Leaky pass defense needs fixing

[Saunders]

Yikes.

Coming into the season, Nebraska's defensive backfield looked to be among the deepest, most talented and most promising units on the roster. Nate Gerry was already a star, Daniel Davie and Byerson Cockrellwere steady veterans, Jonathan Rose was an intriguing wild card and youngsters Joshua Kalu, Chris Jones,Aaron Williams and Trai Mosley all looked like up-and-comers that would fight for playing time.Few of those narratives have played out so far. Through three games Nebraska is allowing 357 passing yards per game, the second-worst mark in the nation. Opponents are completing 59.4 percent of their passes (73rd in the country) and have a collective 134.9 passer rating (87th).https://nebraska.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1805099

 

[Saunders]

[No message]

 

[Saunders]

[No message]

 

[knapplc]

It's a scheme issue. Great defenses shut down both the pass and the run - or at least, slow them down significantly. Just about regardless of scheme, great defenses are great.

We don't have a great defense. We have what could be a good defense, but not one good enough to shut down an opponent. So we pick our poison right now - shut down the pass or shut down the run. I like the idea of shutting down the run first. Passing offense, by nature, requires more things to go right. Make the offense do what's hardest if they're going to beat you.

Unfortunately, right now this scheme is allowing a ton of yards through the air. We're not getting pressure on the QB, even with blitzes, and we're not preventing receptions at the point of completion. Front end or back end or both, someone has to make plays.

 

[QMany]

It wouldn't surprise me if this trend continues. Mullens (USM) had 311 yards on 68% versus Mississippi State.

 

[ndobney]

I thought we were significantly better when Jonathon Rose was in there, so maybe that will lead to some improvements.

 

[JJ Husker]

What Knapp said^^^

Yes, Bo's defensive scheme was better against the pass, at the expense of being bad, sometimes terribly so, against the run. So far, the new scheme has been worse than expected against the pass and only slightly better against the rush. We knew the weakness was going to flip some with the scheme change. Unfortunately, in our first 3 games we have already faced the 2 best passing attacks we should see all year. Giving up the big play and not getting to the QB has not been pretty but, I expect the results to improve gong in to conference play. Hopefully Banker can figure out a few things to help stop the bleeding vs the pass while also remaining stingier against the run. It's past time for some of these hyped DL (Maliek Collins...) to start applying some pressure and some of these supposedly good cover guys to make some plays. IF they don't tweak the scheme (blitz wrinkles etc.) and start making some plays, it could be a long season.

 

[QMany]

From the original article saunders45 posted:

You can talk all you want about lack of talent and "cupboards bare;" I don't think Darrelle Revis or Richard Sherman can be responsible for that much ground one-on-one, let alone Sophomore Josh Kalu.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I get the talk about "we will do better once we play teams that are not as good at passing" but...is that really what we want?? Its like passing your drivers test because you didn't have to parallel park or do a three point turn...sure you passed but any woman could pass that drivers test.

 

[knapplc]

I get the talk about "we will do better once we play teams that are not as good at passing" but...is that really what we want?? Its like passing your drivers test because you didn't have to parallel park or do a three point turn...sure you passed but any woman could pass that drivers test.

Of course not. We want to get better having played very good passing teams, so that when we play teams that are a little less good, we can play better.

Ideally we would have shut down either BYU or Miami, or both. We didn't. We'll move on, hopefully to get better. In the meantime, it isn't a weakness to say we've already played the best passing teams we'll face this year. It's a statement of fact.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I get the talk about "we will do better once we play teams that are not as good at passing" but...is that really what we want?? Its like passing your drivers test because you didn't have to parallel park or do a three point turn...sure you passed but any woman could pass that drivers test.

Of course not. We want to get better having played very good passing teams, so that when we play teams that are a little less good, we can play better.

Ideally we would have shut down either BYU or Miami, or both. We didn't. We'll move on, hopefully to get better. In the meantime, it isn't a weakness to say we've already played the best passing teams we'll face this year. It's a statement of fact.

I think that is a fair statement...but what if another team this year throws for more yards than Miami or BYU did against NU...what do we say then?

 

[Undone]

I think that is a fair statement...but what if another team this year throws for more yards than Miami or BYU did against NU...what do we say then?

If we hold Wisconsin's running game in check and beat them, by any margin, and by any amount of passing yards allowed, I probably won't GAF about that hypothetical.

 

[Saunders]

I get the talk about "we will do better once we play teams that are not as good at passing" but...is that really what we want?? Its like passing your drivers test because you didn't have to parallel park or do a three point turn...sure you passed but any woman could pass that drivers test.

Of course not. We want to get better having played very good passing teams, so that when we play teams that are a little less good, we can play better.

Ideally we would have shut down either BYU or Miami, or both. We didn't. We'll move on, hopefully to get better. In the meantime, it isn't a weakness to say we've already played the best passing teams we'll face this year. It's a statement of fact.

Technically... we still have Southern Miss left...

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I get the talk about "we will do better once we play teams that are not as good at passing" but...is that really what we want?? Its like passing your drivers test because you didn't have to parallel park or do a three point turn...sure you passed but any woman could pass that drivers test.

Of course not. We want to get better having played very good passing teams, so that when we play teams that are a little less good, we can play better.

Ideally we would have shut down either BYU or Miami, or both. We didn't. We'll move on, hopefully to get better. In the meantime, it isn't a weakness to say we've already played the best passing teams we'll face this year. It's a statement of fact.

Technically... we still have Southern Miss left...

SMiss passing yards vs NU: Over/Under 306

 

[Undone]

The elephant in this thread with regards to the Dan Hoppen stat is that Bo was obviously so pathetically stubborn about not fully transitioning into a run-heavy defense when he moved into the B1G.

Saying that he had a historically great pass defense here in the B1G years does nothing to assuage the pain of the Wisconsin blowouts that crushed our chances of winning conference titles at all, does it? It doesn't for me...