Observations: offense and defense

H

Huskerfan1985

Four-Star Recruit
After re-watching the Wisconsin game I noticed a couple things that I thought warranted discussion. The first thing that really stuck out was our offense's ability to sustain drives excluding the first quarter. I believe our first 3 drives were 3 and out or less, but after that, we had lengthy drives. I think this speaks a great deal to how far the offense and Martinez have progressed. Basically, the offense has been doing this consistantly all season. Would be curious to know what our average scoring drive for the season is.

Also begs the question, how good would this offense be if we could get a short field? I know the D stepped it up, but it seems like they really struggle to force turnovers, especially on the opponents side of the 50. Do we not blitz enough or is it just part of the scheme? Also, why do we keep attempting 50+ yard field goals instead of playing field position once in awhile?

Lastly, while the front 7 on the d stepped up, why does our secondary play the ball in the air so poorly? I guess, maybe not the entire secondary but definately Stafford. He seems to always go for the hit instead of playing the ball. It cost us a PI call and possibly an interception in the 3rd quarter, i think. He also batted a ball down that on the replay looked like he could have cought it. Is this coaching or just Staffords style of play?

Love to hear your thoughts.

Side note: I was suprised Ball got up from the hit that Carter put on him in the 3rd quarter, especially given his concussion last week.

 
Huskerfan1985 said:
After re-watching the Wisconsin game I noticed a couple things that I thought warranted discussion. The first thing that really stuck out was our offense's ability to sustain drives excluding the first quarter. I believe our first 3 drives were 3 and out or less, but after that, we had lengthy drives. I think this speaks a great deal to how far the offense and Martinez have progressed. Basically, the offense has been doing this consistantly all season. Would be curious to know what our average scoring drive for the season is.

Also begs the question, how good would this offense be if we could get a short field? I know the D stepped it up, but it seems like they really struggle to force turnovers, especially on the opponents side of the 50. Do we not blitz enough or is it just part of the scheme? Also, why do we keep attempting 50+ yard field goals instead of playing field position once in awhile?

Lastly, while the front 7 on the d stepped up, why does our secondary play the ball in the air so poorly? I guess, maybe not the entire secondary but definately Stafford. He seems to always go for the hit instead of playing the ball. It cost us a PI call and possibly an interception in the 3rd quarter, i think. He also batted a ball down that on the replay looked like he could have cought it. Is this coaching or just Staffords style of play?

Love to hear your thoughts.

Side note: I was suprised Ball got up from the hit that Carter put on him in the 3rd quarter, especially given his concussion last week.
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I'm pretty sure that is just Stafford's style of play. It has been how he plays and some posters have mentioned it might come back to bite us. It did on that PI call.

I have to agree on your other point. That hit was HUGE and I don't think Ball even saw him coming. I was surprised he got up.

 
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Huskerfan1985 said:
Also begs the question, how good would this offense be if we could get a short field?
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The same thing has been running through my mind as well. I predict that if we play field position against Ohio State in the first half, we'll win. This is a hugely understated aspect of our game.

Beck has got to find a way to at least get a couple first downs on our first offensive drive of this game. Then a punt by Maher pinning them inside their 20. That would be so much different than 3 & out and giving them a short field and demoralizing the blackshirts.

 
I think the 50+ yard field goals are just a reflection of the coaches confidence in Maher. The guy has the leg for it, but he's just been off this year.

And Stafford is just a hitter, that's his thing. I don't think he's a great cover guy but he's a good run stopper and enforcer in the secondary. The ball that he batted down would have been a hard catch to make, he had to reach out and back for the ball with one hand. It was better to just bat it away than risk a catch, even though a pick would have been big!

 
I would love to see a confident team come to play on Saturday! Coupled with some confident play calling and I think we take this game by 13-17 pts!

I'm ok with losing as long as we're aggressive in all phases of the game! Playing field position and hoping you get the ball last to achieve the outcome you desire isn't showing any confidence in your offense. Offense has been the better side of the ball this year and I think we have a decided advantage over them!

Everyone remembers how frustrating the play calling was against Texass in the '09 CCG! All I remember thinking was it looked like we were centering the ball so we could easily punt to either side of the field!

 
I keep thinking we have to be "due" for a turnover or two from our defense to set up the offense. Who knows, maybe tOSU will be overly psyched up and put the ball on the turf like we did last week. I totally agree that this game will come down to turnovers and penalties though. If we just play a clean game, I really think we can win.

 
Norhusker said:
BigRedBuster said:
I don't think OSU can keep us below 25 points in this game.
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They can if we help them by shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers. If we can slow Miller down and make them work for every point, we can win.
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We scored 30 points on a Wisconsin defense that is probably better than tOSU's defense, even when we turned the ball over a bunch and pissed the first half down our leg. I think we can score more than 25 on tOSU's D.

 
Miller breaking the contain of our DE's scares the poop out of me, this game rides on how our LB's/DE's play and whether the DB's can stick with their WR's.

 
The problem with our team is that we rattled easily on the road. We better be able to recover from the punch in the mouth that Miller is going to dish us on the first drive, or it could turn into UCLA 2.0 real quick.

 
I think the coaches got after Stafford after that PI call because he was looking for the ball much better after that. I think Stafford does like to revert to the big hit guy because that is how he got on the field in the first place by making plays.

 
deedsker said:
I think the coaches got after Stafford after that PI call because he was looking for the ball much better after that. I think Stafford does like to revert to the big hit guy because that is how he got on the field in the first place by making plays.
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That was just an idiot play. Easiest call a ref will ever have to make. I have no idea what was going through his head.

 
Lyons in the Sea of Red. said:
deedsker said:
I think the coaches got after Stafford after that PI call because he was looking for the ball much better after that. I think Stafford does like to revert to the big hit guy because that is how he got on the field in the first place by making plays.
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That was just an idiot play. Easiest call a ref will ever have to make. I have no idea what was going through his head.
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Light up Abbrederis

 
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