The Duke
All-Conference
As painful and as embarrassing as last night was for our Huskers, could the silver lining be that this will finally get the coaches attention that CHANGES ARE NEEDED...on both sides of the ball?
1) Will Pelini find some humility and start tinkering with the defense? Will he move us away from using a two-gap scheme to more of a one-gap scheme so that our front four can play more aggressive and not have to think so much before and during a given play?
I sure hope so. Everyone watch Alabama's defense under Nick Saban. They are running a one-gap Cover 1 mostly man-to-man defense with Robber coverage underneath, which acts like a Cover 2 defense except it is harder for the opposing quarterback to make that read pre-snap. The one-gap allows the defensive front four to only have to be in charge of one-gap, meaning they can play much more aggressively off the ball then a two-gap defender. Will Pelini switch Nebraska's defense? Maybe after the UCLA performance I hope so, but you never know with Bo.
2) Will Pelini and Beck become more committed to some of type of running game?
I don't care if it's a commitment to a zone-read game, power football (ISO, Power-O, Counter), or true triple option, but we need to find a solid running game that works for the players we currently have in the program right now, and we have to stay committed to it, and build some play-action passes off of those base runs. Taylor Martinez is much for comfortable throwing play-action passes then he is drop back passes because of the fact that the window he is trying to throw into is much larger. It provides him more of a safety net if you will even if he doesn't throw the ball perfectly.
3) Was this the wake-up call game that our coaches needed so that we can turn this program around?
I honestly do think this game will have a lasting effect on how Pelini's tenure plays out at Nebraska. I think our performance against UCLA shook Bo to his core, and that he will try to make some major changes to this team. What those changes will be is anyone's guess? But my point is, Nebraska has been down this road before.
Remember Osborne switched from a balanced offensive attack in the 1970's to the iconic option offense in 1980. Nebraska and Osborne didn't make the switch from his 5-2 defense to the 4-3 defense until 1992. In the book "A Salute to Nebraska's Tom Osborne" Osborne is quoted as saying they made the switch once they proved they could stop the run with the 4-3. He said, "We recruited people who could cover man-to-man, went to smaller, quicker defensive people up front and made the switch away from the 5-2 defense for the first time in almost 30 years." Osborne continued by saying, "When you can pressure on defense, get the ball back to your offense, you can do a lot of things with the offense."
It is hard to pressure a defense with a two-gap defensive scheme when you don't have a sold defensive line. I've posted this a few weeks ago, and those that want to read the entire interview can find it here: http://hailvarsity.c...-talks-two-gap/ but recently Charlie McBride told HailVaristy.com that "(The two-gap player) has to be able to have great strength. You have to have good hand strength, good position and you have to be ready to play both of those gaps. The thing is with it, you can't make a mistake." He continued by saying, "When you're playing two-gap, of course, you're a team that reads. You're really not a terrific attacking team. The strength factor is huge. You have to be a really strong person to do that." He concluded by saying, "If you don't have a defensive line, you can go home."
1) Will Pelini find some humility and start tinkering with the defense? Will he move us away from using a two-gap scheme to more of a one-gap scheme so that our front four can play more aggressive and not have to think so much before and during a given play?
I sure hope so. Everyone watch Alabama's defense under Nick Saban. They are running a one-gap Cover 1 mostly man-to-man defense with Robber coverage underneath, which acts like a Cover 2 defense except it is harder for the opposing quarterback to make that read pre-snap. The one-gap allows the defensive front four to only have to be in charge of one-gap, meaning they can play much more aggressively off the ball then a two-gap defender. Will Pelini switch Nebraska's defense? Maybe after the UCLA performance I hope so, but you never know with Bo.
2) Will Pelini and Beck become more committed to some of type of running game?
I don't care if it's a commitment to a zone-read game, power football (ISO, Power-O, Counter), or true triple option, but we need to find a solid running game that works for the players we currently have in the program right now, and we have to stay committed to it, and build some play-action passes off of those base runs. Taylor Martinez is much for comfortable throwing play-action passes then he is drop back passes because of the fact that the window he is trying to throw into is much larger. It provides him more of a safety net if you will even if he doesn't throw the ball perfectly.
3) Was this the wake-up call game that our coaches needed so that we can turn this program around?
I honestly do think this game will have a lasting effect on how Pelini's tenure plays out at Nebraska. I think our performance against UCLA shook Bo to his core, and that he will try to make some major changes to this team. What those changes will be is anyone's guess? But my point is, Nebraska has been down this road before.
Remember Osborne switched from a balanced offensive attack in the 1970's to the iconic option offense in 1980. Nebraska and Osborne didn't make the switch from his 5-2 defense to the 4-3 defense until 1992. In the book "A Salute to Nebraska's Tom Osborne" Osborne is quoted as saying they made the switch once they proved they could stop the run with the 4-3. He said, "We recruited people who could cover man-to-man, went to smaller, quicker defensive people up front and made the switch away from the 5-2 defense for the first time in almost 30 years." Osborne continued by saying, "When you can pressure on defense, get the ball back to your offense, you can do a lot of things with the offense."
It is hard to pressure a defense with a two-gap defensive scheme when you don't have a sold defensive line. I've posted this a few weeks ago, and those that want to read the entire interview can find it here: http://hailvarsity.c...-talks-two-gap/ but recently Charlie McBride told HailVaristy.com that "(The two-gap player) has to be able to have great strength. You have to have good hand strength, good position and you have to be ready to play both of those gaps. The thing is with it, you can't make a mistake." He continued by saying, "When you're playing two-gap, of course, you're a team that reads. You're really not a terrific attacking team. The strength factor is huge. You have to be a really strong person to do that." He concluded by saying, "If you don't have a defensive line, you can go home."
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