Great info in here. I was pretty happy with our secondary but like someone mentioned earlier, they never looked for the ball! This not only led to many blown opportunities for turnovers but also allowed tons of big plays in the air for opposing teams. Every time our opponent threw it deep my heart sank because I knew there was a very good chance that it would be completed. I'd be curious to see the stats on this.
2012 Pass Defense
- Thread starter Landlord
- Start date
Danimal
All-Conference
Didn't help that our blitzes were often of the " everybody at the LOS showing blitz" variety. Maybe we'd back-out of the blitz but there was no surprise that we were coming. Hopefully with more athletic LB's we can conceal things more and use their speed to get to the qb.HuskerNationNick said:
Our pass D also wasn't helped that game by the refs ignoring missing blatant pick-plays.
Hope Gregory and McMullen can provide some pass-rushing presence.
Danimal
All-Conference
I said BLATANT picks. Subtle I understand getting away with, I remember one we ran with Marlowe in it that was almost art. UGA got away with some WTH just ran down and took the guy out stuff that really should've drawn a flag.
Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
This is true. I thought several opposing coaches stuck with their regular gameplan rather than adjusting to exploit the Husker's weaknesses. I'm not sure they actually "respected" Nebraska's 90th ranked rushing defense too much. They were just determined to run a balanced offense. There was some mystifying coaching by our opponents last year.
But the better coaches and teams seemed perfectly willing to keep hitting the same gaping holes that the Husker defense kept giving them. The passes they completed were often killers, regardless of the modest completion percentage.
The Big 10 wasn't a stellar passing conference last year, and our non-con schedule didn't exactly test us.
I think the Big 12 would have shredded us last year.
Completion percentage isn't the only measure of a secondary. My problem was the poor anticipation and tackling when plays broke through the D-line, which happened a bit too often.
The Dude
Heisman Trophy Winner
Most likely. There's a difference between being statistically elite, and actually being elite. Being statistically elite didn't help us a bit against a decent passing team like Georgia.
Husker from Kansas
Starter
Why this is true, name one Big XII team other than K-State who had a run game like Georgia, we had to respect Georgia's run game or else Gurly would have ran all over us. The Big 12 would have played right into our wheelhouse, It is more of a passing conference than the BIG, would we have won it? probably not, but we wouldnt have gotten shredded
Landlord
Banned
While we got torched with yards and touchdowns against Georgia, we also forced two interceptions and held him near 50% completions. Basically, with how I remember that game, we got beat by three NFL-caliber perfect, undefendable throws.
It'sNotAFakeID
All-American
Exactly. There were two throws I remember where Murray just placed it where only his receiver could catch it. That's not our lack of execution, it's his passing ability and that we can't control. If a player is going to have a great day throwing the ball, there's not much a defense can do to stop him (i.e. Manziel vs Alabama).
junior4949
All-American
If memory serves me correctly, almost half of the B1G passing defenses ended up ranked in the top 30. I'm too lazy to go back and look up the data as this has been debated several times before. The passing D was by far and away the bright spot on last year's D. However, the passing D numbers were skewed a bit as a result of the competition. In a run heavy conference, it's obvious where we need to get better on D. Bo inherited good/great DL when he was hired, but he hasn't really found viable replacements. Bo didn't inherit much at LB. Hopefully, he's addressed this.
On one hand I understand the argument as to why some believe our defense will be worse than last year when one takes into account how many starters from last year are no longer here. However, my gut tells me that it just can't be as bad as it was last year. I never realized just how slow some were on our defense until the combine when Stafford ran the 40.
Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
I agree that those Murray passes in the Georgia game were maddeningly perfect, and Darrelle Revis would have been hard pressed to stop them.
Georgia also dropped a wide-open pass in the end zone that would have made it 52 - 31, making that game feel more like another blowout than the well-contested game we're inclined to remember.
This was a rebuilding year in the Big 10, with the only great team being banned from the conference championship.
Top to bottom, I think the Big 12 had more dangerous offenses. Kansas may have been the only patsy. I'm not sure we prevail over West Virginia, Baylor or even Iowa State. We had enough trouble with Iowa, after all. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State were better than the UCLA team that lit us up. And I think we made Hundely look good. I wouldn't say he's anywere near a great qb yet.
All that being said, I think ANY improvement on defense this year puts us in the mix.
Georgia also dropped a wide-open pass in the end zone that would have made it 52 - 31, making that game feel more like another blowout than the well-contested game we're inclined to remember.
This was a rebuilding year in the Big 10, with the only great team being banned from the conference championship.
Top to bottom, I think the Big 12 had more dangerous offenses. Kansas may have been the only patsy. I'm not sure we prevail over West Virginia, Baylor or even Iowa State. We had enough trouble with Iowa, after all. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State were better than the UCLA team that lit us up. And I think we made Hundely look good. I wouldn't say he's anywere near a great qb yet.
All that being said, I think ANY improvement on defense this year puts us in the mix.
EZ-E
All-American
We talked about this at the tailgate. He threw his WRs open. Murray would have made a ton of money had he came out this year.
HuskerNationNick
All-Conference
Your going to compare West Virginia, Baylor and Iowa St to the Iowa game? Had the weather not been negative with the 30mph winds, it would have opened up our playbook. Your not giving Iowa's run defense enough credit at all. They have a very decent rush defense, especially when they know its coming. When their rush defense gets weak when they are being forced to protect against the passing game, something they didn't have to worry about, and quite frankly, something we didn't either.
We play any of those games in the same weather we had with Iowa, our team could get a W out of each of them. We would have shut down WV, who is a pass heavy team. We would have had issues with Baylor, but their rush defense was more horrid than ours, so I think we win. OU and OSU were not as good as they have been the past 3 years, defensively and offensively. Iowa State had no freaking offense, and had a decent defense who kept them in 80% of their games.
Now you mention the UCLA game. Yes they exploited us, and showed where we lacked a lot of, but had we have had another rematch, the game wouldn't have been the same outcome. We lost by one score, while turning the ball over multiple times, in our own territory.
You call it a rebuilding year, I see us facing some of the best B1G running backs and QB's. Kain Colter, Dennard Robinson, Monte Ball, Leveon Bell, Venric Mark and Carlos Hyde. I think the defenses last year were much weaker than usual, but offenses were exactly what they have always been, except for Iowa and Michigan State. I don't see defenses getting any better next year either. tOSU, Michigan St and Michigan all had average defenses, while losing their key players in the draft.
I don't think your giving this team enough credit. With all due respect, I don't think your giving this team any credit for their accomplishments. If our rush defense and pass defense was sooooo horrid, we should have lost every game this year, especially with leading the nation in turnovers.
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