McKewon with a GREAT break down of Alabama's run, Osborne's run and Bo's 5 years.

I think there is an even simpler anwser to the difference in Bo's 5 years against Alabama's 3 title run & Nebraska's 3 title run. It comes down to line play. Until Bo figures out how to get solid play from the offensive & defensive line the Huskers will be a 9-10 win team. Alabama's offensive line distroyed the Notre Dame front in the title game. The '94 Huskers did the same to a Miami team that had a front 7 full of NFL talent.

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This was my favorate poster growing up. It really shows how dominate the offensive line was to send future NFL stars to the sidelines to get oxygen.

I really feel Nebraska has the talent to be elite except on the offensive & defensive line. The only other factor I see is the turnovers & some of that will clean its self up with a dominant line.

 
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You really have to build a team around the line. The trenches are where you win ballgames. Without an Oline, you can't run the ball, which means Ds can drop 7 into coverage and be all over your receivers. Without A Dline, opponents can gash your defense while quarterbacks have all day to thrown.

There were some pass plays where Johnny Manziel had 7-10 seconds IN THE POCKET. It was glorious.

 
AgMarauder04 said:
You really have to build a team around the line. The trenches are where you win ballgames. Without an Oline, you can't run the ball, which means Ds can drop 7 into coverage and be all over your receivers. Without A Dline, opponents can gash your defense while quarterbacks have all day to thrown.

There were some pass plays where Johnny Manziel had 7-10 seconds IN THE POCKET. It was glorious.
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Completly agree. I thought Manziel was good, but I think his line won the Heisman as much as he did.

 
Absolutely. Luke Joekel will go #2, MAYBE #1. Jake Matthews, his other tackle could have also gone first round. Both were All-Americans this year.

 
Blackshirt96 said:
I think there is an even simpler anwser to the difference in Bo's 5 years against Alabama's 3 title run & Nebraska's 3 title run. It comes down to line play. Until Bo figures out how to get solid play from the offensive & defensive line the Huskers will be a 9-10 win team. Alabama's offensive line distroyed the Notre Dame front in the title game. The '94 Huskers did the same to a Miami team that had a front 7 full of NFL talent.

This was my favorate poster growing up. It really shows how dominate the offensive line was to send future NFL stars to the sidelines to get oxygen.

I really feel Nebraska has the talent to be elite except on the offensive & defensive line. The only other factor I see is the turnovers & some of that will clean its self up with a dominant line.
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NVM I read it wrong lol

Our O-line is fine. We can improve on pass protection, but all in all, we are fine. We lacked most talent on the D-line this year and previous years. One good kid, doesn't make you good, like we have had. Suh was successful because of Crick, Both demanding a double team and Suh just being a beast. Crick was one of the only good Dlineman we had when Suh left. Due to an injury and no depth, we lost a lot of our rush defense. This year, we had Steinkuhler, our biggest contributor, and couldn't do anything besides create a double team. If we had one more player who could have done the same thing, you would have seen more action from Ankrah, Meredith or Martin and creating more yards being lost or even sacks.

A&M's Oline was great in pass protection, but was slightly weaker in the rush protection. Not anywhere near bad, but the pass protection was their strong suit IMO.

 
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HuskerNationNick said:
Blackshirt96 said:
I think there is an even simpler anwser to the difference in Bo's 5 years against Alabama's 3 title run & Nebraska's 3 title run. It comes down to line play. Until Bo figures out how to get solid play from the offensive & defensive line the Huskers will be a 9-10 win team. Alabama's offensive line distroyed the Notre Dame front in the title game. The '94 Huskers did the same to a Miami team that had a front 7 full of NFL talent.

This was my favorate poster growing up. It really shows how dominate the offensive line was to send future NFL stars to the sidelines to get oxygen.

I really feel Nebraska has the talent to be elite except on the offensive & defensive line. The only other factor I see is the turnovers & some of that will clean its self up with a dominant line.
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NVM I read it wrong lol

Our O-line is fine. We can improve on pass protection, but all in all, we are fine. We lacked most talent on the D-line this year and previous years. One good kid, doesn't make you good, like we have had. Suh was successful because of Crick, Both demanding a double team and Suh just being a beast. Crick was one of the only good Dlineman we had when Suh left. Due to an injury and no depth, we lost a lot of our rush defense. This year, we had Steinkuhler, our biggest contributor, and couldn't do anything besides create a double team. If we had one more player who could have done the same thing, you would have seen more action from Ankrah, Meredith or Martin and creating more yards being lost or even sacks.

A&M's Oline was great in pass protection, but was slightly weaker in the rush protection. Not anywhere near bad, but the pass protection was their strong suit IMO.
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"Fine" is a long way from dominant, but yes the defensive line is in need of much more repair then the offensive line. I think Bo can get these areas cleaned up, but you can tell in past recruiting why we struggle there.

As far as aTm's OL they are solid pass blocking & also do a great job of blocking down field when Manziel would decide to take off.

 
I find the offensive statistics very interesting. in an era of hurry up offenses, look at those stats compared to our offenses of the 90s that were no where close to "hurry up".

Those were amazingly explosive offenses.

 
I enjoyed the article because I liked to see how the Huskers and Bama compared. That said while the comparisons were good I think that it is easy to underestimate what it takes to go from good or even very good to elite. Those last few improvements do not come easy. B students could just get 10 more points and they could all be at the top of the class and go to graduate school in the Ivy League. Of course only a few folks have the discipline, skill, and toughness to be an A student. To go from good to great has more to do with the intangibles that very few coaches can instill and bring out in a team.

 
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AgMarauder04 said:
The only thing is the styles are way different in the SEC of today and Big 12 of the 90s vs the B1G of today...not EXACTLY apples to apples.
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This doesn't matter. Across the board the styles were the same for each era. The stats prove what we already knew. Nebraska had a championship caliber defense in 09 and must strive to return to that point. Only then will we compete for a national title. Defense wins championships. It's proven every year. The 09 defense could've easily compensated for our horrible turnover ratio this season. Our offense was good enough to complement that 09 defense.

 
It's no coincidence Nebraska's three championship teams in the 90's had run defenses that ranked in the Top 10.

You can get bogged down in the details of this comparison if you'd like, but I think the overall point is far more important. Regardless of conference, there are certain things you have to do if you want to be a championship caliber team - play across-the-board good defense, don't turn the ball over, and have a consistent offense.

Nebraska's offense was good enough to win a BCS game this last year. Unfortunately, and similar to the 2009 season, other parts of the team weren't ready to compete yet.

 
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