EZ-E
All-American
Bored out of my mind on my day off. I have been sitting at home all day as I got everything I needed to get done today fairly quickly. So I decided to watch some of the tape from last year's UCLA game, UCLA vs Nevada, read about the basic principles of Mazzone's offense, and read about our basic concepts on defense. Basically, I have done very little all day and I have nothing better to do. So here it goes.
Here is why I like us to win this game.
Match-Ups
Their OL vs our DL
They are young. Not as young as we are, but they are also fairly inexperienced. They go (from right to left) Sophomore, Freshman, Sophomore,Junior,Sophomore. We have a lot of inexperience on our DL I get that, but it isn't like we are playing a team full of pro-bowlers.
Their WR/Hundley vs our Secondary
Watching him last year and this year, I think that Hundley makes a lot of predetermined throws. He runs the zone read very well, but make no mistakes, he will have to go through a ton of his progressions to make plays against us. Against Nevada he was playing catch with his primary WR all game long and when the primary guy wasn't there, he'd either leave the pocket, or it would end up in the bleachers. They have some guys that we are going to have to play very well against to contain, but it will not be completely impossible. What we need to also do, is hit Hundley. Every chance we get you hit him. By the time the 3rd quarter runs around his legs are going to be too heavy to be very quick.
Our OL vs Their DL + Barr
We are very experienced up front and I don't think anyone would argue that point. We are really going to have to identify Anthony Barr much like we did last year in the bowl game against Georgia. We didn't do out of this world great against Georgia, but there were more than one series where we tossed them around up front and that is a defense with much more NFL talent on it than UCLA. We have the exact same guys that did that plus more depth. We will have to play very well to beat them in this area, but they wont be anything we haven't seen before.
Our WRs vs Their Secondary
Ill go out and say it now, our starting three WRs will all be on an NFL roster when they are done at NU. Their guys in the secondary are brand new. That is kind of an open and shut case. As long as we take care of the football we should have zero problem throwing it around the yard tomorrow.
Coaching Staff vs Coaching Staff
Last year, you saw Mora and Mazzone use a lot of motion from the RB pre-snap and in the first half we were in man-to-man a lot. This put Will Compton or Alonzo Whaley on a slot WR or a RB. It also took one more guy out of the box and away from the football which opens up that middle zone read. So then you are playing virtually 5 on 5 and everyone knows how the zone read works where the DE is basically irrelevant. But the biggest thing that Mora wanted to do with that is to open up the middle of the field for them to hit their big TE or WR on a crossing route and get us into a situation where we had to either help up with a safety to make a tackle, or take away the crossing pattern. Once we were worried about the middle of the field, they were very successful using that pick play that we started to use last season. And I think everyone knows what happened with that in the first half.
In the second half, and I am going to say this in all seriousness, Bo and staff absolutely kicked their asses with some of the adjustments made. Watching and trying to figure out what we were doing defensively from my very limited football knowledge is absolutely impossible. Mora and Mazzone couldn't figure it out either. It almost looked like some sort of match-up zone but it also looked like we anticipated when they would motion and had very specific ideas on how to go about neutralizing it. We mixed up where we were bringing pressure from, but we also mixed up the timing, and down and distance of the blitzes we were running.
The thing last year against UCLA that made Bo Pelini look a ton dumber than he should is our missed tackles. Honestly even if we make a handful of plays that we absolutely should have last year in the second half, Jonathon Franklin has about 80 less yards than he did. We didn't have to make Lavonte David-esque plays last year to be effective in this game at LB we just had to make the plays required of CFB players!!!!!!!!!
Tim Beck, and I seldom use this term, but he went Full-Watson in this game last year. Absolutely to the T went Full-Watson. Do you realize we ran less in this game last year than in any other game? Granted, Burkhead was out, but dear Lord. A zone-read from our own endzone? That is just one example, but we have no excuses for how terribly we played in the second half in every aspect of that game offensively. This is a match-up we need to circle and its Tim Beck redeeming himself vs UCLA.
The more I am looking into this game I really like our chances guys. If our guys go out and make the plays required of them defensively we will be fine. Be smart with the football and we win this football game. Those are the simplified keys to the game 1) Dont turn the ball over 2) Make tackles. You do those two things and we win this football game.
NU-44
UCLA-28
LET THE KOOLAID FLOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is why I like us to win this game.
Match-Ups
Their OL vs our DL
They are young. Not as young as we are, but they are also fairly inexperienced. They go (from right to left) Sophomore, Freshman, Sophomore,Junior,Sophomore. We have a lot of inexperience on our DL I get that, but it isn't like we are playing a team full of pro-bowlers.
Their WR/Hundley vs our Secondary
Watching him last year and this year, I think that Hundley makes a lot of predetermined throws. He runs the zone read very well, but make no mistakes, he will have to go through a ton of his progressions to make plays against us. Against Nevada he was playing catch with his primary WR all game long and when the primary guy wasn't there, he'd either leave the pocket, or it would end up in the bleachers. They have some guys that we are going to have to play very well against to contain, but it will not be completely impossible. What we need to also do, is hit Hundley. Every chance we get you hit him. By the time the 3rd quarter runs around his legs are going to be too heavy to be very quick.
Our OL vs Their DL + Barr
We are very experienced up front and I don't think anyone would argue that point. We are really going to have to identify Anthony Barr much like we did last year in the bowl game against Georgia. We didn't do out of this world great against Georgia, but there were more than one series where we tossed them around up front and that is a defense with much more NFL talent on it than UCLA. We have the exact same guys that did that plus more depth. We will have to play very well to beat them in this area, but they wont be anything we haven't seen before.
Our WRs vs Their Secondary
Ill go out and say it now, our starting three WRs will all be on an NFL roster when they are done at NU. Their guys in the secondary are brand new. That is kind of an open and shut case. As long as we take care of the football we should have zero problem throwing it around the yard tomorrow.
Coaching Staff vs Coaching Staff
Last year, you saw Mora and Mazzone use a lot of motion from the RB pre-snap and in the first half we were in man-to-man a lot. This put Will Compton or Alonzo Whaley on a slot WR or a RB. It also took one more guy out of the box and away from the football which opens up that middle zone read. So then you are playing virtually 5 on 5 and everyone knows how the zone read works where the DE is basically irrelevant. But the biggest thing that Mora wanted to do with that is to open up the middle of the field for them to hit their big TE or WR on a crossing route and get us into a situation where we had to either help up with a safety to make a tackle, or take away the crossing pattern. Once we were worried about the middle of the field, they were very successful using that pick play that we started to use last season. And I think everyone knows what happened with that in the first half.
In the second half, and I am going to say this in all seriousness, Bo and staff absolutely kicked their asses with some of the adjustments made. Watching and trying to figure out what we were doing defensively from my very limited football knowledge is absolutely impossible. Mora and Mazzone couldn't figure it out either. It almost looked like some sort of match-up zone but it also looked like we anticipated when they would motion and had very specific ideas on how to go about neutralizing it. We mixed up where we were bringing pressure from, but we also mixed up the timing, and down and distance of the blitzes we were running.
The thing last year against UCLA that made Bo Pelini look a ton dumber than he should is our missed tackles. Honestly even if we make a handful of plays that we absolutely should have last year in the second half, Jonathon Franklin has about 80 less yards than he did. We didn't have to make Lavonte David-esque plays last year to be effective in this game at LB we just had to make the plays required of CFB players!!!!!!!!!
Tim Beck, and I seldom use this term, but he went Full-Watson in this game last year. Absolutely to the T went Full-Watson. Do you realize we ran less in this game last year than in any other game? Granted, Burkhead was out, but dear Lord. A zone-read from our own endzone? That is just one example, but we have no excuses for how terribly we played in the second half in every aspect of that game offensively. This is a match-up we need to circle and its Tim Beck redeeming himself vs UCLA.
The more I am looking into this game I really like our chances guys. If our guys go out and make the plays required of them defensively we will be fine. Be smart with the football and we win this football game. Those are the simplified keys to the game 1) Dont turn the ball over 2) Make tackles. You do those two things and we win this football game.
NU-44
UCLA-28
LET THE KOOLAID FLOW!!!!!!!!!!!
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