Expectations for the New Defense

HuskermanMike

HuskermanMike

New member
This thought has crossed my mind for a while now. What do you expect of the new defense?

I expect no team to put up more than 42 points on us.

I want these guys to force more fumbles and more turnovers, but I will expect this defense to be ball hawking and forcing fumbles. I feel we just haven't forced fumbles that much. I wonder how many INT's we get without Nate Gerry.

It will take some adjustment period, but by years end we need to see a better overall defense than last season. It mean getting stops with some consistency against really good teams and forcing field goals rather than easy touchdowns when a team enters the redzone.

A ranking of 30th or lower is my expectation(we were 30th in 2016). I expect the corners to be a lot more physical rather than play off the ball 10 or so yards. We have great talent in the secondary that no matter who we play, they will not beat us deep-outside a few times that happen for an occasional breakdown or exceptional throw.

More discipline coupled with the heart and soul to win would be great. We are deep at linebacker and in the secondary with a D-line that is maturing, it may take some adjusting to, but hopefully this group plays more physical than a year ago. No team should be getting first downs at will or scoring with ease.

Those are my expectations what are your expectations.

O/U on how many turnovers-last year we forced 19, do you take the over or the under on that?

 
I think coach D summed it up best. To paraphrase, regardless of scheme, front, game plan etc, it comes down to keeping them from scoring.

I am hoping that a more efficient offense, with very serviceable QB back ups will help the defense as much as scheme. I am optimistically cautious that we will see a marked improvement in all phases of the game i.e. total yards, score, TO's, TFL, sacks etc.... I think we have a very qualified and competent defensive staff (not seen since Bo, Carl and Marvin) a scheme that fits the athletes we have and a total buy in across the board. I am thinking we will all be pleasantly surprised.

 
HuskermanMike said:
This thought has crossed my mind for a while now. What do you expect of the new defense?

I expect no team to put up more than 42 points on us.

I want these guys to force more fumbles and more turnovers, but I will expect this defense to be ball hawking and forcing fumbles. I feel we just haven't forced fumbles that much. I wonder how many INT's we get without Nate Gerry.

It will take some adjustment period, but by years end we need to see a better overall defense than last season. It mean getting stops with some consistency against really good teams and forcing field goals rather than easy touchdowns when a team enters the redzone.

A ranking of 30th or lower is my expectation(we were 30th in 2016). I expect the corners to be a lot more physical rather than play off the ball 10 or so yards. We have great talent in the secondary that no matter who we play, they will not beat us deep-outside a few times that happen for an occasional breakdown or exceptional throw.

More discipline coupled with the heart and soul to win would be great. We are deep at linebacker and in the secondary with a D-line that is maturing, it may take some adjusting to, but hopefully this group plays more physical than a year ago. No team should be getting first downs at will or scoring with ease.

Those are my expectations what are your expectations.

O/U on how many turnovers-last year we forced 19, do you take the over or the under on that?
Click to expand...
I expect our defense to:

  • hold opposing offenses to less than 21 points a game on average.
  • be in mid-twenties for forced turnovers.
  • be extremely stout against the run.
  • finish at least 3rd in the conference in sacks (even though they're "over-rated").
  • finish at least 3rd in the conference in 3rd Down Efficiency.
If you think about it, with the schedule we play, really there are only a couple of teams that could score a lot more than 21 against the defense: Oregon, Ohio State, and possibly Penn State. The rest of the teams on our schedule, should struggle to get past 17 points.

Because if our defense is giving up 42 points a game, we'll be lucky to be 6-6 by season's end.

 
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Making Chimichangas said:
HuskermanMike said:
This thought has crossed my mind for a while now. What do you expect of the new defense?

I expect no team to put up more than 42 points on us.

I want these guys to force more fumbles and more turnovers, but I will expect this defense to be ball hawking and forcing fumbles. I feel we just haven't forced fumbles that much. I wonder how many INT's we get without Nate Gerry.

It will take some adjustment period, but by years end we need to see a better overall defense than last season. It mean getting stops with some consistency against really good teams and forcing field goals rather than easy touchdowns when a team enters the redzone.

A ranking of 30th or lower is my expectation(we were 30th in 2016). I expect the corners to be a lot more physical rather than play off the ball 10 or so yards. We have great talent in the secondary that no matter who we play, they will not beat us deep-outside a few times that happen for an occasional breakdown or exceptional throw.

More discipline coupled with the heart and soul to win would be great. We are deep at linebacker and in the secondary with a D-line that is maturing, it may take some adjusting to, but hopefully this group plays more physical than a year ago. No team should be getting first downs at will or scoring with ease.

Those are my expectations what are your expectations.

O/U on how many turnovers-last year we forced 19, do you take the over or the under on that?
Click to expand...
I expect our defense to:

  • hold opposing offenses to less than 21 points a game on average.
  • be in mid-twenties for forced turnovers.
  • be extremely stout against the run.
  • finish at least 3rd in the conference in sacks (even though they're "over-rated").
  • finish at least 3rd in the conference in 3rd Down Efficiency.
If you think about it, with the schedule we play, really there are only a couple of teams that could score a lot more than 21 against the defense: Oregon, Ohio State, and possibly Penn State. The rest of the teams on our schedule, should struggle to get past 17 points.

Because if our defense is giving up 42 points a game, we'll be lucky to be 6-6 by season's end.
Click to expand...
I never said that, I said "No team should score more than 42 points on us."

Ohio State is going to put up high 30's on us and PSU could do that too. That is what I was referencing, so my bad if there was any confusion.

Oregon and possibly Wisconsin will put up high 20s low 30s on us.

Every other team we play will be in the teens or mid twenties.

I would be happy if we keep the points down too, but its going to take a lot to do that. The guys have bought in and hopefully we see better results this year.

 
We need to play much better defense. Period. Takeaways will go a long way toward contributing greatly to our win total as those are game changing and can spark the entire team, especially at those critical junctures where it is key to get a stop and preferably a turnover to put the offense right back out there in a position to strike again. While yards allowed is a very important indicator, it is more important to get 3 & outs and put the offense back on the field in good field position. We should have an offense capable of scoring in the upper 30s or low 40s on most teams IF the defense gives them the ball in good field position. We can't afford, as has been the case for the past 4 or 5 years to give up a couple first downs before we finally get a stop as they punt us back inside the 30 too much. Field position is a key, especially if you are not blessed with a big, strong, physical, willful offensive line that can push the ball to mid-field with the ground game. We won't likely find we have such a line, early on and later on if we have an injury bug as is the norm in Lincoln.

We also don't need those God awful sacks inside our own 25 and then punt from our own 15 so we need to get punt returns certainly and start closer to our 40. Having to throw 5 times in our own territory will create risk for INTs and sacks that will be killers.

Therefore, hopefully, our defense will play very aggressively when our oppoents are operating on their end of the field and try to get those fumbles, picks and force punts early in drives when they mean our offense is given a better chance of success. i would say our defense should be faster in overall team speed and if we find some guys who can get to the QB frequently, we will do just fine on defense.

We need to put up several games where we hold the opponent under 10 points. If we hold the opponent under 30, we will win about 90% of those games or more. If we give up anywhere near 40, we will likely lose.

 
I expect;

To not cringe when our defense takes the field against a good team.

To be more aggressive than we have seen in quite awhile.

To force more turnovers, quite a few more.

More sacks and TFLs.

The defense to be on the field less and therefore more efficient when they are.

To hold the opponent to less points than we score in all but maybe a couple games. If we give up 50ish to tOSU, I don't care as long as we score in the 50's as well.

Effort and an obviosly more sound scheme and approach.

Adjustments and substitutions when they are required.

Less than four losses.

To be happy I changed my user name.

 
Turnover margin and 3rd down efficiency will tell the tale of Nebraska in 2017.

The better we are in those two categories, the better the team as a whole will be. The worse we are in those two categories, the worse the team will be.

 
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If you look around at most of these other 3-4 defenses, they have a 330lb dude in the middle and two others approaching or over 300lbs on both sides of him. In a year or two, I'd expect 305lbs to be the second or third biggest guy on the DLine, but this year, that will be the biggest guy and that's my top concern. It's okay to have some change of pace guys and 3rd down blitz guys who are 270 or so. You definitely see those around the country. But if you watch Diaco's incredible ND defense, they have BIG dudes on the DLine and it's a lot to ask of a 4-3 defense to all of a sudden turn into a massive DLine.

I expect big things from the secondary and LBs but I can't help but feel nervous about up front. That said, I also am willing to excuse some struggles because of a new defense and I completely agree that the offense will help the defense. Also, I think when it's 2nd and 3rd and medium to long - watch out, Diaco will bring the heat and allow the corners to do their thing. But I also won't be surprised if we are frustrated with some rushing yards against at times this year.

 
I expect it to not be a liability. I haven't felt jazzed up when our defense took the field since 2010. That's a problem, I hope we found the solution.

 
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Caliborn72 said:
If you look around at most of these other 3-4 defenses, they have a 330lb dude in the middle and two others approaching or over 300lbs on both sides of him. In a year or two, I'd expect 305lbs to be the second or third biggest guy on the DLine, but this year, that will be the biggest guy and that's my top concern. It's okay to have some change of pace guys and 3rd down blitz guys who are 270 or so. You definitely see those around the country. But if you watch Diaco's incredible ND defense, they have BIG dudes on the DLine and it's a lot to ask of a 4-3 defense to all of a sudden turn into a massive DLine.

I expect big things from the secondary and LBs but I can't help but feel nervous about up front. That said, I also am willing to excuse some struggles because of a new defense and I completely agree that the offense will help the defense. Also, I think when it's 2nd and 3rd and medium to long - watch out, Diaco will bring the heat and allow the corners to do their thing. But I also won't be surprised if we are frustrated with some rushing yards against at times this year.
Click to expand...
I could be wrong but I thought I remember Stoltenberg saying he was up to 325. This is off my memory from a press conference so I could be wrong.

 
That's big news, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, that's the kind of beef the DLine needs. He definitely looked mostly the part in the spring game; I still thought he was a tad light but I'm no expert and if he's 320 that's plenty big. That changes my perception of the defense a great deal.

 
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