LJS Red Report: DTs, WRs, and DBs

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http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/red-report-hughes-pleased-with-d-tackles-even-if-stats/article_5e3f31f0-b7da-5ce2-8c67-58ea293d3881.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Talk from DL coach Hank Hughes about how pleased he's been with the interior line, even if they aren't showing up on the stack sheet. And this from the secondary coach:

* CELEBRATE, THEN FIX:

[Davie] wasnt going to be, Hip Hip hooray. I talked to him about it. Thats the name of the game. There are going to be ups and downs," Stewart said. "What you have to do is be a good teammate first. Go out there and celebrate with your teammates. And then lets look at it on tape and do some correcting.
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DTs don't usually put up a lot of stats anyway and we've been rotating all the defensive lineman so much that it's not surprising that they don't have a lot of stats. But it seems to me that they've done their job pretty well. Collins gets double-teamed almost every play. I thought VV might get a little more push on the plays where he's single-blocked but BYU was basically having their center look at both DTs and help out whichever side looked worse for them. I think they're doing about all they can - they need some pass rush help from the DEs or some blitzing LBs to do anything more.

WRs have also been very good. Thought Turner might get some more looks with DPE out but I'm not sure he even got to play more than a handful of snaps. Westy has been his usual great self and Moore has been a pleasant surprise.

DBs haven't been great overall but I don't think they've been terrible either. They've given up some big plays but even a couple of those plays they actually had pretty good coverage. I think they've been in some tough spots but that's been covered elsewhere (no pun intended). Gerry is a beast.

 
Mavric said:
DTs don't usually put up a lot of stats anyway and we've been rotating all the defensive lineman so much that it's not surprising that they don't have a lot of stats. But it seems to me that they've done their job pretty well. Collins gets double-teamed almost every play. I thought VV might get a little more push on the plays where he's single-blocked but BYU was basically having their center look at both DTs and help out whichever side looked worse for them. I think they're doing about all they can - they need some pass rush help from the DEs or some blitzing LBs to do anything more.

WRs have also been very good. Thought Turner might get some more looks with DPE out but I'm not sure he even got to play more than a handful of snaps. Westy has been his usual great self and Moore has been a pleasant surprise.

DBs haven't been great overall but I don't think they've been terrible either. They've given up some big plays but even a couple of those plays they actually had pretty good coverage. I think they've been in some tough spots but that's been covered elsewhere (no pun intended). Gerry is a beast.
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I was worried about this all preseason and seeing two games hasn't helped me much. Huskers will be good against the run this year. Huskers will not be good against the pass this year unless they can get some kind of pressure. McMullen is a DT playing at DE. Gangwish, while I admire his guts and hard work, just doesn't have that quick first step to get a consistent pass rush. Even when the Huskers have blitzed, there hasn't been much pressure because they are bringing the LBs at the same time the ball is snapped, so the LBs get lost in all the traffic. Let the d-line engage with the o-line, find the gaps, and get after the QB. Hopefully the coaches can figure something out quickly. Otherwise Miami might be a long game and Illinois is likely to give us a lot of trouble when their offense is on the field.

 
I hate seeing the "Gangwish can't do the job" assumptions. He got one game, and a lot of what I saw looked like both DEs were playing more of a containment role than pass rush. Hill was a scrambler remember? If the staff is the coaching/scheming/development gurus that so many are ready burn up bandwidth and forum pages defending, then how in the hell did they decide Jack was their guy?... Did he win some lottery? Acclaimed by a secret team popularity vote?

I gotta imagine what we've seen so far has been pretty vanilla as this is the beginning of the season and it's a new system. If you're gonna screech and demand patience from the HCMR naysayers, then you need to swallow your own medicine in terms of offering the same for the players and system. So either Riley is the genius who sees a larger plan or just a coach who plays his "favorites". Pick your poison.
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RedRex said:
I hate seeing the "Gangwish can't do the job" assumptions. He got one game, and a lot of what I saw looked like both DEs were playing more of a containment role than pass rush. Hill was a scrambler remember? If the staff is the coaching/scheming/development gurus that so many are ready burn up bandwidth and forum pages defending, then how in the hell did they decide Jack was their guy?... Did he win some lottery? Acclaimed by a secret team popularity vote?

I gotta imagine what we've seen so far has been pretty vanilla as this is the beginning of the season and it's a new system. If you're gonna screech and demand patience from the HCMR naysayers, then you need to swallow your own medicine in terms of offering the same for the players and system. So either Riley is the genius who sees a larger plan or just a coach who plays his "favorites". Pick your poison.
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Gangwish played last year. How is this being based off one or two games? I see what I see. He doesn't have a quick burst off the line. If there was a better DE that was available, and more depth at the position, he probably wouldn't be playing right now. McMullen is equally as slow off the line and really has no business being a DE at this point. Like I said, Huskers will be really good against the run (Minnesota & Wisconsin will be in for a very rude awakening), but the pass rush isn't good right now.

 
One of the coaches said their big goal for the DL was to contain Hill in the pocket IIRC, and then the next thing you know, JG is hurt. Containing Hill in the pocket, of course, doesn't mean don't try and get to him. But, I think what they wanted to avoid was a player on the DL making a decision that would allow Hill to easily and quickly escape the pocket and get vertical.

I was rewatching part of the USA game this last week, specifically paying attention to how the Huskers were blitzing and trying to get after the QB. For starters, Collins, as you'd expect, was getting double teamed up the wazoo. And when they brought extra guys on a blitz, they would either get jammed up at the line or the ball would be out of their QB's hands in just a couple of seconds. Obviously, it's tough to get hands on the QB when the ball is out quick and the blitzers are getting jammed at the line. I also noticed a few times that USA's line was playing pretty darn close to one another... pretty small splits. It was really tough to get any pressure up the middle because guys were squeezed so tight, but that's kind of how it is sometimes.

I think what will help quite a bit is better pass rushing from the DE's, as several other people have mentioned. I think we have some good athletes playing there but I also don't think they're necessarily going to beat a lot of guys 1-on-1 with either their speed or technique.

 
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Enhance89 said:
One of the coaches said their big goal for the DL was to contain Hill in the pocket IIRC, and then the next thing you know, JG is hurt. Containing Hill in the pocket, of course, doesn't mean don't try and get to him. But, I think what they wanted to avoid was a player on the DL making a decision that would allow Hill to easily and quickly escape the pocket and get vertical.

I was rewatching part of the USA game this last week, specifically paying attention to how the Huskers were blitzing and trying to get after the QB. For starters, Collins, as you'd expect, was getting double teamed up the wazoo. And when they brought extra guys on a blitz, they would either get jammed up at the line or the ball would be out of their QB's hands in just a couple of seconds. Obviously, it's tough to get hands on the QB when the ball is out quick and the blitzers are getting jammed at the line. I also noticed a few times that USA's line was playing pretty darn close to one another... pretty small splits. It was really tough to get any pressure up the middle because guys were squeezed so tight, but that's kind of how it is sometimes.

I think what will help quite a bit is better pass rushing from the DE's, as several other people have mentioned. I think we have some good athletes playing there but I also don't think they're necessarily going to beat a lot of guys 1-on-1 with either their speed or technique.
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And this is all I'm trying to say. Neither McMullen nor Gangwish are good pass rushers for this reason, and I don't think it will change much the farther we get into the season.

 
I think Freedom really starts to assert himself by the middle end of the season.

I thought Natter looked fairly stout in mop up duty.

We're going to have to be patient unfortunately.

 
Igetbored216 said:
RedRex said:
I hate seeing the "Gangwish can't do the job" assumptions. He got one game, and a lot of what I saw looked like both DEs were playing more of a containment role than pass rush. Hill was a scrambler remember? If the staff is the coaching/scheming/development gurus that so many are ready burn up bandwidth and forum pages defending, then how in the hell did they decide Jack was their guy?... Did he win some lottery? Acclaimed by a secret team popularity vote?

I gotta imagine what we've seen so far has been pretty vanilla as this is the beginning of the season and it's a new system. If you're gonna screech and demand patience from the HCMR naysayers, then you need to swallow your own medicine in terms of offering the same for the players and system. So either Riley is the genius who sees a larger plan or just a coach who plays his "favorites". Pick your poison.
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Gangwish played last year. How is this being based off one or two games? I see what I see. He doesn't have a quick burst off the line. If there was a better DE that was available, and more depth at the position, he probably wouldn't be playing right now. McMullen is equally as slow off the line and really has no business being a DE at this point. Like I said, Huskers will be really good against the run (Minnesota & Wisconsin will be in for a very rude awakening), but the pass rush isn't good right now.
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1)Under Riley and Banker? Or does the statement that he's had one game in a new system stand? Seemed like Gangwish was quick enough to get a few sacks last year when turned loose.

2) If my Aunt had nads, she'd be my Uncle.
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Obviously the staff thinks he was the best available or capable of becoming so in this season.

I get what you're saying about it seeming like we have no speed rush, I agree that we have yet to really SEE anything. I just don't think we've seen enough of this system to lay it on the position players just yet. Hell, I'll even concede later on that you may be right, but still say you're basing it off too small of a sample to be sure.

 
Scheme wise, I'm not sure there is really a solution to "DEs who can't pass rush." I love our players as much as anyone, but the DE position has a weakness in this area until they prove otherwise.

I'm really rooting for one of these guys to step up and show it, because I am not sure help is clearly on the way, either!

It's one of those things that is going to make a coach look a lot worse than he is.

 
Anyways, I really love the approach they took with Davie. It's a very supportive culture and I think that's going to bring out the best in everybody. A good lead for the fans to take as well, when it comes to players struggling.

 
IIRC, Gangwish got a handful of QB pressures against BYU, which is quite good against an experienced, mobile QB like Hill. He just didn't finish. Perhaps as the season wears on, he will grow to be better at that.

We'll need another DE to emerge to get a consistent pass rush though. VV will probably never be a strong pass rusher and Collins will continue seeing those 2 on 1s all season.

 
dudeguyy said:
IIRC, Gangwish got a handful of QB pressures against BYU, which is quite good against an experienced, mobile QB like Hill. He just didn't finish. Perhaps as the season wears on, he will grow to be better at that.

We'll need another DE to emerge to get a consistent pass rush though. VV will probably never be a strong pass rusher and Collins will continue seeing those 2 on 1s all season.
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He actually had a sack in the BYU game.

 
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