Field Position

[Hoosker]

http://hailvarsity.com/2014/07/score-another-one-for-field-position/

Brandon Vogel over at Hail Varsity once again brings up a very important statistic to the Husker football program.

The most interesting part of the article is actually a quote from an ESPN Insider article written by Brian Fremeau.

Nebraska allowed 17 percent of opponent drives to start on the Huskers’ side of midfield (115th) and Nebraska started 26 percent of its own drives inside its own 20-yard line (110th).

They haven’t lost a regular-season game in which they had a field-position advantage since 2011, but were on the wrong side of that stat 15 times in the past two seasons (seven wins, eight losses).

Nebraska’s offense and defense may be good enough to run the table if it doesn’t shoot itself in the foot with field position and turnovers (minus-11 in 2013; 119th).

It's the offseason, so let's talk about it.

 

[broganreynik]

There were quite a few times we started drives inside our own five and would run it up the gut three times and punt, setting up the opposing team with great field position. The first drive of the first three games last year. I actually asked Coach Beck about that after the UCLA game. He said that the situation dictated being conservative. Just important as it is to switch the field or establish something on offense, it's just as important to not give up a turnover and a quick score.

I guess his mind changed on the situation dictating being conservative by the Penn State game.

Having better special teams play, particularly on the punt teams, would help sway the field position game into our favor.

 

[Ulty]

Field position, especially poor field position, is a result of turnovers and special teams issues. After all, a team only gains possession of the ball either off the foot of the opposing kicker or due to the other team turning it over.

Turnovers and special teams (especially punt returns) are often the most discussed areas that need to be improved, so it's no surprise that we are rated so low in starting field position on both offense and defense. Gotta be fixed.

 

[Redux]

Turnovers

Field Position

Mental Preperation

Injuries

Those four things pretty much represent a loss every year. Fix one or more of those issues and your looking at another win.

 

[junior4949]

Turnovers have been a problem for a while now. Fix this one problem and everything else works itself out.

 

[knapplc]

Our punt return game is nonexistent, because we make no attempt whatsoever to block the punt or the opponent's defenders. This has to be the single most bizarre thing in the Bo Pelini Era - what the hell are they thinking with a punt return game like this?

Perfect example:

Bell has seven unblocked defenders within 18 yards of him, and he has yet to catch the punt. It is impossible that he could make any kind of return, and this possession is going to start inside the 15 yard line. If he fumbles (as has been known to happen), it is without question going to be a turnover - there are no other Huskers to corral a loose ball.

Penn State was able to get these guys downfield because we don't block them, and they know based on years of film that the majority of our defenders make zero attempt to block the punt. On the snap they move a yard or two upfield toward the punter, then stop. Every single team we play knows we're 1) not going to block their punt and 2) they can send everyone downfield to tackle the returner.

Here's what's supposed to happen. Ohio State knows that Penn State will make every attempt to block the punt, aggressively, so they have to keep defenders home to protect the punter. There are 10 Ohio State blockers behind the line of scrimmage at the time of the kick, or at most a yard past. There are eight Penn State players at or near the line of scrimmage, meaning the one Ohio State player not on screen here has to face two blockers before he can get to the returner.

Our scheme is clearly not an accident, it's clearly designed to work this way, and it is clearly not effective. Nebraska ranked 121st out of 123 teams in punt return yardage last year. On 23 punts returned (not counting those not fielded or fair caught), we gained a total of 70 yards.

You want to talk about field position problems? There's your problem, right there. It's in the scheme, 100%.

 

[NUpolo8]

Our punt return game is nonexistent, because we make no attempt whatsoever to block the punt or the opponent's defenders. This has to be the single most bizarre thing in the Bo Pelini Era - what the hell are they thinking with a punt return game like this?Perfect example:

Bell has seven unblocked defenders within 18 yards of him, and he has yet to catch the punt. It is impossible that he could make any kind of return, and this possession is going to start inside the 15 yard line. If he fumbles (as has been known to happen), it is without question going to be a turnover - there are no other Huskers to corral a loose ball.Penn State was able to get these guys downfield because we don't block them, and they know based on years of film that the majority of our defenders make zero attempt to block the punt. On the snap they move a yard or two upfield toward the punter, then stop. Every single team we play knows we're 1) not going to block their punt and 2) they can send everyone downfield to tackle the returner.Here's what's supposed to happen. Ohio State knows that Penn State will make every attempt to block the punt, aggressively, so they have to keep defenders home to protect the punter. There are 10 Ohio State blockers behind the line of scrimmage at the time of the kick, or at most a yard past. There are eight Penn State players at or near the line of scrimmage, meaning the one Ohio State player not on screen here has to face two blockers before he can get to the returner.

Our scheme is clearly not an accident, it's clearly designed to work this way, and it is clearly not effective. Nebraska ranked 121st out of 123 teams in punt return yardage last year. On 23 punts returned (not counting those not fielded or fair caught), we gained a total of 70 yards.You want to talk about field position problems? There's your problem, right there. It's in the scheme, 100%.

I forget which writer it was, I think it was Sam, that suggested that Bo felt so burned by that one ISU fake several years back that he put protecting the fake a top priority.
Which is obviously misguided as this article, and you, point out.

 

[QMany]

I am not disagreeing that our punt strategy needs a complete overhaul. I'm on board.

I will play Devil's Advocate though. It isn't entirely fair to compare those too scenarios above. Against Nebraska, PSU is punting from our 47 yard line. A return situation is highly unlikely, as it will either be a fair catch > 10 yard line or a let go and downed or result in a touchback. In contrast, against OSU, PSU is punting from their own 27 yard line. Even the biggest boot is likely to field returnable ball. Strategies will differ because of this.

That being said, I still don't agree/understand it.

 

[knapplc]

I will play Devil's Advocate though. It isn't entirely fair to compare those too scenarios above. Against Nebraska, PSU is punting from our 47 yard line. A return situation is highly unlikely, as it will either be a fair catch > 10 yard line or a let go and downed or result in a touchback. In contrast, against OSU, PSU is punting from their own 27 yard line. Even the biggest boot is likely to field returnable ball. Strategies will differ because of this.

That was just the first picture I ran across. We do this on just about every single punt, and we've talked about this here before.

Two Punt Returners?

Kick/Punt Returner

I know there's a thread here somewhere with more pictures of this exact thing. It's not dictated by field position, it's our base scheme.

 

[Whistlebritches]

I am not disagreeing that our punt strategy needs a complete overhaul. I'm on board.

I will play Devil's Advocate though. It isn't entirely fair to compare those too scenarios above. Against Nebraska, PSU is punting from our 47 yard line. A return situation is highly unlikely, as it will either be a fair catch > 10 yard line or a let go and downed or result in a touchback. In contrast, against OSU, PSU is punting from their own 27 yard line. Even the biggest boot is likely to field returnable ball. Strategies will differ because of this.

That being said, I still don't agree/understand it.

That's the other problem with the scheme that we've been using. No pressure on the opposing kicker makes it easier to kick the ball exactly where you want it. With a rushed punter maybe we get a touchback or a shank and it drastically changes our offense because we're not taking snaps so deep in our own territory.

 

[RedDenver]

I think the youth on defense and the injuries on offense may have contributed to the punt return scheme. Maybe the coaches simply didn't have enough time to work on everything, so punt returns were made simple and weren't practiced much. It's the only thing that makes sense to me for this ridiculous scheme.

 

[The Dude]

 

[hskrfan4life]

I think the big stat there is that we haven't lost a game in which we won the field position battle since 2011. If we can win that battle in every game this year, that would be amazing.

 

[Hoosker]

I think the big stat there is that we haven't lost a game in which we won the field position battle since 2011. If we can win that battle in every game this year, that would be amazing.

Same here. It just goes to show that when we don't hurt ourselves, we are just fine. You always hear it from the coaches and it occasionally trickles down to the players. "We need to fix US". They are totally right.