Bob Diaco's 3-4 "No Crease" Defense

I think a 3-4 can be a good look. I just don't know if we have the guys to run it right now. Be interesting to see how it works this year.

 
bnilhome said:
Mavric said:
I think a 3-4 can be a good look. I just don't know if we have the guys to run it right now. Be interesting to see how it works this year.
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Apparently McKewon thinks our personnel fits better in the 3-4. Well see I guess.
http://www.omaha.com/huskers/blogs/mckewon-five-quick-takes-on-nebraska-hiring-bob-diaco-as/article_7c5ac760-d9e9-11e6-bba1-87606de26190.html
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First, is it in McKewon's contract that he has to work Pelini into every article? If so, how long does that run?

Second, he only focuses on half of it. I agree with him that I think we have the linebackers to run it. I don't think we have a true NT though we can at least get one guy close enough. Hopefully two because they'll need to rotate. And I'm afraid that we have several current DEs who don't really fit anywhere. So I'm not sure I agree with a broad stroke "roster better fit" to run it.

Third, it's interesting that McKewon tries to claim that some of the recruits knew about it when even Langsdorf didn't. Something doesn't add up there.

 
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My impression is he was saying the recruits knew we were going to hire a new dc quickly, not fire Banker. I'm sure Langs knew that, everybody did.

 
I don't know. That's not how I read it. Maybe it was poorly-worded.

Lest fans think Nebraska had fallen into chaos for however many days, there was a plan, and at least two families of recruits knew the change was happening and Banker’s replacement was coming soon after that.
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"Banker's replacemtent coming soon after that." The "that" can't be hiring Banker's replacement because it can't come after itself. So the "change" is something other than hiring Banker's replacement. And that leaves......

 
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I like the ILBs being more read and flow. We were not doing a lot of that this year and I think that's a lot of why the LBs "struggled." Hopefully the guys we'll have playing the down three will be able to hold up enough to let the LBs run. If we can get that, we'll be in good shape.

It's handy that we've already been playing Field and Boundary Corners.

I like using both Cover2 and Cover 3. Cover 2 really helps prevent big plays and we saw how much better our DBs looked this year running a lot more Cover 3.

As the article said, the defense begins and ends with the NT. We'll need for sure two of them and I don't think we have any at the moment. But I think we'll have some choices between the twins and Stoltenberg to find at least one. Hopefully only one as I could see those three being on the field together. Need Newell or someone to be a serviceable backup.

 
I too like the idea of 3-4. I like Stoltenberg's motor but I think he's a little too lanky for NT. Maliek Collins and Kevin Maurice would have been great "Beta" nose tackles. At the same time, we now need two DE's that have to become hybrids (Edge rushes/Interior lineman). Will be interesting to see it all unfold this spring and fall.

 
admo said:
I too like the idea of 3-4. I like Stoltenberg's motor but I think he's a little too lanky for NT. Maliek Collins and Kevin Maurice would have been great "Beta" nose tackles. At the same time, we now need two DE's that have to become hybrids (Edge rushes/Interior lineman). Will be interesting to see it all unfold this spring and fall.
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Yeah, Stolt might actually make a better 34 DE. He'd have to drop some weight and work on agility. But remember he came in two years ago at 250 lbs. and played DE/TE in high school. He might make a great 34 DE. But since he's bulked up to nearly 300 now, and we're so thin at DT (NT), I'm not sure they'd try to move him to DE.

NT is the spot I'm worried about. Not sure we have a natural NT on the roster.

 
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Oade said:
krc1995 said:
by "no crease" does that no more of those effin short middle slant passes?
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I'm no expert on the 3-4, or Diaco's D specifically, but I think it will actually mean more of those short passes, which is fine if the rest of the D is executing the way it should.

From what I understand of Diaco's D, the secondary plays fairly deep to prevent giving up big plays. Doing that opens up the middle a little more than what you would want, but if it prevent opponents from taking the top off our D, and keeps them out of the end-zone, then God bless it.
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Makes sense with the bend don't break comments. What about bringing pressure in the 3-4?

 
Just for fun, let's hypothetically try to figure out a potential position assignment for our team based on this defense. (People familiar with the 3-4 please comment and help me get this right). I've looked at college and NFL depth charts to try to get this right.

DE - Carlos Davis 6-2, 295, Khalil Davis 6-2, 290, Deontae Thomas 6-2, 260

NT - Deiontae Watts 6-3, 305, Daimion Daniels 6-2, 310, (what about moving Jaylin Barnett here? 6-4, 320) Masry Mapieu will play this spot in 2018.

DE - Daishon Neal 6-7, 270, Mick Stoltenberg 6-5, 290

Jack - Freedom Akinmoladun 6-4, 255, Alex Davis 6-5, 255, Sedrick King 6-4, 250, Ben Stille 6-5, 240, Collin Miller 6-3, 235

Sam - Marcus Newby 6-1, 235, Tyrin Ferguson 6-2, 225, Pernell Jefferson 6-2, 225, Luke Gifford 6-3, 230

Mike - Chris Webber 6-3, 230, Quayshon Alexander 6-3, 235, Greg Simmons 6-2, 240

Will - Dedrick Young 6-1, 220, Mohammed Barry 6-1, 220, Avery Roberts 6-1, 220, Willie Hampton 6-2, 220, Andrew Ward 6-1, 220

CB - Josh Kalu, Lamar Jackson, DiCaprio Bootle

CB - Chris Jones, Eric Lee, Marquel Dismuke, Boaz Joseph

S - Aaron Williams, Avery Anderson, Jojo domann

S - Kieron Williams, Antonio Reed, Tony Butler

I'm curious to hear our thoughts on moving Barnett to NT. He has supposedly gotten huge fat and isn't going to crack the two deep at OG. What if we put him in the middle and just let him eat up run space?

 
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I think the 3-4 will be able to utilize the talent that is on hand, especially on the D-line. I think the coaches will be able to rotate a number of players through the 3 spots and keep players fresh.

The LB's could be the question marks, as they will need some young guys to step up and play well. I am also interested in how they take out LB's when they go to the Nickel & Dime.

 
krc1995 said:
Oade said:
krc1995 said:
by "no crease" does that no more of those effin short middle slant passes?
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I'm no expert on the 3-4, or Diaco's D specifically, but I think it will actually mean more of those short passes, which is fine if the rest of the D is executing the way it should.

From what I understand of Diaco's D, the secondary plays fairly deep to prevent giving up big plays. Doing that opens up the middle a little more than what you would want, but if it prevent opponents from taking the top off our D, and keeps them out of the end-zone, then God bless it.
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Makes sense with the bend don't break comments. What about bringing pressure in the 3-4?
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Thats one of my biggest questions too. I had read early yesterday that Diaco doesn't like to blitz that often, but then someone in a different thread posted this last night:

According to his bio on the uconn website over his four years at Notre Dame they allowed 19.08 points per game, which is pretty impressive. Also the year he was at Cincinnati should not be overlooked as they ranked 3rd in the nation in TFL per game game (8.46 per game) and 10th in sacks per game (2.85 per game)... He's a players coach and chose us over others, I think he's a great get
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3rd in the nation for TFL, and 10th in sacks during his year at Cincinnati, so he must bring pressure from somewhere if he was able to get top-10 results.... And just looking at his Wiki page, it lists Diaco as DC/LB coach during his year at Cinci, so I would imagine that because he coached/worked with them more so than others, that he probably liked to use his LBs quite often to get TFL and Sacks (that's just a assumption though).

 
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I can't embed the link while on my phone. But here's highlights of his Notre dame '12 defense and the different looks to get pressure. Highlight of all the regular season sacks.

 
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