Posted on: Monday, October 7, 2002

Warriors must shore up defense

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Will the real University of Hawai'i defense stand up?

Or, is it possible that's what we've already seen?

Here it is just about the halfway point in the 13-game season and we have two distinct and disparate images of the Warriors' defense to date.

There's the one that thoroughly dominated Texas-El Paso and Southern Methodist, taking control of the games in its meaty hands while displaying a penchant for turning big plays.

It is the one that sat atop the Western Athletic Conference in three major categories last week —scoring defense, total defense and pass efficiency defense — and had its own reel of seemingly neverending highlight plays.

Then, for anybody who saw Saturday's 58-31 loss in Boise, there is the defense that has struggled there and at Brigham Young. The one that gave up big plays on third and fourth downs and couldn't quite manage to nail things shut when it had to.

A total of seven turnovers forced against UTEP and SMU and none against BYU or Boise State. Thirty-two percent opponent success on third- and fourth-down plays versus 46 percent.

It is a difference of dimensions and what the Warriors have been able to do with them. Against opponents with one-dimensional offenses, the ones where UH can shut down either the run or pass and then dictate how they'll have to play, it has been a breeze. Witness those seven quarters without yielding a touchdown at one point

But when it comes to playing versatile offenses, opponents adept at either the run or the pass, it has sometimes been a different story. That's where the problems — and losses — have come in a 3-2 (2-1 WAC) start.

At Boise, the Warriors were unable to force any turnovers or dictate play. There was only one sack and too few stops in third- and fourth-down situations, allowing the Broncos to convert a combined 55 percent of them.

Such is the schedule that the Warriors can probably get a few more wins if they don't lose many more frontline players to injuries.

But to be a special team and carve out the kind of season the Warriors say they want and still believe they can have, they know there is going to have to be improvement.

"This is a gut-check time for us," linebacker Chris Brown, one of the tri-captains and voices of the defense, said after the loss at Boise. "We've been brought back down to earth."

Brown maintains, "We've been doing our jobs, just not the extra stuff. Not like they (Boise State) did. Things like staying home in the defense and wrapping up (tackles) better are things we can do. We know what we have to work on and that we have to work harder."

Indeed, Boise showed where the UH defense is and, when it comes to big games, where it still has to go.

Now, we'll see whether the Warriors can get there.