Husker offensive line play 'just average' vs. Oregon

I think average is a pretty good description for how the o-line played. Some good, some bad. I'm not sure the blocking schemes are helping their cause. As was stated above, with many of the blocking schemes, there is zero margin for error.

How would the group look and perform if things were simplified? 

 
zoogs said:
Sure, there's not. But we generally consider OL play to be one of the defining factors of a football team. It's often cited as a reason to turn up the heat on the OL coach for not recruiting or developing his guys well enough, for example. Or used as a reason to excuse a lack of demonstrable quality at QB because the OL is not doing great. 

'Average' OL performance explains a lot of things. Dress that up to 'pretty solid' and this points the finger elsewhere. In this case it seems hardly fair to merit that. The OL needs to kick it up a notch, along with other groups. Most things right now are within some reasonable definition of average, and so long as that holds we'll (probably) have a pretty average season. Which, if this is considered fine, so should the latter. If not, then a great deal of improvement will be needed and the OL is as good a place as any to start -- if only because of the importance of the line to the game, but also because the potential here is fairly bright.
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That's fair.

My issue at the moment is that the most obvious plays where things went wrong against Oregon that many like to point to as "bad OL play" are actually not that at all.  The line did what they were supposed to do and did it well.  The team was just put in a pretty bad position by the play call.

 
BigRedBuster said:
And he has been better at that so far this year compared to our past QBs.

Are you two seriously going to turn a good football discussion into a waaa waaa boo hoo......crap fest???

Just because we say he is going to be better at that, doesn't mean he isn't going to get caught in there sometimes.  
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Not really...he looks like TA with a stronger arm and no legs.  So far the stats pretty much prove that as well.

 
Igetbored216 said:
How would the group look and perform if things were simplified? 
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I often view this as an intangible or nebulous argument. What does simple look like in comparison to not getting run over by the defense? Do we know that this is the problem? Or, is it possible the line isn't communicating well? Or, do they just have a bad coach who struggles to put them in positions to succeed? We've had average to above average lines dating back to the early 2000's and that includes four very different offensive systems.

At this point, several of these guys have been operating under this offensive system for almost three years. Some of the strategy has changed, but I imagine much of the language, teachings and concepts haven't.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
And he has been better at that so far this year compared to our past QBs.

Are you two seriously going to turn a good football discussion into a waaa waaa boo hoo......crap fest???

Just because we say he is going to be better at that, doesn't mean he isn't going to get caught in there sometimes.  
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Maybe I am being a whiny b!^@h, especially when it comes to Lee.  I guess it's because I think I can analyze a QB's throwing technique and mechanics to notice where things can go wrong.  I can't analyze line play or what a defense is doing on a specific play, but I can tell what is going to cause a pass to be inaccurate.

The baseline for Lee shouldn't be "well, he's better at this than Armstrong or Martinez".  He should be automatically better at passing than those guys, because those guys were limited as passing QB's.  The baseline for Lee should be "is he being a good pocket passer".  In the Arkansas State game, he was pretty good, but he was pretty bad against Oregon. Since he looks to be a statue back there, he won't beat teams with his legs.  That means he has to be extra good in the passing game.  Maybe he can get better over the course of this season, but so far he has shown to be the same QB he was at Tulane.

 
Enhance said:
I often view this as an intangible or nebulous argument. What does simple look like in comparison to not getting run over by the defense? Do we know that this is the problem? Or, is it possible the line isn't communicating well? Or, do they just have a bad coach who struggles to put them in positions to succeed? We've had average to above average lines dating back to the early 2000's and that includes four very different offensive systems.

At this point, several of these guys have been operating under this offensive system for almost three years. Some of the strategy has changed, but I imagine much of the language, teachings and concepts haven't.
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That's because it is. It's just my opinion from what I have seen. 

To answer your questions:

One example of simple would have been Farniok blocking the DE/OLB, instead of a tight end coming across the formation to block, and Farniok sliding left. 

We don't know it's specifically a problem, and I wouldn't know about the communication on the line. It appeared every one was trying to do what they were supposed to on that last play, but Hoppes just couldn't execute. So, I would guess communication on that last play appeared to be okay. 

I personally felt Cav should have been dumped with Reed and Banker last year, but again, that's just my opinion. The o-line performed average last Saturday. Just as the article says. Hopefully they can take some steps forward in the games to come. 

 
Enhance said:
In your defense, @Igetbored216, I'm not very high on Cav either and am more skeptical than optimistic. I've been sort of beating the drum for awhile that this position group has been one of the biggest reasons this program has been on a championship drought.
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100% agree. Everything in football starts on the lines. I can't remember the last time Nebraska had a solid o-line. I just keep hoping that "this will be the year," but I have been hoping for about a decade now. 

 
"Above Average" is probably about where the offense as a whole has played in the first two games.  We beat a below average Ark State and lost to a much above average Oregon team.  Altough the final score was closer that the game really was, Oregon showed we are not above average.  If there are 130 division 1 teams, then we are somewhere around number 65.  That is about the way we have played, assuming Ark State is about number 90 and Ore is number 25.  

The O line has played "Ok" for the number 65 team I'd say.   Unless we see dramatic improvement across the offense and the defense, then we are likely going to lose all the games we play against above average teams and might win those against those below us.  I am not sure how many, given the strength of the Big Ten as a whole, of the conference games we will face a team that is below average.  Thus, there is reasonably a great deal of doubt about how many wins we can muster this year.   The line can get better and cohesion and little things can make a great deal of difference.  

I think the offense as a whole has played a little above average (maybe number 35 for example) while the defense has played about number 100 at times certainly.  We only can hope that the defense which has better talent than that will make some good improvement and atleast get to the point where it is playing above average.  If so, we will find a way to win a couple more games presumably.  The defense is clearly the weakest third of the team thus far but arguably has the most upside potential off the three units (offense, defense and special teams).  I give the special teams a much above average performance and somewhere around number 15 I'd say.  We have room for improvement there and the mistakes we've made are easily fixed with a little smarter play by individual players in specific circumstances.  

The team can get much better, overall, IF and ONLY IF Diaco gets the blackshirts playing like they deserve those jerseys.   Not so far but it is possible - hold out hope for a couple more weeks to gel and get the wrinkles straightened out.  Surely there are 10 coaches and lots of other football minds in the football program who can help to make some major adjustments as warranted.  

 
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If we are truly going to compare to what is average, I think it would be good to look at how we rank with Power 5 conference and Big Ten teams.  NU shouldn't be compared to teams in the Sun Belt, MAC, and other lower level conference teams. 

 
Not sure how my post got deemed to be harsh enough to go to the woodshed, but this game is enough evidence to rest my case that this team is average and bordering the edge of below average, but keep up the sweet insults. 

 
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