Defensive scheme

Pelini's defense was both far too complicated and ridiculously ineffective. I'm ready to see a more aggressive unit that just plays some damn football.

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Good to hear that they are going to be able to pin their ears back and do some work now rather than think about every single little step. I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic until I see it in a few weeks.

 
Lets just use my strategy from NCAA '14:

2 Man under or Cover 1 w/spy or Cover 3 Buzz or Cover 4. Then at the last second audible into a Blitz 80% of the time.

 
Did our defenses in the 90s use a safety over the top? I'm not that knowledgable about that stuff but I'm thinking we didn't. CBs were basically on an island most of the time in lock down mode and the pass rush was extremely important to put pressure on the QB so the CBs didn't have to cover for very long.

 
BigRedBuster said:
Did our defenses in the 90s use a safety over the top? I'm not that knowledgable about that stuff but I'm thinking we didn't. CBs were basically on an island most of the time in lock down mode and the pass rush was extremely important to put pressure on the QB so the CBs didn't have to cover for very long.
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In Osborne's early years Nebraska's defense was primarily a 5-2 base zone defense. After multiple bowl losses in the late 80's & early 90's Osborne knew that he needed to overhaul his defensive philosophy.

Thus, around the 92-93 season Nebraska began the switch to an aggressive, attacking 4-3 defense built on speed. It was primarily a one-gap scheme for the line, and the linebackers & secondary were primarily man-to-man. They would also play in Cover 4, sprinkle in zone blitzes, and play Cover-2 on obvious passing downs.

However, the coverage shell that Charlie McBride loved to use was a form of "Robber" coverage, where at the pre-snap the safeties look like they are in Cover-2, but when the ball is snapped one of the safeties will drop into the hole, while the other safety plays the deep middle of the field. You can also take one of the safeties and give him man coverage, and then make one of the linebackers, usually the middle linebacker the robber.

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So essentially the last several years we have witnessed Pelini's scheme where it was a 2-gap Cover-2 shell in the secondary designed to limit the big plays in the passing game, but would be weak against the run. Now in 2015 with Mark Banker switching the Blackshirts back to a more aggressive, 1-gap Cover 4 scheme, you will see a defense that is much stronger against the run, will probably produce more turnovers, and at times...give up the big pass play. But the main crux of the defense will be "if you can beat us over the top...good for you, but you will not beat us with your running game."

COVER 4 BREAKDOWN:

The Cover-4 defense is mainly a match-up zone defense that can fit any defensive alignment. It requires the defensive line to stop the run first, and rush the passer second. There are numerous zone blitzes that a defensive coordinator can use with the cover-4.

Linebackers: Linebackers in a cover-4 are taught to play aggressive and to attack the line of scrimmage first. Because of the coverage behind them, usually this frees up the linebackers to have opportunities to make big plays in the backfield.

Corners: In this scheme you need corners with speed & agility. They will be on an island, and depending the play call they can either play press-man or play soft coverage.

Safeties: The safeties in a cover-4 scheme have to be incredibly smart, and make quick decisions.

(X-Factor): TACKLING! If a team is going to commit to this style of defense than the back seven in the secondary have to display essential one-on-one tackling fundamentals. Look for the Cornhuskers to vastly improve in this area this year.

Bleacher Report actually had a decent breakdown of the basics of the Cover-4 which you can read here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2094989-nfl-101-introducing-the-basics-of-cover-4

I hope this helped to answer your question.

 
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Good stuff above. If you're a freak at learning more about the game, I'd supplement that breakdown with a specific breakdown of Narduzzi's Quarters system by Chris Brown. I only say that because of how Banker described it early on, about how similar it was to MSU defense.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/michigan-state-oregon-pat-narduzzi-defense-breakdown/

I love their Double A gap blitz they use. It's vicious, and effective. You can tell the season is getting closer and closer, we seem to really be talking football a lot lately... As opposed to the usual "how many wins will we have?" -type offseason discussions. Which is great!

 
cg_8 said:
Good stuff above. If you're a freak at learning more about the game, I'd supplement that breakdown with a specific breakdown of Narduzzi's Quarters system by Chris Brown. I only say that because of how Banker described it early on, about how similar it was to MSU defense.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/michigan-state-oregon-pat-narduzzi-defense-breakdown/

I love their Double A gap blitz they use. It's vicious, and effective. You can tell the season is getting closer and closer, we seem to really be talking football a lot lately... As opposed to the usual "how many wins will we have?" -type offseason discussions. Which is great!
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+1.

Chris Brown is an outstanding source of information for people who really want to study X's & O's. I highly recommend his Smart Football blog http://smartfootball.com/#sthash.0u4Qs3kX.dpbs

Great supplement of the breakdown of Narduzzi's Quarters scheme. I'm still trying to learn the many little nuances to the way he & Michigan State have run their Quarters defense which is very different than what most coordinators use for Quarters coverage.

Going forward their is a few weak areas of Cover-4 that Banker and Nebraska's staff will have to adjust to and find a solution for, and that is teams that like to play a lot of spread, and like to use a heavy dose of play-action. Say what you want about Tim Beck and his offense in past years (and believe me I have..both positive and negative) but he had it figured out on how to attack the weak points of Narduzzi's defense.

I think what Banker & Riley might have to do when they face heavier spread teams is IF...IF they have the speed to match up, they might go to more Cover-1 man-to-man & Cover-3 zone blitzes, but that's just my small 2 cents. That's why these guys are paid the big bucks.

 
The Duke said:
cg_8 said:
Good stuff above. If you're a freak at learning more about the game, I'd supplement that breakdown with a specific breakdown of Narduzzi's Quarters system by Chris Brown. I only say that because of how Banker described it early on, about how similar it was to MSU defense.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/michigan-state-oregon-pat-narduzzi-defense-breakdown/

I love their Double A gap blitz they use. It's vicious, and effective. You can tell the season is getting closer and closer, we seem to really be talking football a lot lately... As opposed to the usual "how many wins will we have?" -type offseason discussions. Which is great!
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I think what Banker & Riley might have to do when they face heavier spread teams is IF...IF they have the speed to match up, they might go to more Cover-1 man-to-man & Cover-3 zone blitzes, but that's just my small 2 cents. That's why these guys are paid the big bucks.
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I think you're right, or at least I'm hoping you're right. I really want to see more zone blitzing because Nebraska has been highly successful when doing it. They just haven't done it enough. Now with a bit more aggression from the front four, and the talent in the secondary, speed at LB'er to burn, this could really work out in our favor. Let Gerry drop into coverage right in the middle of that field behind the LB'ers and just ball hawk all damn day. Two things happen, either he comes away with the pick, or he hits somebody so hard they don't throw to the middle of the field anymore. Maybe take a 15 yarder, so what. Send a message.

I think we've got the guys to play more man to man too. Trust your speed with guys like Davie on the opponents #1 target. And for God's sake, if they're number one lines up opposite side of the field, have your best DB follow him. We've been burned by some poor matchups in the past few years. Gonna be interesting to see who really emerges as that number 2 CB and the other safety spot. Lot's of talent out there. Competition is going to be fierce.

Really excited to see it.

 
The Duke said:
tfree32 said:
I'm ready to see a more aggressive unit that just plays some damn football.
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Ah yes, I think you're referring to something like this. . .

1)

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Those are cool videos and McBride had a great scheme at the time. However, there was a TON of talent on the defense at the time. So many of those plays were made by guys who spent numerous years in the NFL.
Until NU gets that talent back in the program, it won't matter what kind of defense is played.

 
Guys, we can talk about scheme and philosophy until we are blue in the face. What makes the best defenses dominant is the talent on the field.

The 2009 defense had 6 future pros (Suh, Crick, Prince, Hagg, Gomes, and Dennard) playing regular snaps. I would say that they had more to the success of the D than Bo's scheme.

McBride's D was made awesome in the 90's mainly due to the talent. There were future NFLerd at all 3 levels on those teams. Talent will trump scheme most of the time.

 
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