Longtime Husker fan(first game I remember, 71 OU game) who just found this board. Been reading for a while and finally decided to join the fray.
I have one question(or concern), due to other committments I haven't been able to see any of the games this year. How has our pass coverage been. Obviously we had a blown assignment in the VT game, but other that single play I'm wondering how its been. It seems liket the last few years we've been a little supspect in that area. Are our linebackers faster this year so they can add that extra layer of coverage?
Can our front four get enough pressure on him so we don't have to bring our backers? Gabbert sounds like he's the real deal, but does he get happy feet when the pocket is collapsing?
Overall our pass def has been OK. Better than in years past, that's for certain. We are ranked 31st in passing defense right now, but take that with a grain of salt - VT is a run-first offense, and while two of our opponents from the Sun Belt run Spread offenses, only ULL is a pass-first spread (AR State runs from the spread formation for the most part).
With that said, we've seen fewer guys running open downfield than in years past. That O'Hanlon play against VT has been well dissected here and shown that he wasn't as much at fault as you may initially believe. Aside from that play there probably haven't been five more plays where opponents have roamed freely in our backfield.
And let's also remember this - we did not blitz against FAU or ASU, and we barely blitzed against ULL. We had some run blitzes against VT and a couple of pass blitzes, but for the most part we've done what we've done without bringing extra guys. That bodes well for blitz packages against weaker offensive lines like we'll face in the Big 12.