Defensive Scheme

Rollin said:
Danimal said:
beanman said:
HuskerShark said:
Basically what I'm getting from PJ is that there was a lack of trust on the defense last year. He said that during big moments last year, guys on the defense would rather do their own thing and try to show off than play within the system and trust their teammates. That part is something that we all knew already. PJ said it himself: if every guy on the defense plays his job and doesn't try to play beyond the scheme, this defense will work.
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He also seemed pretty bitter about the lack of talent on the defensive line and the safeties getting all the grief for missing tackles. He's trying to be polite about it though.
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I do think at times Bo is unrealistic in what his scheme expects guys to handle assignment-wise, in terms of what guys are able to handle knowledgewise or talent-wise. That said, guys have to buy-in and work the scheme. It isn't like Bo hasn't had plenty of success before and proven the scheme works when executed.

As far as the D-line goes not being able stay healthy and lacking depth at DT really hurt us the past two seasons. Throw in a fair amount of very average players around those DT's and you have safeties that have to do too much.
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Talent has been the issue as of late.... In my opinion, it is really that simple. When Bo has talent on that side of the ball his defenses have been among the best....
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I agree that talent is the biggest culprit in the D struggling. This draft reflected the mediocrity of those first two classes. The first three classes are chock full of defensive front misses. Now we seem to be getting the talent back up now with these last two classes but we'll have to watch a year of struggles because we field a crew of newbs. At least this D should improve over the course of the season, unlike last year's senior-heavy-but-slow squad.

 
I respect all opinions regarding D Scheme, because in truth, everybody is right in part. Having said that, we still run a 4-3 D like McBride did during the 90's, (although the current version is used differently than it was back then and today's talent level and speed (OVER-ALL) is a notch below what it was back then, but not far off I believe especially this coming season), so why the big discrepancy between the two era's overall game day performance? I believe it's a difference in each coaches philosophy in how to implement their scheme on game day. Bo expects his D-Line to perform at a high level and get pressure on the QB themselves and disrupt running lanes, requiring less blitz packages during a game, allowing the LB to come up and plug holes where needed to stop the run and allow the secondary to be free to cover the deep threat, make plays on the ball and beat the offensive guy more times than not? Watching game film from the 90's, McBride blitzed a lot more, and used it from every position. LB Blitzes, Corner blitzes, etc.... and the Huskers also played man to man a lot with our d guys up on the line of scrimmage, jamming up the receivers from getting off the snap cleanly, holding up their routes and therefore disrupting the timing of the offense. Bo doesn't do this very often... he plays a more straight up D with the D-line playing further off the line of scrimmage than you will normally see and expects players to perform like they are expected to, but the problem is, our D-Line performance hasn't held up their part of the plan, in order to make Bo's scheme effective! I believe lack of adjustment during games soon enough, is a major factor in our losses. Except for the games, that the team basically gave up in, like the BIG 10 championship game against Wisconsin, and the lack luster effort at Ohio St. as the game went on, adjusting sooner in the game could have changed a L into a W! Remember the game when Pelini had to leave early for medical reasons, and Coach JP took over, after Bo left JP got more aggressive on D and Blitzed a little more and put more pressure on the other teams offense! It worked beautifully and we got a big W! Bo knows what he is doing, and he is correct in saying his scheme works but if the players aren't able to implement it on the field like it needs to be to be effective, then a change in mind-set and making adjustments need to come sooner IMO?

 
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huskerhandy35 said:
I respect all opinions regarding D Scheme, because in truth, everybody is right in part. Having said that, we still run a 4-3 D like McBride did during the 90's, (although the current version is used differently than it was back then and today's talent level and speed (OVER-ALL) is a notch below what it was back then, but not far off I believe especially this coming season), so why the big discrepancy between the two era's overall game day performance?

I believe it's a difference in each coaches philosophy in how to implement their scheme on game day. Bo expects his D-Line to perform at a high level and get pressure on the QB themselves and disrupt running lanes, requiring less blitz packages during a game. This allows the LB to come up and plug holes where needed to stop the run and allow the secondary to be free to cover the deep threat, make plays on the ball and beat the offensive guy. Watching game film from the 90's, McBride blitzed a lot more, and used it from every position: LB Blitzes, Corner blitzes, etc. and the Huskers also played man to man a lot with our d guys up on the line of scrimmage. We jammed up the receivers from getting off the snap cleanly, holding up their routes and therefore disrupting the timing of the offense. Bo doesn't do this very often... he plays a more straight up D with the D-line playing further off the line of scrimmage than you will normally see and expects players to perform like they are expected to.

The problem with this is our D-Line performance hasn't held up their part of the plan in order to make Bo's scheme effective! I believe lack of adjustment during games is a major factor in our losses. Except for the games that the team basically gave up in, like the BIG 10 championship game against Wisconsin and the lack luster effort at Ohio St. As the game went on, adjusting sooner in the game could have changed a L into a W! Remember the game when Pelini had to leave early for medical reasons, and Coach JP took over? After Bo left JP got more aggressive on D and Blitzed a little more and put more pressure on the other team's offense! It worked beautifully and we got a big W!

Bo knows what he is doing, and he is correct in saying his scheme works but if the players aren't able to implement it on the field like it needs to be to be effective, then a change in mind-set and making adjustments needs to come sooner IMO.
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Not even paying attention to usernames, but whoever keeps ragging on O'Hanlon....what?

Slow and can't tackle? He was, literally, the best open field tackler we've had in over a decade. Plays like the ones below were commonplace for the guy, and yeah, he didn't run a 4.3, but he was a safety. There's no reason for him to be blazing, and ran a 4.5.



The dude was an anchor at his spot; six interceptions (the most since 2003 and yet to be topped), 69 tackles with 39 solo. And the Va Tech bomb wasn't his assignment; he saved that play by being smart.

 
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