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Husker defensive stats are historically bad
By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Monday, Oct 08, 2007 - 12:21:25 am CDT
It was already Sunday, 30 minutes or so past midnight. Faurot Field was mostly empty, but still you could hear the joyful commotion of Missouri fans parading down nearby Providence Road.
Sam Keller, Husker quarterback, the mouthpiece of this team, sat in the bowels of Missouri’s stadium and paid the noises no attention.
The Huskers are long past the point where they can afford to worry about what other people are doing. Looking in the mirror is of more necessity.
“We can’t let this drag on to next week and the week after that,” Keller said. “We still have a lot more games left. Six games. That’s a long season. That’s a lot of games left. We have to be men about this and just focus on one game at a time, one practice at a time, one rep at a time.”
Of course, Keller is right. It is a long season. The fear of Huskers fans is that it might be one of the longest seasons in some while.
It was Missouri who gave the Huskers bloodied faces this time. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you lose and get embarrassed. Saturday night was a version of the latter — a 41-6 flogging that came on national TV and has the locals questioning the direction of the program in crashing voices.
“When you’re out there, you’re not feeling embarrassed,” Husker senior linebacker Bo Ruud said. “I think that’s something that settles in later maybe.”
Perhaps that embarrassment arrives when looking at the statistics.
Cover your eyes if you cannot stand gruesome things. This is turning into one of the ugliest statistical years for the Husker defense in the program’s history.
Some numbers to consider:
* Nebraska (4-2, 1-1 Big 12) has given up more than 40 points three times in this season that is just six games old.
The only other time the Huskers have allowed more than 40 points three times in an entire season was in 1943, when Coach Adolph J. Lewandowski’s team gave up 54 points in three different games.
Lewandowski at least has a decent excuse. He was the basketball coach and took over the football coaching duties for two years to help out during the economically-lean World War II years.
Granted, the style of football has changed over the eras. But for some perspective, Nebraska did not give up more than 40 points once during the 1970s and had it happen just twice in the ’80s.
* The Huskers are giving up what would be a record-setting average of 441.5 yards per game — ranking them 96th nationally and last in the conference in total defense.
To compare, the most average yards per game a Husker defense has allowed in a season came in 1948, a team guided by Coach George “Potsy” Clark that went 2-8 and gave up 379.5 yards a game.
* According to the Husker media guide, the 32 first downs Nebraska relinquished Saturday are the most allowed in a single game in school history. The previous high was 31, set by Washington’s national championship team in 1991.
It’s worth noting that Iowa State (28 first downs) and Ball State (27) were not too far from that mark, either.
* The Huskers are on pace to break the school record for most points allowed in a season.
The 2002 defense gave up 335 points in 14 games. This defense has already surrendered 174 points — an average of 29 points a game.
At the current clip, even if the Huskers didn’t make a bowl game and only played 12 times, they’d give up 348 points.
* Against Ball State, the Huskers gave up 610 yards, the fourth-most given up by a Nebraska defense.
Three weeks later, Missouri rolled up 606 total yards.
At this rate, the Huskers are on pace to break the school record for most yards allowed in a season.
To date, the Huskers have given up 2,649 yards this season.
If that keeps up, Nebraska would give up 5,298 yards in 12 games, moving it past the standing record of 5,067 yards given up by the 2002 defense.
* The Huskers are allowing an average of 251 yards a game passing (87th nationally) and 190.5 yards a game rushing (97th nationally and last in the Big 12).
The Husker pass defense is starting to flirt with the 2004 unit — defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove’s first year at Nebraska — that gave up a school-high average of 267.6 yards passing a game.
You can chalk up these stats to a great many things — bad tackling, lack of fire, sometimes being “out-athleted,” not being able to stop a third down.
Third down has especially been a bugaboo for the Husker defense.
Teams have converted 43 of 95 third downs against Nebraska, which ranks the Husker defense 104th nationally in that category.
“We were holding them on first and second, then they’d hit on those third downs,” Ruud said of Missouri. “We just couldn’t seem to get them off the field.”
The challenges get no easier from here. Saturday’s opponent Oklahoma State ranks 14th nationally in total offense and last year scored 41 against Nebraska.
When asked about the challenge of getting players to bounce back after a game like Missouri, Husker defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt admitted “it’s going to be hard.”
Someone later asked if Wyatt saw any quick fixes that could be made.
His answer: “There are no quick fixes in football.”
By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Monday, Oct 08, 2007 - 12:21:25 am CDT
It was already Sunday, 30 minutes or so past midnight. Faurot Field was mostly empty, but still you could hear the joyful commotion of Missouri fans parading down nearby Providence Road.
Sam Keller, Husker quarterback, the mouthpiece of this team, sat in the bowels of Missouri’s stadium and paid the noises no attention.
The Huskers are long past the point where they can afford to worry about what other people are doing. Looking in the mirror is of more necessity.
“We can’t let this drag on to next week and the week after that,” Keller said. “We still have a lot more games left. Six games. That’s a long season. That’s a lot of games left. We have to be men about this and just focus on one game at a time, one practice at a time, one rep at a time.”
Of course, Keller is right. It is a long season. The fear of Huskers fans is that it might be one of the longest seasons in some while.
It was Missouri who gave the Huskers bloodied faces this time. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you lose and get embarrassed. Saturday night was a version of the latter — a 41-6 flogging that came on national TV and has the locals questioning the direction of the program in crashing voices.
“When you’re out there, you’re not feeling embarrassed,” Husker senior linebacker Bo Ruud said. “I think that’s something that settles in later maybe.”
Perhaps that embarrassment arrives when looking at the statistics.
Cover your eyes if you cannot stand gruesome things. This is turning into one of the ugliest statistical years for the Husker defense in the program’s history.
Some numbers to consider:
* Nebraska (4-2, 1-1 Big 12) has given up more than 40 points three times in this season that is just six games old.
The only other time the Huskers have allowed more than 40 points three times in an entire season was in 1943, when Coach Adolph J. Lewandowski’s team gave up 54 points in three different games.
Lewandowski at least has a decent excuse. He was the basketball coach and took over the football coaching duties for two years to help out during the economically-lean World War II years.
Granted, the style of football has changed over the eras. But for some perspective, Nebraska did not give up more than 40 points once during the 1970s and had it happen just twice in the ’80s.
* The Huskers are giving up what would be a record-setting average of 441.5 yards per game — ranking them 96th nationally and last in the conference in total defense.
To compare, the most average yards per game a Husker defense has allowed in a season came in 1948, a team guided by Coach George “Potsy” Clark that went 2-8 and gave up 379.5 yards a game.
* According to the Husker media guide, the 32 first downs Nebraska relinquished Saturday are the most allowed in a single game in school history. The previous high was 31, set by Washington’s national championship team in 1991.
It’s worth noting that Iowa State (28 first downs) and Ball State (27) were not too far from that mark, either.
* The Huskers are on pace to break the school record for most points allowed in a season.
The 2002 defense gave up 335 points in 14 games. This defense has already surrendered 174 points — an average of 29 points a game.
At the current clip, even if the Huskers didn’t make a bowl game and only played 12 times, they’d give up 348 points.
* Against Ball State, the Huskers gave up 610 yards, the fourth-most given up by a Nebraska defense.
Three weeks later, Missouri rolled up 606 total yards.
At this rate, the Huskers are on pace to break the school record for most yards allowed in a season.
To date, the Huskers have given up 2,649 yards this season.
If that keeps up, Nebraska would give up 5,298 yards in 12 games, moving it past the standing record of 5,067 yards given up by the 2002 defense.
* The Huskers are allowing an average of 251 yards a game passing (87th nationally) and 190.5 yards a game rushing (97th nationally and last in the Big 12).
The Husker pass defense is starting to flirt with the 2004 unit — defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove’s first year at Nebraska — that gave up a school-high average of 267.6 yards passing a game.
You can chalk up these stats to a great many things — bad tackling, lack of fire, sometimes being “out-athleted,” not being able to stop a third down.
Third down has especially been a bugaboo for the Husker defense.
Teams have converted 43 of 95 third downs against Nebraska, which ranks the Husker defense 104th nationally in that category.
“We were holding them on first and second, then they’d hit on those third downs,” Ruud said of Missouri. “We just couldn’t seem to get them off the field.”
The challenges get no easier from here. Saturday’s opponent Oklahoma State ranks 14th nationally in total offense and last year scored 41 against Nebraska.
When asked about the challenge of getting players to bounce back after a game like Missouri, Husker defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt admitted “it’s going to be hard.”
Someone later asked if Wyatt saw any quick fixes that could be made.
His answer: “There are no quick fixes in football.”
