USF surrendered a 90-yard pass play and a 50-yard quarterback scramble. The Bulls recovered to hold the Hornets scoreless with 66 yards after halftime, but those first-half breakdowns still count.
Better opponents will make those mistakes much more expensive. And as satisfying as Saturday’s escape was, Bowling Green’s winless record belongs in any honest evaluation of the performance.
The offense has responsibilities here, too. Keeping the defense fresh requires sustained possessions.
Protecting the ball prevents another short field.
Converting a third down can be just as helpful to the defense as anything drawn on a chalkboard.
Hartline understands the urgency.
“We’ve got to get a lot better in a hurry,” he said after the Bowling Green game.
He is right. An unbeaten record should give this team confidence, not permission to keep testing how much trouble its defense can erase.
Still, something is encouraging about watching USF win while the offense remains unsettled.
A team learning a new system needs something it can trust when the game starts going sideways.
And the Bulls have found that they can send their defense onto the field and expect to give the offense another chance.
The offense will have to catch up.
But the defense is making sure it still has something worth chasing.
