Kudos to the Defense

[HuskerNation1]

Another mistake-prone game that costs Nebraska a win, and as bad as Tommy and the offensive play-calling was, I think it's important to recognize that our defense has made strides this season, giving up only 250 yards of total offense to an Iowa team that averages nearly 420 yards per game. I honestly think that, with Gerry in the game, some of Iowa's big runs would not have happened, and that 250 total yards would be more like 200.

Coming into this season the assistant coach I was most concerned about was Banker, but as this season comes to a close, it's definitely Langsdorf that has me worried heading into next season. If Riley had some guts, he would cut Langsdorf loose and bring in a more experienced OC that knows how to utilize the weapons he has in order to win games and not give them away.

 

[brophog]

Iowa came in averaging 6.0 ypp and giving up 4.8 ypp.

Today they gained 5.7 ypp and gave up 5.2 ypp.

Nebraska came in averaging 6.2 ypp and giving up 5.8 ypp.

 

[HuskerNation1]

Iowa came in averaging 6.0 ypp and giving up 4.8 ypp.

Today they gained 5.7 ypp and gave up 5.2 ypp.

Nebraska came in averaging 6.2 ypp and giving up 5.8 ypp.

Good stats...so we held them to fewer yards per play, fewer points per game, and much fewer total yards per game. Had we just had a QB that is average and could manage a game, we would have won today's game easily.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Iowa came in averaging 6.0 ypp and giving up 4.8 ypp.

Today they gained 5.7 ypp and gave up 5.2 ypp.

Nebraska came in averaging 6.2 ypp and giving up 5.8 ypp.

Good stats...so we held them to fewer yards per play, fewer points per game, and much fewer total yards per game. Had we just had a QB that is average and could manage a game, we would have won today's game easily.

Wow you guys are delusional. Iowa actually gained more yards per play, but NU was the better team?

 

[JJ Husker]

Uh I'm going to have to disagree. Banker needs to go immediately following Langsdorf. The lack of offensive stats for Iowa was simply a combination of their ineptitude and us gifting them possession and position all day. Watch the game again and tell me how "good" we really were. Hint, we weren't. I mean sure, compared to some of the terrible defensive games we've played it seemed better but that is only because Iowa couldn't efficiently throw the ball if their life depended on it. Lucky for them it didn't, they just had to bide their time for breakdowns in our rush D. Anybody that found silver linings in the game today is delusional. We beat ourselves versus an over ranked pathetic excuse of a number 4 team. They play anybody that doesn't totally suck and they lose. I hate to not give them credit but what I saw today was a very bad Iowa team. And they were lightyears better than us.

 

[Tomhusker64]

Iowa came in averaging 6.0 ypp and giving up 4.8 ypp.

Today they gained 5.7 ypp and gave up 5.2 ypp.

Nebraska came in averaging 6.2 ypp and giving up 5.8 ypp.

Good stats...so we held them to fewer yards per play, fewer points per game, and much fewer total yards per game. Had we just had a QB that is average and could manage a game, we would have won today's game easily.

Wow you guys are delusional. Iowa actually gained more yards per play, but NU was the better team?

A start propped up by two plays. Over all the defense played better. Don't sh#t in the Wheeties just because you want pop tarts.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Iowa came in averaging 6.0 ypp and giving up 4.8 ypp.

Today they gained 5.7 ypp and gave up 5.2 ypp.

Nebraska came in averaging 6.2 ypp and giving up 5.8 ypp.

Good stats...so we held them to fewer yards per play, fewer points per game, and much fewer total yards per game. Had we just had a QB that is average and could manage a game, we would have won today's game easily.

Wow you guys are delusional. Iowa actually gained more yards per play, but NU was the better team?

A start propped up by two plays. Over all the defense played better. Don't sh#t in the Wheeties just because you want pop tarts.

But those 2 plays still counted. Those 2 plays produced 14 points.
The defense played well, but let's not act like it was dominant.

 

[HuskerNation1]

Iowa came in averaging 6.0 ypp and giving up 4.8 ypp.

Today they gained 5.7 ypp and gave up 5.2 ypp.

Nebraska came in averaging 6.2 ypp and giving up 5.8 ypp.

Good stats...so we held them to fewer yards per play, fewer points per game, and much fewer total yards per game. Had we just had a QB that is average and could manage a game, we would have won today's game easily.

Wow you guys are delusional. Iowa actually gained more yards per play, but NU was the better team?

A start propped up by two plays. Over all the defense played better. Don't sh#t in the Wheeties just because you want pop tarts.

But those 2 plays still counted. Those 2 plays produced 14 points.
The defense played well, but let's not act like it was dominant.

Nobody is saying that we have the most dominant defense, but over the course of this season, I saw strong improvement on the defense, a defense that gave up nearly 200 fewer yards than Iowa's defense gave up today. C'mon...giving up 250 yards to a top-5 team in the nation is a pretty strong effort, especially coming off of past seasons where Nebraska would let the opposition go crazy. The defense played more than well enough to win this game.

 

[Saunders]

We Still don't force turnovers, and still get bad penalties at the worst times to extend drives. Meh.

 

[HuskerNation1]

We Still don't force turnovers, and still get bad penalties at the worst times to extend drives. Meh.

I agree with you about the penalties, but we did pop the ball out a couple times today and unfortunately it seemed to bounce right to Iowa. We do need to clean up on penalties overall, though that call on Collins being shoved into the QB was a crappy call.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Iowa came in averaging 6.0 ypp and giving up 4.8 ypp.

Today they gained 5.7 ypp and gave up 5.2 ypp.

Nebraska came in averaging 6.2 ypp and giving up 5.8 ypp.

Good stats...so we held them to fewer yards per play, fewer points per game, and much fewer total yards per game. Had we just had a QB that is average and could manage a game, we would have won today's game easily.

Wow you guys are delusional. Iowa actually gained more yards per play, but NU was the better team?

A start propped up by two plays. Over all the defense played better. Don't sh#t in the Wheeties just because you want pop tarts.

But those 2 plays still counted. Those 2 plays produced 14 points.
The defense played well, but let's not act like it was dominant.

Nobody is saying that we have the most dominant defense, but over the course of this season, I saw strong improvement on the defense, a defense that gave up nearly 200 fewer yards than Iowa's defense gave up today. C'mon...giving up 250 yards to a top-5 team in the nation is a pretty strong effort, especially coming off of past seasons where Nebraska would let the opposition go crazy. The defense played more than well enough to win this game.

The defense only gave up 250 yards because Iowa only needed 250 yards to win. Again, Iowa was up by 2 scores for most of the 2nd half, so they didn't need to be aggressive and try to put on a lot more points in the 2nd half.

 

[cm husker]

Reminds me of cosgrove in '06. He saved that season in many ways.

 

[Dansker]

Went about as expected with the turnovers + penalties. We were never really in this game from start to finish.

 

[brophog]

Iowa came in averaging 6.0 ypp and giving up 4.8 ypp.

Today they gained 5.7 ypp and gave up 5.2 ypp.

Nebraska came in averaging 6.2 ypp and giving up 5.8 ypp.

Good stats...so we held them to fewer yards per play, fewer points per game, and much fewer total yards per game. Had we just had a QB that is average and could manage a game, we would have won today's game easily.

Wow you guys are delusional. Iowa actually gained more yards per play, but NU was the better team?

A start propped up by two plays. Over all the defense played better. Don't sh#t in the Wheeties just because you want pop tarts.

But those 2 plays still counted. Those 2 plays produced 14 points.The defense played well, but let's not act like it was dominant.

Nobody is saying that we have the most dominant defense, but over the course of this season, I saw strong improvement on the defense, a defense that gave up nearly 200 fewer yards than Iowa's defense gave up today. C'mon...giving up 250 yards to a top-5 team in the nation is a pretty strong effort, especially coming off of past seasons where Nebraska would let the opposition go crazy. The defense played more than well enough to win this game.

The defense only gave up 250 yards because Iowa only needed 250 yards to win. Again, Iowa was up by 2 scores for most of the 2nd half, so they didn't need to be aggressive and try to put on a lot more points in the 2nd half.

250 yards is largely because they only ran 44 plays. If they ran the 70 or so a team would normally run, it's back to a 400+ yard game and people's opinion might be different. I agree with the idea that 250 was partly because 250 was all that was needed. Some of their play calling was baffling at times.

As to the question on if the defense improved overall from their poor start of the year to today, the answer is: Yes. But if anyone is thinking that is recent, they've missed the boat by many weeks. It's been the case from about mid season on that this team just needed to get more healthy as they were wearing down late in games, leading to more and more big plays. That's really been the story from mid season on: decent defense on an every down basis, but a few big plays negates that.

Now, saying the defense has improved needs context. Iowa may be in the top 5 of the secretaries poll, but as is the case with all of our opponents, this is not a top offense. 49th in total offense, 40th in ypp. It's really rare for a power 5 team to face an entire schedule of low ranked offenses such as Nebraska did this year. It makes it hard to evaluate some things. But on tape, this defense got quicker as the year went on. The reads were quicker, the actions more decisive.

 

[C N Red]

Im not a Banker fan, but i will give him kudos for realizing he needed to do some things different, checked his ego, and at least changed things up as the year went on.

We played a lot more two deep, safety over, etc later here in the season. Especially on the high probability passing downs giving our corners more help.

I also agree that the two long run tds would probably not have went as far as they did with Gerry in.

I never saw any willingness to change by the offensive coaching. Cavanaugh hugely included. I do not believe him that there arent guys on our team that arent better than what he put out there. If there isnt, then he is doing a sh#t job coaching them up b/c there are some really good, athletic lineman not getting even a sniff of a chance.