Let's talk scheme

[Syzygyone]

That spread motion running offense USC ran was a powerful thing. It is specifically designed to spred out a defense and confuse linebackers. Hence, your likely first solid defensive contact is in the secondary. It surely did so last night. As the game wears on, the linebackers know less and less what to do. Cover the motion man? Cover the I back? Cover the passing lanes? The team was so spread out IMHO it is way more potent when the DL is stymied and can't penetrate. Outstanding OL for USC.

So, Coz or no Coz, how does a defense deploy to stop it?

One thing I saw, and this actually first appeared in the Wake game, was the outside LB, or DE, would penetrate on a slant, to the middle right from the line and more often than not, get caught out of position to stop a cut back or reverse or counter. Why wouldn't you have the outside man on the line penetrate deeper before closing on the ball?

 

[Eric the Red]

That spread motion running offense USC ran was a powerful thing. It is specifically designed to spred out a defense and confuse linebackers. Hence, your likely first solid defensive contact is in the secondary. It surely did so last night. As the game wears on, the linebackers know less and less what to do. Cover the motion man? Cover the I back? Cover the passing lanes? The team was so spread out IMHO it is way more potent when the DL is stymied and can't penetrate. Outstanding OL for USC.

So, Coz or no Coz, how does a defense deploy to stop it?

One thing I saw, and this actually first appeared in the Wake game, was the outside LB, or DE, would penetrate on a slant, to the middle right from the line and more often than not, get caught out of position to stop a cut back or reverse or counter. Why wouldn't you have the outside man on the line penetrate deeper before closing on the ball?

Not trying to be a jerk, I think there offense is pro style versus a spread. BUt, you bring up interesting points. But you can't even get that detailed with our problems and why we lost. We could have run the 46 defense from the old Bears days or some grand scheme from the great Baltimore Ravens defenses and it wouldn't have mattered one bit. They're bigger, stronger and fast than we were. They could have run "I Iso" all night long and won...............

 

[indianahusker]

I think a little zone D versus the almost exclusive man to man Coz runs would have helped...mayhaps could have at least slowed them down a tad.

 

[Eric the Red]

I think a little zone D versus the almost exclusive man to man Coz runs would have helped...mayhaps could have at least slowed them down a tad.

To me, that's got nothing to do with it....they ran for over 300 yards....this game was determined, as usual, up front....and there big men just steamrolled us................hell they played man so they could bring more men into the box....didn't matter though

 

[strigori]

It had nothing to do with scheme. The D-line got bulldozed. They got pushed around, and no amount of repossitioning players would take into account the fact that we were outmanned.

 

[indianahusker]

So...was NU outmanned by Wake then, too?

Just wondering...if, after 4 years of "great" recruiting, why did NU get manhandled by unranked Wake Forest up front too? Why did Wake run for so many yards? Do they have more talent than NU? I think not.

I'm not saying USC wasn't great. But Coz has consistently bad defenses, against KU, Wake, and many others. Sure, there have been times NU has had good defense (OU...sorta, Auburn). But there have been waaaaay too many times NU hasn't.

 

[Eric the Red]

So...was NU outmanned by Wake then, too?

Just wondering...if, after 4 years of "great" recruiting, why did NU get manhandled by unranked Wake Forest up front too? Why did Wake run for so many yards? Do they have more talent than NU? I think not.

I'm not saying USC wasn't great. But Coz has consistently bad defenses, against KU, Wake, and many others. Sure, there have been times NU has had good defense (OU...sorta, Auburn). But there have been waaaaay too many times NU hasn't.

Defense did awfully well against highly ranked OU and Auburn last year....

No they weren't outmanned against Wake......it was 96 hot and humid degrees and we won...We only let up 17 points. Not to mention 3 INT's and a several goal line stands along with an awesome 4 and out on their last drive. Cos doesn't get any credit there huh???

So when the players play well it's all them, but as when we lose it's all on the coaches......this sounds like my teaching career. Student gets an 'A' they did well.....when they fail, it's the teachers fault

 

[DJR313]

So...was NU outmanned by Wake then, too?

Just wondering...if, after 4 years of "great" recruiting, why did NU get manhandled by unranked Wake Forest up front too? Why did Wake run for so many yards? Do they have more talent than NU? I think not.

I'm not saying USC wasn't great. But Coz has consistently bad defenses, against KU, Wake, and many others. Sure, there have been times NU has had good defense (OU...sorta, Auburn). But there have been waaaaay too many times NU hasn't.

Defense did awfully well against highly ranked OU and Auburn last year....

No they weren't outmanned against Wake......it was 96 hot and humid degrees and we won...We only let up 17 points. Not to mention 3 INT's and a several goal line stands along with an awesome 4 and out on their last drive. Cos doesn't get any credit there huh???

So when the players play well it's all them, but as when we lose it's all on the coaches......this sounds like my teaching career. Student gets an 'A' they did well.....when they fail, it's the teachers fault

:yeah

 

[papersun87]

They never ACTUALLY gave it off on the end-around, did they?

But I was still surprised . . . our linebackers were supposed to be our strength coming in, why not put up, like, a 4-4 and just say to the outside linebacker, "Okay, if they go end-around to YOUR side, then YOU cover him." That way, we still had two or three linebackers in the middle of the field to back up the defensive line . . .

Pssh, I dunno. My NCAA Football Dynasty thinks I'm a great coach.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Our LB's are our weakest point right now and we all thought they would be our strongest point this season. That's very scary............. <_<

 

[indianahusker]

So...was NU outmanned by Wake then, too?

Just wondering...if, after 4 years of "great" recruiting, why did NU get manhandled by unranked Wake Forest up front too? Why did Wake run for so many yards? Do they have more talent than NU? I think not.

I'm not saying USC wasn't great. But Coz has consistently bad defenses, against KU, Wake, and many others. Sure, there have been times NU has had good defense (OU...sorta, Auburn). But there have been waaaaay too many times NU hasn't.

Defense did awfully well against highly ranked OU and Auburn last year....

No they weren't outmanned against Wake......it was 96 hot and humid degrees and we won...We only let up 17 points. Not to mention 3 INT's and a several goal line stands along with an awesome 4 and out on their last drive. Cos doesn't get any credit there huh???

So when the players play well it's all them, but as when we lose it's all on the coaches......this sounds like my teaching career. Student gets an 'A' they did well.....when they fail, it's the teachers fault

So, 2 good games in 4 years? You're missing the point. Coz's defenses have consistently underachieved.

Last I checked, Wake had to play in 96 degrees and high humidity, too.

236 yards rushing...on pretty much the same play, over and over again against a team that had 2 net yards rushing the week before.

Zac Bowman's INT sealed it for NU...on a pass that was gift wrapped for him. Backup QB engineers more total yardage against the blackshirts than NU had on offense.

Did I mention Wake is 1-2?

The point is, Coz hasn't had a good defense since he got here. This staff was brought in to upgrade talent and be better. Statistically, Coz's defenses have been worse since he got here than Pelini's was in the only year he was here.

Isn't 4 years enough to bring in better talent? IMO, it is. Hence, the defense should be better than when he got here. It isn't.

 

[Licensed to Ill]

You'd think 1's vs 1's scrimmages using Nebs shift heavy offense would get Cos ready for USC, but evidently not. I mean, Nebraska has pretty much the same offense as USC.

 

[Marf]

D end contain, Put the LBs in a zone Covering the off tackle gaps, Keep Mckeon in the middle to neutralize the dive, and man or zone coverage on the Receivers, Doesn't really matter which.

 

[Zaimejs]

What he said. Every single time I saw McKeon stunting into the wrong gap and getting taken out of the play. He used to be so good at finding the ball, and now he's just worthless. Ruud is too slow to keep up with anyone... and I think they just plain ran away from Octavien all night. Like I said, I'd like to see some of those plays again, but you can come up with schemes to stop that stuff. Even when Nebraska had super talent and incredibly lines, teams would pony up 8-9 in the box and make us pass. We could still run, but we wouldn't bust 30 yarders all night. That was just crap crap crap calls.

 

[Marf]

What he said. Every single time I saw McKeon stunting into the wrong gap and getting taken out of the play. He used to be so good at finding the ball, and now he's just worthless. Ruud is too slow to keep up with anyone... and I think they just plain ran away from Octavien all night. Like I said, I'd like to see some of those plays again, but you can come up with schemes to stop that stuff. Even when Nebraska had super talent and incredibly lines, teams would pony up 8-9 in the box and make us pass. We could still run, but we wouldn't bust 30 yarders all night. That was just crap crap crap calls.

Thats another thing i noticed. Our Linebackers are making mistakes i generally only see in Junior tackle. They want the TFL, so they pick a gap and hope. That doesn't work against a counter attack like USC was using. We were picking gaps before the USC running back had the ball. He just chose a hole that wasn't filled, and with all the LBs (Except Octavian, they just straight up ran away from him, it was simple to see) stuck in the defensive line, there was nobody but Dbacks to make the stop. Just bad coaching, all there is to it.