4th and 8

[lo country]

Watching the clip from the view point of Stanley, Young does what he has done all year.  Takes himself out of the play by running into a pile ie Mo and Sargent. Something he has shown an uncanny knack for.  He hesitates and stops.  He could've got the sack or forced a throw....He did neither.  What Shanle tweeted makes sense.  The announcers also talked about running hard to push the safety deep and then cutting back.  Not defending Reed 100%, but that was not all on him.  Similar play on 4th when the receiver beats Neal for a 7-8 yrd gain when Neal was playing about 10-12 yrds off.  No idea why we do that.  Did the same under Diaco......On a scary note, a Husker (maybe Ferguson) when asked about the transition from Diaco to Chin siad it was easy as he ran the same system as Diaco......MAYBE Diaco's failure here was a talent issue also........

 

[gobiggergoredder]

Watching the clip from the view point of Stanley, Young does what he has done all year.  Takes himself out of the play by running into a pile ie Mo and Sargent. Something he has shown an uncanny knack for.  He hesitates and stops.  He could've got the sack or forced a throw....He did neither.  What Shanle tweeted makes sense.  The announcers also talked about running hard to push the safety deep and then cutting back.  Not defending Reed 100%, but that was not all on him.  Similar play on 4th when the receiver beats Neal for a 7-8 yrd gain when Neal was playing about 10-12 yrds off.  No idea why we do that.  Did the same under Diaco......On a scary note, a Husker (maybe Ferguson) when asked about the transition from Diaco to Chin siad it was easy as he ran the same system as Diaco......MAYBE Diaco's failure here was a talent issue also........

It’s way easier to say Chins blew it.

 

[krc1995]

I wonder if Frost outsmarted himself by calling the timeout with 40 seconds left.  I honestly think Ferentz would have let the clock wind down and tried a miracle FG or punted the ball away.  I love Frost's aggressiveness and wanting to always get the ball back to his offense, but in this instance it wasn't the smart approach.

I agree with this. It’s a learning curve for Frost too. 

 

[Packerhuskerfan]

Horrible play for the Huskers. I think Scott calling a timeout was bad as well.  I feel like the Hawks would have tried a long fg or punted instead had Frost not called a time out.

 

[olddominionhusker]

 

[Jason Sitoke]

You're both right.

 

[lo country]

I thought I'd post this here instead of in a new thread......It's an excerpt from a beat writer in Iowa. If true......we got some great arm chair DC's on this board!

Often I post the opinion of another here, but this is a summation from the Iowa postgame room put together by the Cedar Rapids Gazette of that fourth-and-8 the Hawkeyes picked up at the end of the game. 

The Hawkeyes were looking for a “look,” meaning Stanley needed to see the Huskers in a certain defense or he was going to call another timeout.

They got the “look.” Nebraska was in single-high safety. Safety Antonio Reed lined up over Hockenson, who was in the slot. The open door was Reed lining up 14 yards off the line of scrimmage on a fourth-and-8.

 Iowa got the “look,” and managed to poker face it.

Pretty good article. The rest is here.

https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/Article/Nebraska-Huskers-football-finishes-2018-season-at-Iowa-Hawkeyes-hopes-for-exciting-2019-season-under-head-coach-Scott-Frost-125313115/

Complete post from the Gazette.  Hoping Chin reads this......No reason to give a 15 yrd cushion for an 8 yrd first down....

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/hawkeyes/iowa-football/iowa-nebraska-football-nate-stanley-fourth-down-tj-hockenson-20181123

 

[MichiganDad3]

I thought I'd post this here instead of in a new thread......It's an excerpt from a beat writer in Iowa. If true......we got some great arm chair DC's on this board!

Often I post the opinion of another here, but this is a summation from the Iowa postgame room put together by the Cedar Rapids Gazette of that fourth-and-8 the Hawkeyes picked up at the end of the game. 

The Hawkeyes were looking for a “look,” meaning Stanley needed to see the Huskers in a certain defense or he was going to call another timeout.

They got the “look.” Nebraska was in single-high safety. Safety Antonio Reed lined up over Hockenson, who was in the slot. The open door was Reed lining up 14 yards off the line of scrimmage on a fourth-and-8.

 Iowa got the “look,” and managed to poker face it.

Pretty good article. The rest is here.

https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/Article/Nebraska-Huskers-football-finishes-2018-season-at-Iowa-Hawkeyes-hopes-for-exciting-2019-season-under-head-coach-Scott-Frost-125313115/

Complete post from the Gazette.  Hoping Chin reads this......No reason to give a 15 yrd cushion for an 8 yrd first down....

How pitiful that the opposition knew they could get the 1st down if we played that stupid scheme.

 

[DefenderAO]

How pitiful that the opposition knew they could get the 1st down if we played that stupid scheme.

Now that is nothing to do with talent.  Hoping Chin REALLY reflects this off-season.  We got zero turnovers and gave up critical yards/downs.  We seemed to beg the worst 3rd-and-long D I remember ever watching.

 

[Mierin]

How pitiful that the opposition knew they could get the 1st down if we played that stupid scheme.

Now that is nothing to do with talent.  Hoping Chin REALLY reflects this off-season.  We got zero turnovers and gave up critical yards/downs.  We seemed to beg the worst 3rd-and-long D I remember ever watching.

Could be he learns (I think there is potential for that since he's new as a DC). Could be we get good enough that some of his weaknesses are covered up (due to not being in as many close games) until they're exposed again in championship games.

Complete post from the Gazette.  Hoping Chin reads this......No reason to give a 15 yrd cushion for an 8 yrd first down....

We were also playing too far off during MSU's last or 2nd to last drive and got lucky that he dropped the ball. Maybe the drop prevented us from learning not to do that again...

 

[Hunter94]

some good thoughts and comments here.......room for improvement, hope Chin watches a lot of film this off season.

 

[Enhance]

Are we certain this was a 'Chin made a mistake' vs. Reed or another member of the defense not doing what they were supposed to? Perhaps I missed something in the thread.

Ultimately, it's Chin's responsibility to make the right defensive call and put his players in position to succeed, but the narrative here is tilted in favor of it being a poor schematic choice by Chin. Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something in an article or if Chin talked about it somewhere.

 

[wiuhusker]

I personally like the blitz call on 4th down. Should Reed have been pressed up? I think so. It's a zero blitz and you know the ball will be out quick. That's part of the learning curve though. 

I understand Chin gets a lot of criticism for this year. There's room for improvement no doubt. To me this is a defense that will be built around TO and giving our offense extra possessions. Somewhere in the ballpark of 21-27 ppg and this team should routinely be a 10 win squad. 

Think about it, every game we lost this year other than Troy the team reached the 30s. He also took over one of the worst defenses in school history which showed improvement over the course of the year. Which is all you can really ask for year 1. 

 

[Husker in WI]

Are we certain this was a 'Chin made a mistake' vs. Reed or another member of the defense not doing what they were supposed to? Perhaps I missed something in the thread.

Ultimately, it's Chin's responsibility to make the right defensive call and put his players in position to succeed, but the narrative here is tilted in favor of it being a poor schematic choice by Chin. Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something in an article or if Chin talked about it somewhere.

A former LB (Shanle I think?) actually blamed Young on twitter - looks like he was manned up on the RB who picked up Barry, and he hesitates instead of blitzing as soon as he saw the RB stay in. An extra blitzer could have at least rushed the throw, but it did seem a bit harsh to me. I also can't find the tweet at the moment, so either I have the wrong guy or it's been deleted. Frost did say "we gave a little too much ground in one spot" while also saying he thought we were in the right defense, so could've been an alignment error on Reed's part as well.

All in all, I'm ok with the call. I'm pretty confident Hockenson or Fant would have found a hole if we played zone, so I think blitzing is the way to go. Maybe pressing would have been better, maybe Hockenson beats Reed at the line and converts on a slant with the middle of the field wide open. If we could rush with 4 maybe play it safer, but we hadn't done that all year.

As they've said all year, it's the little things that change games. I would guess it's both an alignment error on Reed (maybe that was right for a normal situation, but I would think alignments adjust on 3rd/4th and 8) and not perfect execution by Young. You can maybe get away with one small mistake on the play, not two.

 

[schriznoeder]

A former LB (Shanle I think?) actually blamed Young on twitter - looks like he was manned up on the RB who picked up Barry, and he hesitates instead of blitzing as soon as he saw the RB stay in. An extra blitzer could have at least rushed the throw, but it did seem a bit harsh to me. I also can't find the tweet at the moment, so either I have the wrong guy or it's been deleted. Frost did say "we gave a little too much ground in one spot" while also saying he thought we were in the right defense, so could've been an alignment error on Reed's part as well.

All in all, I'm ok with the call. I'm pretty confident Hockenson or Fant would have found a hole if we played zone, so I think blitzing is the way to go. Maybe pressing would have been better, maybe Hockenson beats Reed at the line and converts on a slant with the middle of the field wide open. If we could rush with 4 maybe play it safer, but we hadn't done that all year.

As they've said all year, it's the little things that change games. I would guess it's both an alignment error on Reed (maybe that was right for a normal situation, but I would think alignments adjust on 3rd/4th and 8) and not perfect execution by Young. You can maybe get away with one small mistake on the play, not two.

Here's the tweet...