This year's defense

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

 

 

The fumble was not pure luck. Roach specifically reached in and ripped that ball out. There's no way you can call that turnover "luck."

INTs are a product of either a poor throw by the QB or a great read by the defender. Kalu's pick was proper placement by the defensive staff (Papuchis ordered Kalu back there before the snap) and Kalu made a good play. You can say that pick was a poor throw by the QB, but if Kalu isn't there to make that read, that ball is on the money to the WR, and it becomes a matter of the DB breaking up the catch.

Santos' INT was a poorly-thrown ball and an athletic play by the LB.

 

After rewatching the game, they were picking on Santos. They wanted that throw. Watford had been winning body positioning and jumps balls to that point. Kaaya threw that pass thinking Watford was just going to out position Santos. Santos got inside leverage after Watford turned up the field and this forced Watford to the sideline. Kaaya was trying to create a jump ball scenario, but Watford was forced too far to the sideline. Santos then made one heckuva catch.

Nice breakdown. Do you suppose a better pass would have made a difference? A deeper throw for Watford to use his speed and run it down? My memory was that Santos was a step behind. But I could be wrong. Just wondering.

I thought if the ball was thrown to the inside, Santos might have gotten beat. As far as the depth, I thought Santos did a pretty good job striding out with him. Looked almost like Santos was on offense.

[knapplc]

Go look through those Hail Varsity photos I linked to a couple posts up. That pass was thrown inside, and short/low, and Santos was step-for-step with Walford.

[deedsker]

 

 

 

The fumble was not pure luck. Roach specifically reached in and ripped that ball out. There's no way you can call that turnover "luck."

 

INTs are a product of either a poor throw by the QB or a great read by the defender. Kalu's pick was proper placement by the defensive staff (Papuchis ordered Kalu back there before the snap) and Kalu made a good play. You can say that pick was a poor throw by the QB, but if Kalu isn't there to make that read, that ball is on the money to the WR, and it becomes a matter of the DB breaking up the catch.

 

Santos' INT was a poorly-thrown ball and an athletic play by the LB.

After rewatching the game, they were picking on Santos. They wanted that throw. Watford had been winning body positioning and jumps balls to that point. Kaaya threw that pass thinking Watford was just going to out position Santos. Santos got inside leverage after Watford turned up the field and this forced Watford to the sideline. Kaaya was trying to create a jump ball scenario, but Watford was forced too far to the sideline. Santos then made one heckuva catch.

Nice breakdown. Do you suppose a better pass would have made a difference? A deeper throw for Watford to use his speed and run it down? My memory was that Santos was a step behind. But I could be wrong. Just wondering.

Walford (I have been spelling this wrong the whole time?) was running out of bounds when the ball arrived. When Kaaya threw it, there is no way he would know that Walford would get out positioned. Santos did an amazing job walling him off to the sideline. The throw was short, but to where he expected Walford to be. The pass became catchable to someone of Walford's size around 3-4 yards inside of the sideline. Walford runs his route correctly and that is an amazing placement for him to get it. Santos had pushed him further outside and was tracking about where you would expect the receiver to be.

[tmfr15]

That interception of Kaya by Santos was one of those where the Cane QB was taking a shot and counting on his man to make a play. As a quarterback, you have to do that from time to time. The match up seemed favorable to Miami. Santos does an excellent job with position in playing both ball and man. If he didn't turn his head, they might have hit him for PI. Had he focused on just the ball and not the man, he might have been beaten. Great job by Santos. The luck factor is that Miami took that shot. They had been moving it on that drive, and, given other play calls or without a great catch by Santos, they might come away with points, at least a FG.

 

On the fumble play, it great instincts by Roach to get the ball out. The luck factor would be that Duke's body position exposed the ball. How many times did Duke fumble in the game? So, he didn't expose the ball to be ripped out much. You can't count on him to do that. They were moving the ball at the time.

 

I understand the concept of bend, but don't break vs. giving up the big play. And our guys deserve a lot of credit for not folding as Miami marched. We made key plays.

 

I would just like to see a few more punts by the opposition. We don't need a 3-and-out. A first down or two and then punt would be perfectly fine. Lengthy drives, however, should not be dismissed because we are making them drive the field. Point is that teams are doing that and scoring. McNeese did it twice in the second half.

 

That can't happen. Stand tall. Force a negative yardage play now and then, either by penalty or TFL. And make them kick it back to us.

[SouthLincoln Husker]

 

 

 

Agree to disagree I guess. There is nothing that defense wanted more than to keep Miami out of the end zone on that last possesion. We weren't just laying down and letting them have it because time was running out. Fact was.... we couldn't stop them all night. The turnovers were a stroke of luck, plain and simple.

 

They got the ball first.... and scored. That was when we had all the momentum and the full advantage of a stoked up crowd to mess up their offense.

 

We scored to start the third quarter and had all the momentum. They got it and went right down and scored.

 

On the Miami drive that ended with the fumble, scoop and score.... they had the ball at their own 28 and drove to our 43 where they had 1st-and-10. If the ruling on the field would have been that the runner's knee was down. Or that the runner's forward progress was stopped. They would have scored.

 

How do I know? Because they threw an interception that was wiped out by penalty. And did we rally to force a punt after that... NOPE. They drove it down to our six yard line and kicked a field goal. Randy Gregory had a sack on that series that was huge for us.... but they still scored. And even with them facing 3rd-and-goal from the 16-yard line, given our lack of sucess in stopping their pass game... I was very nervous about a demoralizing conversion and touchdown.

Maybe the Kalu pick because it was a bad decision, bad throw, and on 4th down, so it's kinda irrelevant whether or not the pick was made cuz the receiver was blanketed by two defenders, but the other two were OUR GUYS MAKING TREMENDOUS PLAYS. This is one thing that just pisses me off, and I'm not just jumpin on you TMFR. This is just a notion I see a lot and it just upsets. When we lose is cuz we suck and when we win it's still cuz we suck and the other team let us. Why cant it ever be something that our guys do well? Why does the other team always just have to suck or give it away for us to succeed? Turnovers are also known as TAKEAWAYS for a reason. Yeah, we let them move the ball on us. But damn it, when push come to shove our guys made plays to stop drives. Takeaways. Sacks and TFLs in the red zone. It aint 1995 anymore. You dont just shut down offenses these days 3 and out after 3 and out. I hate sayin this, but it really is kind of a bend dont break philosophy against offenses with the speed and athletic ability of Miami. Eliminate the big daggers and make em drive. Sometimes they'll win and sometimes they wont. Bottom line is it's about points. And we had 41 to their 24 in the time that actually mattered.

You could say that, if you also think that TA's INT was also luck for Miami, which he probably doesn't.

 

 

Turnovers are always a bit of luck, because they can't be game planned. You can work on techniques in practice such as ripping at the ball and you can call plays that disguise zone and man schemes, which Bo has done a pretty good job of at Nebraska. But at the end of the day, you have to count on the offense to make a mistake. Tommy's interception and fumble were as much on Tommy as they were a credit to Miami. The fumble by Johnson is a credit to our defense for getting the ball out of there, but they had to have the opportunity and Mitchell just happened to be in the right place at the right time to scoop and go to the house with it.

 

I understand what you are saying Count. I remember when people told me that, in our national title clash with Miami, we only won because they weren't as good as they had been in years prior. And that we only beat Florida that bad the next year because momentum took control and made us look better than we were and blah blah blah. The bottom line is that WE WON last Saturday and the Canes DID NOT. Yes, we made enough plays.

 

As far as our defensive projection for the rest of the year, based on this performance and others, FAU and McNeese... I am not feeling really good.

 

We were not at our best against McNeese St., but there skill position players were as fast as Miami if not faster. This argument can go on and on, but McNeese St. does not play any other D1 teams.

[HuskerMoon]

After four games I must say that I am very impressed with the intensity and emerging talent on the defensive side of the ball. With that being said, I have been and continue to be completely unimpressed with the Defensive play calling of John Papuchis. I find myself often wondering if he is fit to coach a high school team and if he could get any job on his own merit instead of because he is friends with Bo.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Mavric
Merged similar threads.

[huskerhill]

After four games I must say that I am very impressed with the intensity and emerging talent on the defensive side of the ball. With that being said, I have been and continue to be completely unimpressed with the Defensive play calling of John Papuchis. I find myself often wondering if he is fit to coach a high school team and if he could get any job on his own merit instead of because he is friends with Bo.

Anything specific play or plays?

[Hoosker]

[huskerhill]

Ya

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

Please merge this with the This Years Defense thread mods.

[MichiganDad3]

I am not very impressed with the D so far. Miami is the only decent team we have played, and they only scored 13 on Louisville. I wonder how much better the D would be if there had been no injuries. Hopefully the D improves as the season goes on. I fear another couple injuries will devastate them.

[Chaddyboxer]

I believe the D will keep improving as the season goes on. The D line will be the strength throughout and Neb can't afford to lose anyone there.

[ericj207]

I agree, I don't know if it is because we do not want to show our scheme or what. Calling has seemed pretty bland so far.

[True2tRA]

I wish we blitzed more. I wish we played more zone coverages and ran more zone blitzes.

 

Aside from that I think the secondary has been a nice surprise as far as individual talent. Mitchell is obviously fantastic. Davie has done very well really. Cooper is consistent and Gerry is everywhere.

 

I think some of the yards we have allowed have been due to the 'bend don't break' scheme we run. To me, it seems like teams have still been exposing some mismatches in man coverage, obviously mostly linebackers are being picked on. This has been a weakness for years now.

 

The defensive line is very strong. These guys could apply pressure on any team in the country if they were asked to. McMullen is probably the greatest surprise of anyone on this team for me. He's just a badass. The d-line does a good job of doing what they're asked to do really. I wish they were allowed to shoot gaps and play more aggressively but that's just not what we do.

 

As long as the offense scores more points than the defense allows I guess we can't complain too much. I've never been a huge fan of the 'bend don't break' philosophy, but it is what it is. As far as pure talent goes, I think we are top tier.

[NUinID]

I am not very impressed with the D so far. Miami is the only decent team we have played, and they only scored 13 on Louisville. I wonder how much better the D would be if there had been no injuries. Hopefully the D improves as the season goes on. I fear another couple injuries will devastate them.

 

No team we have left on our schedule has better skill players than Miami. No one has that kind of overall speed. Miami's QB was starting his first game ever against Louisville he improved exponentially in the 2 games he played between that one and the Nebraska game.

 

It would not surprise me if Miami only lost 1 more game this year to FSU. We will see how good they are this weekend. They play a good Duke team.

 

The defense will only get better as the season rolls on. They always do. The thing I am really happy about is the run defense. Stopping the run is the key to winning games.