Do we lack a home run threat?

[Enhance]

The best offenses have a home run threat but are also able to grind out a long drive when they need one. Our first two opponents haven't been great teams, but against BYU, we illustrated the ability to sustain scoring drives, and we did an excellent job of this against USA.

I remember the 2010 season where pretty much our entire offensive strategy relied on making big plays. It made for some exciting football, but when those plays weren't happening, we became the textbook definition of a team that lived by it and died by it. The Texas game is a prime example, as well as the Big 12 title game and bowl game against Washington. The narrative that season was our offense was inconsistent if they didn't get the big play.

It's not like we've been putting together 15-play drives, though - we have big play potential. Aren't we leading the nation in plays of 10+ yards or something like that. I don't think there's anything to be concerned about - in fact, I'd be MORE concerned if we were scoring off of big plays and being unable to put together long drives.

 

[Mavric]

Sustained drives are fine. It's terribly difficult to string more than a couple together in games against good defenses. Expecting to beat good teams like that is not realistic. We have to be more explosive. Absolutely have to. Riley has said as much, and he wasn't just flapping his gums. He's a sincere dude.

This is exactly where I'm at. I'm glad that we've gotten a lot of 10+ yard plays but the fact that we have relatively few "explosive" plays makes me wonder how that will translate against better teams. If we aren't able to run away - or throw over - teams that aren't very good on defense, it's going to be a lot harder to sustain 10-12-14 play drives against better competition.

Biggest surprise for me is how little we've thrown deep. For all the talk about how Riley likes to stretch the defense and how we need to have a QB with a big arm, we've barely even tried to go downfield. Our longest completion is 27 yards and that pass was caught about 20 or so yards downfield. I don't know how far our longest incompletion was thrown but i don't really remember many if any attempts to really stretch the field.

 

[True2tRA]

Big difference between having done it and not being capable of doing it.

Nebraska is capable of the home run. We just haven't done it in two games so far this year. As far as the passing game, we really haven't tried.

We try way too hard to find things to worry about. One big play, and suddenly WE HAVE A HOME RUN THREAT AGAIN!

 

[walksalone]

If you have to ask, isn't the answer yes?

 

[Kernal]

NU hasn't really had a homerun threat since Taylor Martinez was healthy.

 

[Mavric]

NU hasn't really had a homerun threat since Taylor Martinez was healthy.

There hasn't been as much of a home run threat since Martinez. But Abdullah and Bell fit that description.

 

[In the Deed the Glory]

We don't hang with Michigan State and Minnesota without the threat of the big play. Without putting it on film they won't game plan for it, and then the dink and dunk passing and the running game will be much tougher to execute. Bill Walsh says the big play is paramount in this style of offense. It is one of the founding beliefs.Can we do it? Nobody knows right now as we haven't shown it, but to say you don't need it to be successful long term shows a lack of understanding of the principles of offensive football and specifically a pro style offense.

We know Tommy is capable of going deep with some accuracy, but I wouldn't have him back as a pocket passer for any length of time....haven't seen anything to suggest that hanging around the pocket against a good defense would be anything but a disaster.

Big play doesn't mean deep pass exclusively...

So what are we doing wrong to not get the big plays? It seems like our backs are getting as much as possible out of their runs. Is it a lack of talent? Not speedy enough receivers? Poor blocking downfield? Are we not running potential big plays due to lack of talent? Are we not executing well enough to turn called plays into big plays? Inaccuracy at QB? Bad blocking? In Walsh's vision how do they produce big plays? With Osborne's O we would usually spring a long run if we didn't miss blocks. With the spread I think the idea is to get one guy to miss a tackle in space and big plays will result. I don't know enough about what Riley is doing but I like what I see so far.

The key is establishing a running game. Once we have a running game a good team has to respect, it will open one on ones on the outside. Many teams are playing us zone banking that Tommy can't diagnose it. He has shown he can.

Could also be safe play calling on the part of Langsdorf/Riley to get Armstrong in a place he feels comfortable.

As far as the Pro Style offense, or WCO, the key is short passes and runs to lull the defense to sleep and then go over the top to your home run threat. Teams usually take that away now, so the big play is usually getting a player in space.

The play they have been calling that is supposed to be a big play is the screen to the IB. We just haven't done a good job of completing these passes. Either it is a bad throw, it is dropped, or the timing is not right. That hurts a screen. Once we get that all down, we will see more.

DPE coming back will be huge also. The more weapons, the more you can do (obviously). There isn't one player the defense has to take away right now, we add a player like DPE and defenses have to account for him all the time we will see more big plays.

 

[Red Five]

NU hasn't really had a homerun threat since Taylor Martinez was healthy.

Ameer?

He had TD runs of 47, 57, 50, 53, and 48 yards last year. Oh, and a 58 yard TD reception.

 

[StPaulHusker]

Maybe someone who is more adept to breaking down OL play better than I am can tell me I am stupid or a genius but here was my thought on the lack of the big play with regards to the RB position.

Under Pelini, the OL's job was to make an initial block and quickly make their way to the second level. Ameer's job was to make the first wave of tacklers miss and get to the second level where he gets out in space and has lots of blockers there.

This year, it appears that the OL makes the initial block and continues to drive. It's up to Newby to make plays at the second level to get to open space without as much blocking. Thus creating fewer open opportunities for the big play.

Am I close?

 

[Mavric]

I don't really think that's right. We run a lot of zone schemes so on a lot of runs there are linemen working up to the linebackers right away.

Plus, we're leading the nation in plays over 10 yards. By the time you've gotten 10 yards downfield, the OL has done everything they can do. It's up to the ball carrier to get the yards after that.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I don't really think that's right. We run a lot of zone schemes so on a lot of runs there are linemen working up to the linebackers right away.

Plus, we're leading the nation in plays over 10 yards. By the time you've gotten 10 yards downfield, the OL has done everything they can do. It's up to the ball carrier to get the yards after that.

Listening to both Damon Benning and Mike'l Severe yesterday on their radio shows, they thought that against USA, Newby struggled once he gets to the 2nd level and didn't know where to go after getting through the initial hole. They both thought Newby left a lot of extra yards out there. I know it's tough to complain about nearly 200 yards rushing, but both seemed to think he could have gotten 250-300 if he makes the appropriate downfield moves.

That was something I thought Ameer was great at. Ameer seemed to be great at looking past the initial hole, and looking downfield at the next level of defenders. Even though Ameer didn't have amazing, breakaway speed, he was able to make defenders miss downfield (see Eric Weddle from the Chargers this past Sunday).

 

[Saunders]

I don't really think that's right. We run a lot of zone schemes so on a lot of runs there are linemen working up to the linebackers right away.

Plus, we're leading the nation in plays over 10 yards. By the time you've gotten 10 yards downfield, the OL has done everything they can do. It's up to the ball carrier to get the yards after that.

Listening to both Damon Benning and Mike'l Severe yesterday on their radio shows, they thought that against USA, Newby struggled once he gets to the 2nd level and didn't know where to go after getting through the initial hole. They both thought Newby left a lot of extra yards out there. I know it's tough to complain about nearly 200 yards rushing, but both seemed to think he could have gotten 250-300 if he makes the appropriate downfield moves.

That was something I thought Ameer was great at. Ameer seemed to be great at looking past the initial hole, and looking downfield at the next level of defenders. Even though Ameer didn't have amazing, breakaway speed, he was able to make defenders miss downfield (see Eric Weddle from the Chargers this past Sunday).

Perhaps that's why Newby was still getting snaps towards the end. The staff giving him a chance to figure it out in a live game?

 

[Kernal]

NU hasn't really had a homerun threat since Taylor Martinez was healthy.

There hasn't been as much of a home run threat since Martinez. But Abdullah and Bell fit that description.

NU hasn't really had a homerun threat since Taylor Martinez was healthy.

Ameer?

He had TD runs of 47, 57, 50, 53, and 48 yards last year. Oh, and a 58 yard TD reception.

Ameer was great and I loved the way he played. But those are triples, probably. Maybe that's quibbling. I guess I'm thinking of a guy who could take it to the house from anywhere on the field: a constant "homerun threat." Ameer had great moves, but he would get run down from behind if he was far enough from the endzone.

I loved Bell too, and he was certainly fast enough to house it if he caught a ball behind the defense. But he had only six TD catches all last year and I think only 21 in his whole career. I'm not looking at the stats but certainly those weren't all deep balls.

I don't mean to diminish what either of these guys did as I really enjoyed both. As for the longer plays- 20-30-40-50-yarders, those will come with deep balls and broken defensive plays. I'm not too worried about that. We have plenty of players who are capable of longer plays.

 

[commando]

so if we don't have 3 70+ yard tds every game we don't have a home run threat? got it. thanks for showing me the truth. i will start getting ready for basketball season now.

 

[RedSavage]

I don't really think that's right. We run a lot of zone schemes so on a lot of runs there are linemen working up to the linebackers right away.

Plus, we're leading the nation in plays over 10 yards. By the time you've gotten 10 yards downfield, the OL has done everything they can do. It's up to the ball carrier to get the yards after that.

Listening to both Damon Benning and Mike'l Severe yesterday on their radio shows, they thought that against USA, Newby struggled once he gets to the 2nd level and didn't know where to go after getting through the initial hole. They both thought Newby left a lot of extra yards out there. I know it's tough to complain about nearly 200 yards rushing, but both seemed to think he could have gotten 250-300 if he makes the appropriate downfield moves.

That was something I thought Ameer was great at. Ameer seemed to be great at looking past the initial hole, and looking downfield at the next level of defenders. Even though Ameer didn't have amazing, breakaway speed, he was able to make defenders miss downfield (see Eric Weddle from the Chargers this past Sunday).

Perhaps that's why Newby was still getting snaps towards the end. The staff giving him a chance to figure it out in a live game?

I think there's a lot of truth to that. He has yet to really look comfortable and find what seems to be a good rhythm. Watching the game, I feel like any of our backs could have run it just as well as he did. The line did a good job of blocking, which he followed and not much more. He didn't really have that many runs where he made guys miss and get through that second level, as has been mentioned. The staff sees the high ceiling for Newby but he still has a long ways to go and they are trying to do everything they can to get him there.