Things you thought would be "fixed" by now...

I just checked...sacks through 6 games this year...13

Sacks through 6 games last year...12
Seriously?
Yep! and last year NU had zero vs MSU which is included in that total. I am guessing that this year NU has faced around 50 or more pass attempts too.
Randy Gregory accounted for 4.5 of those sacks through those first six games I think. It'd be nice to have him out there again this year.

Clearly this defensive philosophy is devoted more to applying pressure and blitzing, but we simply have not done a good job of getting there. At least, not a good enough job. You'd think all the blitzing the LB'ers do, we would be racking up the sacks, but they just don't seem to get there quickly. cg_8 has talked about some of those issues a bit, but I think we will get better.

 
Not fixed:

Pass coverage. Not sure what the issue is. But we seem to play so far off the ball that short out passes are a sure thing for five or six yards against us. And perplexingly, our deep coverage doesn't seem up to task either.
default_dunno.gif
Lack of a pass rush is the catalyst for a porous secondary. Let's look at Michigan:

On the season, they have 15 Sacks, Nebraska has 13.

But Michigan has 40 TFLs, while Nebraska only has 26 on the year thus far.

LACK OF FRONT FOUR FRONT PRESSURE.
This.

It might not be all to blame, but it's definitely a fair share. It's even more amplified when we blitz and still don't get pressure, which is happening too often.

 
I just checked...sacks through 6 games this year...13

Sacks through 6 games last year...12
That surprised me. with the loss of RG and the butt load of injury's we've had I expected to be behind last years sacks.
Some of you guys really surprise me, how many sacks a game do you think NU should be getting? Does 5 a game sound about right to most of you? Well 5 a game would be leading the nation. Right now Okie St. has the most with 25. Nebraska is 37 with 13 sacks not too bad is it. A little over 2 a game puts them in the top 40 so far this year.

That is actually pretty good. A better Stanford, Northwestern, FSU, Arizona, Utah, ND, Ole Miss, UCLA just to name a few.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oregon State habitually had penalty issues under Riley. How can we expect this to be fixed here?
Let's not pretend Pelini's team wasn't penalized for the same silly reasons? WE had 16 against Texas A&M one year for 180 yards.

Defense looks like it has been tackling better and seems more aggressive. I laughed pretty hard when Banker talked about watching film and described our defense as....3 guys standing there and just rushing gregory. Dline has played patty cake for a long time, its good to see some fight. Just need some DE's that can rush the edge faster
Why are you brining up the old coach? He's gone. Time to move on. We have penalty issues right now that need to be fixed.

 
I thought we'd have a solid, sturdy foundation mentally with Riley that differed from Bo's teams. The team has been as shaky as ever mentally, especially on defense.

Hopefully we see this change in the 2nd half of the season.

 
Things I thought would be getting better by now;

1- Penalties

2- Pass Rush / Hurries / Sacks / TFL's

3- Pass coverage, DB's

4- Offensive Line play and our running game

Things I did not expect to get worse or be this bad;

1- Clock Management

2- Sensible offensive play calling

3- Penalties

4- Injuries

5- The W-L record (should've listened to knapp)

6- Losing to Illinois

Things that have shown improvement;

1- Rushing defense

2- Use of the fullback and tight end

3- Press conferences and coaches demeanor

4- We didn't get prison raped by Wisconsin and have had no embarrassing blowout losses.......yet anyway.

Things that I don't know what to think;

1- Tommy the gunslinger. Looked good (real good) for a couple games and has looked like sh#t the last couple games. Not sure how much of that is Tommy, play selection/timing, opposing defenses, or what the f#ck. It's like Gump's box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get and some of them are those nasty chew things that taste like road tar.

2- Recruiting. Looks to be trending up so far but will reserve judgment until a better product actually shows up on the field.

 
Fixed: Run defense

Not Fixed: Pass defense
The run defense is improved. I think it's too early to say it's completely fixed. Teams are choosing to attack our defense through the air. Minnesota, Northwestern, and Iowa will tell us if NU has truly fixed the run defense.

 
I was hoping that whole "winning games that matter" would have been fixed.

Also hoping that 14 year streak without a conference championship would have been fixed.

 
Things I thought would be fixed by now...

1. Penalties

2. High snaps (I thought we saw that a lot last year too)

I thought those would be two easy fixes

Things that are fixed:

1. Recruiting momentum

2. GETTING RECRUITS ON CAMPUS. I am loving this so far! They are doing an amazing job getting kids on campus for games!

Really? I'm underwhelmed by the current class. Data has proven that in order to have any real championship aspirations, that a team must finish in the Top 15 recruiting rankings in consecutive years... Riley's current class is nowhere near that. The majority of remaining spots we have open would have to be filled by 4-star guys if we want to finish in the Top 15.

Other than that, I'm really disappointed w/ the penalties, as well as the running game. I really thought the running game would be one of our strengths this year.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top