Genius posters rejoice CornNations shows CU's D adjustments

[Undone]

12 hours ago, lo country said:

Agree 100%.  It reminds me of when SDSU almost beat us with T Martinez at QB.  Seems like it showed a way to take him out of the game....

 

I think there's a fairly big difference between Taylor and Adrian, though: Taylor wasn't quite the dual threat the Adrian is; he was more of a single threat - really only a threat as a runner. 

 

On a different train of thought, Scott can still punish delayed blitzes, even if he doesn't know they're coming. You do this by throwing the ball quickly to the edges to Mo/JD/Wan'Dale. And you do it over and over until they stop the blitzing to cover out wide, then you hit them in the middle.

 

This offense can work where you pass to set up the run, as opposed to how it's usually the opposite.

[WyoHusker56]

8 hours ago, UniversalMartin said:

Sooooo...why no adjust vs CU?

 

Others pointed out we did adjust and that's why we scored in the 4th. 

 

On top of that though, my comment was more directed at Frost watching film post game and being prepared in future games for a similar attack. Others suggested there's a blueprint to attack his offense now and my point is that Scott can adjust to avoid and take advantage of that blueprint. 

[ZRod]

55 minutes ago, Husker in WI said:

I'm also curious if anyone who knows more about line play knows what you do with that simulated pressure? You have to respect the possibility of all 7 guys coming - should we have been protecting outside-in so Martinez could go outside the pocket? Do the Guards need to bail out wide to pick up the blitz once their responsibilties drop? Or does Martinez just need to treat it like a draw? I'm sure there are other possibilities as well, I just have a hard time believing there wasn't some way to handle that.

 

Simulated pressure should trigger a lot of chatter between the linemen themselves and the center and QB. It looks like they had the protection setup right in the 3rd clip. After the snap the linemen need to recognize what the pressure really is and adjust. The two things that probably should have happened that didn't were; Washington chipping the left CB to slow him down and give time for the tackle to pick him up, then the tackle and gaurd need to hand off the DE as the tackle works outside to pickup the blitzing CB.

 

Odds are the tackle isn't going to get a good block on the corner, but anything that slows him down gives Adrian a chance to dump the ball off.

[Courtesy Flush]

As I sat right behind the sideline, watching and listening (when the crowd was quiet enough) to the coaching staff making adjustments, the thing that caught my attention was how often the coaches would come over and say the same freaking thing. Watch for this, call out the Mike, watch for this look, watch for this shift. 

 

These are young and inexperienced players. They are definitely trying to learn. They just need to do it when they’re winning too. The focus wasn’t the same for a few of them when they were dancing on the sideline up 17-0.

 

That being said, most do really care. Cam Taylor-Britt was so upset he missed the read for the flea flicker that he was ready to throw the bench. He was also so pissed that he gave all he had left to catch Shenault and strip the ball from him the very next time he was on the field. They have the drive to learn and to improve. We’re in a weird place right now, but I expect this year to be a lot like last year. Every game they’ll get a little better. Honestly, the only game I’m worried about setting us back is the Ohio State game. Those kids can’t suffer a big loss (+21 points). There is a decent chance we’re competitive in that game as well, but I’m worried about a blowout at this point.  We aren’t ready for competition at that level at this point this season. Every other game I think we will have a shot in the 4th quarter to win. It’s going to be an exciting and stressful year. Buckle your chinstraps gents.

 

A major vote of confidence: Urban Meyer has had some pretty interesting thoughts on this Huskers team. He still seems to think they can make a run at the B1G championship and is 100% confident in our coaching staff. He said this may be a year early still, but they are much improved from his previous years coaching against them. He talked about how much better they are on defense already. As much as I kind of hate that guy, I respect his knowledge of football. He knows more than the rest of us collectively on the HuskerBoard. We’ve got the right people, we just need to let them work their magic. 

[Mavric]

38 minutes ago, Undone said:

I think there's a fairly big difference between Taylor and Adrian, though: Taylor wasn't quite the dual threat the Adrian is; he was more of a single threat - really only a threat as a runner. 

 

Not sure that's really fair.

 

T Martinez (freshman) - 116/196, 1631 yards, 59.2%, 8.3 ypa, 10 TDs, 7 INTs, 138.8 rating

A Martinez (freshman) - 224/347, 2617 yards, 64.6%, 7.5 ypa, 17 TDs, 8 INTs, 139.5 rating

 

Adrian had a lot more attempts and a better percentage, Taylor had a better ypa, Adrian had the edge in TD:INT ratio but their ratings were almost identical.

 

Adrian was definitely better but I don't know that it's so drastic to say that Taylor wasn't a threat to throw the ball.

[WyoHusker56]

Going through all this made me think about how dependent Frost is on Walters and others in the booth to help him make adjustments. When he was calling plays at Oregon he was in the booth and could quickly identify defensive changes like delayed stunts, etc. That's a lot harder from the sideline to see who's coming open, delayed blitzes, etc.

 

So, Frost is totally dependent on Walters and others to help him identify that. Obviously it worked well at UCF, but I wonder if those guys need to identify and pass along to Frost some of that information better and quicker.

[Undone]

1 minute ago, Mavric said:

Not sure that's really fair.

 

Your stats are good and I appreciate you looking them up, good stuff there.

 

I remember that SDSU game fairly well. It's a classic case; team comes in with only one tiny shot at winning the game: stacking the box to hell and just hoping to stop the run game/get pressure. 

 

Taylor couldn't throw the sideline screen passes very well because his delivery was slow and the ball didn't get there quick enough. His accuracy in that freshman season wasn't bad as you point out, but there was a reason we only mustered 17 points in that game. We did manage to run for 205 yards, but Martinez threw 2 picks.

 

I will admit though - we had more offensive yards in that game than we did against South Alabama.  

[Husker in WI]

6 minutes ago, WyoHusker56 said:

Going through all this made me think about how dependent Frost is on Walters and others in the booth to help him make adjustments. When he was calling plays at Oregon he was in the booth and could quickly identify defensive changes like delayed stunts, etc. That's a lot harder from the sideline to see who's coming open, delayed blitzes, etc.

 

So, Frost is totally dependent on Walters and others to help him identify that. Obviously it worked well at UCF, but I wonder if those guys need to identify and pass along to Frost some of that information better and quicker.

 

I don't think we were slow adjusting to anything other than the stunts, and the reason there is the adjustment is for lineman to do their jobs. Colorado came up with some good calls and used them wisely - it's not like they ran that double corner blitz the entire second half, they pulled it out when they needed it and knew it would work. The stunts were good calls, and the Colorado staff deserves credit for switching to them. But by the time we get to the 4th quarter that's on the oline (and Colorado's dline for executing them well), not on either coaching staff.

 

And don't get me wrong, I love Frost, but the leaps people are taking to absolve him of the blame are ridiculous. Playcalling is bad - is it secretly Walters now? We're adjusting too slow - is Walters not seeing things fast enough? It's not like Frost is infallible and the rest of the staff are to blame any time there's a coaching issue. I don't agree the narrative that we didn't adjust from a coaching perspective, it's just hard to preemptively adjust and Colorado made their change-ups count. Couple that with calls that require great coordination across the entire oline and it was just enough.

[BigRedBuster]

3 hours ago, husker_fan_from_sweden said:

I counted at least 10  times Boe and Trent standing and watching the linebacker/defensive tackle make the play and ruin any offensive rhythm.

 

Ive gone back now and watched both games looking at this...actually CU game twice.....I did not see Hixson as a problem. 

 

Can you point out more specifics?

[Undone]

27 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Ive gone back now and watched both games looking at this...actually CU game twice.....I did not see Hixson as a problem. 

 

Can you point out more specifics?

 

The more I watch our failed drives in the third quarter of the CU game, I'm starting to go this route: We actually had a pretty healthy mix of plays and formations to try to keep moving the ball downfield. It really was anything but "not aggressive enough."

 

I am more convinced than ever that we didn't fail on offense because "Frost took his foot off the gas." If anything, it makes me wonder if more attempts at interior rushing would have been the best bet, given the sacks from the blitzes. All I can really say is that we're built to counter the edge blitzing; Adrian throws a good sideline screen ball. We just didn't use that play early in the third.

 

But imagine how hard the team would be getting grilled by fans if on those drives we had just handed it off to Mills or Mo three times per series and gotten stuffed? Then the criticism of being too conservative would really be heated.

[WyoHusker56]

30 minutes ago, Husker in WI said:

 

I don't think we were slow adjusting to anything other than the stunts, and the reason there is the adjustment is for lineman to do their jobs. Colorado came up with some good calls and used them wisely - it's not like they ran that double corner blitz the entire second half, they pulled it out when they needed it and knew it would work. The stunts were good calls, and the Colorado staff deserves credit for switching to them. But by the time we get to the 4th quarter that's on the oline (and Colorado's dline for executing them well), not on either coaching staff.

 

And don't get me wrong, I love Frost, but the leaps people are taking to absolve him of the blame are ridiculous. Playcalling is bad - is it secretly Walters now? We're adjusting too slow - is Walters not seeing things fast enough? It's not like Frost is infallible and the rest of the staff are to blame any time there's a coaching issue. I don't agree the narrative that we didn't adjust from a coaching perspective, it's just hard to preemptively adjust and Colorado made their change-ups count. Couple that with calls that require great coordination across the entire oline and it was just enough.

 

Not trying to absolve Frost of the playcalling or loss. He's the head coach it's on him regardless of where the failure comes from. I was simply putting out the thought that Frost is calling plays from the sideline vs. the booth and wondering how that plays into all of this.

[Jeremy]

2 hours ago, Husker in WI said:

 

Farniok had problems, but let's not pretend he's the only one. The LT didn't pick up his corner blitz which arrived at the same time either, and if we really want to point fingers that's probably the wrong protection call from Jurgens/Martinez. I don't know exactly what they're supposed to do there, but even if Farniok magically blocks both of his guys Martinez is getting crushed from the blindside. Not as bad as a few plays at Michigan, but that's the entire line.

 

For the second bolded part, not gonna happen. I guess that depends on what you mean by "be okay with," but an intentional grind it out drive just isn't part of this offense - even in the 4 minute offense we tried to take a shot.

 

I'm also curious if anyone who knows more about line play knows what you do with that simulated pressure? You have to respect the possibility of all 7 guys coming - should we have been protecting outside-in so Martinez could go outside the pocket? Do the Guards need to bail out wide to pick up the blitz once their responsibilties drop? Or does Martinez just need to treat it like a draw? I'm sure there are other possibilities as well, I just have a hard time believing there wasn't some way to handle that.

I agree with everything you're saying. TBH, I'm not even sure we would task either tackle with sliding out in front of a corner blitz. 

 

Traditionally, with mesh, the RB stays home and chips/helps the tackle to his side with any possible blitzers - in this case, the corner screaming in on his side. If none come, or after a few counts, he'll slip out into the flat for a check-down. Leach likes to go 20 personnel at times specifically for corner blitzes.

 

The QB's first read is usually the wideout on a corner. If he sees grass, he'll let it fly. Most coverages immediately account for this, so the next read is the meshing receivers running option routes. If they read zone, they cross and settle. If they're being chased, they rub shoulders and angle downfield. Very often, one or both are open against most coverages. The final read is the RB check-down. 

 

CU was creative with their 2-down look, but RB Middle Screens and WR Tunnel Screens dissuade a lot of blitzing like we saw on this play. Even just throwing 4 and dropping the three LB's as deep as they did would have trouble stopping a middle screen for a first down. I remember Pelini's awesome '09 defense getting burnt more than once on tunnel screens against Leach because he sent a blitz. Pinkle destroyed us in '08 with Maclin on tunnel screens.

 

What I mean by grind-it-out is that we need to use mesh and screens and get the 4-5+ yards a play to move the ball down the field, and less of the deep Y-Cross that requires AM to go through a 4 route progression. Be okay with the check-downs more, but not the balls thrown the width of the field to a sideline bubble screen. Those are good at times, but dangerous when they jump it. Give him some quick throws and reads, and throw the deep stuff less often. If we have the ball, they can't score.

 

 

[Husker in WI]

3 minutes ago, WyoHusker56 said:

 

Not trying to absolve Frost of the playcalling or loss. He's the head coach it's on him regardless of where the failure comes from. I was simply putting out the thought that Frost is calling plays from the sideline vs. the booth and wondering how that plays into all of this.

 

Fair enough. I just still don't see any real issue with most of the playcalls, so I don't think it's been a factor. But I suppose there has to be some difference in how you call a game from the sideline vs. up in the booth. Like others have said, that Mesh play is generally a very safe way to get a few yards. I don't think there are any pass plays specifically designed to defeat stunts, maybe screens I guess.

[gobiggergoredder]

Why does there always have to be an adjustment?

 

If you win you made good adjustment and if you lose you made bad/no adjustments?

 

Is it possible to just win or get beat?

[Husker in WI]

5 minutes ago, gobiggergoredder said:

Why does there always have to be an adjustment?

 

If you win you made good adjustment and if you lose you made bad/no adjustments?

 

Is it possible to just win or get beat?

 

If there's a talent differential, sure. Alabama played New Mexico State last week - I doubt they made many in game adjustments, and probably didn't concern themselves with any adjustments NMSU made. NMSU was going to get beat no matter what adjustments they made. But in a close game the changes teams make in game usually have a big impact.