McKewon Husker Article: If the Guts Hold up........

Chaddyboxer

Chaddyboxer

Banned
Good article by Sam as usual. It talks about the conditions that need to be met for this Husker defense to potentially shine this year. It has his predictions, observations and assessments of certain players. Good read: http://www.omaha.com/article/20130804/HUSKERS/130809518

"If the guts two holds up, and the back two aren't guessing on skates, this group of five — in whatever combination Pelini and defensive coordinator John Papuchis prefer — can be a pain for opponents. Nebraska can actually win games with this five." per OWH, McKewon.

 
It's a fine article and you can't say Sam is wrong about anything. I'm just not getting my hopes up about this defense until we see them stop someone. We only held half of our opponents under 300 yards of offense last year, and that includes Arkansas State, Southern Miss, Iowa and Minnesota, four woeful teams.

Potential is great. We need to see results.

 
Yep and I agree with you. Something has to give......

With da skers giving hints that the defense, specifically the defensive line is trying to become a bit more "simple" in a sense and go to more 1 gap responsibilities for the young guns, I could see the d-line being serviceable, but not great. Maybe Randle or VV steps into their own, but I don't think VV is ready just yet to be a big play maker for the big red...have to wait and see. McKewon usually keeps it fairly real, and doesn't tend to sunshine pump all too much....so I tend to value his articles and his input.

 
knapplc said:
It's a fine article and you can't say Sam is wrong about anything. I'm just not getting my hopes up about this defense until we see them stop someone. We only held half of our opponents under 300 yards of offense last year, and that includes Arkansas State, Southern Miss, Iowa and Minnesota, four woeful teams.

Potential is great. We need to see results.
Click to expand...
While I want to always reach for greatness, with the advent of spread offenses, the days of regularly holding teams to under 300 yards is gone. I'm more worried about holding teams under 17 points. It's a realistic goal that puts you in the top 10 in scoring Defense.

 
We saw flashes of the defense playing well last year, ie. Northwestern....and at one time, NEB was ranked above 20th for both overall offense and defense respectively.

You would think with infusion of young speed and athleticism on the D....that there has to be some moments of the D looking very solid, even against good competition this year.

 
I think that the idea of what is good defense is changing a bit, with so many fast tempo teams, offenses are getting 20 plus more snaps a game, give or take.

 
I'm with Saunders, now-a-days teams will get their yards, but it comes down to can you keep them out of the endzone? Can your defense buckle down inside the 20 and force a stop? With our offense, we can afford for our D to be a "bend, but don't break" style.

 
This is a little off topic, but hearing Dinardo and Griffith both state that they think Michigan and Ohio St are "separating themselves" from the rest of the BIG10 is a load o crap IMO. I can agree with Ohio St., but Michigan hasn't shown me that they can do that. If NEB can shore up a better defense this year, NEB will give Michigan all they can handle in Ann Arbor IMO. Hell, NEB may be ranked higher than Michigan once NEB comes into town and NEB may even be favored in that game.

 
knapplc said:
It's a fine article and you can't say Sam is wrong about anything. I'm just not getting my hopes up about this defense until we see them stop someone. We only held half of our opponents under 300 yards of offense last year, and that includes Arkansas State, Southern Miss, Iowa and Minnesota, four woeful teams.

Potential is great. We need to see results.
Click to expand...
I know what you're saying but Ark St. wasn't terrible on offense. They were #23 in the nation at 466 per. They put up 530 on Oregon. Granted, they didn't have a lot of other competition but that's not bad.

At any rate, 300 is a pretty low bar. Only four teams averaged fewer than 300 yards last year and the median was 396. To hold an average team 100 yards under their season average is fairly good defense (not that the other three you listed were anything approaching average on offense).

 
teachercd said:
I think that the idea of what is good defense is changing a bit, with so many fast tempo teams, offenses are getting 20 plus more snaps a game, give or take.
Click to expand...
Come on!!!! If teams are getting more snaps, then that should be more 3 and outs for the Blackshirts, or whatever jersey color Bo wants to have his defense wear. :sarcasm

 
Mavric said:
knapplc said:
It's a fine article and you can't say Sam is wrong about anything. I'm just not getting my hopes up about this defense until we see them stop someone. We only held half of our opponents under 300 yards of offense last year, and that includes Arkansas State, Southern Miss, Iowa and Minnesota, four woeful teams.

Potential is great. We need to see results.
Click to expand...
I know what you're saying but Ark St. wasn't terrible on offense. They were #23 in the nation at 466 per. They put up 530 on Oregon. Granted, they didn't have a lot of other competition but that's not bad.

At any rate, 300 is a pretty low bar. Only four teams averaged fewer than 300 yards last year and the median was 396. To hold an average team 100 yards under their season average is fairly good defense (not that the other three you listed were anything approaching average on offense).
Click to expand...
I was going to mention something to his affect. I knew that they had a pretty solid offense and i was very please with the score after the game.

But then again, didn't Arkie St score the majority of the points in the 2nd half, when Oregon brought on it's 2nd and 3rd stringers? It's still an impressive amount of yards put up, regardless.

 
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I have really high hopes for Afalava and Z. Anderson. I think the strength of the D this year may not be the secondary, but the LB's....just a hunch.

 
knapplc said:
It's a fine article and you can't say Sam is wrong about anything. I'm just not getting my hopes up about this defense until we see them stop someone. We only held half of our opponents under 300 yards of offense last year, and that includes Arkansas State, Southern Miss, Iowa and Minnesota, four woeful teams.

Potential is great. We need to see results.
Click to expand...
At some point, potential needs to become production.

 
Chaddyboxer said:
Mavric said:
knapplc said:
It's a fine article and you can't say Sam is wrong about anything. I'm just not getting my hopes up about this defense until we see them stop someone. We only held half of our opponents under 300 yards of offense last year, and that includes Arkansas State, Southern Miss, Iowa and Minnesota, four woeful teams.

Potential is great. We need to see results.
Click to expand...
I know what you're saying but Ark St. wasn't terrible on offense. They were #23 in the nation at 466 per. They put up 530 on Oregon. Granted, they didn't have a lot of other competition but that's not bad.

At any rate, 300 is a pretty low bar. Only four teams averaged fewer than 300 yards last year and the median was 396. To hold an average team 100 yards under their season average is fairly good defense (not that the other three you listed were anything approaching average on offense).
Click to expand...
I was going to mention something to his affect. I knew that they had a pretty solid offense and i was very please with the score after the game.

But then again, didn't Arkie St score the majority of the points in the 2nd half, when Oregon brought on it's 2nd and 3rd stringers? It's still an impressive amount of yards put up, regardless.
Click to expand...
Arkansas State played the 98th-best SOS last year. They played nobody with a very good defense, including us. The highest-ranked Total Defense they faced all year was Western Kentucky at #26 (who earned that ranking against the #117 SOS). Next-best was Nebraska, and our defense was woeful.

Arkansas State had a statistically productive offense, but they didn't play anyone who was going to stop them. Citing Oregon as some kind of benchmark isn't impressive. Oregon was up 50-3 with seven minutes to go in the 2nd quarter before emptying their bench. Ark State had 98 yards of offense at the 7:06 mark in the 2nd quarter. Nearly all of Ark State's offense came against Oregon's scrubs.

 
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