Defensive Play Discussion

[Mavric]

Since the other thread is only for the offense... 

 

What a play by Honas on his first quarter sack.  We brought JoJo on a blitz from a coverage alignment so it took him a bit to get pressure on Fields.  Coverage is good and JoJo gets pressure but can't bring him down.  At one point Honas is 12 yards off the line of scrimmage dropping into his zone.  But when he sees Fields scramble - going away from him no less - he flies up and gets the sack.

 

Loss of five yards.  He probably ran 30 yards from where he was in his zone to where he got the sack.

 

[Mavric]

Curious to watch again and see how often we brought different kinds of pressure.  The other two sacks were both on twist stunts.  Right after Honas' sack we twisted the DL and got pressure but didn't get home - Fields able to escape and get some yards on the scramble.

[Mavric]

From the oh-so-close department: following those two plays we get them to 4th & 5.  We bring six and don't get a lot of pressure on the quick throw but Rodgers gets a hand on the pass.  Still complete.  And they score on the drive.  Would have been a great stop.

[Mavric]

Great play by Garrett Nelson to force a punt.  3rd & 3 and they run zone read at Nelson.  He slow plays so Fields gives but then shoots down then line and still makes the tackle.

[TheSker]

Had we got that safety.......

[teachercd]

23 minutes ago, Mavric said:

From the oh-so-close department: following those two plays we get them to 4th & 5.  We bring six and don't get a lot of pressure on the quick throw but Rodgers gets a hand on the pass.  Still complete.  And they score on the drive.  Would have been a great stop.

This play was huge.

 

Was it 7-0 at the time?

[ColoradoHusk]

15 minutes ago, teachercd said:

This play was huge.

 

Was it 7-0 at the time?

Yep 7-0 at the time. I found it interesting that Day went for it on 4th downs twice (a 3rd one was nullified by penalty) in the first half. That tells me two things 1) he was confident in his offense to convert and 2) he felt the Buckeyes needed to keep scoring TD’s to keep pace with NU. 

[Decoy73]

52 minutes ago, Mavric said:

Since the other thread is only for the offense... 

 

What a play by Honas on his first quarter sack.  We brought JoJo on a blitz from a coverage alignment so it took him a bit to get pressure on Fields.  Coverage is good and JoJo gets pressure but can't bring him down.  At one point Honas is 12 yards off the line of scrimmage dropping into his zone.  But when he sees Fields scramble - going away from him no less - he flies up and gets the sack.

 

Loss of five yards.  He probably ran 30 yards from where he was in his zone to where he got the sack.

 

Agree.  Best play I’ve seen Honas make.  Hopefully it’s an example of what he’s going to do this year.   I was critical of his play last season, but thought he played well Saturday.   

[BigRedBuster]

49 minutes ago, Mavric said:

From the oh-so-close department: following those two plays we get them to 4th & 5.  We bring six and don't get a lot of pressure on the quick throw but Rodgers gets a hand on the pass.  Still complete.  And they score on the drive.  Would have been a great stop.

That was a very frustrating play.  We get a good play from the DLine and they still complete it.  

[BigRedBuster]

I was very encouraged with what I saw from the front 7. The DBs...not so much.  
 

Hopefully, against a less talented team, they look better.  
 

With the front 7, they were good against the run and showed flashes of getting pressure. I think we would have had at least a couple more sacks or TFLs if we weren’t against such a freak athlete at QB. 

[drfish]

Won't see a better QB all season.  Probably not one as good.  The possible COVID on Mertz may mean we don't face him.  He looked pretty accurate.  It is hard to beat a QB that puts the ball exactly where it needs to be time after time after time without significant pressure.  Won't see a set of WR's that good either.   I was really encouraged by what I saw.  How many 3rd and shorts did they stuff Saturday.  When was the last time you saw that from the Husker D.  That was probably the most physical I have seen the defense be in some time. 

[lo country]

3 hours ago, Decoy73 said:

Agree.  Best play I’ve seen Honas make.  Hopefully it’s an example of what he’s going to do this year.   I was critical of his play last season, but thought he played well Saturday.   

I think this is the year that we see Honas be the player we thought he would be.

[lo country]

3 minutes ago, drfish said:

Won't see a better QB all season.  Probably not one as good.  The possible COVID on Mertz may mean we don't face him.  He looked pretty accurate.  It is hard to beat a QB that puts the ball exactly where it needs to be time after time after time without significant pressure.  Won't see a set of WR's that good either.   I was really encouraged by what I saw.  How many 3rd and shorts did they stuff Saturday.  When was the last time you saw that from the Husker D.  That was probably the most physical I have seen the defense be in some time. 

I agree.  It was a "blowout loss", but much closer than the score showed.  I have a good feeling about this year if we can play all 9 games.  And stay healthy.

[Undone]

Linebackers stayed in their lanes and seemed more disciplined. Anybody feel free to share a clip but I don't recall anybody over-running plays like happened so many times last year.

 

I feel confident that Frost & Chinander probably had agreed to play a "bend but don't break" scheme. We knew they'd move the ball on us - just don't let Fields loft the ball on deep routes over our heads. I think that actually worked well in the first half from a strategy perspective. If we just get a couple first downs on our second-to-last offensive drive and then punt deep it's probably 17-14 at half.

 

I don't have a problem with the soft coverage until a mediocre or average team beats us in the passing game with us doing that. Then it'll be upsetting.

 

Run defense is "fixed" from where it was in the Riley years as far as I'm concerned. Are there still some talent issues that would prevent us from maybe making the difference from being where we are now on defense to a Top 25 team? Yeah, probably. I don't mean a Top 25 defense, but ranked in the top 25.

[floridacorn]

32 minutes ago, Undone said:

I don't have a problem with the soft coverage until a mediocre or average team beats us in the passing game with us doing that. Then it'll be upsetting.

 

I may be in the minority w/you on this, but I agree.  

 

Here's reality imo, we don't have sticky CB's.  When Lamar Jackson's draft highlight tape shows him whiffing a jam on WR, getting smoked by 10 yards, and intercepting an incredibly underthrown ball...that was a good time to accept this.  

 

The 2nd thing,  when the opponent catches the D in a sell out for the run call, the coverage is going to be tight man or loose man.  If you accept my first point, the only difference is do you want the CB over the top or trailing?

 

In passing situations, that Cover 7 look is challenging, IF NU does a better job of effecting the QB more consistently.  

 

It may be a little more bend but don't break mentality than we'd prefer, but NU actually forced OSU into favorable situations on their scoring drives that more times than not results in FG's or punts.