Jason Sitoke

+1000! Not on Beck at all. We can make hay with these passes, if Taylor would see the frickin' underneath man way open RIGHT in front of him. Someone pound that into Taylor's head. Hell. Just make Burkhead the #1 read. bullsh#t!!! Beck has seen what we've seen. Taylor NEVER looks off his primary receiver. Why was tonight gonna be any different?

Game is not over. However, Corey Raymond is officially on notice. The secondary looks scared to put their hands on these receivers. I was apprehensive over the fall when I heard Raymond saying 'technique has got to change. You can't be too physical and risk PI calls'. bullsh#t!!!! Make the officials call it. Put your hands on these guys!! I'm looking at you Evans and Green! Martinez is not going to lead us anywhere this year unless he can learn to look off his primary receiver. C'mon guys, how many times do they show the replay of an incompletion or interception and you see our TE wide open on a corner route or Burkhead in the flat? And, I'm sorry. D-Line is getting NO pressure, even when the secondary gives them 5-6 seconds. Crick is NOT repeatedly double teamed, and he is NOT over powering the guard. I expect to see a lot of Eric Martin in the second half because Wilson is picking us apart.

Corso gets a bad rap. He is the best Nebraska prognosticator. In 2002, we rolled Arizona St. at home, and Corso came out in the post-game and said that this was the demise of Nebraska, and how Solich flat out is not getting the athletes that Nebraska used to get. We went 7-7 that year and went nearly a decade without being nationally relevant.

Seriously? Seriously. I thought he looked pretty rattled against OU and aTm, injuries aside.

You need to rewatch Frazier's freshman year if you need to be reminded of the difference. He had a better O Line, but he was a very smooth operator of the option offense from pretty much the beginning.

We also had a MUCH better defense last year. Incredible that it took that many posts for someone to point out the obvious difference between last year and this year.

The OP made a prop bet that he could start a thread that no one would be able to understand.

And what if we run it on the first play for no gain? Seems like you need a contingency plan here.

Seriously?

I always hear that every position is a competition from our head coach.

I believe #1 is easily accomplished, if it's a priority. What will suffer though is how quickly the ends get into the backfield. I've been a bit disappointed in the DLine, but the pressure scheme is more about collapsing the pocket than simply beating your man into the backfield. I think #5 and #2 are the tallest tasks.

I was thinking the same. They're just so damn good. You can beat them in any way possible, including scoreboard, and they still find a way to win. Heart of a champion.

O/U 10 times that the camera focuses on Bo Pelini after an NU penalty hoping to catch him in a fit of homicidal rage.

Apparently, neither do I. I observed people saying Crick was underrated, based on stats. I then criticized those the assumption made by those, based on understanding how we use a 2 gap scheme, and understanding that what the Crick/Suh combo did was abnormal. Then, the assertion was made that I was pulling it out of my ass. And here we are. Your completly right, and its not an opinion.. its fact. The coaches have said it over and over again, its the scheme we run. Bo decides when to let loose the D line and when not too. Its more about containment and holding up blockers so they cant get to the second level which allows our LBers to run free. I initally thought he was being sarcastic when he said... whats a 2 gap? but apparently not. I dont know why people dont get it, we have never had emense pressure on the QB under Pelini, we have gotten all our pressure in the past from our secondary in coverage. This year 3-5 steps and out, last couple of years 3-5 steps...covered covered covered, sack or thrown away, incomplete. The defense is designed to take away the big play, not go crazy bowl over a double team, rip the QBS facemask off (sometime when necessary) but not every play. Pelini makes them earn it 5 yards at a time, they drive 10-12 plays kick a field goal or score a touchdown, have fun doing that all game. A dropped pass or a TFL and you fall right into our defensive strategy....and your done. Seems like only a few on here have picked up on this. I guess ive read alot of articles about pelinis D strategy, but still its pretty evident if you watch the game and not look at the stats sheet. We have seen this for 4 years afterall. once our secondary gets better in coverage the Dline will get more time to get sacks....simple as that. He was being sarcastic. Notice that he never said anything about the pass rush. As far as I understand, 2 gap responsibility means that each D lineman is responsible for playing 2 GAPS. Which means they can't just shoot through like in a single gap D like the Tampa 2 and get in the backfield. In this scheme, however, the DTs are supposed to be responsible playing the run and hold their position. I don't feel they've done that very effectively. So I say 'Crick has underperformed' and you say '2-Gap', and that's checkmate, I guess. Interesting. You are right, but have you noticed all the tinkering that Bo is doing? Look at how far off the ball the DL is lining up, game by game, and even versus last year. Look at the different looks and alignments he's been putting the D in. It's not fair (or smart) to sum up someones carrer in 3 early games of the season. Crick has been damn good the last 2 years. Last year, he had comparable stats to Suh's Junior year. Calling him underrated, IMO, is incorrect. Let's see how he plays Saturday. That's fine, but once again, I'm not summing up anyone's career. I simply said he's underperformed IMO, and I made the assumption that we were speaking of what we've seen so far this year. I'm really not even saying he's overrated. I think he's a dynamic player. Big, strong, agile, fast. However, I expected to see him handle the run better as a whole, and have not seen that.

Apparently, neither do I. I observed people saying Crick was underrated, based on stats. I then criticized those the assumption made by those, based on understanding how we use a 2 gap scheme, and understanding that what the Crick/Suh combo did was abnormal. Then, the assertion was made that I was pulling it out of my ass. And here we are. Your completly right, and its not an opinion.. its fact. The coaches have said it over and over again, its the scheme we run. Bo decides when to let loose the D line and when not too. Its more about containment and holding up blockers so they cant get to the second level which allows our LBers to run free. I initally thought he was being sarcastic when he said... whats a 2 gap? but apparently not. I dont know why people dont get it, we have never had emense pressure on the QB under Pelini, we have gotten all our pressure in the past from our secondary in coverage. This year 3-5 steps and out, last couple of years 3-5 steps...covered covered covered, sack or thrown away, incomplete. The defense is designed to take away the big play, not go crazy bowl over a double team, rip the QBS facemask off (sometime when necessary) but not every play. Pelini makes them earn it 5 yards at a time, they drive 10-12 plays kick a field goal or score a touchdown, have fun doing that all game. A dropped pass or a TFL and you fall right into our defensive strategy....and your done. Seems like only a few on here have picked up on this. I guess ive read alot of articles about pelinis D strategy, but still its pretty evident if you watch the game and not look at the stats sheet. We have seen this for 4 years afterall. once our secondary gets better in coverage the Dline will get more time to get sacks....simple as that. He was being sarcastic. Notice that he never said anything about the pass rush. As far as I understand, 2 gap responsibility means that each D lineman is responsible for playing 2 GAPS. Which means they can't just shoot through like in a single gap D like the Tampa 2 and get in the backfield. In this scheme, however, the DTs are supposed to be responsible playing the run and hold their position. I don't feel they've done that very effectively. So I say 'Crick has underperformed' and you say '2-Gap', and that's checkmate, I guess. Interesting.

What is this '2-gap' you speak of? Clearly you know more than anyone here. I don't expect Crick and Steinkuhler to be racking up sacks. What I do expect is for them to hold their ground in the run game. Instead, particularly against Fresno St., I could tell from the minute the ball was handed off that the play was going to go for 10+ right up the middle because the middle of our DLine was moved off the ball. If we can agree that Nebraska has been fairly inept against the run AND if we can agree that LaVonte David is a pretty good player, then we'd also have to agree that some of that responsibility falls on the interior DLineman. We can't blame Fisher for everything. See my above post. But, clearly you know more than Bo and Carl, so I guess there's no need to. They' haven't been amazing that's for sure, but they're far from terrible. I also expect us to actually play on the ball this week, not 1 yard back like we have been. This isn't a 'terrible, amazing' thread. It's an overrated, underrated. Opposing offenses have not shied away from running at his side, and they've gotten some pretty decent production out of it. I think that is reason to believe that he isn't quite meeting expectations (fair or unfair). And no, I do not know more than the NU coaching staff about football. I guess I have no right to observe and rightly criticize what I see. Brilliant.

This has got me concerned. Pelini has come out saying that the DBs are playing soft. He wants them to be aggressive, 'get their hands on receivers'. It seems I remember in Fall camp hearing Corey Raymond talk about how the technique has got to change. That you've got to keep your hands off the receivers or you'll get flagged. I remember thinking 'oh great. Out of all the things we need to address, the last thing on the list should be how our DBs cover.' We came out of a pass happy conference and pretty much changed the way that teams scheme against the spread. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, and I know that we also replaced 3 really good secondary guys this year, but I just couldn't help but think it as I watched Cooper try and dance with receivers all day against Wyoming instead of getting in their grill and taking away their position.

What is this '2-gap' you speak of? Clearly you know more than anyone here. I don't expect Crick and Steinkuhler to be racking up sacks. What I do expect is for them to hold their ground in the run game. Instead, particularly against Fresno St., I could tell from the minute the ball was handed off that the play was going to go for 10+ right up the middle because the middle of our DLine was moved off the ball. If we can agree that Nebraska has been fairly inept against the run AND if we can agree that LaVonte David is a pretty good player, then we'd also have to agree that some of that responsibility falls on the interior DLineman. We can't blame Fisher for everything.

I don't know about overrated or underrated. I'd say Crick as been pretty underwhelming, along with Ciante Evans and Sean Fisher. Give me Abdullah, Choi, and Enunwa as guys who have pleasantly surprised me so far.

And we will weep for him..............in the press.

This crap about how we're going to see a whole new offensive gameplan on Saturday is getting tired. Even if you believe that (I don't), how could you possibly be optimistic about it considering that this offense seems to have trouble executing the 'vanilla' gameplans up to this point against a preseason schedule? Hope springs eternal however, and what I'm clinging to is the fact that this is a young team, and while a young team can make you crazy with flaky performances, they can also look all-world for stretches when things come together. I'm hoping for one of those moments on Saturday. Huh? We're averaging over 40 pts a game even with a brand new scheme and OC. Even with our defense on the field most of the game due to not stopping anybody on 3rd downs. What results would it take for our offense to not be "trouble" to you? A TD every single possession for every single game? If you do not have the qualitative skills to analyze what you see, instead of simply saying "we scored 40 so things are cool", then fine. I'm not going to waste time arguing with you if you think the offense is a humming machine at this point.

This crap about how we're going to see a whole new offensive gameplan on Saturday is getting tired. Even if you believe that (I don't), how could you possibly be optimistic about it considering that this offense seems to have trouble executing the 'vanilla' gameplans up to this point against a preseason schedule? Hope springs eternal however, and what I'm clinging to is the fact that this is a young team, and while a young team can make you crazy with flaky performances, they can also look all-world for stretches when things come together. I'm hoping for one of those moments on Saturday.

I predict that we'll be down early, but will show such resolve and determination that we'll win over the Wisconsin fans, who will begin chanting "NEBRASKA! NEBRASKA!" right before we win in dramatic fashion. Just like Rocky IV

Yeah. Ames has the Cy-Hawk trophy. Telling the difference between Ames and Iowa City is like trying to discern which used diaper smells worse.