What we learned today...

[It'sNotAFakeID]

The thing about Nebraska's defense, which is extremely frustrating and annoying, is that it is good statistically and in actuality about 80-85% of the time. Take a look at the pass defense thread where I give a breakdown of Nebraska's defense last year (separating the averages by the result--whether we won or we lost). When we won, our rush D was as good as some of the best teams and our pass D was it's usual dominant self. When we lost, BOTH were bad.

That's what happened last night as well. Wyoming went into a lull between the 11:38 mark in the second quarter, when they went ahead 14-10, and the 2:04 mark in the 3rd quarter when they got the game back down to 10 points, 31-21. Wyoming had to get first downs by way of penalty, our defense was doing that well. So there were definitely flashes of excellence by our young defensive players.

Whereas the problem seemed to be the athleticism last year, the problem this year so far could be the lack of actual game reps which a lot of us contend are different than practice reps. I'm hanging my hopes on the idea that this group of defenders will gel together in the scheme as the year goes on; that once we hit B1G play we could up to or just shy of the defense that we as fans want to see.

What I don't get is how we can say we didn't pressure the quarterback. We had 0 sacks (well, 2 really) But do sacks necessarily equate to pressuring the quarterback? No, no they don't. Pressuring the quarterback means getting defensive linemen or linebackers in his face; and we did that last night.

I'll add that I am a results, statistically oriented person. But to say we put the same amount of pressure on Brett Smith last night as we did on ANY quarterback last year is wildly incorrect.

 

[BOurNe sUpremacy]

I tend to have the concept, no, the actual observationthat spread offenses with mobile QBS and shifty RBs put up circus like numbers on Bofense. '09 we had Suh, uh, that helped a bit, plus the overall D was much better than one we have now, for whatever reason. Does anyone here feel all warm and fuzzy when Shoelace or Brax or Geno Smith or Brett Smith is on the other side of the ball from our D--you know, a mobile guy? Those guys scare the crap outta me when it comes to Bofense, whereas a guy like Maxwell(Sparty), a guy that sits in the pocket poses no threat, usually, to our D. I dunno it's pretty self evident to me.

Again, I say go watch those games but DONT pay attention to Suh or the pressure. Watch the DB's. Those were guys like Gabbert, McCoy, Landry jones. Spread in the Big 12 is a much different animal than spread in the Big 10 with guys like Miller and Robinson. Those two make it much more difficult to defend with their feet. The Big12 is more of a exclusive pass type. That's what Wyoming was doing last night. Now they did run for a lot of yards, and with their qb too, but that was more of a fluke than anything I think. Wyo threw the book at our guys all night long. They learned a lot. Probably saw a lot of things they've never even seen before. Let's just see a game more or two before we write them off.

I expect them to get better, they ARE greener than a summer's day on the D side, muchos youth. I just don;t expect it real soon AND I dont think BO has much of a clue about defending a spread offense, or at least, the defenders we have can;t seem to hang with it.

Wow, this 'quote tag matching thing is a total pain in the a$$. Havent figured it out yet.

 

[BOurNe sUpremacy]

I tend to have the concept, no, the actual observationthat spread offenses with mobile QBS and shifty RBs put up circus like numbers on Bofense. '09 we had Suh, uh, that helped a bit, plus the overall D was much better than one we have now, for whatever reason. Does anyone here feel all warm and fuzzy when Shoelace or Brax or Geno Smith or Brett Smith is on the other side of the ball from our D--you know, a mobile guy? Those guys scare the crap outta me when it comes to Bofense, whereas a guy like Maxwell(Sparty), a guy that sits in the pocket poses no threat, usually, to our D. I dunno it's pretty self evident to me.

Those guys scare the crap out of everyone. Thats why most offenses that can recruit a decent dual threat QB, end up starting the dual threat QB over the guy who can't extend plays with his leg.

And also, if you're comparing QBs, Maxwell is a horrible example. Maxwell vs. Brax or Geno? The better equivalent would be Aaron Murray or AJ McCarron in comparison to them.

Oh ok, uh Murray punked us too, right, like bad, made us look silly, in fact. I'll add that to my list.

He sure did. Proving that a GOOD pro style QB is still a very dangerous thing. As a matter of fact, I'd rather face Denard Robinson than Aaron Murray any day of the week and twice on Sunday. We don't have an answer for a pro style QB that can tear apart our secondary (which is our perceived strength, is it not?). We can do different things to contain dual threat QBs. Look at Denard, Colter last year.

I'd rather face Whatshisname Maxwell with our D, and nothing more. Wow, I just had a flashback to Russell Wilson 2 yrs ago, make it STOP!

 

[bournehusker]

What I learned is that we don't have the recuited talent in the trenches that is necessary to play with the big boys. Football is simple. Dominate the trenches and the rest will come to you. Both offensively and especially defensively we don't have the horses. When you look at the ap top 10 and compare to rivals top ten recruiting rankings, minus a couple outliers it pretty much is team for team. Until we as a staff start taking recruiting to a new level and getting top talent lineman ....this will continue.

 

[irafreak]

People really have blinders on if they are thinking our team is going to be horrible this year, especially the defense. For most of the 2nd half, 6 of the front 7 were Freshman and were playing in their very first game. I know some guys on here are coaches, as I am one also, and they can relate with what went on with the young ones playing. I really think this defense will improve by conference and will be one of the top units. We still will probably take our lumps against S. Miss and UCLA but we will get better from it.

I certainly won't argue the defense improving over the season. Barring mass injury they should. The concerning question is can they get good enough to keep us in contention for the conference title or not? We'll know soon but I was expecting a little better gameplanning and adjusting from the coaches. My beef since last season has always been this.

 

[The King]

I'll tell you what, we might have an all freshmen/sophomore Defensive line at some point this season. Ankrah has got to turn it on and I just don't think Randle has what it takes.

Wouldn't surprise me t'all if that happened. Also, WTH were they doing putting Gregory @ LB last night, what was that all about? He was, like, running with receivers.

He wasn't technically a linebacker. He was a drop end. They use him as a decoy and bring a blitz from the other side, and if I recall correctly it worked decently on the plays they used it. He also doesn't "run" with a receiver man to man. He drops into a zone defense. It was a new wrinkle they were working on.

EDIT - The point of it is to make the QB have to think about what he was doing and in the end, if they throw short routes they'll have to key on him at one point or another to see if he drops back or if he is rushing them, which makes the QB rush through his progressions.

Problem with this theory is, without pressure, without forcing the QB to hurry through his progression, then none of this matters. Smith did a great job of creating time for himself. His pocket presence remarkable, his ability to find an open lane and extend plays was spectacular. But there was plenty of times when he was able to stand back there and find an open man, or he was able to take off and run. Now, nobody can expect to stop these things all of the time. What is scary is that teams with this sort of offense have done these same things to us for a few years now. You would think we would have a few adjustments for this thrown in here or there. Yet according to most accounts it looked like Wyoming was doing a lot of the same things over and over, and Nebraska really was not adjusting to them much.

I understand Bo not waning to give up the big play. But when we blitz, it seems to work in our favor almost every single time. The thing about blitzing is, although it can make you susceptible to the big play, it can also give you an opportunity to make a big play. In the end, it puts the pressure in the opposing offense to BEAT YOU. Instead of hoping they BEAT THEMSELVES. This bend don't break, allowing opposing teams to move down the field on us while we patty cake with their offensive line and pray for a mistake, well.....it has to go.

It is intended to "confuse" the QB is what I should have said. If they aren't sending Gregory that means they have pressure coming from somewhere else on the backside and the QB may or may not have properly identified that - or we may be dropping more people into coverage. You don't see a DE drop into coverage every day so it makes the offense recognize where he is at all times, because if it is a pass play and the DE backs out at the last minute, that changes the QBs read. Smith created time for himself really well and he had a strong pocket presence, correct. However, we DID get pressure on him and he DID get hit quite a bit. Kudos to him for standing in there and taking the lick - and they probably saved at least 3 or 4 sacks by holding the sh#t out of Gregory, VV, and McMullen.

I agree our D needs to be more aggressive, but right now is not the time. They'll be more aggressive when they are more experienced. Being aggressive now could end pretty poorly as they are still adjusting to the speed and scheme. That was their first game speed reps for most of them.

 

[The King]

I tend to have the concept, no, the actual observationthat spread offenses with mobile QBS and shifty RBs put up circus like numbers on Bofense. '09 we had Suh, uh, that helped a bit, plus the overall D was much better than one we have now, for whatever reason. Does anyone here feel all warm and fuzzy when Shoelace or Brax or Geno Smith or Brett Smith is on the other side of the ball from our D--you know, a mobile guy? Those guys scare the crap outta me when it comes to Bofense, whereas a guy like Maxwell(Sparty), a guy that sits in the pocket poses no threat, usually, to our D. I dunno it's pretty self evident to me.

Those guys scare the crap out of everyone. Thats why most offenses that can recruit a decent dual threat QB, end up starting the dual threat QB over the guy who can't extend plays with his leg.

And also, if you're comparing QBs, Maxwell is a horrible example. Maxwell vs. Brax or Geno? The better equivalent would be Aaron Murray or AJ McCarron in comparison to them.

Oh ok, uh Murray punked us too, right, like bad, made us look silly, in fact. I'll add that to my list.

He sure did. Proving that a GOOD pro style QB is still a very dangerous thing. As a matter of fact, I'd rather face Denard Robinson than Aaron Murray any day of the week and twice on Sunday. We don't have an answer for a pro style QB that can tear apart our secondary (which is our perceived strength, is it not?). We can do different things to contain dual threat QBs. Look at Denard, Colter last year.

I'd rather face Whatshisname Maxwell with our D, and nothing more. Wow, I just had a flashback to Russell Wilson 2 yrs ago, make it STOP!

I point you to the QB Graveyard thread.

 

[True2tRA]

I'm going to have nightmares about that UCLA QB for the next couple weeks.

 

[The King]

The thing about Nebraska's defense, which is extremely frustrating and annoying, is that it is good statistically and in actuality about 80-85% of the time. Take a look at the pass defense thread where I give a breakdown of Nebraska's defense last year (separating the averages by the result--whether we won or we lost). When we won, our rush D was as good as some of the best teams and our pass D was it's usual dominant self. When we lost, BOTH were bad.

That's what happened last night as well. Wyoming went into a lull between the 11:38 mark in the second quarter, when they went ahead 14-10, and the 2:04 mark in the 3rd quarter when they got the game back down to 10 points, 31-21. Wyoming had to get first downs by way of penalty, our defense was doing that well. So there were definitely flashes of excellence by our young defensive players.

Whereas the problem seemed to be the athleticism last year, the problem this year so far could be the lack of actual game reps which a lot of us contend are different than practice reps. I'm hanging my hopes on the idea that this group of defenders will gel together in the scheme as the year goes on; that once we hit B1G play we could up to or just shy of the defense that we as fans want to see.

What I don't get is how we can say we didn't pressure the quarterback. We had 0 sacks (well, 2 really) But do sacks necessarily equate to pressuring the quarterback? No, no they don't. Pressuring the quarterback means getting defensive linemen or linebackers in his face; and we did that last night.

I'll add that I am a results, statistically oriented person. But to say we put the same amount of pressure on Brett Smith last night as we did on ANY quarterback last year is wildly incorrect.

+1. Way to be reasonable.

 

[MichiganDad3]

The OCs have learned how to defeat Bo's scheme. The game is always changing, but Bo will not change a scheme that even teams the caliber of Wyoming can exploit. Wyoming was ranked 70th in total offense last year.

 

[BOurNe sUpremacy]

I'll tell you what, we might have an all freshmen/sophomore Defensive line at some point this season. Ankrah has got to turn it on and I just don't think Randle has what it takes.

Wouldn't surprise me t'all if that happened. Also, WTH were they doing putting Gregory @ LB last night, what was that all about? He was, like, running with receivers.

He wasn't technically a linebacker. He was a drop end. They use him as a decoy and bring a blitz from the other side, and if I recall correctly it worked decently on the plays they used it. He also doesn't "run" with a receiver man to man. He drops into a zone defense. It was a new wrinkle they were working on.

EDIT - The point of it is to make the QB have to think about what he was doing and in the end, if they throw short routes they'll have to key on him at one point or another to see if he drops back or if he is rushing them, which makes the QB rush through his progressions.

Whatever it was, I dont like it. I mean, he's supposed to be a DE and last time I looked we REALLY need a good one of those, like you know, ON the line.

 

[MichiganDad3]

Watchin the game again for the 2nd time, hench the 3rd time I've seen it. I'm tellin yall, it's not as bad as it seems. Up 31-14 and 37-21 and shoulda made it 44-21 with only half a quarter left, and then just packed it in. This is obvious. A legit concern, but obvious. The Int was a game changer that gave them hope and we couldnt wake back up. Our D had the clamps down pretty decent from mid 1st quarter all the way till the 4th when we got up 31-14 and they seemed to let off and let Wyo get a quick score. A lot of their yards came in that flurry of a ridiculous comeback in the final 7 minutes. Without that, it wouldve looked a lot more respectable numbers wise. i wasnt hitting the panic button last night and I'm still not. These things happen. Kansas St lost to an FCS team at home and they were #1 less than a year ago.

I'm going to have to agree with you on this...I rewatched the game this morning and found the same...it wasn't near as bad as it seemed when I was watching last night.

Wyoming just score to go up 14-10 with over 11 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. We keep em on 14 till into the fourth quarter when we go up 31-14. At that point we just flat out packed it in. It's really pretty obvious. That's more concerning to me than anything. The youth needs to pick up on the 4 quarter concept quickly.

Another thing I've noticed is all the youngsters really seemed to settle beginning of the 2nd quarter. I really believe the emotions and all that of the first game were getting to them. Randy Gregory wanted out at the end of Wyo's 1st TD drive and they would take them out. I think they settled in, got a second wind and played some decent ball throughout the mid-stages of the game

We also played a lot of softer coverage giving them those clearout passes underneath that picked and gouged for 10-15 yards all night. Our offense was mellow all night. Never did we really try to stretch the field and open it up. We held a lot back. Now I know that's tough to take for folks that want us to come out and crush everyone every week, but it is a process and we cant show the whole book week one. If we go in late there and get that lead to 44-21, or at worse a fg for 40-21, that game probably ends in that fashion. Ohio St only beat Buffalo 40-21. I bet Wyoming is a hell of a lot better than Buffalo, and the Buckeyes are supposed to be MNC contenders. These types of games happen. I really want to guarantee that we'll see a huge jump next week. Practice speed to game speed is a pretty big jump. I saw a team that took a while to adjust to that last night. Yes, even the offense.

That is three 600+ yard games in a row. I am still waiting for the jump.

 

[True2tRA]

Good point. Right now probably isn't the time. I just hope it's something they consider down the road.

I understand also about the confusion aspect. All I'm saying is that confusion will only be an initial reaction. It's when he has all that time that the confusion seems to wear off. But as you said, maybe we are staying very very basic for these young guys' sake.

 

[True2tRA]

The OCs have learned how to defeat Bo's scheme. The game is always changing, but Bo will not change a scheme that even teams the caliber of Wyoming can exploit. Wyoming was ranked 70th in total offense last year.

I do think teams have figured it out. I'm no coach or DC, but opponents seem to have found some things to key on.

 

[MichiganDad3]

Again, I say go watch those games but DONT pay attention to Suh or the pressure. Watch the DB's. Those were guys like Gabbert, McCoy, Landry jones. Spread in the Big 12 is a much different animal than spread in the Big 10 with guys like Miller and Robinson. Those two make it much more difficult to defend with their feet. The Big12 is more of a exclusive pass type. That's what Wyoming was doing last night. Now they did run for a lot of yards, and with their qb too, but that was more of a fluke than anything I think. Wyo threw the book at our guys all night long. They learned a lot. Probably saw a lot of things they've never even seen before. Let's just see a game more or two before we write them off.

Wow, I guess I have seen 4 flukes in less than a year. It must be fluke season in NE.