Illinois

As odd as this sounds... following NU football at present is quite interesting. One cannot predict, really, what to expect in a game anymore. On paper, Illinois and NU appear, essentially, even. We have a slight edge on O --- both have good offenses... neither have offenses that can be deemed better than good... but both are good. Both have laughably bad defenses. But Illinois is slightly less pathetic. I will assume a coaching advantage to Illinois. Home field, of course, to the Huskers. Confidence going in? Probably favors Illinois.

So... who knows. Both teams should score 30+ points. Maybe both teams score approaching 40 points... though that seems high. Given the turnover problems at Illinois and it is at home for the 'Skers... I will predict a narrow Husker victory... maybe 38-35. But who knows. NU could get rolled. Or.. it could be the opposite. I assume NU has a huge talent advantage... but we all know how little that has helped of late. If NU is flat again or folds... NU is in trouble. Again... it is, if not a good time to cheer for NU, it is an interesting one...

 
robsker said:
As odd as this sounds... following NU football at present is quite interesting. One cannot predict, really, what to expect in a game anymore. On paper, Illinois and NU appear, essentially, even. We have a slight edge on O --- both have good offenses... neither have offenses that can be deemed better than good... but both are good. Both have laughably bad defenses. But Illinois is slightly less pathetic. I will assume a coaching advantage to Illinois. Home field, of course, to the Huskers. Confidence going in? Probably favors Illinois.

So... who knows. Both teams should score 30+ points. Maybe both teams score approaching 40 points... though that seems high. Given the turnover problems at Illinois and it is at home for the 'Skers... I will predict a narrow Husker victory... maybe 38-35. But who knows. NU could get rolled. Or.. it could be the opposite. I assume NU has a huge talent advantage... but we all know how little that has helped of late. If NU is flat again or folds... NU is in trouble. Again... it is, if not a good time to cheer for NU, it is an interesting one...
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probably a closer game than many would have thought before the season began. I expect the huskers will win by 14 or so at home if Tmagic is healthy.

 
Teams have figured out that when they go 4 wide and spread us out that we will always play two high safties. JP said as much in the paper the other day. What then happens is that we are playing 4 DL + 1 LB on their OL + the ball carrier. I rewatched the SDSU game and specifically watched the plays where we had more guys in the box and I can't see what Bo is talking about where when we stacked the box they still beat us.

If we continue to play with two high safties and only five guys in the box we will get hammered by that inside zone or the zone read.

There is not many WRs I am worried about until we get to Michigan, so I hope Bo gets gutsy and plays with the safties down in the box.

I honestly think that we haven't seen the spinner formation or the old TigerCat because Bo just doesn't trust our back 4 mainly the safties.

 
Illinois is hard to figure out. I have watched them mostly against OSU over the last 20 years. Some years they play well above their talent level and other years they are just terrible. They play OSU tough as nails 3 out of 4 years and I think it was 2 years ago they blew out RG III and Baylor in a bowl game down in Texas. It might have been sheelhouse's freshman year. If they show up with their A game, I think Nebraska fans will be surprised how good the Illini can be and the Illini may come away with a road win. History shows they have come into Columbus on occasion and beat OSU.

 
EZ-E said:
Teams have figured out that when they go 4 wide and spread us out that we will always play two high safties. JP said as much in the paper the other day. What then happens is that we are playing 4 DL + 1 LB on their OL + the ball carrier. I rewatched the SDSU game and specifically watched the plays where we had more guys in the box and I can't see what Bo is talking about where when we stacked the box they still beat us.

If we continue to play with two high safties and only five guys in the box we will get hammered by that inside zone or the zone read.

There is not many WRs I am worried about until we get to Michigan, so I hope Bo gets gutsy and plays with the safties down in the box.

I honestly think that we haven't seen the spinner formation or the old TigerCat because Bo just doesn't trust our back 4 mainly the safties.
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Exactly, watched OSU/Wisky and Wisky played with 2 LBs in the box the whole game. Granted they have some stud linebackers, but they weren't afraid to put their DBs a little more on an island.

Pelini is so worried about not giving up big pass plays. I would gladly give up 2 40 yard completions a game if they held the team to 100 yards rushing.

 
NUinID said:
EZ-E said:
Teams have figured out that when they go 4 wide and spread us out that we will always play two high safties. JP said as much in the paper the other day. What then happens is that we are playing 4 DL + 1 LB on their OL + the ball carrier. I rewatched the SDSU game and specifically watched the plays where we had more guys in the box and I can't see what Bo is talking about where when we stacked the box they still beat us.

If we continue to play with two high safties and only five guys in the box we will get hammered by that inside zone or the zone read.

There is not many WRs I am worried about until we get to Michigan, so I hope Bo gets gutsy and plays with the safties down in the box.

I honestly think that we haven't seen the spinner formation or the old TigerCat because Bo just doesn't trust our back 4 mainly the safties.
Click to expand...
Exactly, watched OSU/Wisky and Wisky played with 2 LBs in the box the whole game. Granted they have some stud linebackers, but they weren't afraid to put their DBs a little more on an island.

Pelini is so worried about not giving up big pass plays. I would gladly give up 2 40 yard completions a game if they held the team to 100 yards rushing.
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It's even more dangerous this week because with the zone read they option off that other DE so they are essentially playing 5 on 4 up front and that Tackle can get to the second level. Very concerned if we can't break our habit of playing two high safeties constantly.

 
EZ-E said:
I honestly think that we haven't seen the spinner formation or the old TigerCat because Bo just doesn't trust our back 4 mainly the safties.
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I don't think this is accurate. We've played quite a bit of spinner type look with Gregory moving around and only three down.

 
Mavric said:
EZ-E said:
I honestly think that we haven't seen the spinner formation or the old TigerCat because Bo just doesn't trust our back 4 mainly the safties.
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I don't think this is accurate. We've played quite a bit of spinner type look with Gregory moving around and only three down.
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http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-pressure-spinner.html?m=1

I don't think we have seen a true spinner look yet. At least not what is described in the above blog as the spinner or the old tiger cat.

 
Obviously NU knows how to run this stuff with pressure and man- cover 0 and have had success with it in years past

So there MUST be a reason why they arent running it

Points to a personnel issue

 
jmfb said:
Obviously NU knows how to run this stuff with pressure and man- cover 0 and have had success with it in years pastSo there MUST be a reason why they arent running it

Points to a personnel issue
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I personally think it's the safeties our staff doesn't trust in space.

 
Creed said:
Illinois is hard to figure out. I have watched them mostly against OSU over the last 20 years. Some years they play well above their talent level and other years they are just terrible. They play OSU tough as nails 3 out of 4 years and I think it was 2 years ago they blew out RG III and Baylor in a bowl game down in Texas. It might have been sheelhouse's freshman year. If they show up with their A game, I think Nebraska fans will be surprised how good the Illini can be and the Illini may come away with a road win. History shows they have come into Columbus on occasion and beat OSU.
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they have beat us 4 out of the last 9 times they have come to Columbus(I kept it to the past 20 years, its actually like 7 of the past 12 lol)

don't know what it is but they put up a good fight on the road and lay down in Champaign

If you guys have a chance get to Champaign. They are good folk out there.

 
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TheSker said:
EZ-E said:
I personally think it's the safeties our staff doesn't trust in space.
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I would agree. Hopefully CJax can respond well next to Coop.
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I really think our safties are - overall - our weak spot. I think that was probably even our weak spot last year, which is saying a lot. Yes, we were fairly bad on the line - especially after Stein got hurt - and our LBs were spotty at best. But I think average safety play would have cut the number of big plays in half over the last year-plus.

Also, I'm really not sold on Cooper, either. Yeah, he at least makes some plays - which HJax really hasn't so far - but he's looked like the second coming of Damian Stafford so far: for every one good play there are two or three where he takes a terrible angle and doesn't even touch the ball carrier.

 
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