Maxconvert

I know everyone has loved to rag on Justin Blatchford as the unathletic white guy DB who doesn't belong on the field, but the guy had a hel of a game in coverage today. Recognize!

I have to say I was very critical of the defense earlier this year, but they really have come on as of late. Yesterday there was much better gang tackling of Bell every time he touched the ball after halftime, so Papuchis must have harped on that in the lockerroom. It was similar to what we saw against Ball in the Wisconsin game. We even shut them down on a 3rd and 1, which we never used to see earlier this season. Our DBs continue to be the strength of the team, and Ciante Evans, Andrew Green, Josh Mitchell have really improved. SJB has the potential to be a really good one. If we can upgrade our D-line, we have the makings of a pretty good unit next year.

So your point is that the risk that a defensive lineman would tip a quick WR screen pass, or a CB would make a break on the ball and intercept it? Those are both possible in theory, but almost never happen when you watch teams that use these plays frequently. First of all, the pass is basically a snap to the QB who is already several yards behind the LOS in the pistol or shotgun. He just catches the ball then throws on a line to the WR, who has stepped back to catch the ball. So you can see that a tipped ball at the line in that circumstance is incredibly difficult--if Nebraska ever ends up playing the Chicago Bears, then I would worry about it. Secondly, you're incredibly downplaying the risk of Taylor throwing an INT during those downfield throws. In fact almost all of Martinez's interceptions this year have come from attempted downfield passes, not short passes/flat passes/WR screens. That's my point, Taylor isn't Drew Brees or Manning back there, his strength not reading a coverage and efficiently going through his progressions to make an accurate pass.

You must not have seen what Bama did to beat LSU Bingo. And not to get too far removed from college football, but the Saints made a living on offense out of screen passes to Pierre Thomas. That was a big yardage play for them the year they won the Super Bowl and Thomas got several TDs from screen passes.

Point is Martinez often makes questionable decisions. Use the WR screen game more often to give him an easy, high-percentage pass while at the same time getting the ball to our most athletic players and make the opposing pass rush think twice about how fast they rush the QB on future plays.

It looked like Stafford did everything he could possibly do to signal it was inadvertent, but of course with the crowd howling for a flag seems like the refs didn't give any benefit of the doubt to him. You could tell they knew they blew the call though, because when MSU hit our guy out of bounds (think it was Abdullah) a few plays later they threw several flags immediately to sort of make it up to us. Not sure what else Stafford could have done. The TV broadcast showed him emphatically trying to explain he was pushed, but to no avail.

Equating screens and draws is a little much--I would agree with you that RB draw plays, particularly out of the shotgun, have become pretty useless in college and pro football. On the other hand, screens have become more evolved and elaborate. Nobody is claiming that screen plays alone are going to "win the game for us", or turn us from this team into Bama or Oregon, but it's a potent weapon to use with the awesome talent we have at WR this year. If our receivers were still Niles Paul and Brandon McKinnie, then yes probably low-upside play. But you're telling me that getting the ball to Jamal Turner, Kenny Bell, Quincy Enunwa, or Ameer Abdullah in the open field doesn't have the very good potential of a big play? Nobody is saying let's just turn this offense into running game and screen passes, but how many times have we seen Beck call passing play with multiple downfield receivers with the pass rush bearing down on Martinez? This is where WR screens would be a much easier pass for Martinez to make without taking the time in which the pass rush could get to him, and then you have the defense trying to deal with our most athletic players in space. I would take that matchup over Martinez going through progressions out of the pocket.

Right, because dangerous flip passes to Kenny Bell in traffic in the red zone at the end of the game is much more his forte?

Taylor was sacked twice for a loss of 29 yards and running for his life on at least half a dozen plays. Statue-QB Maxwell was sacked...never. If Taylor was as slow-footed as statue QB Maxwell, he would have been sacked 6-7 times.

The fact that the lineman didn't have to block anybody doesn't change the fact that it was designed screen. Like you said, LSU was dropped deep to prevent a long pass, so the usual defenders to block weren't there. Anyway not to get into a ticky-tack argument about the Bama play, my point is that there are a lot of ways that screens would be a great weapon for us to quickly get the ball to our best players on offense without putting too much pressure on Martinez to make pinpoint throws into coverage. It's a frequently used tool in spread offenses, so I'm very surprised to see Beck using it so little. Even the "glorified swing pass" that you call the screen in the Bama game I would welcome Beck using more often with Abdullah

Impressed by Quincy Enunwa's toughness in coming back to make big catches and blocks after he gets hurt. Overall as a unit very impressed with our WRs--I can't remember a more talented and dependable WR unit at NU ever. The WRs Bo's first year (Swift, Peterson) had dependable hands, but not the quickness and speed of our guys this year. Their great catches and ability to get open downfield are what saved our seasons in the comeback wins against Northwestern and MSU. All of us remember the brick-handed receivers we had to deal with a few years ago, so it's really something to be thankful for this season. Great job coaching by Fisher. Depressed by Maher's hot/cold kicking. Guess we got spoiled by having both long-range and accurate kicking the last few years. Seems like with Maher we sacrifice accuracy for the long-range big leg.

Not sure what you're basing assertions like this on, when you can flip on a ton of Top 25 teams any given weekend and see screen passes being used effectively, especially WR screens. Hell, watch some NFL this afternoon and count 'em too. Like I said, Stoops and Oklahoma uses them all the time, and usually get a minimum of 5 to 8 yards on one. We don't have many runs that yield that kind of yardage, yesterday most runs were going for 0 to 3 yards on average if you don't count the two long Taylor runs on the zone read. WR screens force DBs to play off of WRs, which keeps WRs from getting jammed and thereby getting them a first step. Also, the game-winning pass in the alabama game to TJ Yeldon was indeed a screen pass. Here's the highlight --go to the end of the video for the play. Notice the two offensive linemen who release early and get ahead of the back for the screen.

Didn't look like the new "speedy" d-line setup with Cam Meredith at DT helped very much yesterday. Maxwell had tons of time to throw on most of his pass attempts from the pocket. On the other hand, Eric Martin was a beast including that play where he blew by the MSU LT on a simple swim move. More of that, please! It's a complete head-scratcher that Bo chose to keep E-Mart on the bench all of last year

Also while we're on the topic, anyone catch the end of the big Alabama-LSU game? Notice the play that put Bama up on the final drive? Yep, you guessed it, a screen pass to the RB

Actually the Blackshirts had three picks in the Michigan game and shut down MSU time and again late in the 4th to allow the comeback to occur. Plus Stafford forced a Bell fumble that the offense did nothing with--three and out. Not to mention T Mart trying to give the game away on the three picks. So have to flip the dislike back

Clearly Stafford got pushed into the MSU receiver during the horrible out of bounds hit call, but Stafford was doing his darndest before the contact to signal that it was inadvertent, by putting up his hands before he made contact with the guy. I've seen guys do this a lot when they think contact is incidental, but it seems like it just draws attention to the play by the refs instead, almost like an admission of guilt. Do refs use body language like this to make their decisions?

Two things--firstly, there are many other types of screens than just the old running back screen that you're describing. Particularly WR screens--bubble screens, jailbreak screens--and even screens to TEs are used to great effect by a lot of offenses similar to ours. Ask Bob Stoops or Chip Kelly whether WR screens are no longer effective because of "the combination of speed and evolved schemes of defense". Actually, screens are a great way to counteract fast aggressive pursuit of defenses, making them slow down and read more. The example you yourself mentioned of Compton batting down a pass is an example--he had back off his QB pursuit and instead sit back to guard against a screen. Making rushers have to think is exactly one of the benefits. Secondly, just because the Huskers try something "once" and it doesn't work, that's supposed to mean the whole play is ineffective? If Beck just tried to run between the tackles once and it resulted in no yardage, then would you also argue to abandon the running game because the one time it was run it wasn't effective?

Save the "my god" for some of the other ridiculous threads. It's been a recurring theme that our OTs have struggled in pass protection. Notice how many times Martinez was trying to desperately look downfield while he was sprinting away from the pass rush? How many times did Maxwell have that problem? Anyway my point is not to revisit why/how Moore left, but rather how to shore up the weak tackle pass protection this season

You guys are incredible. "It was a bad call, disregarding that either we get the go ahead touchdown or they get a penalty." THEN IT ISN'T A BAD CALL. You take one on one matchups between your best receiver in the end zone all day, every day, no matter which team you are. Umm..you're misunderstanding what I meant by "call". I meant it was a bad call by the ref, obviously I was complementing Beck on the playcall

happy to keep beating it Anyway, I hope we just learn to start chipping the better pass rushing DEs with backs or TEs more. Abdullah needs to improve as well, he missed some blitzers completely.

Understood, but it's the man's job to keep up with rules of the game. I mean come on, announcing is a joke of a job compared to what most of us have to do to make a living, and the guy can't even take the time to brush up on basic rules changes? The emphasis on protection of hits to the head and detecting/treating concussions has been going on for several years now, just cause it wasn't like that in the "good ole' days" doesn't mean it was just invented today.

We do use play-action, but agree that the tight-end streak or post route out of the I-formation has gone the way of the dinosaur. In Frank Solich's day we lived off that stuff. IMO it's partly due to the fact that Kyler Reed is such a liability blocking, so we don't use him as much of an in-line TE. Seems like when he's in, he's always lined up in the slot or wide just like a WR. Also we line up in the I-formation like 10% of the time now, so not a lot of opportunities. This offense is firmly a spread shotgun/pistol set offense now.

Wasn't impressed by 'em. The most annoying was the first half play when Taylor took a direct shot to the face from a blitzing MSU linebacker, after MSU got penalized, the announcers were all "WTF, can't the players just play football?" Replay clearly showed Taylor's helmet jerking backwards from the force of the hit to the head that he took after he had already released the ball. Even after they reviewed the replay, one of the two was like "yeah it's frustrating to not be able to play usual football, but you just gotta know the rules". Idiot.

I would say probably Taylor for his leadership and gutty throws in the fourth, but how about Quincy Enunwa? Made some clutch receptions in the fourth, even after it looked like he was badly hurt a few plays before. Also Jean-Baptiste actually plays with pretty good technique, just hasn't been great at timing the arrival of the ball. He'll get better though...think he'll be a stud DB next year given his technique and height

What packages are those, especially when TMart has thrown some shaky passes and our O-line isn't stopping the other team's pass rush? The screen game is a great counterpunch--relatively easy pass to make, quick, and puts the ball in the hands of our most talented players on offense. I'll take that over Martinez scrambling for his life towards the sideline in hopes of making a last-second pass on the run.