USC game perspectives

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

A friend forwarded me this post from another board. It does make some interesting points about the perception being different from being at the game and then rewatching the same game on tv.

 

First off, I just want to say thank you to all the Husker fans who made the trip out to SoCal this week. I haven't seen the estimates from the news

media as to how many people were there, but from being in the stadium, I would guess it was right around 20,000. Pretty solid group considering how far many of you traveled and also that you weren't exactly traveling to the cheapest area in the country. A number of USC fans I spoke with were greatly impressed with the respect and knowledge the Husker fans had, and quite a few Trojans were looking forward to journeying to Lincoln next year as well.

 

Next on the agenda, I was at the game and also came back home today and watched the DVR version this morning. I hadn't really noticed it before, but HOW you watch the game has a big impact on your perception of what happened. On some of the reads today and last night that I've read, it's clear to me that the poster either bought into the hype of the broadcast team or just didn't have a good enough view of the entire field to truly understand what was going on. I quickly noticed that while the TV broadcast gives you a decent idea of what's happening at the line of scrimmage, the viewer is completely lost as to what's occurring in the defensive backfield and down the field in the intermediate range.

 

With that in mind, here are some of my thoughts on the game:

 

1) The Offensive Gameplan: I know this particular area has taken a lot of heat both last night and today, but I thought this was one of the better

packages that Callahan and Crew put together during their tenure here. There were a couple of odd things about it, but overall it was the playing style that gave us the best chance to win. Anyone who was at the game could tell you that it was very evident early on that USC had WAY more talent on the offensive side of the ball than we did, and something was going to have to be done to keep them off the field. The gameplan was executed with this in mind, and for most of the game it worked well. It wasn't the flashiest or sexiest style around, but it did give us the best chance to win and continue winning down the road. Subtract the penalty on Mueller on the first half drive and the costly fumble by Marlon Lucky, and we've got a much closer game than 28-10 at the final tick of the clock.

 

My Criticisms

 

I was a bit confused as to why we didn't try to run Glenn up the middle on 3 and short yardage, rather than trying to run wide with pitches that allowed USC to utilize their team speed. We've shown a willingness to put 34 in on these short yardage situations before, but last night was an exception. The interior offensive line was dominated by USC's front four all of the game, so perhaps this had a bit to do with it. Still, I think you have to at least try Cody Glenn up the middle to see what you get. Also, I was a bit miffed that we didn't try to throw the ball a couple of times on first down, especially early in the game after Terrence Nunn's punt return. My only guess here is that Coach Callahan, being a religious down and distance guy, didn't want to get our guys in third and long situations where PC could turn the dogs loose and create unnecessary turnovers. I kept waiting for the play action toss on first down, but it never seemed to happen.

 

Your Criticisms:

 

Why didn't we throw the ball more, especially in the second half? Guys, I hate to say it, but we didn't have near the advantage in the passing game that everyone thought we would have. Our offensive line was absolutely

dominated by their front four the entire game, and while the TV coverage didn't show it, our receivers were unable to get off the line of scrimmage

and work into open space. Not exactly the greatest combination when you have an offense that's based on timing and only one playable quarterback on roster (yes, I know, the official roster says we have 5, but only two have the talent to run this offense, and one has to sit out no matter what). Had we opened it up more in the passing game, you would have seen some nasty hits on Zac Taylor and even more frustration as thrown balls fell to the turf all night long. Our offense is good, but we still have some work to do molding our personnel to fit the WCO, especially at the wide receiver and offensive line positions. Definitely good enough to win the Big XII North, but not quite ready to compete against the elite units in the land.

Go back and watch the game film if you have it. Notice how many times Zac Taylor had to scramble out of the pocket or check down to a running back in the flat? This was because USC's secondary was doing a fabulous job of covering our passing game and the protection wasn't adequate enough to allow those wideouts to find space in the defensive backfield. With the way USC's front four was dominating our line, it allowed PC and Nick Holt to drop 6 and sometimes 7 men back in coverage to blanket our passing game.

 

For those of you suggesting we should have passed more, I'll present you with the situation Coach C faced in the second half and perhaps you can give me a better solution: your starting center is out, you've got an offensive line that is being dominated in both the passing and running games, and because you can't run the ball, the opposing defense is dropping 7 guys and blanketing your wideouts. Add in the fact that the opposing offense has the best receiver in the country, and they've already put together two 70+ yard scoring drives in the first half. You've only got one real quarterback on roster, and you have to find a way to keep him healthy for the duration of the season. By my account, Coach C was stuck in an unwinnable situation and did the best he could with the hand he was dealt.

 

But on our only touchdown drive, we threw the ball at ease!: Again, I'm not going to fault you guys who watched the game on TV for thinking this, because even when I watched it on replay it looked like we had no problem throwing it on that possession. The reality of the situation in the stadium was that USC went soft with their coverages and starting playing with the mentality that they would give up the short passes without getting beat deep. Remember Nunn's reception on that drive? Three deep coverage that was night and day different from the press that USC was running early in the game. It's easy to throw the ball when the defense was essentially conceding the first 8 yards from the line of scrimmage, but this wasn't the case all night long. For the most part, early on the USC corners were jamming our wideouts at the line and Holt was dropping 6+ in coverage because he didn't have to respect our running game. You have to tip your hat to Taylor Mays, the young freshman safety for USC, and the rest of their secondary for bottling up our wideouts and always being in the right place on their assignments.

 

What we learned on offense

 

Despite calls to the contrary, we learned quite a bit about this group last

night. While we know we have the schemes and intellectual knowledge in place to run the WCO, we quickly realized that we don't yet have the talent level to compete at the highest level. Our offensive line just wasn't up to USC's level and our wideouts had difficulty getting open all night, partly because of USC's physical secondary and partly because USC didn't have to respect the run, allowing blanket coverage schemes to slow down our wideouts. Matt Herian, while still being a very reliable pass catcher, in my mind, looked at least two steps slower than he used to be, if not more, and it showed in his routes the entire night (especially on his one catch inside the 10).

We've got a QB who has a good head on his shoulders, manages the game very well and doesn't let frustration turn him into a turnover machine. We have more than enough to win the Big XII North, and stay in the top 20, but if we're going to get back to the elite level, we need to continue getting more talented personnel in our system at some key positions. My guess here is that you'll see a lot more from Nicks, Purify, et al. as they continue to learn the WCO and much like last year, this team will be leaps and bounds better by the bowl game than they are right now.

 

2) The Defensive Gameplan: In my mind, right now the Blackshirts are a unit without a clear identity. What we know is that our front four is one of the best lines in the nation. Last night, they were able to jam up the USC

offensive flow, and while they didn't register a lot of sacks, they were

able to disrupt a number of plays by batting balls down or penetrating into the USC backfield (kudos to Barry Cryer and Suh especially). What we don't know is how to pair that front four with the rest of our personnel. We've got adequate linebackers and while they're not the most athletic or gifted bunch, they do play assignment football. Problem is they don't match up well with great skill players and this left us exposed last night. Our secondary is brutal right now, the victim of injuries and inexperience. This is going to be the toughest area to fix, because only time and teaching can help here, neither of which we can artificially produce. If we're going to get back to the days of owning the opposing offense, especially at the top levels, we're going to have to establish an identity. Right now it appears we have a mismatched personnel group between our linebackers and our secondary, and we need to find a defensive philosophy that allows us to make the best of what we have.

 

My Criticisms

 

I'm afraid that while most of you have questioned the offensive coaches in this game, I'm going to turn my attention to the other side of the ball.

Great defenses don't allow three scoring drives over 70 yards in one game. Heck, even good defenses don't allow that. I won't discount the fact that we were playing a top notch offense, but while the overall gameplan was okay given our inadequacies, I thought there were a few key situations where our defensive staff flat out blew it. The first that comes to mind is the 3rd and 21 late in the first half. This was a perfect example of a defense that has no identity, no philosophy with regard to how it wants to play. What in the world were our safeties doing up near the line of scrimmage and then not blitzing? Bottom line is you either have to bring the house and force a short completion or you have to drop 7 and double the playmakers for USC.

Anybody want to tell me what Charlie McBride or Mickey Andrews would have done there? My guess is that they blitz the house and force a short completion. Heck, even if you want to drop into coverage, at least you

should probably protect your undersized corner covering the best receiver in the nation with double coverage. Instead, we leave him out there one on one and DJ uses him for a first down, which led to a TD shortly after, costing us at least 4 points, possibly more.

I thought maybe this was just a one time occurrence, but then I watch in

horror as it repeats itself in the 4th quarter, as DJ does it on 2nd and 20, leading to yet another USC touchdown. By my account, that poor defensive scheming cost us at least 8 points in this game. If you don't have the talent to match up with USC's receivers, then you have to find a way to help your corners against Dwayne Jarrett. Why in God's name you let the best receiver in the nation go against your corners one-on-one is beyond me, and it cost us all game long. Dwayne Jarrett is a big time receiver, and no matter what he was going to get his. Problem was, too often in big situations we still allowed him to catch the ball without having to really work for it, and that was a direct result of poor playcalling and execution.

 

Please heaven, don't ever let me see Bo Ruud roll off another block again. I know much has been made of his soft tackling style, but what pissed me off more than anything is how he rolls off blocks in the hole. Go back and watch the film again, and you'll see a linebacker who doesn't meet lead blocks square in the hole. Heck, he doesn't even try to use his hands to shed the blocks. Instead, he turns his shoulders sideways and does everything he can to avoid head-to-head contact. It doesn't do a lot of good to know your assignment if you can't physically fill the gap. This isn't how you play linebacker, and it's sure not going to get him in the NFL like some RSSers have suggested. If you don't like the reckless abandon of Octavien, fine; give me Lance Brandenburgh anytime. He plays linebacker the way it was meant to be played, namely physical, nasty and with the intention of hurting somebody when he arrives at the ball. Then you can bring Bo in for obvious passing situations, where he won't have to worry about meeting a fullback in

the hole.

 

Cortney Grixby will be the nickel corner next year when Bowman comes back healthy, and may find himself in the fourth spot if we can get a quality JUCO guy or any of the young guys progress. I'm not questioning his heart or his effort, because both are there every game, but he just doesn't have the size or talent to compete at a high D-1 level. Every receiver USC threw at him owned him all night long, and he appears to have lost a great deal of his confidence. His size is a liability in the short passing game, and he isn't all that adept on the deep routes either (see Steve Smith and the double move that should have been a TD). With inexperienced safeties behind him, if I was an offensive coordinator I'd throw his way all game long and make sure that I put my best receiver over there, because you've got an instant mismatch all day. That type of a problem limits the playcalling of the defensive coordinator, and you never want to take options off the table because of your personnel, but right now, we're doing it.

 

Had Coach C not kept the clock moving and USC's offense off the field,

Kiffin and Co. could have named their score. They simply had more athletes in the skill positions than our linebackers or secondary could handle, and I think that everyone on the defensive staff should be thanking Callahan for being a man and taking the heat that comes with running the rock so much, because had he not, it could have gotten ugly for our D.

 

Your Criticisms

 

Why don't we play bump and run coverage instead of letting them get a free release? Truth be told, I've thought a great deal about this and it all goes back to mismatched personnel and a lack of an identity. We certainly have the high pressure defensive line to play bump and run, but the problem is we lack the secondary to do so. Please tell me how Cortney Grixby is going to play bump on the bigger receivers? Heck, even Andre Jones would struggle bumping the biggest bodies. If I was Dwayne Jarrett or even a Todd Blythe, I would laugh if I saw #2 across the line trying to bump me. Especially with green safeties, putting our CB's in bump coverage would only expose our defense more. Of course, the flip side of that is we don't exactly have the personnel to run a cover-2, or any other type of the more cerebral zones. Zone defense requires fast linebackers (see Tampa Bay or Indy) to cover wide zones, which we don't have, and it also requires a lot of sound technical play from the safety positions, where we have very little experience. Right now, we've got a great front four that has the ability to create pressure, we just don't have the talent behind it to back it up.

 

What we learned on defense

 

Hold on to your hats folks. We've got enough talent on the line to shut down running attacks and our linebacking corps is good enough to play adequate against passing offenses. We'll continue to struggle against playmakers in the passing game, until we get everyone healthy or some of the younger guys establish themselves as the season progresses. We still need to recruit more athletic personnel at the linebacker position, and we need to pray that the DB's from this last class and the class of 2007 develop quickly.

 

For those of you thinking the game was never winnable because of Callahan's gameplan, let's play the "what if game":

 

What if Josh Mueller isn't called for holding in the first half, negating a

big gain down to the USC 22 yard line? Most likely we get at least a field

goal, making it 7-6 at that point in time.

 

What if we don't make a boneheaded defensive call and allow Dwayne Jarrett a first down on 3rd and 21 late in the first half? Again, we probably avoid the TD and USC settles for a field goal, making it 10-6 at the half.

 

What if Cortney Grixby or Andre Jones intercepts the ball on USC's first

possession of the first half? Worst case, we get a field goal after stalling

out to make the game 10-9.

 

What if Marlon Lucky doesn't fumble the ball in our opening possession of the first half? Well, for starters USC doesn't put a touchdown up

immediately and at worst, we continue to run the clock before punting. Since the only way this possession occurs is because of the Grixby and Jones drops, we'll assume that the score remains 10-6 because we never got the field goal to 10-9.

 

What if Andrew Shanle doesn't drop the ill-advised pass from Patrick Turner and instead intercepts it? USC never scores the fourth touchdown, and the game remains either 10-6 or 10-9.

 

Granted, it's always tough to prognosticate on what might have happened, but these events all had nothing to do with Coach Callahan's "gameplan" and yet by my accounting, they all cost us at minimum a combined 21 points, which brings the game a lot closer than the final score would indicate. This isn't to say we would have won, but it wouldn't have been an 18 point spread as it ended up.

 

Where do we stand now?

 

Well, by my estimation, we played fairly well against a very talented USC squad at their home stadium. We've shown a great deal of progress, evidenced both by the final score and also by what we've witnessed thus far in the season.

 

Are we at the elite, top 10 level yet? Not by a long shot. Are we good

enough to win the Big XII North? Absolutely, provided that we can avoid the injury bug and our inexperienced guys continue to develop. Most importantly, even the most cynical fan can see that we've progressed a great deal since the beginning of last year, when I shudder to think what USC would have done to us.

 

We've been hit by the injury bug at some key spots (Bowman, Fluellen, and Dillard, plus the deceleration of Matt Herian), but all in all, we've still

got a team that belonged on the same field as the top program in college

football over the past five years. We're not there yet, but we're well on

our way. Look forward to the rest of the season, and try to manage your

expectations. While I think we'll win the North, don't be surprised to see

some close games and possibly even two losses in Big XII play. Texas will give us fits with their wideouts, and Iowa State will too with Blythe, Davis and Flynn. A&M may tease us a bit, but I don't think they have the necessary components to beat us, even at Kyle Field. The rest all look like winnable games provided we don't have any more injuries at the key positions.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

[gamecocks]

Good post.

[Glass]

That was a great read. Very insightful. Thanks.

[Eric the Red]

Please heaven, don't ever let me see Bo Ruud roll off another block again. I know much has been made of his soft tackling style, but what pissed me off more than anything is how he rolls off blocks in the hole. Go back and watch the film again, and you'll see a linebacker who doesn't meet lead blocks square in the hole. Heck, he doesn't even try to use his hands to shed the blocks. Instead, he turns his shoulders sideways and does everything he can to avoid head-to-head contact. It doesn't do a lot of good to know your assignment if you can't physically fill the gap. This isn't how you play linebacker, and it's sure not going to get him in the NFL like some RSSers have suggested. If you don't like the reckless abandon of Octavien, fine; give me Lance Brandenburgh anytime. He plays linebacker the way it was meant to be played, namely physical, nasty and with the intention of hurting somebody when he arrives at the ball. Then you can bring Bo in for obvious passing situations, where he won't have to worry about meeting a fullback in

the hole.

 

If possible, you may come over to my house and break down film with my other buddy, which it appears all coach football. This is the way things are done.

[GR8NUFAN]

Very well thought out post. What board did you find that at? I would love to read more posts by the author. He really seems to have it nailed.

 

I was also at the game, and just fnished watching my DVR copy after returning home from LA. It looked better on TV then it did in person............ The talent gap was wider than I was hoping to see. BUT, it has only been a couple of years for BC. We are improving!

[DJR313]

Please heaven, don't ever let me see Bo Ruud roll off another block again. I know much has been made of his soft tackling style, but what pissed me off more than anything is how he rolls off blocks in the hole. Go back and watch the film again, and you'll see a linebacker who doesn't meet lead blocks square in the hole. Heck, he doesn't even try to use his hands to shed the blocks. Instead, he turns his shoulders sideways and does everything he can to avoid head-to-head contact. It doesn't do a lot of good to know your assignment if you can't physically fill the gap. This isn't how you play linebacker, and it's sure not going to get him in the NFL like some RSSers have suggested. If you don't like the reckless abandon of Octavien, fine; give me Lance Brandenburgh anytime. He plays linebacker the way it was meant to be played, namely physical, nasty and with the intention of hurting somebody when he arrives at the ball. Then you can bring Bo in for obvious passing situations, where he won't have to worry about meeting a fullback in

the hole.

 

If possible, you may come over to my house and break down film with my other buddy, which it appears all coach football. This is the way things are done.

Funny you say that, because that was one of the criticisms of his brother before the NFL draft, that he doesn't shed blocks well or blow through them.

[kc_husker]

Please heaven, don't ever let me see Bo Ruud roll off another block again. I know much has been made of his soft tackling style, but what pissed me off more than anything is how he rolls off blocks in the hole. Go back and watch the film again, and you'll see a linebacker who doesn't meet lead blocks square in the hole. Heck, he doesn't even try to use his hands to shed the blocks. Instead, he turns his shoulders sideways and does everything he can to avoid head-to-head contact. It doesn't do a lot of good to know your assignment if you can't physically fill the gap. This isn't how you play linebacker, and it's sure not going to get him in the NFL like some RSSers have suggested. If you don't like the reckless abandon of Octavien, fine; give me Lance Brandenburgh anytime. He plays linebacker the way it was meant to be played, namely physical, nasty and with the intention of hurting somebody when he arrives at the ball. Then you can bring Bo in for obvious passing situations, where he won't have to worry about meeting a fullback in

the hole.

 

If possible, you may come over to my house and break down film with my other buddy, which it appears all coach football. This is the way things are done.

Does he coach high school or college?

Just wondering I know some coach's also.

[texhusker]

Very well thought out post. What board did you find that at? I would love to read more posts by the author. He really seems to have it nailed.

 

I was also at the game, and just fnished watching my DVR copy after returning home from LA. It looked better on TV then it did in person............ The talent gap was wider than I was hoping to see. BUT, it has only been a couple of years for BC. We are improving!

It was posted on Husker Illustrated on the preminum boards by a poster named Rkay1. GBR

[Blackshirt]

Just a reminder that copying-pasting Premium/Paid content from other sites is not allowed, and could result in a copyright infringement case against us. Please refrain from doing this in the future. Paraphrasing into your own words is okay. Thanks.

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

Sorry. It was emailed to me and I didn't know what site it was from. Do you want me to edit the original post?