O-Line

[chamrocck]

The OL to me is the most critical unit for how we will finish this year.  Last year it seemed we couldn’t protect the QB and HH was running for his life a lot and we had lots of penalties.  This year the pass protection has exceeded my expectations. Raiola has had a lot of time to scan the field and make throws.  Kudos this is much improved.  But at the same time I am perplexed how bad the run blocking has been. I don’t think I have ever seen an OL where the difference in pass blocking vs run blocking is so glaring.  Why is that?

[Mavric]

I'd have to go back and watch some.  But I think part of the problem is we like to run out of heavy sets.  But the problem is that brings more defenders into the box.  So I get the impression we're running straight ahead into a lot of eight-man boxes.

[Red Five]

2 hours ago, chamrocck said:

Last year it seemed we couldn’t protect the QB and HH was running for his life a lot and we had lots of penalties.  This year the pass protection has exceeded my expectations. Raiola has had a lot of time to scan the field and make throws.  Kudos this is much improved.

I don’t know if pass blocking has improved that much or if it’s more Dylan’s pocket presence being 1000x better than HH/Chuba.

[Mavric]

1 hour ago, Red Five said:

I don’t know if pass blocking has improved that much or if it’s more Dylan’s pocket presence being 1000x better than HH/Chuba.

 

I think it's improved pretty significantly.  Dylan also buys more time but he's had very good time to stand in the pocket most of the time.

[BigRedBuster]

12 hours ago, Mavric said:

I'd have to go back and watch some.  But I think part of the problem is we like to run out of heavy sets.  But the problem is that brings more defenders into the box.  So I get the impression we're running straight ahead into a lot of eight-man boxes.

I rewatched the Illinois game and came away with this opinion. So often, our O linemen are blocking someone. But, the play gets blown up by someone from the second level that fills the hole. There just isn’t someone to block them.  

[DefenderAO]

2 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

I rewatched the Illinois game and came away with this opinion. So often, our O linemen are blocking someone. But, the play gets blown up by someone from the second level that fills the hole. There just isn’t someone to block them.  

Running back assignment?

[USDSM Huskerlover]

I agree with Mavric above- when you could tell NU wanted to run, Purdue brought 6+ into the box. I have to admit that I didn't notice when the running success started in the 2nd half if this was because Sat was going against tendency and running out of passing formations or was it because there was better hole selection etc mainly due to EJ playing. 

 

Mazzuccua missing, Prochazka missing, now Corcoran missing. NU is playing guys who weren't supposed to get playing time. I was mainly impressed with Gottula but think that Luto still has some work to do and would much rather have someone who is a big strong run blocker like MM in there. Wish that hadn't gone down like it did. 

 

GO BIG RED!

[BigRedBuster]

2 hours ago, DefenderAO said:

Running back assignment?

The RB has the ball. 

[MyBloodIsRed16]

I think the O-line was run blocking just fine.  Purdues LBs were doing a good job of coming up and fill the holes and making tackles.  I know its an improvement over the last couple of years when RBs were having to make a guy miss in the backfield.  Emmet seems to be the only guy with any kind of vision.  He came in an had some nice runs.  That makes the blocking look a lot better 

[Mavric]

Here are Emmett's runs from yesterday.

 

My box count on the eight carries: 10-8-9-8-7-8-8-8

 

 

[Mavric]

Box count on Dowdell/Rahmir runs: 8-9-10-8-10-8-10-9-11-8-7-7-8

 

Incidentally, the box count was also high on Barney's runs.  Which is why there is room to the outside.

 

 

[Undone]

I agree with you @chamrocck that the pass protection is better.

 

What we're doing is working. Sometimes it's kind of ugly, but it's working.

 

We started to actually see some 4 receivers wide sets this season - well, some of those receivers were tight ends. Maybe with Corcoran out we'll see less of that creeping into the play calls.

 

It is pretty obvious (to me at least) that the staff wants to protect Raiola with the big sets. They don't mind the game being close and we have the guys to stretch it out vertically and laterally if & when we need to.

 

We have this play where Raiola starts to bootleg and then we throw to the flat. That play has been pretty good thus far. I don't care what the crowd says, I think Satterfield has found a decent rhythm. 

[presidentjlh]

To be frank, we were dominant Saturday offensively, our special teams and discipline (plus, let's be real here, some horrible horrible calls by the refs) are why we didn't end up winning 42-10.