Riley Calls Out Offensive Line

Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but I feel like I was frustrated with some of our WR blocking last year, Morgan in particular. WR blocking needs to be really good if the screens and draws will work. Should be fun watching Tyjon Lindsey getting the ball in space and going to work though.

Thanks for sharing Mav even if it hurts to read "the Huskers do seem to have an offensive line problem in 2017."

 
I missed this but saw it posted on HM today:

https://nebraska.rivals.com/news/fall-camp-preview-offensive-line-25

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING: How Gates reports to camp

The way Gates finished the season, and then played this spring really raised some red flags. After playing the worst game of his career against Tennessee in the bowl, Gates looked lighter in spring ball and just didn't play with the same edge we've seen before.

It will be interesting to see how Gates looks when practice starts Sunday. He is going to be one of the most important players on this football team. The Huskers need a big season out of Gates at left tackle.
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Yikes. Everyone over there is putting their usual positive spin on it but that's a pretty scaring/telling statement. Hopefully Callahan really is just searching for narratives.

 
The offensive line is something a good coach can develop under the radar. Glad Coach Riley is concerned about that, he needs to be.

 
Gates: Says he is 305. Said he is stronger. Motivated by the last game. Summer workouts hardest they have been. Ankle better was injured about half the year last year. Now it needs to translate from talk to action.

 
Mavric said:
I had missed this from Media Days. Kind of goes along with this thread and previous discussion about how much we'll be looking to pass going forward:

At the end of the 2012 season, Mike Riley looked through the stats and decided the sacks had to go down. Had to.

“I just said, ‘That’s enough,'” Riley said on Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days. “Whatever happens, we’re not going to get sacked like that again.”

The Oregon State Beavers were sacked 33 times in 2012. Total loss of 244 yards.

So, Riley and his offensive staff, which included current Nebraska staffers Mike Cavanaugh and Danny Langsdorf, devised a plan.

“We became very good with the quick passing game, and with the screen game and with the draw game, and our lives changed dramatically,” Riley said.

And it did. In 2013, Oregon State broke the Pac-12 record for passing yards in a season. Quarterback Sean Mannion threw for 4,662 yards and 37 touchdowns that year. He completed 66 percent of his passes and threw for an average of 358 yards per game.

“And almost a quarter of those yards were off of screen passes, which is an incredible amount,” Riley said. “Seven hundred and twenty-something yards in screen passes. And I loved it. I loved watching the tape, because it’s a great weapon.”

Nebraska did not have a sack problem in 2016. The Huskers were actually near the bottom of the Big Ten in sacks surrendered, mostly because of Tommy Armstrong’s mobility. But the Huskers do seem to have an offensive line problem in 2017. Which is why Riley plans on using some similar tactics from that 2013 season to curb issues up front.
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Land of 10
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What worries me about the above is that the OL, per Cav and Riley was basically combat ineffective. Couldn't pull due to injuries, couldn't run sweeps because of injuries. Teams put 8 in the box and Langs had no answer. Maybe he called quick pop passes, maybe TA couldnt execute those, but all season, Langs seemed incapable of using any type of play calling to defeat an aggressive D.

To go along with other posters, none of this inspires any type of confidence in this up coming season.... The season goes (duh), as the line plays...

 
lo country said:
Mavric said:
I had missed this from Media Days. Kind of goes along with this thread and previous discussion about how much we'll be looking to pass going forward:

At the end of the 2012 season, Mike Riley looked through the stats and decided the sacks had to go down. Had to.

“I just said, ‘That’s enough,'” Riley said on Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days. “Whatever happens, we’re not going to get sacked like that again.”

The Oregon State Beavers were sacked 33 times in 2012. Total loss of 244 yards.

So, Riley and his offensive staff, which included current Nebraska staffers Mike Cavanaugh and Danny Langsdorf, devised a plan.

“We became very good with the quick passing game, and with the screen game and with the draw game, and our lives changed dramatically,” Riley said.

And it did. In 2013, Oregon State broke the Pac-12 record for passing yards in a season. Quarterback Sean Mannion threw for 4,662 yards and 37 touchdowns that year. He completed 66 percent of his passes and threw for an average of 358 yards per game.

“And almost a quarter of those yards were off of screen passes, which is an incredible amount,” Riley said. “Seven hundred and twenty-something yards in screen passes. And I loved it. I loved watching the tape, because it’s a great weapon.”

Nebraska did not have a sack problem in 2016. The Huskers were actually near the bottom of the Big Ten in sacks surrendered, mostly because of Tommy Armstrong’s mobility. But the Huskers do seem to have an offensive line problem in 2017. Which is why Riley plans on using some similar tactics from that 2013 season to curb issues up front.
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Land of 10
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What worries me about the above is that the OL, per Cav and Riley was basically combat ineffective. Couldn't pull due to injuries, couldn't run sweeps because of injuries. Teams put 8 in the box and Langs had no answer. Maybe he called quick pop passes, maybe TA couldnt execute those, but all season, Langs seemed incapable of using any type of play calling to defeat an aggressive D.

To go along with other posters, none of this inspires any type of confidence in this up coming season.... The season goes (duh), as the line plays...
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TA couldn't hit the easy passes consistently or make good reads. That hurt. That hurt Beck's offense as well. Our OL depth is much better with those RS Freshmen now available to use in case of injury.

I would say that gives some room for hope.

 
lo country said:
Mavric said:
I had missed this from Media Days. Kind of goes along with this thread and previous discussion about how much we'll be looking to pass going forward:

At the end of the 2012 season, Mike Riley looked through the stats and decided the sacks had to go down. Had to.

“I just said, ‘That’s enough,'” Riley said on Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days. “Whatever happens, we’re not going to get sacked like that again.”

The Oregon State Beavers were sacked 33 times in 2012. Total loss of 244 yards.

So, Riley and his offensive staff, which included current Nebraska staffers Mike Cavanaugh and Danny Langsdorf, devised a plan.

“We became very good with the quick passing game, and with the screen game and with the draw game, and our lives changed dramatically,” Riley said.

And it did. In 2013, Oregon State broke the Pac-12 record for passing yards in a season. Quarterback Sean Mannion threw for 4,662 yards and 37 touchdowns that year. He completed 66 percent of his passes and threw for an average of 358 yards per game.

“And almost a quarter of those yards were off of screen passes, which is an incredible amount,” Riley said. “Seven hundred and twenty-something yards in screen passes. And I loved it. I loved watching the tape, because it’s a great weapon.”

Nebraska did not have a sack problem in 2016. The Huskers were actually near the bottom of the Big Ten in sacks surrendered, mostly because of Tommy Armstrong’s mobility. But the Huskers do seem to have an offensive line problem in 2017. Which is why Riley plans on using some similar tactics from that 2013 season to curb issues up front.
Click to expand...
Land of 10
Click to expand...
What worries me about the above is that the OL, per Cav and Riley was basically combat ineffective. Couldn't pull due to injuries, couldn't run sweeps because of injuries. Teams put 8 in the box and Langs had no answer. Maybe he called quick pop passes, maybe TA couldnt execute those, but all season, Langs seemed incapable of using any type of play calling to defeat an aggressive D.

To go along with other posters, none of this inspires any type of confidence in this up coming season.... The season goes (duh), as the line plays...
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exactly!!!

 
At this point, there just doesn't seem to be any glaring reasons why we should not as good or better on the O line than last year and we weren't 'crappy' or terrible by any means. The screens, swing passes, dump offs, hitches, sideline outs and so on will be tough to stop with the speedy/quick receivers and RBs who can catch out of the backfield, particularly when we finally should have a QB that is a true, honest and legit threat to complete a well above average percentage of throws all over the field. Teams will have to respect our intermediate range throws certainly and in the right down and distance situations (whether on 1st and ten or 2nd and 7 or 3rd and five), we will present a challenge because we should be more of a threat to pass which ought to open up more 5 yard gains on the ground as well.

The real 'sack' concern will be on those darn 3rd and longs. We will need some decent pass protection for Tanner for sure. But draws and screens can overcome those as well so defenses will not be able to just full speed ahead blitz a lot. Draws and screens are a good answer to teams who want to just stuff the gut and blitz. You better get to the QB before he throws it because our receivers can make people miss adding yards after the catch more often than not. Riley also likes his TEs to catch the ball too although I don't think we've seen him throw to the TE spot as much as he'd like. The QB needs to be accurate on throws over the middle.

 
In the Deed the Glory said:
teachercd said:
Mavric said:
Not to burst your bubble but the rest of the story is OSU was 9-4 in 2012. In 2013 the were 7-6.
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Crappy teams are screening a lot on 2nd and long and 3rd and long...
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This is a solid point.
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The key is to run screens when you normally wouldn't. That way you don't get the pressure on downs when you would run them. You don't have to be a crappy team to run screens. But they sure do help if you are a crappy team and you can run them well
 
The whole point to a screen is to counter pressure from rushes or stacking the box, you want pressure on those plays.

 
Melby said:
The whole point to a screen is to counter pressure from rushes or stacking the box, you want pressure on those plays.
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This is true but some teams only run them on 3rd and 10+ yards. Therefore defenses sniff them out. You have to run them at other times as well. Have to know the defense you are playing against and when they like to bring pressure

 
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You want to run screens whenever you think the secondary will be playing back to defend the deeper pass (such as third and extra long) and the front seven will be expecting pass and coming after the QB. Screens don't tend to work as well if the front seven are tending to stay home and will be in position to make the tackle. You want the D line to come hard to the QB so he can drop the ball just over their heads and give the receiver (often the RB out of the back field who will feign pass pro and then release to sneak just past the front wall of defenders. Your O linemen need to be good at pretending they missed or whiffed their blocks. Sadly our O line has tended to do this in recent years (unintentionally) forcing Tommy A and T Magic to have to scramble. Designed QB scrambles (we sometimes have called them QB draws) have a similar effect while not requiring the short touch type pass at all. If Tommy Armstrong had been much better at hitting these types of throws and our O line better at the techniques of screen pass "fake and whiff blocks", I am sure we'd have run a bunch more of them.

Callahan loved screen passes and he had a middle screen to Cory Ross that often worked well but it did require a little flip pass right over the center's shoulder almost and in lots of traffic. The play could be quite effective but often looked like it was going to be a disaster. I was never as big a fan of the basic draw play to the tail back as it was usually a big gain or loss of two bfut they can be effective, particularly if you have a man in motion to help pull a LB outside and open up a lane inside in the process.

They are intricate plays that require good execution and the O line needs to be fairly good at pass blocking 'normally' so the defenders believe they have beaten their man and are headed to a QB sack. They won't be nearly as effective IF the pass pro generally breaks down anyway as then the defense will be happy to rush only the front 3 or 4 and keep LBs home to make tackles, etc. The so-called 'jail break' screens are something much different in that they tend to be run outside the hash marks and away from the pocket area between the tackles. They are borderline offensive pass interference often as the WRs will group together somewhat and then nearly start blocking defenders while the ball is in the air. Pick plays are similar in this way and also are or should be 'illegal' as it is not fair to block or screen or interfere with the defender who is covering a would be receiver.

Riley has no qualms about running these plays as well. We have the kinds of 'scat back' jitter bug type receivers that ought to be able to make plays in space in these sorts of plays with the caveat that receivers must be able to block in space to help the receiver break through into open field areas. I expect we'll see some of this and hopefully we are as good at it as Riley wants to be as these are fun plays to watch when they are run well.

 
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