Guys that flashed on Saturday to me and on the re-watch:
Casey Rogers
Ty Robinson
Jojo Domann
Will Honas
Maybe my expectations for Tannor are too high. I think he does some really really good things for us at times. But it’s hard because i don’t feel like the effort is always there. When fully motivated, he’s easily the best and most athletic pass rusher on this roster as currently constructed. The way he twisted and then flashed through the line on his sack was beautiful. Need more consistency from him going forward to maximize our potential on this side of the ball.
A guy that could potentially help us at OLB is Pheldarius Payne. He only had 2 tackles but I thought he was in good position a lot of the time and I’ll be curious to see how his transition to the position progresses moving forward.
The soft coverage killed us but we also went tight man a few times and they just ran those rub routes and killed us. This is what happens when you play teams that start 3 5* WR’s at the same time. I think people are forgetting despite how well a guy like Bootle grades out in PFF or the praise for Williams that simply put, Ohio State’s receivers are just better athletes than our current defensive backs. That’s why losing guys like Francois and Gray sucks- not just because its cool to land high 4* talent but when you can get those types of guys and combine it with a good pass rush that’s really when you can afford to walk guys down and get in these bigger, faster WR’s faces and counter the athleticism.
One of the best points that was made on Saturday was by Urban Meyer (as much as I hate him he’s a great analyst for FOX and hope he stays around a long long time). He said 80% of pass defense is pass rush. Let that sink in for a moment- EIGHTY PERCENT of pass defense according to one of the best coaches in the history of the modern game has nothing to do with the DB’s. And then think back to our misses at DE/OLB over the past few classes. This is the number one area Nebraska needs to get better at in order to make the next jump as a defense. Getting more athletic at the DE/OLB spot is ENORMOUS for our future successes.
I thought we looked pretty fast on defense at times. The best play of the game defensively IMO was the hit/stop on 3rd and 1 Jojo Domann made late in the first half on Tre Sermon. Guy absolutely FLEW off the edge and made a sure tackle to force 4th and 1. Then OSU got the illegal formation and had to settle for 3. Those are the winning plays you make against a team like Ohio State- small wins turn into big wins when we eventually have closer to even talent level.
Overall I was pretty impressed with how well we held up. My biggest concern going into this game was our mentality- would we give up like we have in years past or would we fight? Last year when we were down 14-0 to them and had that drive going that ended with the pick that bounced off Wandale’s hands- you could see in the team’s expression they gave up. The mentality this year was completely different, this team fought hard and made some really good plays on both sides of the ball. The next step for Nebraska in order for the effort and plays that we made to show up on the final scoreboard is to eliminate the mistakes- teams like Ohio State just don’t make very many of them (3 penalties for 14 yards, 1 fumble). Overall this was a very pleasing start to the year, but we need to follow it up with the same intensity and physicality against Wisconsin this week. While they are less athletic than Ohio State may be, they propose a completely different challenge to our defense. This and Iowa are the two games I’m most curious to see how we respond going forward.
