What did we learn-Game 1 Arky State

Sadly, I learned I was wrong about my expecations for the team, the season, etc.   If the defense simply doesn't understand what Diaco is wanting them to do as obviously this performance can't be what the coach wants to see, then he needs to do a lot of new coaching to get them to understand.  

The "3-4" defense we ran last night is not something we want to continue.  If so, Oregon and most of the future opponents are going to combine to rewrite the NCAA records for passing yards yielded by a single team in a season.  LOL   I wonder if there were any records set lat night.  Maybe for Memorial stadium, passing percentage, etc.   

 
The officials were dreadful, though I think Arkansas St. got the worst of it.

Contrary to most everyone else around here, I wasn't impressed by Lee.  He was a statue in the pocket with poor awareness.  His deep throws had zip and were well-placed, but his progressions were a bit slow and his decision-making wasn't impressive.  He got away with some bad decisions by throwing bullets through tight windows.  He won't get a ton of help from the receivers without more touch on his intermediate throws.  The numbers looked alright, but he could've killed the game off with a bit of consistency in the second half.

The team went into 'mission accomplished' mode way too early.  We have had a terrible habit of complacency in the Riley era.  I'm a Riley supporter, but it's frustrating to watch our offense consistently sputter anytime we get a score or two ahead.

I thought we rode Bryant too hard.  He looked good, but he also wore down as the game went on.  We have the backfield depth available to keep fresh legs on the field at all times.

We looked confused in zone coverage all night; particularly the linebackers.  They carved us up underneath, but they couldn't beat us over the top.  A lack of blitzes wasn't the issue, though there is obviously merit in doing anything you can to confuse the opposition's QB (which we didn't).  That said, their QB seldom had the ball in his hands long enough for blitzes to have mattered.  I think one can optimistically argue that their offensive scheme was a difficult matchup for our (new?) defensive scheme, but it's never a good thing when the blueprint for your dismantling is made public in the first game of the season.  We never adjusted and it nearly bit us in the a$$ at the end.

 
84HuskerLaw said:
Sadly, I learned I was wrong about my expecations for the team, the season, etc.   If the defense simply doesn't understand what Diaco is wanting them to do as obviously this performance can't be what the coach wants to see, then he needs to do a lot of new coaching to get them to understand.  

The "3-4" defense we ran last night is not something we want to continue.  If so, Oregon and most of the future opponents are going to combine to rewrite the NCAA records for passing yards yielded by a single team in a season.  LOL   I wonder if there were any records set lat night.  Maybe for Memorial stadium, passing percentage, etc.   
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You need a really accurate and decisive QB to replicate what ASU did last night. There are very few teams in the B1G that run that style of offense, let alone have a QB that could slice us like that. Like others have said I will be watching to see what ASU will do against Miami next week before I hit the panic button.

 
Moiraine said:
I don't get why people are freaking out so much. Other than the ones who expected us to win the B1G.

What happened tonight is pretty much what has happened every season for the past 5+ seasons. We had close games against worse opponents than Arkansas State (e.g. McNeese State and Idaho State).

The game didn't make me feel confident but it also didn't make me assume we'd have a losing season. It's way too early to freak out like this.
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I don't think people are necessarily freaking out. I think there was an awful lot of excitement and optimism about the new defense and coordinater. And then to see almost 500 yards put up against it really shattered some dreams or expectations.  

 
There are Major Concerns!  Lee made some good throws and some bad throws (he is not the second coming)!  Tre Brant looked good!  Nick Gates sucks how can he be an outland candidate?  Diaco is a name I cant say - he avoids the press?  What cant be called out?

 
I can't decide if the defensive line played horribly, or if we just need to get used to 2-gap again.  

 
The Dude said:
I can't decide if the defensive line played horribly, or if we just need to get used to 2-gap again.  
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Looking at it again while they looked slow they were doing what they were supposed to do.  I don't think they were told to get up field much because of how fast Arky st gets rid of the ball.  They ate up blockers and did pretty good against the few running plays that were called 

 
I hope Bootle gets a very strong look at this week.  He looked good when he was in there.  Chris Jones returning will allieve a lot of corner issues with his confidence and physicality.  

 
One thing that's being overlooked/forgotten in the defense discussion is how the offense could help them out...but failed to do so. How many times, late in the 4th quarter, did Langsdorf stop the clock by going for a pass instead of running the ball? 

The best teams with the best coordinators realize there's a symbiotic relationship between the offense and defense. Langsdorf could have helped the defense out by sticking with the running game (which was hotter than the passing game at that point), and running the clock down so ASU didn't have enough time to open up more season tickets via heart attack. 

Problem is, Langsdorf has failed to learn this lesson repeatedly, and it's a lesson that is going to kill us in a tight/close game that matters down the stretch. For all the talk talk about this being a new offense and new expectations, it's disappointing to see this issue at the OC/playcalling level creep back up, especially since the offense did have a good night overall. 

 
After about 30 or so games and now into the third season, it is nore than troubling that Riley and Langs don't do a much better job of managing the clock and circumstances.  

I'm not sure anyone else felt this way but I found it to be an ominous sign when right out of the gate, on that first offensive possession, we get down to the 4 yard line and its 4th down and 2 and the natural inclination for me would be to go for it.  Instead we take the automatic 3 field goal.  Not a major issjue except that to me not going for it sends a very negative signal to yoiur O line you have little confidence in them.  At same time, you tell your opponent you don't feel confident in it as well.     The worst that happens if you fail is you give the ball in a huge whole. 

 
What we learned:

Our offense looked pretty good.  Not great, but good.  Ark is a pretty good team.  Lee is very good at some things, but is certainly not as good as some pundits have made him out to be.   Bryant did fine, but if you don't rest him properly over the season he is going to wear down.

Our defense has some serious issues to address.  Admittedly, being the first game in a new system against a team that plays like Ark does (the hurry up offense, and style of attack) will expose the weakness in a much greater extent then normal, especially when the DC is in the box and can't communicate with the players during the game.  But prep work should have addressed some of that (being the first game, they had plenty of time to prep).  There is reason for concern especially against Orgen.  You can't leave receivers open like they did for short yardage plays (I'm not talking about the screens (which is problematic in itself but seemed to be addressed by halftime adjustments), I'm talking about 5-10 yard passes, mostly covered by our LBs).  The run defense is not good.  This is Ark - imagine almost any other opponent we play.  Our pass defense  rush is not bad.  We can create some pressure.  Secondary played well.   Simply put, in our scheme, the lbs' play should be the star, but in reality it looked like the weakness.

Special teams.  I thought Riley was supposed to be an expert on special teams and focused a lot of the teams attention to it.  Apparently not.  Nothing special about his special teams.  

I agree that it's hard to gauge a team based on the first game, but that's all we have right now.  The offense is a little better than expected.  The defense is worse than expected.  The problem is that the team did not look like it deserved a top 25 ranking, and won't anytime soon.  

 
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84HuskerLaw said:
After about 30 or so games and now into the third season, it is nore than troubling that Riley and Langs don't do a much better job of managing the clock and circumstances.  

I'm not sure anyone else felt this way but I found it to be an ominous sign when right out of the gate, on that first offensive possession, we get down to the 4 yard line and its 4th down and 2 and the natural inclination for me would be to go for it.  Instead we take the automatic 3 field goal.  Not a major issjue except that to me not going for it sends a very negative signal to yoiur O line you have little confidence in them.  At same time, you tell your opponent you don't feel confident in it as well.     The worst that happens if you fail is you give the ball in a huge whole. 
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Riley isn't a guy with 2 seasons and 1 game under his belt.  His whole head coaching career has been full of poor clock and game management.  This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, and it won't get better "with more experience".

 
VectorVictor said:
One thing that's being overlooked/forgotten in the defense discussion is how the offense could help them out...but failed to do so. How many times, late in the 4th quarter, did Langsdorf stop the clock by going for a pass instead of running the ball? 

The best teams with the best coordinators realize there's a symbiotic relationship between the offense and defense.
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This is a good point and what has me the most concerned. I'm willing to buy the idea that Diaco wanted to be as vanilla as possible to not show his hand for future games. I'm not sure that's the case, but I'm willing to buy it because I believe in his coaching ability.

The problem is, the rest of the team should have been on the same page then. We should have been working the clock from the get go and limiting the amount of times our defense was on the field. At the very least, we should have been doing this late in the game. The only explanation/excuse I have is that DL and MR wanted to try to get the offense even more plays to see what they had (?) kind of a weak one but that's all I got.

I blame DL for it but I also blame MR. It's his show and it should have been a part of the pre-game plan if they really were trying to keep our defensive scheme hidden. Nothing about the offensive side of the ball suggested that was the case.

 
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