Run Defense vs. Pass Defense (How big is the discrepancy?)

[NUinID]

Lo I am not exactly sure what you are trying to prove by listing all this stuff. I guess it is that the teams we have played have thrown the ball more than they normally do against our defense. Yes, that is correct. Nor do I understand why you bolded that from my post, but really don't address it. Your premise was why run the ball when we can throw it. I said they were throwing it because they weren't doing anything running the ball.

 

I also think our rush D might not be near what we were told it will be. My guess is based upon non-existent pass rush (no real dominant performance) and the fact teams are stupid to run when they can put 245 yards on us in a quarter...... Southern Miss abandoned run and came close to upsetting us....

 

This is what you said. They are stupid to run the ball when they can put up 245 in a quarter. S. Miss didn't know they could or would put up 245 in the forth quarter. Up to that point they had about 200 in the game which is less than 75 a quarter. That is an assumption. They had abandoned the run before the 4th quarter. They abandoned the run because they were getting no where doing it.

 

I said several times the pass defense needs to get better.

[Huskers19911]

IMO, if I'm coaching against Nebraska, I'm focusing on an air attack. Coaches look to exploit weaknesses of the opposition, and our pass defense has been weak so far, to say the least. You're crazy if you don't believe teams will focus more on passing in their week of preparation from us. Does that mean they will abandon the run? Of course not, if that's your strength as a team, you will try to use it. Do I think we will see more passing from these teams? Definitely. Few runs, then take a chance at the deep ball. If we are able to stop run plays early in a game against big ten opponents, I think we will see pass plays early, and often. If we can't stop the run, we are dead in the water. This defense is definitely meant to stop run first, so I hope running teams can't gash us.

[84HuskerLaw]

It seems the question we are wondering about at this point, concerning the defense, is whether or not we do have a good run defense or that it has not been truly tested either because our opponents are not very good or because they never seriously tried because they found passing to be so effective. In fairness, it seems some of the stats suggest that opponents did not have much success in running early on in the games and turned to the pass in an effort to move the ball. I think a chart which showed the stats in rush and pass yards on a quarter by quarter basis across all four opponents would indicate this, particularly if it showed also the numbers of plays run v pass on a quarter by quarter basis. This would indicate the numbers of attempts in each category and yards gained. I am not adept at the stats researching of course but I believe you may have more of an answer as to the issue being debated. My hunch is that teams found passing was the preferred approach for BOTH reasons: the needed to pass as running was not getting the desired results (they were behind or trying to keep up with NU scoring wise).

 

But there are more factors to consider including injured Husker players at key positions in some games at key times. Opponents were also trying to take advantage of perceived weaknesses in NU's defense due to injuries to LBs, CBs and Safeties, and also there were a few key series later in games where we were short a DT or DE or two and opponents found that our D Line was too tired to rush the passer with any real zest. Result was they felt very comfortable dropping back to throw as time was not a problem. Our defense has given up quite a few long pass plays at critical times. These big plays distort the stats somewhat as well. Run plays take time that teams may feel they don't have in close games as several of our games have been. Time constraints favor the pass over the run as well.