What we learned today...

[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.

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.

Because you know nothing about defense. Or trying to confuse QBs into making mistakes. Or using players to your advantage. Versatility, its a good thing. If you don't see the obvious advantages of making people gameplan for certain looks, then I really don't think you understand the defensive side of the ball. Its all about maximizing your advantages. Having a DE that can run with a TE in coverage allows for us to send "more exotic blitzes" that are more likely to be successful. Its not like we did it all game long, good lord.

 

[BOurNe sUpremacy]

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.

yea, pretty straight forward. all this 'tendencies" and "concepts" mumbo jumbo is mostly b.s. in my book. if you are not punching their guy in the face harder than he is you, well, you lose. It's football, well, it used to be football, but with the Kenny Bell and soon be Randy Gregory rules, it's all patty cake now.

 

[irafreak]

I'm gonna jump in here again. It was 93 degrees and humid as hell. We played a bunch of young guys. The Wyoming coach was Pinkel's OC and probably knows us like the back of his hand. The Wyoming QB was better than the Missouri QB's we played. We won but should've won by more....the reason we didn't is because we let up on offense and 'called some bad calls/ didn't execute' at critical times. We were also getting new players onto the field while Pinkel's boy was still going full speed ahead, which made us look worse than we probably are. I think there's plenty of upside for this team.

Alright so we should have won by more but we called bad plays and didn't execute...the offense is supposed to be the strength of this team. This shouldn't still be happening. No matter how we spin it, it was a poor performance from the coaching staff. I can't blame kids that are making the same mistakes as the other players before them under this coaching staff.

And the qb argument is tired. Yes the wyoming qb played great...why didn't this net them more than 4 wins last year? Some act like this kid just came out of nowhere...

 

[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.

Because you know nothing about defense. Or trying to confuse QBs into making mistakes. Or using players to your advantage. Versatility, its a good thing. If you don't see the obvious advantages of making people gameplan for certain looks, then I really don't think you understand the defensive side of the ball. Its all about maximizing your advantages. Having a DE that can run with a TE in coverage allows for us to send "more exotic blitzes" that are more likely to be successful. Its not like we did it all game long, good lord.

Here's what I KNOW. Fricking WYOMING put up fracking 600+ yds on us and nearly pulled off the upset of my lifetime vs Big Red, K? Thats all I need to know. The sh&t aint working and putting RG @ at 'roving DE' is just more smoke and mirror, cutesy Bo b.s. We dont have the mojo on the d front to even not get owned by l'il ol' Wyo, and thats sad, so he's just bullsh@tting his way around.

Did Brett Smith look confused last night?

 

[The King]

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.

They will. In PM's with EZ-E I told him they were working on using Gregory as a drop-end in a 3-4 to give them different looks. I didn't think they'd show it this early, as from everything I was led to believe was that it wasn't quite ready to be used yet and we were holding that in our pocket. I guess not though. I know coaches would like to be more aggressive but they've had some concerns over sending LB's because if you blitz with linebacker X for instance, you have to make absolutely positive everyone has the same call and knows the proper terminology so that someone fills that gap for the vacated spot. With the youth and inexperience, they are prone to mistakes, so playing an overly aggressive D is way too big of a risk. The defense isn't very basic, but they can't do a lot of stuff that they want to do yet. I fully expect them to get more aggressive once they have more faith in the defense. I honestly don't think the D you see later in the year will be even remotely similar to the one you saw last night - and I fully expect the next couple weeks to be a roller coaster because of the inconsistencies caused by youth. We have a ways to go, but we also have room to improve. that isn't something you could've said last year.

 

[EZ-E]

Brett Smith had the OL on his lap a lot of times and still slung it into windows that no other QB we will play can. He's a top three QB we will play playing in a perfect system for him.

I hope WYO wins a lot of games this year and I think they absolutely will.

 

[Chaddyboxer]

Brett Smith had the OL on his lap a lot of times and still slung it into windows that no other QB we will play can. He's a top three QB we will play playing in a perfect system for him.

I hope WYO wins a lot of games this year and I think they absolutely will.

No doubt. He's a baller.

 

[In the Deed the Glory]

I learned that a lot of people think they are better defensive football coaches than Bo Pelini. That, gentlemen, is absurd.

 

[irafreak]

I find it hard to understand the adaption to college level speed. We are supposed to have a top ten offense, that has very fast running backs, top WR's, and one of the best running QB's in the nation. A supposed best Oline in years. How does a defense playing against that level of a team in practice not know college speed. How can they look so overwhelmed. Lost. Most of these kids have been playing football since they were very little, most have played at top level programs, that are prep schools for college. Well coached players. How do they turn into kids that seem to have forgotten the basics of the game when they arrive here.

Our problem is partially talent, but coaching/scheme on the defensive side is the main problem.

We read all summer long how great these young kids were going to be, how improved they were by subtraction. The kool aid flowed, and a lot bought into it.

Now we have played three straight games, giving up 600 yards in each one of them. Had we played a top ten team last night, what would have happened?

I do not want Bo fired, but I want improvement on the defensive coaching side. This has become a trend, a way of life, and most of us that have been around a long time do not understand how it is happening. We have one of the highest paid coaches in the country, and that is for a reason. We want to win, and spare little expense in doing it. Nebraska fan is not getting what they are paying for, Wyoming fan got what they paid for in spades. See, Wisconsin and Georgia.

Time to quit blaming the kids, take some time at other programs that have figured todays offenses out and stopped them. Get help, because it is needed. I have no idea what Southern Miss will bring offensively, but I virtually guarantee UCLA will put 600 plus on us if things remain the same. Not good anyway you look at it.

If UCLA does it, there is no reason not to expect Northwestern, Michigan to do it. The buck stops with Bo, he has made little to no improvement since Wisconsin that I can see. His defenses are worse than Cosgrove by a long ways.

You probably have never coached in your life. Bo does take some of the blame with not making adjustments but what good would they have done when you have a YOUNG defense that is just getting their feet wet. My kids look like all stars when we scrimmage cause they have an idea on what is going to happen. Different story when it comes to facing opposition that they haven't seen. As far as the 600 yrds, the games last year at the end of the season never should have happened but to lump this year with them is dumb.

And just because you work a specific job doesn't mean you're good at it or couldn't possibly be in over your head...We see this all the time in football with coordinators getting HC jobs then getting fired...your argument doesn't hold as much water as you think. Mike Leech never played football...lawyer...but smart enough to coach and be inovative. This might be hard for you to believe but not all the problems with this team are X's and O's....some of us see character flaws in our HC that are trickling down to the players and creating poor habits. And it doesn't take coaching experience to see these kind of issues...getting tired of opinions being dismissed because a person has never coached...

 

[The King]

Here's what I KNOW. Fricking WYOMING put up fracking 600+ yds on us and nearly pulled off the upset of my lifetime vs Big Red, K? Thats all I need to know. The sh&t aint working and putting RG @ at 'roving DE' is just more smoke and mirror, cutesy Bo b.s. We dont have the mojo on the d front to even not get owned by l'il ol' Wyo, and thats sad, so he's just bullsh@tting his way around.

1-8 on third down conversions. That means when we were getting into scenarios to get off the field, WE GOT OFF THE FIELD. A defense that is getting "pushed around" doesn't do that. Good lord Here is an article from last year on the topic. http://www.omaha.com/article/20120811/HUSKERS/708119859/1707 - our issue has continued to be GETTING OFF THE FIELD. Which, for the first time in a long, long time, we actually did! For instance, last year USM completed 50% of their 3rd conversions against our D. So, yeah, I'd say us using Gregory as a drop end has helped us get off the field. Cutesy stuff that works, I guess.

I'm not sure how we are getting owned when our D actually did a good job getting off of the field? Yeah they had a big fourth quarter, but once again, we wanted to fix our issues on third down and it appears we have taken steps to do that. Sheesh.

 

[The Dude]

1-8 on third down conversions. That means when we were getting into scenarios to get off the field, WE GOT OFF THE FIELD. A defense that is getting "pushed around" doesn't do that.

It easy to get off the field when you let the other team score in less than 3 plays.

 

[Hunter94]

I see at least 3 more games in which our opponent will put up over 500 yards on our D.....this is a Bo problem, like it or not this is the future of NU football for now...if you don't want to fire Bo, then this will be the norm.....get used to it.

 

[The King]

1-8 on third down conversions. That means when we were getting into scenarios to get off the field, WE GOT OFF THE FIELD. A defense that is getting "pushed around" doesn't do that.

It easy to get off the field when you let the other team score in less than 3 plays.

They didn't have a drive of over 8 plays long. That's what Bo likes. Obviously, the two series where they scored off of 3 plays is something that need sot be addressed (and one of them came directly after a TMart int due to horrible play calling , but they made the play so kudos to them). But its good that they couldn't sustain a drive against us and they never had a drive lasting 3 minutes or longer. That is great because our D gets off of the field.

 

[The King]

I see at least 3 more games in which our opponent will put up over 500 yards on our D.....this is a Bo problem, like it or not this is the future of NU football for now...if you don't want to fire Bo, then this will be the norm.....get used to it.

Yards aren't the issue. Points are.

Again, I ask, why are you surprised? Bo Pelini has said himself, he doesn't care about how many yards we give up. We'll give up yards. We don't want to give up touchdowns.

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

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.

You're waiting for a jump between two teams that are compositionally different?