** 2019 Opponent Previews : Iowa (Game 12) **

[Husker in WI]

1 hour ago, Undone said:

So the article's all about some kind of watershed moment that moves them to a nickel defense. Whether right or wrong, it sets off every stereotype that I've always had about Big 10 football; no mention of innovation on the offense to actually put up more points on the board.

 

 

What's funny to me is that according to the article it was Wisconsin who forced them to adapt and create a hybrid position. I'm sure another factor was looking at other division rivals' offenses like Purdue, Nebraska, and Minnesota, but if Wisconsin can take advantage of your pass coverage you have issues.

[Undone]

1 minute ago, Husker in WI said:

What's funny to me is that according to the article it was Wisconsin who forced them to adapt and create a hybrid position.

 

Agreed.

[brophog]

1 hour ago, Husker in WI said:

 

What's funny to me is that according to the article it was Wisconsin who forced them to adapt and create a hybrid position. I'm sure another factor was looking at other division rivals' offenses like Purdue, Nebraska, and Minnesota, but if Wisconsin can take advantage of your pass coverage you have issues.

 

And it was the Florida team’s defending our running game that forced us to once change. 

[ColoradoHusk]

1 hour ago, brophog said:

 

And it was the Florida team’s defending our running game that forced us to once change. 

I think the biggest thing that Osborne changed in the early 90s (after beatings by Miami and Florida State) was the defensive scheme.  He went to a 4-3 and focused on speed all over the field.

 

Osborne definitely got more creative in his offensive play calling and design, and having a better QB and RB's helped things, but I don't know how Osborne drastically changed his offense after the beatings at the hand of Miami and Florida State.

 

[brophog]

3 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I think the biggest thing that Osborne changed in the early 90s (after beatings by Miami and Florida State) was the defensive scheme.  He went to a 4-3 and focused on speed all over the field.

 

Osborne definitely got more creative in his offensive play calling and design, and having a better QB and RB's helped things, but I don't know how Osborne drastically changed his offense after the beatings at the hand of Miami and Florida State.

 

 

I wasn’t talking about his offense.....

[ColoradoHusk]

1 hour ago, brophog said:

 

I wasn’t talking about his offense.....

Ok, your post isn’t that easy to follow. No problem though. 

[4skers89]

9 hours ago, Husker in WI said:

 

What's funny to me is that according to the article it was Wisconsin who forced them to adapt and create a hybrid position. I'm sure another factor was looking at other division rivals' offenses like Purdue, Nebraska, and Minnesota, but if Wisconsin can take advantage of your pass coverage you have issues.

Their scheme change didn't help them much on this play. 

 

[Husker in WI]

12 hours ago, 4skers89 said:

Their scheme change didn't help them much on this play. 

 

 

Well the thing there is it seems like going to more of a nickel package as the base defense was to combat 3+ receiver looks. Groundbreaking, I know. I don't think they have any qualms about trying to cover RBs with an LB, and that's gonna be a problem for them.

[WyoHusker56]

Isn't Frost's offense built specifically to combat defenses trying to do this? You're running a three wide receiver set and then all of a sudden Washington motions into the backfield with Mills and you have more of a power run formation into Nickle. Other people understand this way better than me, but feels like Frost can taken advantage of any defensive scheme the way he builds his offense and you can't sub to counter it.

[brophog]

8 hours ago, WyoHusker56 said:

Isn't Frost's offense built specifically to combat defenses trying to do this? You're running a three wide receiver set and then all of a sudden Washington motions into the backfield with Mills and you have more of a power run formation into Nickle. Other people understand this way better than me, but feels like Frost can taken advantage of any defensive scheme the way he builds his offense and you can't sub to counter it.

 

Defenses playing some variation of Nickel is just personnel matching against 11 personnel sets, the most common sets in modern football. The personnel isn’t really an issue, it’s where they are aligned and Frost uses motion and formation to generate and exploit that.

 

The screen game is a huge part of this. He attaches some form of screen action to all sorts of plays. Let’s create a simple example. 11 personnel (1RB/1TE/3WR), Twins Left, H-back Right, RB left side of the QB. Put the ball on the left hash mark.

 

There are 3 reasons the defensive strength will be aligned to the right side of the offensive formation:

 

1) The TE is there (as an h-back)

2) The RB is aligned left meaning after he crosses the QB to receive the handoff he’s most likely running to the right.

3) The right side is the wide side of the field.

 

The defense has a few options here. They can shift their front to give an over hanging LB, but that’s problematic because that’s shifting away from the potential screen on the left side and that h-back can account for him. The better option is to rotate a safety down on that wide side.

 

That’s a good option that allows either the second safety to account for the slot receiver or he can stay at safety depth and allow a LB/Nickel/etc to account for the slot. This is the conflict defender, and he’ll often try to set himself to play both the slot and be the extra man in the box. (Without him the offense has 6 blockers vs 6 defenders).

 

All that setup is to get to the punchline. I’ve described a few ways the defense can remain balanced but Frost throws in a wrinkle. That h-back motions across the formation at the snap to catch a TE Screen. Now he’s really created quads against a balanced defensive alignment, vastly outnumbering the defense.

 

Depending on how the defense aligned to that he can now run something else out of that same look. With a fast RB, that can be a handoff now to the wide side of the field, but the weak side of the defense if they adjust for the motion. Could be all kinds of plays, but that’s what he’s always trying to do is create unbalanced looks, move those safeties around and exploit that for huge gains.

 

 

[WyoHusker56]

9 minutes ago, brophog said:

 

Defenses playing some variation of Nickel is just personnel matching against 11 personnel sets, the most common sets in modern football. The personnel isn’t really an issue, it’s where they are aligned and Frost uses motion and formation to generate and exploit that.

 

The screen game is a huge part of this. He attaches some form of screen action to all sorts of plays. Let’s create a simple example. 11 personnel (1RB/1TE/3WR), Twins Left, H-back Right, RB left side of the QB. Put the ball on the left hash mark.

 

There are 3 reasons the defensive strength will be aligned to the right side of the offensive formation:

 

1) The TE is there (as an h-back)

2) The RB is aligned left meaning after he crosses the QB to receive the handoff he’s most likely running to the right.

3) The right side is the wide side of the field.

 

The defense has a few options here. They can shift their front to give an over hanging LB, but that’s problematic because that’s shifting away from the potential screen on the left side and that h-back can account for him. The better option is to rotate a safety down on that wide side.

 

That’s a good option that allows either the second safety to account for the slot receiver or he can stay at safety depth and allow a LB/Nickel/etc to account for the slot. This is the conflict defender, and he’ll often try to set himself to play both the slot and be the extra man in the box. (Without him the offense has 6 blockers vs 6 defenders).

 

All that setup is to get to the punchline. I’ve described a few ways the defense can remain balanced but Frost throws in a wrinkle. That h-back motions across the formation at the snap to catch a TE Screen. Now he’s really created quads against a balanced defensive alignment, vastly outnumbering the defense.

 

Depending on how the defense aligned to that he can now run something else out of that same look. With a fast RB, that can be a handoff now to the wide side of the field, but the weak side of the defense if they adjust for the motion. Could be all kinds of plays, but that’s what he’s always trying to do is create unbalanced looks, move those safeties around and exploit that for huge gains.

 

 

 

This is great, thank you! 

[Husker in WI]

From this guys article on the BTN visit:

Quote

"They seemed a tad more skeptical about Iowa’s passing game than I expected." 

 

Lol, "Iowa's passing game." That's not even a real thing. 

[Pedro G]

I liked to think NU will eventually force Iowa and Wisconsin out of their schemes, particularly on defense, as the Huskers’ superior speed of our skilled players run past their defenders. Perhaps even offensively as their offensive lines will no longer be able to over power our D lines. Okay maybe a bit of wishful thinking and fan bias on my part, but I still can see it happen.

For you football experts, can you see Frost emptying the backfield with five speed receivers, taking out the TE, for a play or two? Kind of a run and shoot look I guess — and having Washington (if he plays), Robinson, Spielman, Hunt and maybe Houston or some other combination as the wideouts? Yes, I know I am dreaming some, but is this even possible, or without a TE blocking, would it be too hard to achieve? 

[Husker in WI]

They are drinking as much kool-aid as we are, lol. Mostly because this is apparently the "most talented Iowa team ever," and they're obviously going to have the best defense in the Big Ten, probably the country. /s

 

I just don't see it though - they have 2 studs at OT, but the interior line seems weak (at least for them), or at a minimum unproven. They have no skill guys who scare anyone, unlike last year with their TEs. Their backs are good enough to hurt you if their line is dominant, but there are plenty of Big Ten teams that won't be manhandled and I'm hoping we're one of them this year. Just your standard Iowa offense, except without actually good TEs/RBs.

 

Defensively I don't see it either. Epenesa is a beast, but he's one guy and they lost a lot of other guys there. The LBs are underwhelming, but the secondary looks good. Thje other thing is they make a big deal of switching to the 4-2-5 base, but there's a huge problem there. Amani Hooker could tackle and cover, and that made the defense work. Their guy this year is 5'10, 180 lbs - I'm sure he can cover but now this is just a Nickel defense teams will run on.

 

In short, I think Iowa will prove that even with phenomenal talent at 2 of the most important positions (pass rusher and OT), a stagnant offensive scheme and being late to the hybrid DB/LB party caps your ceiling at 8-9 wins.

[Undone]

39 minutes ago, Husker in WI said:

Just your standard Iowa offense, except without actually good TEs/RBs.

 

39 minutes ago, Husker in WI said:

a stagnant offensive scheme

 

They actually did work in some zone read-ish type stuff last season believe it or not. Not very much...but a little bit.

 

In terms of our game against them I believe what will happen is that our offense will have matured and found such a dynamic rhythm by that point that the only question mark for us to beat them is our defense showing up with a pulse.