The Running Back Room

[Toe]

They abandoned the run because they sucked at it. Especially the line, I still have a hard time fathoming how Riley & co managed to screw them up that badly.

[desertshox]

they sucked at passing too but they never abandoned it.

[HS_Coach_C]

5 hours ago, Toe said:

They abandoned the run because they sucked at it. Especially the line, I still have a hard time fathoming how Riley & co managed to screw them up that badly.

That'll happen when your run plays are "run left" and "run right".

[brophog]

5 hours ago, desertshox said:

he also abandoned the run before giving it a chance to work. which kinda led to being behind and not very close in score.

 

Pass to score, run to win. As passing has increased in quality and volume, scoring has historically increased. The backs at their disposal, with Bryant out, we're not getting it done and the defense couldn't keep it a low scoring game. 

 

The real problem wasn't the choice of pass vs run, which strategically is nowhere near as significant as people make it out to be, but how poorly designed and improperly timed the plays themselves were. Langsdorf had incredibly strong playcalling tendencies.  If your offense has no misdirection and strong tendencies your inviting the defense to overwhelm you. Under Langsdorf if was like you were playing a man down because you couldn't control the flow of the backers.  This is just one reason I think the offensive line under Frost will be greatly improved, his offense doesn't share these problems. 

[Mavric]

6 hours ago, Landlord said:

Not defending Langs but it seems logical we would have run the ball a lot more had we been in the lead or close in score more frequently. 

 

I mean ... I know you kind of try to be contrarian about everything.  But Langs also called 50 passes against Purdue two out of three years.  And maybe we were behind because we were passing too much. #PickSix

[brophog]

1 hour ago, Mavric said:

 

I mean ... I know you kind of try to be contrarian about everything.  But Langs also called 50 passes against Purdue two out of three years.  And maybe we were behind because we were passing too much. #PickSix

 

I find that to be an odd example. None of the three games did Nebraska run the ball well (2.7, 4.4, 1.5 ypc) and in the one game in which Nebraska did run more than pass it was the one game they ran the ball to kill the clock in the fourth quarter. They stayed devoted to their "balance" approach in each game until conditions suggested abandoning the run. 

 

 

[Mavric]

13 minutes ago, brophog said:

I find that to be an odd example. None of the three games did Nebraska run the ball well (2.7, 4.4, 1.5 ypc) and in the one game in which Nebraska did run more than pass it was the one game they ran the ball to kill the clock in the fourth quarter. They stayed devoted to their "balance" approach in each game until conditions suggested abandoning the run. 

 

/ sigh

 

Here we go again.

 

Nebraska DID NOT STRUGGLE TO RUN THE BALL AGAINST PURDUE.  The only thing we struggled to do was CALL RUNNING PLAYS.

 

In 2015, Terrell Newby averaged 5.6 yards per carry.  5.6 YARDS PER CARRY!!!  Even Imani Cross averaged 4.9 yards per carry.  The only reason the team rushing stats look so bad is because Ryker Fyfe had negative 35 yards on 7 attempts due to sacks and a fumbled snap on a called pass play.

 

In 2017, Jaylin Bradley - our fourth-string running back - averaged 6.0 yards per carry.  The team rushing stats look worse because Tanner Lee had negative 18 rushing yards due to sacks.

 

And only looking at stats completely ignores the TYPE of rushing plays that were being called.  About 60% of the time Langs called running plays right up the center's butt.  Tough to make yards there but feeds the idea that he needs to throw more.

[Hilltop]

I remember being so frustrated with the play calling in those games.  It was almost like he had a quota of pass attempts he was required to hit each game.  

[cheekygeek]

Not to beat a dead horse, but another thing that blew my mind last year was clock management (particularly as related to running the ball). There was a game (I've blocked out which one, due to the trauma) where NU had the game won... and every gender in the stands at Memorial Stadium knew that all we had to do was keep the clock moving... and we would throw incomplete passes to stop the clock and give the ball back to the other side (where the opponent then improbably won the game). 

[Ulty]

I don't understand the argument that has developed in these last few posts. Isn't it pretty much universally accepted that the playcalling sucked with Langsdorf and Riley, with that first loss against Purdue being Exhibit A?

[ScottyIce]

Just now, cheekygeek said:

Not to beat a dead horse, but another thing that blew my mind last year was clock management (particularly as related to running the ball). There was a game (I've blocked out which one, due to the trauma) where NU had the game won... and every gender in the stands at Memorial Stadium knew that all we had to do was keep the clock moving... and we would throw incomplete passes to stop the clock and give the ball back to the other side (where they improbably won the game). 

You’ve been beating that horse in every damn thread. Last year is over. Riley is gone. Move on!

[Ulty]

1 minute ago, cheekygeek said:

Not to beat a dead horse, but another thing that blew my mind last year was clock management (particularly as related to running the ball). There was a game (I've blocked out which one, due to the trauma) where NU had the game won... and every gender in the stands at Memorial Stadium knew that all we had to do was keep the clock moving... and we would throw incomplete passes to stop the clock and give the ball back to the other side (where they improbably won the game). 

 

That happened against Illinois in Riley's first year. Unacceptable for a rookie coach, nevermind that he had been coaching (loosely defined) for decades. If it happened last year as well, I don't recall because everything was so abysmal.

[cheekygeek]

Just now, ScottyIce said:

You’ve been beating that horse in every damn thread. Last year is over. Riley is gone. Move on!

 

 

[Hilltop]

I think it's good to frequently remember how bad it has been so we can keep our expectations in check over the next few months.  We are moving out of a deep and dark place... it may take a minute to pull out of that shadow.  

[Enhance]

I think the 35,000 foot view is Nebraska purely struggled to operate a functional running game and for a variety of reasons. At times, it was because a lack of commitment, other times it was a lack of execution.