Banker's Defense in Review

[cfullm1]

I'm so back and forth on the subject of defense. On one side I don't like the defense, our DB's always seem out of position, we can't tackle worth a crap, and we don't have a solid pass rush. Then on the other side, I have to look at it as 1. I think our D line was the most improved group of the entire team 2. We had a ton of injuries to the already very thing LB core 3. Our DB's were pretty inexperienced 4. A new system, a new coach that probably didn't have a lot of buy in from the Def. players that were recruited and loved Bo. With Bo's passing the way it did and left some of those kids feeling short changed I can see why they maybe wouldn't want to play as hard for this team as they could have. I guess we give it another go next year and see if Banker can coach some of these kids up and see who we can recruit.

 

[soup]

so our defense has pretty much sucked since 2009....got it.

 

[Red_October]

I have seen a lot of posts from people giving A LOT of credit to Mark Banker for making adjustments and improving the D. Yes, the Blackshirts did play well against Rutgers and Iowa, to me, 2 games isn't a trend. If it is, why did it take 10 games for Banker to finally make necessary adjustments with this defense.

Below is a chart (sorry for the formatting, I guess it's impossible to paste a picture in from Excel) that shows the points and yards given up by opponent this year. It also shows the average PPG and YPG for that opponent and their national ranking. The season started out like a dumpster fire against BYU, Miami, and So Miss, when NU played the best offenses it would face all year. Even when NU got into conference play, teams didn't have much of a problem moving the ball on NU. I can give credit to Banker for allowing fewer points than the yards would imply, but the defense constantly came up short this year. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, given the team's record. The big thing to take out of this is how bad the Big Ten West offenses are. Wow!!!

Points Avg. Points Ranking Yards Avg. Yards Ranking

BYU 33 34.2 39 511 428 46

S. Alabama 9 24.8 95 332 360 102

Miami 36 28.9 65 511 401 65

So Miss 28 41.7 9 458 535 8

Illinois 14 22.7 102 382 373 89

Wisconsin 23 27.1 80 469 377 82

Minnesota 25 22.6 103 366 357 103

Northwestern 30 20.7 111 333 333 115

Purdue 55 25.1 93 457 369 94

Michigan State 38 33.4 44 491 399 68

Rutgers 14 27.1 80 259 377 83

Iowa 28 33.7 41 250 404 63

Total 27.8 401.6

psssss....the offense put the defense in bad field position many times. It is not as simple as adding up numbers. The defense played much better in the second half.

 

[Red_October]

Where is the game where we gave up 400+ rushing yards to one player through 3 quarters? Or 60+ points? Or a 20+ point blowout?

We're really grasping for silver linings here if we're pointing at zero blowouts as a success when this team lost to Pur-f******-due.

And it was 42-16 at the end of the 3rd quarter. The whole 4th quarter was garbage time.

You're right.

Through three quarters our defense gave up 6 touchdowns, on drives starting on their 23, our own 16, our own 22, their 20, their 16, and our 19.

21 of those 42 points came on turnovers with 22 or less yards to the endzone.

New QB on the road, never started a game before had nothing to do with it, nor did his 4 turnovers. Right?

 

[dtbugeater]

I thought the defense looked like a dumpster fire early on. By the end of the year, I thought they played an exciting aggressive form of defense. High risk high reward, but they were hitting harder, playing faster, and seemed a lot less passive than not only the early season defense but also our last couple seasons of defense. I don't know that the stats show that--but to my untrained eye I see reason to feel good about this unit and how it will improve as they get used to the system and recruit to the system.

 

[Huskers19911]

I guess it's impossible to format copy and paste items. Screw you guys!!!

Long story short, the D sucked for most of the year.

Good information. Maybe try screenshotting it on your computer and uploading it as an image? Good work with the stats, keep it up.

 

[Hujan]

You need to make sure you use a monospace font for the table or use the "code" macro, then it'll work like normal

Opponent Points | Avg. Points | Ranking | Yards | Avg. Yards | Ranking
BYU 33 | 34.2 | 39 | 511 | 428 | 46
S. Alabama 9 | 24.8 | 95 | 332 | 360 | 102
Miami 36 | 28.9 | 65 | 511 | 401 | 65
So Miss 28 | 41.7 | 9 | 458 | 535 | 8
Illinois 14 | 22.7 | 102 | 382 | 373 | 89
Wisconsin 23 | 27.1 | 80 | 469 | 377 | 82
Minnesota 25 | 22.6 | 103 | 366 | 357 | 103
Northwestern 30 | 20.7 | 111 | 333 | 333 | 115
Purdue 55 | 25.1 | 93 | 457 | 369 | 94
Michigan State 38 | 33.4 | 44 | 491 | 399 | 68
Rutgers 14 | 27.1 | 80 | 259 | 377 | 83
Iowa 28 | 33.7 | 41 | 250 | 404 | 63
Total | 27.8 | | | 401.6 |

Is it me or does this suggest we held most teams at or below their season average with the exceptions of Miami, Northwestern, Purdue, and arguably MSU?

 

[ColoradoHusk]

You need to make sure you use a monospace font for the table or use the "code" macro, then it'll work like normal

Opponent Points | Avg. Points | Ranking | Yards | Avg. Yards | Ranking
BYU 33 | 34.2 | 39 | 511 | 428 | 46
S. Alabama 9 | 24.8 | 95 | 332 | 360 | 102
Miami 36 | 28.9 | 65 | 511 | 401 | 65
So Miss 28 | 41.7 | 9 | 458 | 535 | 8
Illinois 14 | 22.7 | 102 | 382 | 373 | 89
Wisconsin 23 | 27.1 | 80 | 469 | 377 | 82
Minnesota 25 | 22.6 | 103 | 366 | 357 | 103
Northwestern 30 | 20.7 | 111 | 333 | 333 | 115
Purdue 55 | 25.1 | 93 | 457 | 369 | 94
Michigan State 38 | 33.4 | 44 | 491 | 399 | 68
Rutgers 14 | 27.1 | 80 | 259 | 377 | 83
Iowa 28 | 33.7 | 41 | 250 | 404 | 63
Total | 27.8 | | | 401.6 |

Is it me or does this suggest we held most teams at or below their season average with the exceptions of Miami, Northwestern, Purdue, and arguably MSU?

Minnesota also scored above their average. Also, how is it "arguable" that MSU scored aove their average when it was 5 points above their average. That's almost a TD.
Banker's D allowed way too much yardage and didn't create many turnovers either.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I thought the D looked better as the year went on but they might have just been playing crappier offenses, I don't know.

I do know I was 5 games off on my prediction for the win total

 

[Hujan]

Believe it or not, I am actually more worried about the O than the D next year, though that will change if Collins and Valentine leave.

I think Banker's D could be dangerous (to opponents) with a legit pass rusher and some corners with good press skills. The run stoppage is there, you just need corners to press up and deny the receivers a clean break and a pass rusher or two to get in the backfield and disrupt the QB's timing.

The defense did improve as the season went on. Improvement isn't just an 'on paper' deal. I'd say starting around the Minnesota game you really started to see the DBs trying to jump routes and playing more aggresively. They had better positioning on routes that they just didn't have at the beginning of the year. The LBs improved a good bit too in the pass game. Beginning of the year they just looked to be in no mans land half the time. I think they're brightest spot came against Wisconsin with Newby showing off some great cover skills. The biggest problem with this D was 3rd down defense and 4th quarter defense. We lacked any sense of an edge rush. If we want to see any imprrovement from this year to next, it might come down to whether or not we have a guy that can consistently get in a QBs face.

Good post. I agree. One of the biggest bummers of the Wisconsin loss for me was the fact that Newby played a really good game.

 

[MichiganDad3]

Believe it or not, I am actually more worried about the O than the D next year, though that will change if Collins and Valentine leave.

I think Banker's D could be dangerous (to opponents) with a legit pass rusher and some corners with good press skills. The run stoppage is there, you just need corners to press up and deny the receivers a clean break and a pass rusher or two to get in the backfield and disrupt the QB's timing.

The defense did improve as the season went on. Improvement isn't just an 'on paper' deal. I'd say starting around the Minnesota game you really started to see the DBs trying to jump routes and playing more aggresively. They had better positioning on routes that they just didn't have at the beginning of the year. The LBs improved a good bit too in the pass game. Beginning of the year they just looked to be in no mans land half the time. I think they're brightest spot came against Wisconsin with Newby showing off some great cover skills. The biggest problem with this D was 3rd down defense and 4th quarter defense. We lacked any sense of an edge rush. If we want to see any imprrovement from this year to next, it might come down to whether or not we have a guy that can consistently get in a QBs face.

Good post. I agree. One of the biggest bummers of the Wisconsin loss for me was the fact that Newby played a really good game.

I am also more worried about the O. Some of the really bad D was played on the last possession of the game, and I wonder if the D play calling was Banker or MR.