"if one player messes up, it's going for six."

same mistakes over and over again and the same comments after the game by players and coaches its nothing knew, be responsible for your gap blah blah blah hey PJ you're a 5th year senior stop messing up you should know not to arm tackle by now since it got you benched your sophomore year

 
yep Bo needs to make those tackles, and whats up with his defense if it only puts one man in position to make a tackle?

fire the bum!

 
I haven't been one to criticize the schematics of Bo's defense, but if it's designed to leave a safety one-on-one in open space with a running back, the scheme is broken.

It seemed all night there was no end or linebacker to contain the outside run, it was all up to the safety.

 
Glad to see this topic as the quote got my attention also. I don't think he met this was that this was the case all the time but still if this is the way the players think than perhaps it is easy to not step it up when the other team scores, after all it was the fault of just one guy no one else needs to improve. I realize I am stretching things but after this kind of unexplainable failure I guess some speculation is in order.

 
IvabigN said:
yep Bo needs to make those tackles, and whats up with his defense if it only puts one man in position to make a tackle?

fire the bum!
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the best defenses have multiple people attacking the ballcarrier. This defense has too much "absorb block" mentality and no wreak havoc mentality.

 
I've seen enough breakdown of our game films to know that if people don't play their gaps and responsiblities we are going to give up big plays. I think we had a very hard time lining up correctly Sat. night because Wisconsin showed one offensive alignment and then shifted again after we set our defense. Players did not recognize it and we got killed.

Someone mentioned Santos. Didn't he get dinged in the Iowa game and never returned?

 
There were tons of instances where one guy making a reasonable football play would've saved the day. That indicates to me that scheme is not the lone issue. I believe our defensive woes (not just the last wiscy game) are the result of a perfect storm of; not having exceptional, or in some cases acceptable athletes, not having the correct type of personnel for the scheme, and inexperienced and slow to identify issues in game coaching. Experience and time should help the coaching issues and recruiting and new blood should help the lack of size, speed, and ability issues. I thought I was seeing some of this defensive growth over the course of this season.....and then we played Wisconsin again. I would like to call that game an aberration but I think it was probably a little more of exposing and capitalizing on our weaknesses. I would bet no one was more surprised than the wiscy offense that our coaches failed to adjust. Much in the same fashion our offensive play calling went the proven failure path once again.

 
You can have players in the right place all night, but if they are diving for a tackle instead of moving their feet it is going to be a long night. Stafford absolutely does not break down to make a tackle. He tries to make ESPN highlights. It has been that way all year. Wisconsin obviously saw something on film.

It was like we were playing 8-man defense in an 11-man game.

ETA: I don't mean to just call out Stafford. Our tackling technique as a team is lacking.

 
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PJ is not the first player to say this nor is this the first year this comment has come up.

A defense should be flexible. It should allow multiple people to be in a position to get the ball carrier. Even when a tackle was missed, rarely was there even another person in a position to assist even if the original defender made contact. Out of position or completely lost.......Not something I would expect in Bo's 5th year with all that was riding on the game.

One guy missing a tackle goes for 6 is not a "bend don't break" D, it is a broken D. We gave up 500+ yrds on the ground and 70 points. You could say an anomaly until you look at the OSU game. Wisky and Michicken last year etc.....We have a HUGE issue with scheme if we don't have a DL composed of the likes of SUH and Crick. Throw in year 5 and our only option at DT against Wisky's 300+ lb OL was an incredibly under sized Cam. WTH? Again, IMO, coaching issues with recruiting, development and inability to have a flexible scheme to cover these issues.

 
You guys probably know a lot more about D than me, but how do you guarantee a defense that puts multiple players on target on every play? I know most people here advocate an attacking, not passive defense, so sitting back in comprehensive zone coverages all over the field doesn't seem to be it. Devoting extra personnel to one side of the field, well, that's just asking for trouble because you open up the other side to the offense.

How do you "draw up" this defense where multiple guys always are in position to make a tackle, by design?

 
zoogies said:
You guys probably know a lot more about D than me, but how do you guarantee a defense that puts multiple players on target on every play? I know most people here advocate an attacking, not passive defense, so sitting back in comprehensive zone coverages all over the field doesn't seem to be it. Devoting extra personnel to one side of the field, well, that's just asking for trouble because you open up the other side to the offense.

How do you "draw up" this defense where multiple guys always are in position to make a tackle, by design?
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How dare you question the coaching ability of Husker Board members :sarcasm

 
I've heard that Bielema and Wiscy coaches targeted 2 or 3 of our players as weak spots, and they went right after them. The no-brainer on our offense that they targeted was our backup center. Clearly that worked out well for Wiscy (see: sacks = 6). The one you maybe wouldn't have guessed on our D was Stafford. They definitely saw that he was a weak point as far as getting to the outside and breaking down their offensive weapons. Now we can all see that Wiscy was right on the money with that as well. I don't think it can be stated enough that Stafford absolutely killed us with the terrible angles he took.

It's not that he can't tackle or he doesn't have the speed he needs; it's that he takes absolutely horrible angles that don't allow him to wrap up the way he needs to.

 
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