1's v. 1's

[Eric the Red]

Brian Rosenthal: Starters going head-to-head could cure slow starts

 

 

Let’s interrupt the controversy over Gesture-gate and Steve Usechek’s conspiracy to destroy Nebraska football to discuss a couple of issues Husker players can actually control. Eliminating slow starts and finding a running game.

 

Both have plagued Nebraska in its recent 1-3 stretch. In their last three games, the Huskers have fallen behind 21-0, 7-0, 21-3 and 24-3. In those games, NU has averaged 82 rushing yards (which is pretty good, considering the minus 2 yards against Missouri and 16 yards against Oklahoma.)

 

It doesn’t take an investigation by the Big 12 Conference office to discover a correlation.

 

If you can’t establish the run early, you run the risk of falling behind. Fall behind by too much, and you abandon the run.

 

The problems go hand-in-hand. What’s the solution? Fiery pep talks? Focus? Execution? A good night’s sleep?

 

How about a round or two in practice against the Blackshirts?

 

That’s what the Huskers have done this week — ones vs. ones.

 

“Every time we go against the Blackshirts, it raises your level of competition,” offensive tackle Seppo Evwaraye said. “Their speed is totally different compared to the scout team.

 

“But then again, you can’t put ones on ones all the time. Guys get too worn out. It’d be like playing a game every day.”

 

I asked Evwaraye the last time the Huskers had extensively practiced ones vs. ones. He said about four weeks ago.

 

Coincidence, perhaps, that NU’s slow-start problems began around that time?

 

In their first four games, the Huskers outscored opponents 40-6 in the first half. In their last four games, they’ve been outscored 73-54 in the first half, including 42-13 in the first quarter.

 

The Blackshirts aren’t innocent bystanders here. Opponents have driven 85, 81, 77 and 51 yards on their opening drives for touchdowns in the last four games.

 

“We’ve been kind of feeling our way into the game and not really been getting going until the second half,” Evwaraye said. “You can’t really be doing that against the teams we’re playing.”

 

Will going against the best in practice help players adjust more quickly to game competition? It’s very possible.

 

If it doesn’t help the overall team’s slow start, it might at least benefit the running game. Especially this week, when the Huskers face Kansas, which Evwaraye said runs some of the same defensive fronts as Nebraska.

 

“Sometimes, the scouts just don’t give you that right look, they don’t have the same-sized guys,” Evwaraye said. “They have kind of bad habits, and we don’t get the right picture. In the game, we might get caught by surprise a little bit.”

 

Let’s be careful to not expect an immediate, dramatic turnaround in the running game this week. Nebraska is facing a Kansas defense that ranks No. 2 nationally against the run, allowing an average of 69.5 yards per game.

 

It’s likely the Jayhawks and their talented linebackers will do what Missouri and Oklahoma did — blitz, blitz, and blitz some more.

 

“Everybody’s going to try (blitzing us),” Evwaraye said, “until we’re able to stop it.”

 

And how has the No. 1 offense fared against the Blackshirts this week?

 

Evwaraye hesitated, then smiled.

 

“It’s a give-and-take situation,” he said. “I think we’ve done some positive things, they’ve done some positive things. Both sides of the ball, we’ve gained from it.

 

“We have a really good (offensive) package going in this week, and I think we’re going back to a lot to our core plays that we’ve had success (with) in the past.”

 

It’s pretty frustrating for any offense when blocking breaks down, blitzing linebackers zoom untouched into the backfield and things generally fall to pieces.

 

It’s even more frustrating when

 

running backs make errors the times there are holes.

 

That’s happened a time or two.

 

“We haven’t been very consistent at times,” running backs coach Randy Jordan said. “We’ll miss a cut, which frustrates me. Then if we don’t miss a cut, we may have something bust at the point of attack.

 

“It’s been a combination of a lot of things.”

 

I’ve wondered specifically about true freshman running back Marlon Lucky, who still seems to be adjusting to the college game. Lucky’s only had 30 carries, but there have been a few times where it’s looked like he might have a chance at something pretty big … and nothing.

 

“Within the system, on every given play, you have reads,” Jordan said when asked about Lucky. “In high school, you get these huge holes and you just run. At this level, you’ve got to be very, very consistent, and you’ve got to know defenses.

 

“He’s learning. I know next year with more reps, seeing the defenses, seeing the speed slow down from year to year, he’s going to be a good back.”

 

To clarify my Wednesday prognosis for the Big 12 North …

 

In a scenario in which Nebraska can still win the North, it’s not necessary for Missouri to lose twice.

 

If CU beats Missouri, NU beats KU and K-State, and Iowa State beats Colorado, NU can win the North by beating Colorado, even if Missouri beats Baylor and K-State.

 

NU, CU and Mizzou would all be 5-3. Even if Iowa State also finishes 5-3, NU would win any tiebreaker (three-way or four-way) because of its 4-1 divisional record. All other teams would have at least two losses within the North.

 

If Missouri beats Colorado, then the Tigers have to lose to K-State to keep NU’s chances alive.

 

And then Nebraska could play Texas. Oh, boy.

 

Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.

[formerfan]

1's v 1's, what an interesting phenomenon

 

NU did that back in the good ol' days, when they had great coaches who knew what they were doing.

 

Progress, I guess

[Steve]

Nice article. Hopefully the 1's vs 1's helps out. We just can't shoot ourselves in the foot with stupid mistakes.

[Eric the Red]

1's v 1's, what an interesting phenomenon

 

NU did that back in the good ol' days, when they had great coaches who knew what they were doing.

 

Progress, I guess

Callahan is very conscience of injuries and bends over backwards to make sure guys don't get injured. WHether this is good or not, is up to you. He wants all his players to practice "high and hard".

[HuskerInKC16]

Didn't we do the 1's vs. 1's during our bye week and it helped out during the Iowa State game? Or did it not help out?

[formerfan]

1's v 1's, what an interesting phenomenon

 

NU did that back in the good ol' days, when they had great coaches who knew what they were doing.

 

Progress, I guess

Callahan is very conscience of injuries and bends over backwards to make sure guys don't get injured. WHether this is good or not, is up to you. He wants all his players to practice "high and hard".

Maybe it explains a big part of the offensive line problems??

 

You certainly have to walk a fine line, but NU became much better (90's) when the emulated UM and started doing more 1 v 1 drills during the regular season. If I remember correctly, they maybe did 15-25 "live" plays per week, but it sure seemed to work.

[Eric the Red]

1's v 1's, what an interesting phenomenon

 

NU did that back in the good ol' days, when they had great coaches who knew what they were doing.

 

Progress, I guess

Callahan is very conscience of injuries and bends over backwards to make sure guys don't get injured. WHether this is good or not, is up to you. He wants all his players to practice "high and hard".

Maybe it explains a big part of the offensive line problems??

 

You certainly have to walk a fine line, but NU became much better (90's) when the emulated UM and started doing more 1 v 1 drills during the regular season. If I remember correctly, they maybe did 15-25 "live" plays per week, but it sure seemed to work.

But how much depth do we have? Not very much. What if Mann goes down??? What if Austin goes down? They aren't the best but it's the best we have for right now. We can't afford to let them go down

[kramer]

1's v 1's, what an interesting phenomenon

 

NU did that back in the good ol' days, when they had great coaches who knew what they were doing.

 

Progress, I guess

Callahan is very conscience of injuries and bends over backwards to make sure guys don't get injured. WHether this is good or not, is up to you. He wants all his players to practice "high and hard".

Maybe it explains a big part of the offensive line problems??

 

You certainly have to walk a fine line, but NU became much better (90's) when the emulated UM and started doing more 1 v 1 drills during the regular season. If I remember correctly, they maybe did 15-25 "live" plays per week, but it sure seemed to work.

But how much depth do we have? Not very much. What if Mann goes down??? What if Austin goes down? They aren't the best but it's the best we have for right now. We can't afford to let them go down

FF, your right, back in the '90's we had incredible depth, we could afford to do that. But there is no way we can let them kill each other in the practice.

[junior4949]

Why not? They're letting our QB get killed during the game! If Taylor doesn't go down before season's end, it will be simply amazing. I would hope we have a little more depth at the OL than we have at QB. If Taylor goes down, we're as good as screwed!