***The Nebraska Defense - Blackshirts 2023***

Mavric said:
I was curious if our defense was *really* that good or if we had been helped by playing some bad offenses.

Looks like it's still pretty good, even adjusting for opponents.
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I think it is pretty good.  SP+ has the Blackshirts at #8 (but still 6th in the B1G)

1 Michigan

2 Iowa

3 Ohio St

4 Penn St

5 Georgia

6 Wisconsin

7 Alabama

8 Nebraska

9 Florida St

10 Iowa St

11 Notre Dame

12 Texas A&M

13 Texas

14 Clemson

15 UCLA

 
Red Five said:
I think it is pretty good.  SP+ has the Blackshirts at #8 (but still 6th in the B1G)
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Which still makes me wonder if, even attempting to control for opponents, so many bad offenses in the B1G is still skewing the numbers.

I'm not trying to talk down the defense.  I think they have been superb.  But it just makes me wonder if there is a bit of a bubble that might pop.

 
Mavric said:
Which still makes me wonder if, even attempting to control for opponents, so many bad offenses in the B1G is still skewing the numbers.

I'm not trying to talk down the defense.  I think they have been superb.  But it just makes me wonder if there is a bit of a bubble that might pop.
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Interesting. Here are the FPI rankings of B1G offenses and power 5 opponents outside the conference with score and defensive FPI:

Michigan: #2 no power five opponents 

Ohio State: #10 17 points vs Notre Dame (#14)

Penn State: #27 38 points vs West Virginia (#55)

Maryland: #35 42 points vs Virginia (#59)

Purdue: #59 24 points vs Virginia Tech (#69)

Purdue: #59 20 points vs Syracuse (#33)

Illinois: #67 23 points vs Kansas (#56)

Minnesota: #70 13 points vs North Carolina (#76)

Indiana: #74 14 points vs Louisville (#20)

Rutgers: #79 35 points vs Virginia Tech (#69)

Northwestern: #82 14 points vs Duke (#25)

Wisconsin: #86 22 points vs Washington State (#58)

Michigan State: #107 7 points vs Washington (#42)

Nebraska: #116 14 points vs Colorado (#103)

Iowa: #126 13 points vs Iowa State (#32)

Overall I think Nebraska, Iowa, and Michigan State have pumped the overall defensive stats of the B1G, but I also don't think it is full on bubble territory. Honestly, Rutgers offense being on the lower side is probably more indicative of the B1G East keeping offenses a little lower than they might otherwise be capable of reaching. 

 
Mavric said:
Which still makes me wonder if, even attempting to control for opponents, so many bad offenses in the B1G is still skewing the numbers.

I'm not trying to talk down the defense.  I think they have been superb.  But it just makes me wonder if there is a bit of a bubble that might pop.
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We are playing bad offenses, but we are also holding those bad offenses to less than their average.

Only 2 teams all year have had a better offensive output on a yards/play basis vs Nebraska than their season average (CU and MSU).  And we actually held Michigan to their 2nd worst output of the year on a yards/play basis (only Penn St was better).

Opponent average yards/play vs yards/play vs NU

Minnesota 4.90 / 3.64

Colorado 5.34 / 5.89

No Illinois 5.63 / 2.57

La Tech 5.93 / 5.37

Michigan 6.66 / 5.89

Illinois 5.87 / 4.70

Northwestern 4.55 / 4.14

Purdue 5.27 / 3.15

Michigan St 4.85 / 5.36

Maryland 5.86 / 5.82

 
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What in the heck was with our tackling last night?  Guys would be running free, right at the QB. The QB barely moves and they totally whiff tackling air. 
 

We have not seen that all year till now. 

 
Yeah, that QB wasn't dynamic and was susceptible to fumbling with that hand injury, but we couldn't tackle him all night.  I wish Nebraska used Wisconsin's game plan on offense.  They tried like one trick play and were pretty vanilla the rest.  Other than the two fourth down stops when Wisconsin should have kicked FGs, our defense choked most of the night.  If they just played like one of their top games this season, we win.  This and the Michigan State game were particularly disappointing performances.   

 
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BigRedBuster said:
What in the heck was with our tackling last night?  Guys would be running free, right at the QB. The QB barely moves and they totally whiff tackling air. 
 

We have not seen that all year till now. 
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just a continuation of above…….
 

The defense is improved.  I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but………

Maybe they haven’t improved as much as we’ve been led to believe.  Maybe they are not a top tier D.

Is it possible that the offenses have we’ve played are so bad it’s played to the advantages of the defense?  I think about Michigan State and the inability to get to the QB.

They are better.  It’s just a reality check.  What I felt like I saw yesterday was a team that was just got beat by someone better.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
What in the heck was with our tackling last night?  Guys would be running free, right at the QB. The QB barely moves and they totally whiff tackling air. 
 

We have not seen that all year till now. 
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Tackling was definitely off but they've been under tremendous pressure because of our offense. And they still held Wisconsin to 17 points in regulation. Not saying I wasn't a little disappointed, but I also can't say the loss was completely on them.

 
SECHusker said:
Tackling was definitely off but they've been under tremendous pressure because of our offense. And they still held Wisconsin to 17 points in regulation. Not saying I wasn't a little disappointed, but I also can't say the loss was completely on them.
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We held Wisconsin to their 3rd lowest yards/play of the season (4.65).  Only Ohio St and Iowa did better, and they got to play mainly vs Wisconsin's backup QB.

 
Red Five said:
We held Wisconsin to their 3rd lowest yards/play of the season (4.65).  Only Ohio St and Iowa did better, and they got to play mainly vs Wisconsin's backup QB.
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The defense did plenty for us to win, and they have in basically every game but Michigan and Colorado probably (Colorado being questionable as the first half was still really good).  The issue was we did not score at all from the 6 minute mark in the first quarter until 4 seconds to go in the game. 

 
They are the best part of the team, but they don't get many turnovers.  The Wisconsin QB with his bad hand would have probably had a couple fumbles if they could have gotten some good hits on him.  They have trouble getting off the field at times.  Two 3rd and longs in OT.

 
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Run defense right at the top.  Pass defense middle-of-the-road.  Which isn't too bad for Year 1.


 
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