Defensive Stats

[Landlord]

The defense has played well the last two games. However, our lack of depth on both sides of the ball, especially the defensive side holding up for 4 quarters against teams, is starting to show through. It's gonna be a tough grind from here on out.

 

[onlyHskrfaninIL]

Wisconsin TOP - Rush yards - Pass yards by quarter....

1st 7:47-23-57

2nd 6:35-22-69

3rd 7:30-13-64

4th 10:04-89-132

248 yards of offense given up thru 3 qtrs isn't great but pretty decent. They get dominated in the fourth because they were on the field too long and got tired. The performance from the defense was there for 3 quarters. The offense has to do it's job and stay on the field.

 

[HuskerInLostWages]

Our offense def hasn't helped us any lately, but if it isn't he most obvious thing in the world then I don't know what is.

You CANNOT expect to have your DBs never look at the QB running with WRs all game. Said this since week 1 and nothing has changed. You better have 4 All-Americans back there if you ever want to have a good pass defense in this scheme.

We NEVER look back for the ball -- just hoping to knock it away when it reaches their hands.

The secondary is still a liability. There's no question about that. But what I saw was a lot more awareness of where the ball was being thrown. We should/could have had about 4 INT's in the last game. Kalu is showing he's almost there. Yes he got beat but he also made some good plays.
It's not there like we would like it and it might not be there this year but I saw some flashes of what it can be once they come out with confidence.

I agree. While still very porous, the secondary did seem to play 'better' against Wisconsin, and did have a few really nice breakups. Hopefully they will continue to develop. For his part, I thought M. Newby had a great game in pass coverage. We desperately need that kind of play at LB.

I didn't get to watch the game but wanted to ask about the 4 dropped picks. At first I assumed that Wisconsin had dropped 4 picks. Did our defenders turn to look for the ball, extended their hands to catch the ball and then dropped the ball? These weren't picks that hit the back of our defender's helmet?

Also, how did this staff win any games in the PAC-12? I don't think they outlawed the forward pass in that conference.

there were 2 balls right into Gerry and Kalu's hands, they Niles Paul'd both of them. The other ones hit the guys in the hands but also had defenders around to help break them up but could have easily been caught for an INT.

 

[junior4949]

I'm glad people are finally starting to get it that poor offense leads to poor defense. Back in 07' everybody loved to stomp on the defense's cubes for poor play. It was the same back then. Yes, they weren't very good. However, they were left in horrible situations by our offense. The same is happening now. To some degree, we saw similar things under Bo especially the last couple of years. When the offense is continually going three and out running next to no time off the clock, it really puts the defense in a tough spot.

This is one of the reasons I'm not a huge fan of a fast paced offense or a heavy pass offense. When things are clicking and the ball is being moved, it's not a big deal. When things aren't clicking, it gives the defense next to no rest.

 

[onlyHskrfaninIL]

Offense against Wisky - 8 of 18 on 3rd down conversions.

Converted 5 of 10 on 3rd down plays of 5 yards or less. Of those, 3 of 7 converted on passing plays (all on 2nd qtr TD drives). 2/3 of converted via the run (6 yd Cross run, 55 yd Jano run).

 

[4skers89]

Our offense def hasn't helped us any lately, but if it isn't he most obvious thing in the world then I don't know what is.

You CANNOT expect to have your DBs never look at the QB running with WRs all game. Said this since week 1 and nothing has changed. You better have 4 All-Americans back there if you ever want to have a good pass defense in this scheme.

We NEVER look back for the ball -- just hoping to knock it away when it reaches their hands.

The secondary is still a liability. There's no question about that. But what I saw was a lot more awareness of where the ball was being thrown. We should/could have had about 4 INT's in the last game. Kalu is showing he's almost there. Yes he got beat but he also made some good plays.It's not there like we would like it and it might not be there this year but I saw some flashes of what it can be once they come out with confidence.

I agree. While still very porous, the secondary did seem to play 'better' against Wisconsin, and did have a few really nice breakups. Hopefully they will continue to develop. For his part, I thought M. Newby had a great game in pass coverage. We desperately need that kind of play at LB.

I didn't get to watch the game but wanted to ask about the 4 dropped picks. At first I assumed that Wisconsin had dropped 4 picks. Did our defenders turn to look for the ball, extended their hands to catch the ball and then dropped the ball? These weren't picks that hit the back of our defender's helmet?
Also, how did this staff win any games in the PAC-12? I don't think they outlawed the forward pass in that conference.

there were 2 balls right into Gerry and Kalu's hands, they Niles Paul'd both of them. The other ones hit the guys in the hands but also had defenders around to help break them up but could have easily been caught for an INT.

Thanks. Sounds like progress.
My point about the PAC-12 was that Banker's scheme for pass defense can't be horrible otherwise they would have been eaten alive. If someone looks up OSU's pass defense ranking the past couple of years we should at least expect to get to that. Assuming better talent and playing in B1G, we should be able to do better. Unless they've changed scheme once they came to Nebraska, it's probably just a matter of time for coaching to take hold or players to get it until we see improvement.

 

[huskerfan92]

Our offense def hasn't helped us any lately, but if it isn't he most obvious thing in the world then I don't know what is.

You CANNOT expect to have your DBs never look at the QB running with WRs all game. Said this since week 1 and nothing has changed. You better have 4 All-Americans back there if you ever want to have a good pass defense in this scheme.

We NEVER look back for the ball -- just hoping to knock it away when it reaches their hands.

The secondary is still a liability. There's no question about that. But what I saw was a lot more awareness of where the ball was being thrown. We should/could have had about 4 INT's in the last game. Kalu is showing he's almost there. Yes he got beat but he also made some good plays.It's not there like we would like it and it might not be there this year but I saw some flashes of what it can be once they come out with confidence.

I agree. While still very porous, the secondary did seem to play 'better' against Wisconsin, and did have a few really nice breakups. Hopefully they will continue to develop. For his part, I thought M. Newby had a great game in pass coverage. We desperately need that kind of play at LB.

I didn't get to watch the game but wanted to ask about the 4 dropped picks. At first I assumed that Wisconsin had dropped 4 picks. Did our defenders turn to look for the ball, extended their hands to catch the ball and then dropped the ball? These weren't picks that hit the back of our defender's helmet?
Also, how did this staff win any games in the PAC-12? I don't think they outlawed the forward pass in that conference.

there were 2 balls right into Gerry and Kalu's hands, they Niles Paul'd both of them. The other ones hit the guys in the hands but also had defenders around to help break them up but could have easily been caught for an INT.

Thanks. Sounds like progress.
My point about the PAC-12 was that Banker's scheme for pass defense can't be horrible otherwise they would have been eaten alive. If someone looks up OSU's pass defense ranking the past couple of years we should at least expect to get to that. Assuming better talent and playing in B1G, we should be able to do better. Unless they've changed scheme once they came to Nebraska, it's probably just a matter of time for coaching to take hold or players to get it until we see improvement.

2014: 92nd

2013: 99th

Ehhhhhhhh not exactly promising

 

[4skers89]

Our offense def hasn't helped us any lately, but if it isn't he most obvious thing in the world then I don't know what is.

You CANNOT expect to have your DBs never look at the QB running with WRs all game. Said this since week 1 and nothing has changed. You better have 4 All-Americans back there if you ever want to have a good pass defense in this scheme.

We NEVER look back for the ball -- just hoping to knock it away when it reaches their hands.

The secondary is still a liability. There's no question about that. But what I saw was a lot more awareness of where the ball was being thrown. We should/could have had about 4 INT's in the last game. Kalu is showing he's almost there. Yes he got beat but he also made some good plays.It's not there like we would like it and it might not be there this year but I saw some flashes of what it can be once they come out with confidence.

I agree. While still very porous, the secondary did seem to play 'better' against Wisconsin, and did have a few really nice breakups. Hopefully they will continue to develop. For his part, I thought M. Newby had a great game in pass coverage. We desperately need that kind of play at LB.

I didn't get to watch the game but wanted to ask about the 4 dropped picks. At first I assumed that Wisconsin had dropped 4 picks. Did our defenders turn to look for the ball, extended their hands to catch the ball and then dropped the ball? These weren't picks that hit the back of our defender's helmet?
Also, how did this staff win any games in the PAC-12? I don't think they outlawed the forward pass in that conference.

there were 2 balls right into Gerry and Kalu's hands, they Niles Paul'd both of them. The other ones hit the guys in the hands but also had defenders around to help break them up but could have easily been caught for an INT.

Thanks. Sounds like progress.
My point about the PAC-12 was that Banker's scheme for pass defense can't be horrible otherwise they would have been eaten alive. If someone looks up OSU's pass defense ranking the past couple of years we should at least expect to get to that. Assuming better talent and playing in B1G, we should be able to do better. Unless they've changed scheme once they came to Nebraska, it's probably just a matter of time for coaching to take hold or players to get it until we see improvement.

2014: 92nd

2013: 99th

Ehhhhhhhh not exactly promising

That doesn't sound good. I pulled the yards/game stats from Yahoo which makes things a little less bleak. I included how Anderson's defense is doing this year.

OSU
Yards/game
Total Passing Rushing
2010 407.9 228.4 179.5
2011 411.3 214.4 196.8
2012 353.7 223.2 130.5
2013 428.2 235.0 193.2
2014 406.3 248.1 158.3

2015 393.6 177.6 216.0

Nebraska
2015 443.8 348.5 95.3

If we could lop off 40 yards/game in passing to match OSU's total average, our passing defense would still be ranked fairly low but our total defense wouldn't be ranked too bad. I like the emphasis they have been putting on stopping the run. Assuming our players are better then OSU's, I expect us to improve on what this coaching staff has historically been able to achieve for total defense and that improvement should come in the pass defense. I think there is reason for optimism.

 

[suh_fan93]

Harbaugh hires Durkin and MR hires Banker. What a fiasco. I bet if Banker's grandmother was head coach she wouldn't hire Mark.

Haha. This is great.