2012 Pass Defense

[walksalone]

It's really late, and I apologize if this makes sh*t for sense...

It seems to me over the past few years that offenses have made more inovative strides than their defensive counterparts. You've had all these new offensive 'breakthroughs" recently. How long has it been since there's been a new defensive scheme that has changed the game?

 

[MLB 51]

It's really late, and I apologize if this makes sh*t for sense...

It seems to me over the past few years that offenses have made more inovative strides than their defensive counterparts. You've had all these new offensive 'breakthroughs" recently. How long has it been since there's been a new defensive scheme that has changed the game?

Wasn't the "Tampa Two" the last big thing?

 

[The Dude]

We recruited different in the Big 12 as well. We loaded up on DBs and didnt need as many linebackers. The switch of leagues showed us that we hadn't recruited the linebacker position very well outside of a couple. Mainly because we didnt need to.

This is why I expect to see improvement from the defense over the next few seasons. You need linebackers to have success in the Big Ten. I think we have them now.

 

[Count 'Bility]

It's really late, and I apologize if this makes sh*t for sense...

It seems to me over the past few years that offenses have made more inovative strides than their defensive counterparts. You've had all these new offensive 'breakthroughs" recently. How long has it been since there's been a new defensive scheme that has changed the game?

Wasn't the "Tampa Two" the last big thing?

I though Bo's peso/glorified nickel was. I remember quite a bit of national hubub following that '09 CCG about how Bo had successfully implemented an exclusive dime package and found a way to completely shut down a perceived unstoppable spread. There was also quite a bit of talk that following offseason as well about it. Dont know if I'd call it the next big thing, but if we stay in the Big 12 and feed that philosophy for another 2 years instead of having to change it up, who knows where it would be today.

 

[MichiganDad3]

And now the answer to "did teams just run more and run more effectively against us?"

Teams averaged 39.57 rush attempts against non-Nebraska opponents. Against Nebraska, teams averaged 40.43 rush attempts. A comparison between the two statistics revealed that opponents did not attempt more rushes against Nebraska, F(1, 13) = .20, Mse = 25.22, p = .659. Combining this information with the pass attempts result tells us that teams didn't play Nebraska any differently than they played other opponents. They respected Nebraska's run defense, and didn't give enough respect to Nebraska's pass defense, much to their own downfall.

And was Nebraska's rushing defense really that bad? Did teams just play Nebraska and light them up with their running game? Teams averaged 4.35 rushing yards per attempt against their opponents. When they faced Nebraska, teams averaged a slightly better, but not significantly better 4.45 rushing yards per attempt, F(1, 13) = .028, Mse = 2.601, p = .869.

IMO, this shows how bad the 2012 defense really was. NU should be significantly better than the average. The average includes all the OOC teams and bottom feeders. If NU's performance is average, then NU will continue to get beaten by top 20 teams.

 

[MichiganDad3]

I think the Big 12 would have shredded us last year.

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.

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.

Stafford's 40 time explains the 2012 defensive performance. I am hopeful NU will be much faster next year, but there must have been a reason for the slow players being on the field, and that terrifies me.

 

[junior4949]

Nothing like a nice long offseason to make us forget some of the most pathetic defensive performances in school history.

Individually sure, however the entire body of work isn't as bad as people are trying to make it out to be. Up to expectations? No. But we weren't Cosgrovian throughout the entire season.

Exactly, and the numbers can back them up. Now there's still some tests to run, specifically a comparison between conferences.

A good one would be the comparison between the Big 12 and the Big 10. Reason being is these boys were recruited to play in that conference. Take the average number of passes per game thrown by Big 12 teams vs The Big Ten. The next would be The amount of rushing attempts per game by teams in the Big 12 and Big 10.

You'll find it to be Big 12 teams pass around 65 or 70% of the time. (Rough estimate)

Maybe it's just me, but I think this excuse gets overplayed. I highly doubt Bama would recruit any different players than it does right now if it were to join the B1G or Big 12. I doubt Texas or OU would recruit any different if they were to join another conference. A&M had a pretty darn successful year in the SEC with players supposedly recruited to play in the Big 12.

In terms of whether last year's D was comparable to 07' one really has to look at the offenses we played. In 07', we faced five top 25 ranked offenses per rivals. Last year we only faced two. There are glaring differences however in the two different D's. Cosgrove had talent on that 07's defense. Last year, we didn't have a lot of talent on defense. This is where the hope comes from. Athletically, we should be better this year than last year.

 

[EZ-E]

Nothing like a nice long offseason to make us forget some of the most pathetic defensive performances in school history.

Individually sure, however the entire body of work isn't as bad as people are trying to make it out to be. Up to expectations? No. But we weren't Cosgrovian throughout the entire season.

Exactly, and the numbers can back them up. Now there's still some tests to run, specifically a comparison between conferences.

A good one would be the comparison between the Big 12 and the Big 10. Reason being is these boys were recruited to play in that conference. Take the average number of passes per game thrown by Big 12 teams vs The Big Ten. The next would be The amount of rushing attempts per game by teams in the Big 12 and Big 10.

You'll find it to be Big 12 teams pass around 65 or 70% of the time. (Rough estimate)

Maybe it's just me, but I think this excuse gets overplayed. I highly doubt Bama would recruit any different players than it does right now if it were to join the B1G or Big 12. I doubt Texas or OU would recruit any different if they were to join another conference. A&M had a pretty darn successful year in the SEC with players supposedly recruited to play in the Big 12.

In terms of whether last year's D was comparable to 07' one really has to look at the offenses we played. In 07', we faced five top 25 ranked offenses per rivals. Last year we only faced two. There are glaring differences however in the two different D's. Cosgrove had talent on that 07's defense. Last year, we didn't have a lot of talent on defense. This is where the hope comes from. Athletically, we should be better this year than last year.

If you couldn't see that our roster defensively was not balanced enough at LB then I don't know what to say.

 

[Landlord]

Maybe it's just me, but I think this excuse gets overplayed. I highly doubt Bama would recruit any different players than it does right now if it were to join the B1G or Big 12. I doubt Texas or OU would recruit any different if they were to join another conference. A&M had a pretty darn successful year in the SEC with players supposedly recruited to play in the Big 12.

In terms of whether last year's D was comparable to 07' one really has to look at the offenses we played. In 07', we faced five top 25 ranked offenses per rivals. Last year we only faced two. There are glaring differences however in the two different D's. Cosgrove had talent on that 07's defense. Last year, we didn't have a lot of talent on defense. This is where the hope comes from. Athletically, we should be better this year than last year.

The Big XII and the SEC are a lot more comparable to each other than the Big XII and Big Ten in my opinion.

 

[kchusker_chris]

Maybe it's just me, but I think this excuse gets overplayed. I highly doubt Bama would recruit any different players than it does right now if it were to join the B1G or Big 12. I doubt Texas or OU would recruit any different if they were to join another conference. A&M had a pretty darn successful year in the SEC with players supposedly recruited to play in the Big 12.

In terms of whether last year's D was comparable to 07' one really has to look at the offenses we played. In 07', we faced five top 25 ranked offenses per rivals. Last year we only faced two. There are glaring differences however in the two different D's. Cosgrove had talent on that 07's defense. Last year, we didn't have a lot of talent on defense. This is where the hope comes from. Athletically, we should be better this year than last year.

I'm kind of with you here. If we can't take our scheme and players into the B1G, during one of the worst periods in their recent history as far as conference strength goes....then we're going to run into some serious issues if we ever start to face other conference teams in BCS or out of conference games. I don't want a defense than can win the B1G...I want a defense that can win on any stage.

Since the transition to the B1G we are 1 - 3 against out of conference BCS opponents, give up 38, 30, 36 & 45...with a whole boatload of yards along the way.

 

[junior4949]

Per rivals, there were three top 30 rushing offenses in the B1G excluding us. There were three top 30 rushing offenses in the Big 12. If we were still in the Big 12, one would assume A&M would also be in the Big 12. Therefore, there would have been four top 30 rushing offenses excluding ourselves in the Big 12. It's not necessarily that Big 12 teams don't/can't run. They're just more balanced. Seven of the Big 12 offenses last year wound up in the top 25 per rivals in total offense.

If one looks at the total offense and the total defense categories, there's a stronger correllation between the SEC and the B1G than there is between the SEC and the Big 12. Statistically, both the SEC and B1G are strong defensive conferences while the Big 12 is not.

 

[NUinID]

A thing to consider (and I will do my best to get to this tomorrow) is the difference in these stats for teams we beat and teams that beat us. Was there something that UCLA, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Georgia do against us that was different than what the 10 teams we beat did?

Wisconsin part 2 has been speculation over and over on what went wrong there. Personally, I feel like Wisconsin part 1 is a more accurate description of that matchup.

I guess what I'm trying to say is UCLA, Ohio St, and Georgia just flat out beat us with athletic skill and hot, nasty, speed. And I guess you could say that Wisconsin part 2 did as well, but I think it was more flukish myself. The perfect storm if you will. The other 3? We just got flat out athleticized.

I feel the athletes were on the roster to win all three games, however the depth wasn't there to beat Georgia. UCLA shocked me. tOSU in the horseshoe? Aggravating.

The UCLA game was a unique situation. I was at the game I knew they would have some talent, but I think the big factor was the unknown aspect of what to expect from them as an offense and a defense. UCLA had only one game under their belt when we played and with the new staff it was probably a little tough to know what to expect. I think this kept the defense pretty vanilla. The defense did shut them down a lot better in the second half, the offense just couldn't get anything going.

 

[MichiganDad3]

+10000000000000

We recruited different in the Big 12 as well. We loaded up on DBs and didnt need as many linebackers. The switch of leagues showed us that we hadn't recruited the linebacker position very well outside of a couple. Mainly because we didnt need to.

Even that, the type of Dlineman was different as well. Remember how effective Meredith was? Then all a sudden we needed him to gain twenty pounds and that renedered him all but useless. Eric Martin wouldve been a tremendous DE in the Big 12 being set free every play like the front 4 was at the time.

I think the same type of players that worked in the BIG 12 would work in the BIG. In the tribute video to the 1994 team, McBride talked about how getting smaller and faster on defense was the key to winning championships. He moved safeties to LB and LBs to DE. Getting bigger with the move to the BIG had the opposite effect for Bo.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

While conferences all have their tendancies, they will always have a couple teams that are anomalies, and you're gonna have to beat them, too. Along with teams in your non-con schedule and hopefully in a bowl game.

You'll need to stop the run and pass in various combinations in every game. Every team is going to have some good atheletes.

Not quite buying that Ohio State alum Bo Pelini was ill-prepared for what the Big 10 would bring. A comparatively weakened Big 10 at that.

I think he just may have whiffed on a couple recruiting classes. It happens. What the Huskers appear to have lacked the past couple seasons were basic fundamentals, things like anticipation and tackling. Maybe some defensive leadership, individual players who keep their teammates from panicking or over-compensating. That's on both the athletes and the coaches.

 

[iowahusker09]

Whoever compared us to Oklahoma was spot on

Pass Efficiency Rank-Yd/Pass att-Pass td allowed

NU 9th-4.76-18

OU 12th-5.15-11

Rush ranking-Yd/rush-rush td

NU 90-5.93-26

OU 89-6.38-27

Games-PPG allowed

NU 14-27.57

OU 13-25.46

Games allowed more than 30 pts (I believe if you give up more than 30 points, your defense has been picked apart)

NU 3

OU 5

The biggest difference here is pass td allowed. (18-11) Our occasional breakdown of the deep ball is the difference here. The deep ball is where the lack of pass rush and poor safety play hurts us. Also on longer routes, a press at the line wont disrupt the play as much as something like a slant route where timing is EVERYTHING. Were ranked 9 in pass eff. The top 8 teams allowed an avg of 9.5 td all year. Were double that at 18.