Linebacker Play

[Mavric]

Here's an example of what I was talking about earlier. First of all, I have no idea why we insist on shorting ourselves in coverage like this. We rarely get anyone out on the slot receiver. The "plan" is for Young to cover the flat from his LB spot. But he's also taught to key the RB so all Indiana has to do is a quick run fake which sucks Young in and leaves no one anywhere near the slot on an easy pass and catch that gains 22 yards.

 

 

[Mavric]

And it only took until the third play of the game to find examples of both points I was making earlier.

 

On this play, Indiana runs straight off guard. As soon as they read run, Bando and Young shoot into their gaps. But not just them, KWilliams and Gerry both shoot into their gaps from their safety spots. Particularly with Gerry, there is no reason for him to shoot straight ahead on the other side of the play from where both the RB and QB are running other than that is his assigned gap and he's taught to fill hard on a run read. Both LBs run themselves out of the play and KWill has to make the tackle from his safety spot.

 

 

[Mavric]

So we had a bye week to work on how we wanted to run our defense and on the second and third plays of the game we're seeing them run it exactly the same way they were running it against Illinois. And it's not just one guy here and there. There's a coordinated scheme being run the same way by several guys across the defense.

 

Pretty sure that's how they're being coached to do it.

[mwj98]

Im a little shocked at how nitpicky this is. We are undefeated. Getting pick six's, playing without a lot of weapons, aaannnddd we wanna complain about the techniques of linebackers. Wow, just wow.

 

I mean seriously, cmon.

[Count 'Bility]

you have to play your responsibilities against this era of spread out offenses. it's very technical. and there's a lot of give and take. There isnt one single defensive set/call/scheme out there that is capable of stopping anything an offense is going to do on one particular play. it's all about tendancies and the chess match of what you wanna take away on any particular play AND having the ability to stop the leak of something youre not ready for. That's what defense is now. Teams gain yards and score points. it's gonna happen. Sure we see things that are concernign for the future, but we cant second guess the scheme. Cuz it's all about a bigger picture.

[NUinID]

Im a little shocked at how nitpicky this is. We are undefeated. Getting pick six's, playing without a lot of weapons, aaannnddd we wanna complain about the techniques of linebackers. Wow, just wow.

 

I mean seriously, cmon.

 

I am going to agree with this. IMO that was probably the best run defense they have played all year. That was by far the best outing by the linebackers this year. That was the best game that Banderas as ever played. The days of completely shutting down a team a team and allowing absolutly nothing on defense are going to be few and far between. I am really pretty happy with the way the defense is making steady improvement this year.

[RedDenver]

Im a little shocked at how nitpicky this is. We are undefeated. Getting pick six's, playing without a lot of weapons, aaannnddd we wanna complain about the techniques of linebackers. Wow, just wow.

 

I mean seriously, cmon.

There's a wide difference between nit-picky complaints in general and posts containing images with the specific complaints displayed. Anybody who wants to take the time to collect the images/video and make their case is okay with me.

 

Thanks for doing that BTW, Mav

[Count 'Bility]

Here's an example of what I was talking about earlier. First of all, I have no idea why we insist on shorting ourselves in coverage like this. We rarely get anyone out on the slot receiver. The "plan" is for Young to cover the flat from his LB spot. But he's also taught to key the RB so all Indiana has to do is a quick run fake which sucks Young in and leaves no one anywhere near the slot on an easy pass and catch that gains 22 yards.

 

 

My only argument to this is that based on how many times it happens, and the fact that at the end of the day, the defense played a very good whole game, we're obviously generating some sort of tendancy and leverage in whatever matchup situations. Like i said in another post, i dont think there's any sort of defense that is capable of taking away all possibiilties on any particular play.

[mwj98]

 

Im a little shocked at how nitpicky this is. We are undefeated. Getting pick six's, playing without a lot of weapons, aaannnddd we wanna complain about the techniques of linebackers. Wow, just wow.

 

I mean seriously, cmon.

There's a wide difference between nit-picky complaints in general and posts containing images with the specific complaints displayed. Anybody who wants to take the time to collect the images/video and make their case is okay with me.

 

Thanks for doing that BTW, Mav

I get that, but after all the stuff that has happened this year.....foltz and the anthem protests backlash, cant we for once just be happy we are 6-0? That we look better? At the end of the day, these guys are still kids. But we want to have film study and second guess technique. Oh...ok.

[TonyStalloni]

These days and against many college offenses the only defenses that consistently shut down teams are those with dominant front fours that allows the LBS and DB's to not worry so much about crashing inside. Offenses have gotten too creative the last 7 or 8 years. I think we have a decent front four but I wouldn't call them dominant.

[knapplc]

Indiana had 88 total yards rushing against Nebraska, and that includes the 33-yard TD run.

 

That's Indiana's lowest rushing output of the season. They had 99 yards against OSU, 156 against Sparty, 115 in their loss to Wake Forest, 187 against Ball State and 246 against FIU.

 

Indiana's 333 total yards against Nebraska was their second-lowest output of the year (281 vs. Ohio State) and over 110 total yards less than they had against any other opponent.

 

Indiana's 22 points were their second-lowest total of the season (17 vs. Ohio State).

 

 

 

The X's & O's may not look really pretty, but so far it's been effective.

[RedDenver]

 

 

Im a little shocked at how nitpicky this is. We are undefeated. Getting pick six's, playing without a lot of weapons, aaannnddd we wanna complain about the techniques of linebackers. Wow, just wow.

 

I mean seriously, cmon.

There's a wide difference between nit-picky complaints in general and posts containing images with the specific complaints displayed. Anybody who wants to take the time to collect the images/video and make their case is okay with me.

 

Thanks for doing that BTW, Mav

 

I get that, but after all the stuff that has happened this year.....foltz and the anthem protests backlash, cant we for once just be happy we are 6-0? That we look better? At the end of the day, these guys are still kids. But we want to have film study and second guess technique. Oh...ok.

 

Can we do both? I'm super happy we're 6-0. And I like taking a critical look at what we're doing.

[Count 'Bility]

Indiana had 88 total yards rushing against Nebraska, and that includes the 33-yard TD run.

 

That's Indiana's lowest rushing output of the season. They had 99 yards against OSU, 156 against Sparty, 115 in their loss to Wake Forest, 187 against Ball State and 246 against FIU.

 

Indiana's 333 total yards against Nebraska was their second-lowest output of the year (281 vs. Ohio State) and over 110 total yards less than they had against any other opponent.

 

Indiana's 22 points were their second-lowest total of the season (17 vs. Ohio State).

 

 

 

The X's & O's may not look really pretty, but so far it's been effective.

that's where I'm at. We can overanalyze. But until we're gettin 408'ed, i'm not gonna question much right now. The trend is in the right direction for sure.

[mwj98]

 

 

 

Im a little shocked at how nitpicky this is. We are undefeated. Getting pick six's, playing without a lot of weapons, aaannnddd we wanna complain about the techniques of linebackers. Wow, just wow.

 

I mean seriously, cmon.

There's a wide difference between nit-picky complaints in general and posts containing images with the specific complaints displayed. Anybody who wants to take the time to collect the images/video and make their case is okay with me.

 

Thanks for doing that BTW, Mav

I get that, but after all the stuff that has happened this year.....foltz and the anthem protests backlash, cant we for once just be happy we are 6-0? That we look better? At the end of the day, these guys are still kids. But we want to have film study and second guess technique. Oh...ok.

Can we do both? I'm super happy we're 6-0. And I like taking a critical look at what we're doing.

Agree

[Mavric]

you have to play your responsibilities against this era of spread out offenses. it's very technical. and there's a lot of give and take. There isnt one single defensive set/call/scheme out there that is capable of stopping anything an offense is going to do on one particular play. it's all about tendancies and the chess match of what you wanna take away on any particular play AND having the ability to stop the leak of something youre not ready for. That's what defense is now. Teams gain yards and score points. it's gonna happen. Sure we see things that are concernign for the future, but we cant second guess the scheme. Cuz it's all about a bigger picture.

 

If you go back to the OP, I'm not arguing that this is necessarily a bad scheme, I was pointing out there was a lot of grumbling - both here and from media guys - that our linebackers weren't playing well. I don't think it's necessarily a case for them not playing well, I think the scheme we're running doesn't lend itself to LBs making a lot of plays. They have to make the play when it comes into their gap but they're not expected to run all over the field making plays. I think I've documented that to be the case.