Defense, the numbers don’t lie

I find it ridiculous that Chatelain has to include "IN MY OPINION" near the header of the article.

 
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Just throwing this out there, but could our D not be as good because we are putting in new schemes this year to battle the very different big 10 offenses? It just seems weird to me that there is always a player out of position or not doing their job when we really only have 3 new starters on the field this year.

 
SnowBigRed said:
I'm not a defensive genius by any means, but I guess I just don't understand why Nebraska had to change the defense to a more traditional 4-3 set. I just don't buy the whole Big 10 being more physical than the Big 12 talk. I think they should have stuck with what they know, what they are good at, the 4-2-5 look. Surely the Pelinis can scheme around the more physical teams (Wiscy, OSU, Iowa) and still be able to keep up with the more spread teams (UM, NW). I just don't understand why Nebraska needed to completely scrap what they were good at just to "fit in" to the new conference. They don't have to do the same thing as everybody else.

Have Dennard, SJB, at corners, maybe Smith and Osborne at safeties (both of which are pretty good sized safeties) and Stafford at the rover, monster, peso, whatever they call it. Stafford is damn near as big as David. Need to find one more LB that covers a lot of ground and is a sure tackler, and then whichever 4 DL they want. It sure would be nice to have a guy like Phil Dillard to roam the middle a little, but I just don't know if there is a guy like that on the team.

I guess I'm just a firm believer in doing what you know and what you are used to, rather than changing it all up just for the sake of changing. NU has recruited for the 4-2-5 for the past few years, and those are the types of guys they have, so use them to their strengths. Then again, maybe NU makes the switch to a traditional 4-3 and has great success with it. At that point, I will eat my words.
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I understand just enough about defense to make me dangerous but the thing I know for sure is; whatever they have been doing isn't working for diddly squat. There are a few things we've been told repeatedly that I am just not seeing. One of those being that the B1G would have no answer for our team speed especially on defense. Well, the B1G and our non-con's are either a whole lot faster than anyone suspected or our guys suddenly got a bunch slower. And, the 2 gap system sounds fine and dandy on paper but I have no explanation why it seemed to work much better last year than it has so far this year. The conference change could only help explain the last 2 games but the first 4 were not B1G teams or even B1G style teams. The real key would appear to be mobile QB's but the Big 12 had some of those as well. IMO the biggest problem by far has been our lack of pressure against the pass. I've seen Domino's Pizza delivery take less time than opposing QB's have had to throw the ball. Even when our guys do get past the line, and it is seldom they ever do it with only 4 rushing, it looks like they're dragging a boat anchor chasing the QB. And then there is the matter of losing containment. It's a real head scratcher. I hate bye weeks but an extra week to help figure this stuff out was desperately needed.

 
Heartbeats4Huskers said:
Just throwing this out there, but could our D not be as good because we are putting in new schemes this year to battle the very different big 10 offenses? It just seems weird to me that there is always a player out of position or not doing their job when we really only have 3 new starters on the field this year.
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I personally haven't paid close enough attention/don't know enough about defensive schemes to talk about this knowledgeably, however this might have something to do with it.

I think the quote at the end of the article is most telling of the situation. The coaches are obviously telling the players what they need to do to succeed, and they just aren't getting it to some extent. One could argue it's a scheme issue, but if I'm not mistaken Nebraska is using a similar run game scheme this year as they did last year. Scheme usually has nothing to do with whether or not your line can get off blocks on the pass rush, which I think has been an issue this year. We don't pressure the quarterback well or get off blocks as well as we should when just looking at the line.

I think depth at the LB position is probably our biggest weakness. I heard on the radio today that Nebraska has only 24 TFL's this season, and six of them (or 25%) belong to Lavonte David. One player - a quarter of our TFL's. Yikes.

 
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I may a whole lot thrown my way for this but...I think the D might be better off without Crick. He clearly wasn't right all season, with that in mind everyone knew his potential and what he could do, so he kept playing. As it is now, we're getting a healthy player in at our stacked position, I wouldn't be surprised to see more pressure and more consistent D-Line play. Additionally with SJB in the secondary, things might just work out there too.

The main point is, we would have been better off playing someone else besides Crick all season, he was in because he had the potential to do more.

 
JJHusker1 said:
Yes. It is amazing that there are all these threads and media coverage of the offense and Martinez in particular. I guess an ugly throwing motion and some questionable play calling in bad situations will generate talk but it has been painfully obvious to me and many other posters here that the defense is 98% of our serious problems. As bad offensively as the game at wiscy was, if anyone expects us to outscore 48 pts against a team of that caliber they are delusional. The D has been horrendous with only a handful of intermittent individual bright spots ala Lavonte. The fundementals are bad and I am really beginning to suspect the overall theory and scheme may need to change to make allowances for our youthful secondary, lack of size, confusing lack of speed, and glaring inability to get any kind of pass rush. Luckily the things I don't doubt are our players skill and desire and the ability of our coaches to recognize the issues. I just don't understand what is taking them so long to make more changes than simply a body here or there.
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Damn fine post.

I'm totally lost about our defense too and have no clue if it can be repaired this year. Fully agree it's about 98% of the problem and I'm sure Bo knows it but for some reason he's also lost on what to do. I'm thinking with others it may be time to scrap the 2 gap scheme as something needs to be done. Like....yesterday.

Well, that's Bo's forte. If anybody can hack it....

GBR!!

 
Huskerzoo said:
I may a whole lot thrown my way for this but...I think the D might be better off without Crick. He clearly wasn't right all season, with that in mind everyone knew his potential and what he could do, so he kept playing. As it is now, we're getting a healthy player in at our stacked position, I wouldn't be surprised to see more pressure and more consistent D-Line play. Additionally with SJB in the secondary, things might just work out there too.

The main point is, we would have been better off playing someone else besides Crick all season, he was in because he had the potential to do more.
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I don't know about that, especially since I don't know what we'll get without Crick in there. Make no mistake - Crick is/was the best player on that line. He may not have been hitting his potential, but it's still a big loss. On a scale of 1-10, this is probably about a 6 or 7 as far as the impact it will have on the defense.

 
no doubt, Bo is frustrated and having a helluva time putting up a decent D this season. i think simply from a personel point, we are weak, LB's and linemen who can seldom put up a pass rush or hold containment. our linemen look slow off their first step. most of our DB's couldn't start anywhere else....having said that, Bo is probably getting all he can outta these guys, but he is right, there are a lot of missed tackles.

 
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This defense lacks the fire and the desire we're so used to seeing from Pelini's teams. I remember one characteristic in particular that set apart the 2009 Blackshirts from the Husker defense we're seeing today. The Suh-led D of 2009 just freaking got after it. On every play you could count on all 11 defenders swarming to the ball with reckless abandon, and by golly they scared the crap out of opposing offenses.

Where the hell is that this year? Nowhere to be found so far. It's almost like our defenders, especially those in the secondary, are thinking way too much, rather than just doing what comes natural. Are they being over-coached on the little things? I don't know. But something just isnt' right about their lack of fire and their ability to swarm and attack like the deranged animals we saw in 2009...or even last year for that matter. I know we have lots of youth and inexperience, but seriously these guys gotta have an attack mode at all times.

On a positive note, I think we saw that ravenous side for the first time in the 2nd half vs tOSU. Let's just hope they keep that up.

 
And another thing - where in the world is Cameron Meredith these days? He seems darn near invisible since week 1 or week 2 when he had a couple sacks. What exactly has he accomplished lately?

 
I liked the stats (or at lest seeing them) if BO did not have a exceptional defensive background I would be in panic, I'm surprised to see just how bad the defense has been, I will keep sipping the Kool Aid and watching for a change.

 
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