Defense

[Count 'Bility]

Yeah as long as Banker is here well you're going to keep getting what we've gotten. I will say OSU probably put there most complete game together against Nebraska but still.

I wanna have a serious convo here. I'm not being a smartass. Youre a pessimist in my view. That's fine. I dont hold it against you. I just see it differently. I just wanna ask, you. Do you watch a lot of college football outside of Nebraska? Like 11 to 11. Reading box scores, studying games from across the country. Being up till 3 in the morning every saturday night? I'm just asking. This is what I do. And I'm not demeaning or talking down. I love the game so damn much that i cant get enough of it this time of year, cuz i dont it dont last long. I'm obsessed. And the more I study, the more i think i have a good feel for the game.

The point im trying to make is this. What happened the other night cant be allowed to so quickly change the narrative that was going in. That's an overreactory factory. IT'S ONE GAME. i said in another thread. Does Louisville dropping 60+ on florida st change the perception of where florida st is as a program? Im a big picture guy. Coaching kids and studying the game as I enjoy doing, it's the only thing that's keeps me sane. Game's like Saturday are the ones where you wash your face, and put the film in the burn pit. THEY happen. TO EVERYONE. The inevitable buzzsaw game. it is what it is. But dont let make you miserable and completely trash your outlook on things. If you want go right ahead and be miserable, all the damn time. I choose to have a little hope.

 

[suh_fan93]

Yeah as long as Banker is here well you're going to keep getting what we've gotten. I will say OSU probably put there most complete game together against Nebraska but still.

I wanna have a serious convo here. I'm not being a smartass. Youre a pessimist in my view. That's fine. I dont hold it against you. I just see it differently. I just wanna ask, you. Do you watch a lot of college football outside of Nebraska? Like 11 to 11. Reading box scores, studying games from across the country. Being up till 3 in the morning every saturday night? I'm just asking. This is what I do. And I'm not demeaning or talking down. I love the game so damn much that i cant get enough of it this time of year, cuz i dont it dont last long. I'm obsessed. And the more I study, the more i think i have a good feel for the game.

The point im trying to make is this. What happened the other night cant be allowed to so quickly change the narrative that was going in. That's an overreactory factory. IT'S ONE GAME. i said in another thread. Does Louisville dropping 60+ on florida st change the perception of where florida st is as a program? Im a big picture guy. Coaching kids and studying the game as I enjoy doing, it's the only thing that's keeps me sane. Game's like Saturday are the ones where you wash your face, and put the film in the burn pit. THEY happen. TO EVERYONE. The inevitable buzzsaw game. it is what it is. But dont let make you miserable and completely trash your outlook on things. If you want go right ahead and be miserable, all the damn time. I choose to have a little hope.

Good post count and no you don't come off as being a smart a$$. Yes. Yes I definitely do watch a lot of college football. Oh yeah!!! It's my favorite level of the sport to watch too. To me it's much more exciting than the NFL. I get the 'one game' argument but as Mavric pointed out above I definitely feel our defense has looked probably a lot better than they actually are due to the fact that the offenses they've faced really haven't been much to write home about. On paper sure they were looking good but I think you have to be able to look deeper than simple stats such as final score, etc. You have to imo look at and consider the quality of your opponents.

One thing about Nebraska though. Even though we got pummeled by OSU I still enjoy watching them and am excited for the Minnesota game. I think it's going to be a pretty good battle between two almost similar teams in a lot of respects. The OSU game was hard to watch but yeah I definitely am a college football junkie. My DVR is usually working pretty hard on Saturday so I can catch all of the games. Good post count. I enjoyed reading your point of view.

 

[Count 'Bility]

Yeah as long as Banker is here well you're going to keep getting what we've gotten. I will say OSU probably put there most complete game together against Nebraska but still.

I wanna have a serious convo here. I'm not being a smartass. Youre a pessimist in my view. That's fine. I dont hold it against you. I just see it differently. I just wanna ask, you. Do you watch a lot of college football outside of Nebraska? Like 11 to 11. Reading box scores, studying games from across the country. Being up till 3 in the morning every saturday night? I'm just asking. This is what I do. And I'm not demeaning or talking down. I love the game so damn much that i cant get enough of it this time of year, cuz i dont it dont last long. I'm obsessed. And the more I study, the more i think i have a good feel for the game.

The point im trying to make is this. What happened the other night cant be allowed to so quickly change the narrative that was going in. That's an overreactory factory. IT'S ONE GAME. i said in another thread. Does Louisville dropping 60+ on florida st change the perception of where florida st is as a program? Im a big picture guy. Coaching kids and studying the game as I enjoy doing, it's the only thing that's keeps me sane. Game's like Saturday are the ones where you wash your face, and put the film in the burn pit. THEY happen. TO EVERYONE. The inevitable buzzsaw game. it is what it is. But dont let make you miserable and completely trash your outlook on things. If you want go right ahead and be miserable, all the damn time. I choose to have a little hope.

Good post count and no you don't come off as being a smart a$$. Yes. Yes I definitely do watch a lot of college football. Oh yeah!!! It's my favorite level of the sport to watch too. To me it's much more exciting than the NFL. I get the 'one game' argument but as Mavric pointed out above I definitely feel our defense has looked probably a lot better than they actually are due to the fact that the offenses they've faced really haven't been much to write home about. On paper sure they were looking good but I think you have to be able to look deeper than simple stats such as final score, etc. You have to imo look at and consider the quality of your opponents.

One thing about Nebraska though. Even though we got pummeled by OSU I still enjoy watching them and am excited for the Minnesota game. I think it's going to be a pretty good battle between two almost similar teams in a lot of respects. The OSU game was hard to watch but yeah I definitely am a college football junkie. My DVR is usually working pretty hard on Saturday so I can catch all of the games. Good post count. I enjoyed reading your point of view.

good talk lol

my thing is as I say a lot is progress is never constant. could you imagine how boring and perfect the world would be if it was? i think we've taken some steps forward this year. hell. lot's of folks even thought that loss in Madison was a step forward. I didnt. I still say you gotta win the damn game. We shouldve. ididnt think we played well. Ohio St was a big step back. But a lot of folks use that one little snippet to jump off ship and let the sky fall. I just see it different. And continue to fight the good fight.

Next year's really gonna be tought. We very well could finish 8-4 this reg season. Of course Iowa has really traspired into garbage, so we should be able to get 2 of these last 3. But it just appears we've hit the wall some, esp on offense. Saturday is gonna be really hard. I just hope folks are ok with it, regardless how it ends. next year will be hard. New qb (even if he is a better fit), some new receivers. Gonna need to get someone's but in gear for that TE position. it's gonna be hard. Next year could very well be a 7-6/8-5 type of year. I dont even wanna talk defense, cuz apparently this one bad game has already changed the narrative from hopeful to hopeless in regards to this staff on that side.

 

[NUinID]

Yeah as long as Banker is here well you're going to keep getting what we've gotten. I will say OSU probably put there most complete game together against Nebraska but still.

I wanna have a serious convo here. I'm not being a smartass. Youre a pessimist in my view. That's fine. I dont hold it against you. I just see it differently. I just wanna ask, you. Do you watch a lot of college football outside of Nebraska? Like 11 to 11. Reading box scores, studying games from across the country. Being up till 3 in the morning every saturday night? I'm just asking. This is what I do. And I'm not demeaning or talking down. I love the game so damn much that i cant get enough of it this time of year, cuz i dont it dont last long. I'm obsessed. And the more I study, the more i think i have a good feel for the game.

The point im trying to make is this. What happened the other night cant be allowed to so quickly change the narrative that was going in. That's an overreactory factory. IT'S ONE GAME. i said in another thread. Does Louisville dropping 60+ on florida st change the perception of where florida st is as a program? Im a big picture guy. Coaching kids and studying the game as I enjoy doing, it's the only thing that's keeps me sane. Game's like Saturday are the ones where you wash your face, and put the film in the burn pit. THEY happen. TO EVERYONE. The inevitable buzzsaw game. it is what it is. But dont let make you miserable and completely trash your outlook on things. If you want go right ahead and be miserable, all the damn time. I choose to have a little hope.

Very nice Count, I agree with everything you are saying. I stay completely away from this board after a loss like this because the negativity and the fire crowd is so bad.

I too watch a lot of college football. I wonder how many guys on this board know that Wyoming is actually putting together a nice season and is sitting at 7-2 with a win over Boise St. Or that Arkansas can get killed one week by Auburn 56-3 and come back the next week and beat a 1 loss Florida team 31-10.

There are about 5-6 really good football teams this year. Ohio St is one if them and NU played pretty poorly and lost bad too a very good team that wanted to make a statement after playing fairly poorly for about a month. Nebraska can still win out and end up 10-2. Nebraska can still get into a good bowl game and win it and end up 11-2. Heck Nebraska can still make it to the CCG if they win out and Wisconsin stumbles.

Sorry Nebraska is not in that top 5-6. But, all the foot stomping is just silly. Again I love my Huskers, but I love the game itself just as much.

 

[Count 'Bility]

The 90's ruined us. We got two factions of fans. The ones who lived through that got this unrational idea that that's how it should always be, and anything less in unacceptable. and the ones who didnt live through, but hear constantly how great it was. They read the books. They watch youtube. And theyre so desperate to get back to it to actually experience it themselves that anything less in unacceptable. Most times i like to thing our bunch isnt any worse than other fanbases of high profile blue bloods. I peruse other message boards of big name teams after they get boat raced. For the most part we're not any different after losses. What gets me is the failure of a lot of our fans to understand that a win is a win. it's hard to win a football game. No matter what level of competition. That's where the difference lies. Some of the constant pessimism even after a win, and the constant desire to discount anything good for the sake being right. That's what gets me sometimes. Some folks are just miserable and dont wanna find the silver lining in anything. That's their perogative.

 

[NUinID]

The 90's ruined us. We got two factions of fans. The ones who lived through that got this unrational idea that that's how it should always be, and anything less in unacceptable. and the ones who didnt live through, but hear constantly how great it was. They read the books. They watch youtube. And theyre so desperate to get back to it to actually experience it themselves that anything less in unacceptable. Most times i like to thing our bunch isnt any worse than other fanbases of high profile blue bloods. I peruse other message boards of big name teams after they get boat raced. For the most part we're not any different after losses. What gets me is the failure of a lot of our fans to understand that a win is a win. it's hard to win a football game. No matter what level of competition. That's where the difference lies. Some of the constant pessimism even after a win, and the constant desire to discount anything good for the sake being right. That's what gets me sometimes. Some folks are just miserable and dont wanna find the silver lining in anything. That's their perogative.

I think there is a third faction. The ones that grew up in the 70's and 80's that appriciate how great the 90's were and realize how hard that was to do. Winning like that is not easy. Some guy that became a NU fan when he was 13 in 1994 doesn't get that a lot of the time. Just my opinion.

 

[Count 'Bility]

The 90's ruined us. We got two factions of fans. The ones who lived through that got this unrational idea that that's how it should always be, and anything less in unacceptable. and the ones who didnt live through, but hear constantly how great it was. They read the books. They watch youtube. And theyre so desperate to get back to it to actually experience it themselves that anything less in unacceptable. Most times i like to thing our bunch isnt any worse than other fanbases of high profile blue bloods. I peruse other message boards of big name teams after they get boat raced. For the most part we're not any different after losses. What gets me is the failure of a lot of our fans to understand that a win is a win. it's hard to win a football game. No matter what level of competition. That's where the difference lies. Some of the constant pessimism even after a win, and the constant desire to discount anything good for the sake being right. That's what gets me sometimes. Some folks are just miserable and dont wanna find the silver lining in anything. That's their perogative.

I think there is a third faction. The ones that grew up in the 70's and 80's that appriciate how great the 90's were and realize how hard that was to do. Winning like that is not easy. Some guy that became a NU fan when he was 13 in 1994 doesn't get that a lot of the time. Just my opinion.

not every fan is part of those two factions. i guess i shoulda said that. So yeah there many many more than just those two. But for the most part, my point is, that the driving narrative of negativity is made up of those two groups. They just come off as not being capable of any sort of joy.

 

[Count 'Bility]

Case in point.

I listen to Hail Varsity radio on the way home from work. After listening to 1620 all day at work. Yesterday, fella calls in. Says he went to game in Columbus and was walking around campus about 10 am and come across the Ohio St team having a walk through out on a lawn. Proceeds to talk about how they were so much more prepared cuz they were doing that and doing everything they possibly could to be prepared, and was a bit mad that we werent seen doing the same thing. That he couldnt see us do it, he assumed we werent. LOL. He was quickly rebutted by the guy on the show who played here. I believe it was Jay Moore. Saying that every team does this. That even Callahan did it. for night games. so this guy was just going out of his way making assumptions just for the sake of being negative about our staff and our program not doing everything that we can. I got a kick out of it. "well i saw such and such doing this. no wonder we lost. we should be doing what they are doing" when in all actuality, we are. but the misunderstanding of human played sports where anything can happen anyway.

 

[NUinID]

Case in point.

I listen to Hail Varsity radio on the way home from work. After listening to 1620 all day at work. Yesterday, fella calls in. Says he went to game in Columbus and was walking around campus about 10 am and come across the Ohio St team having a walk through out on a lawn. Proceeds to talk about how they were so much more prepared cuz they were doing that and doing everything they possibly could to be prepared, and was a bit mad that we werent seen doing the same thing. That he couldnt see us do it, he assumed we werent. LOL. He was quickly rebutted by the guy on the show who played here. I believe it was Jay Moore. Saying that every team does this. That even Callahan did it. for night games. so this guy was just going out of his way making assumptions just for the sake of being negative about our staff and our program not doing everything that we can. I got a kick out of it. "well i saw such and such doing this. no wonder we lost. we should be doing what they are doing" when in all actuality, we are. but the misunderstanding of human played sports where anything can happen anyway.

Yeah, that is a good point. I coached class A HS football for 20 years. We were usually a decent team, won more games than we lost. We won by playing smarter and doing things other teams didn't do. But when we played the Millards and Omaha North's of the world we still got beat by 28 in the playoffs. They just had more and better top end athletes than we had and when they decide to play they are going to be able to curb stomp even a good teams.

People can talk all they want about Harbaugh and Meyer's coaching ability and how we need that and that will make the difference, but top to bottom Michigan and OSU are always going to have more talent than Nebraska, it is just population/geography thing. Now NU needs to close the gap and can close the gap, but it will never be an equal talent level against some teams. It wasn't when TO was here either. But the talent levels were a lot closer under TO than they are right now. NU needs to get back to that level and combine it with great coaching. Then we truely can compete.

 

[BigRedBuster]

The 90's ruined us. We got two factions of fans. The ones who lived through that got this unrational idea that that's how it should always be, and anything less in unacceptable. and the ones who didnt live through, but hear constantly how great it was. They read the books. They watch youtube. And theyre so desperate to get back to it to actually experience it themselves that anything less in unacceptable. Most times i like to thing our bunch isnt any worse than other fanbases of high profile blue bloods. I peruse other message boards of big name teams after they get boat raced. For the most part we're not any different after losses. What gets me is the failure of a lot of our fans to understand that a win is a win. it's hard to win a football game. No matter what level of competition. That's where the difference lies. Some of the constant pessimism even after a win, and the constant desire to discount anything good for the sake being right. That's what gets me sometimes. Some folks are just miserable and dont wanna find the silver lining in anything. That's their perogative.

I think there is a third faction. The ones that grew up in the 70's and 80's that appriciate how great the 90's were and realize how hard that was to do. Winning like that is not easy. Some guy that became a NU fan when he was 13 in 1994 doesn't get that a lot of the time. Just my opinion.

not every fan is part of those two factions. i guess i shoulda said that. So yeah there many many more than just those two. But for the most part, my point is, that the driving narrative of negativity is made up of those two groups. They just come off as not being capable of any sort of joy.

It's like they can't enjoy the process of trying to get to that point where we reach the success all of us want. They are going to be pissed off at the world until that point where we lift the championship trophy the first week in January.

These people are missing one hell of a lot of fun football to watch.

 

[Count 'Bility]

Mentality is the biggest factor. how is that Ohio St, will all these supposed jimmys and joes, one of the best coaches around, can lose to Penn St, squeak by Northwestern, then play like that? In the span of 2 calender weeks? Human mental factory.

I think Osborne, as a doctor of eduactional psychology, understood that more than anyone. Generating a pshychololgical advantage, on top of schematic and physical advantages. He revolutionized the game. Sports in general. You think the Husker vision screens and the tunnel came about jsut for entertainment? Or to be cool? These were calculated establishments, you can bet on it. Now everyone has leadership committees and such. Everyone pays attn to these things. it's one of the factors that has contributed to the insane amount of parity in sports today, where the human mental factor is as big as ever. I thought we hit a wall saturday, and Ohio st was a bit pissed and gettin ancy after the previous two weeks and had their get right game.

 

[Count 'Bility]

The 90's ruined us. We got two factions of fans. The ones who lived through that got this unrational idea that that's how it should always be, and anything less in unacceptable. and the ones who didnt live through, but hear constantly how great it was. They read the books. They watch youtube. And theyre so desperate to get back to it to actually experience it themselves that anything less in unacceptable. Most times i like to thing our bunch isnt any worse than other fanbases of high profile blue bloods. I peruse other message boards of big name teams after they get boat raced. For the most part we're not any different after losses. What gets me is the failure of a lot of our fans to understand that a win is a win. it's hard to win a football game. No matter what level of competition. That's where the difference lies. Some of the constant pessimism even after a win, and the constant desire to discount anything good for the sake being right. That's what gets me sometimes. Some folks are just miserable and dont wanna find the silver lining in anything. That's their perogative.

I think there is a third faction. The ones that grew up in the 70's and 80's that appriciate how great the 90's were and realize how hard that was to do. Winning like that is not easy. Some guy that became a NU fan when he was 13 in 1994 doesn't get that a lot of the time. Just my opinion.

not every fan is part of those two factions. i guess i shoulda said that. So yeah there many many more than just those two. But for the most part, my point is, that the driving narrative of negativity is made up of those two groups. They just come off as not being capable of any sort of joy.

It's like they can't enjoy the process of trying to get to that point where we reach the success all of us want. They are going to be pissed off at the world until that point where we lift the championship trophy the first week in January.

These people are missing one hell of a lot of fun football to watch.

I show this to every group of kids i coach.

stuff like this gives me chills.

 

[Mavric]

I agree that one game shouldn't cause an uproar. I posted that same thing yesterday in a different thread.

But for me, our current defense is most definitely not just about one game. We were terrible last year. Historically bad. Against a lot of not-particularly-good offenses. Fortunately, they at least figured out that their Quarters defense wasn't going to cut it and are running a significantly different scheme this year. Which has helped but I think a lot of our "improvement" is based on - again - facing a lot of not-very-good offenses (see above).

Here are the yards per play that we've allowed as far back as this site goes. Yards per play is a much better stat than yards per game as it accounts for pace of play by both teams. It's still not perfect in that it doesn't take into account the relative strength of the offenses faced but it at least gives an idea. Last year was probably the second worst defense we've ever had (behind 2007). And this year is only marginally better - as bad as any other year since 07 and worse than most. Not by a lot, but I would guess that before Saturday quite a few people would have said this is the best defense we've had since 2010, which is obviously not the case and would really be evident if you adjusted for the offenses we faced in 11 and 12.

2003 - 4.3

2004 - 5.0

2005 - 4.6

2006 - 5.2

2007 - 6.0

2008 - 5.4

2009 - 3.9

2010 - 4.5

2011 - 5.2

2012 - 5.3

2013 - 4.9

2014 - 5.2

2015 - 5.7

2016 - 5.4

 

[NUinID]

Mentality is the biggest factor. how is that Ohio St, will all these supposed jimmys and joes, one of the best coaches around, can lose to Penn St, squeak by Northwestern, then play like that? In the span of 2 calender weeks? Human mental factory.

I think Osborne, as a doctor of eduactional psychology, understood that more than anyone. Generating a pshychololgical advantage, on top of schematic and physical advantages. He revolutionized the game. Sports in general. You think the Husker vision screens and the tunnel came about jsut for entertainment? Or to be cool? These were calculated establishments, you can bet on it. Now everyone has leadership committees and such. Everyone pays attn to these things. it's one of the factors that has contributed to the insane amount of parity in sports today, where the human mental factor is as big as ever. I thought we hit a wall saturday, and Ohio st was a bit pissed and gettin ancy after the previous two weeks and had their get right game.

Of coarse the mental factor is huge. Nebraska has plenty of games under TO where they didn't look super sharp, but were just that much better than the other team that they still won. Too many people think that NU beat everyone by 30 all the time. didn't happen. Yes OSU was pissed Urban Meyer was pissed, they came to play. Nebraska came to play to, but it just wasn't there. The O-line injuries are killing this team right now. The defense played hard against OSU. Did they give up a ton of big plays? Not that I remember. They were out gunned and couldn't get off the field on 3rd down. I mean what did everyone expect that the defense was going to hold OSU to 300 total offense? No one has yet. The offensive play in the second half contributed as much to the score as the very tired defense did.

 

[Count 'Bility]

yeah. I like yards per play. Gets closer to the real story behind the numbers. My favorite one though is points per game.

2003 14.5

2004 27.1

2005 21.0

2006 18.3

2007 37.9

2008 28.5

2009 10.4

2010 17.4

2011 23.4

2012 27.6

2013 24.8

2014 26.4

2015 27.8

2016 23.2 (18.4 before Saturday. i think the asterisk is necessary for the sake of trend)