Post Minnesota Game Thoughts/Rest of the season

The 3-4 absolutely does not fit this team's talent.  Can't we just get the 4 biggest fat guys to just lay down and make them at least run around them?   I will take any LB that can tackle in space and immediately start an All American campaign for them.

The way they line up I would audibling all night for the counter sweep to our right side. half run themselves out of the play, a third cannot shed a block and the other half can't tackle...  I know math nuts go crazy.

Man that was hard to watch.

 
I'm gonna post my thoughts and then read through, so apologies if it's similar to everyone else.

The silver lining I see is the coaches were forced to play some guys. Hixson was not the only guy struggling by any means, but they actually went and tried somebody else. Chase and Woodyard played quite a bit, and if Vedral had time probably would've had more of an impact.

I've defended the line at least as pass protectors this year, but that was atrocious. There absolutely were open receivers, and Vedral didn't have time to get it to them. There were a few throws he could have anticipated and gotten out earlier, but I can't put that on him because the pressure was still getting there too fast.

I dunno what the d-line issue is. I think a lot of times technically the issue was LBs not filling, but it's hard to fill a 15 yard wide gap. One thing I will credit Frost for, he could've tried to claim we still need more S&C since it's only year 2 (which probably would've been BS, but would've quieted some.) He didn't, he pointed out we absolutely shouldn't be getting pushed around like we did. Fixing it is another problem though.

The offensive coaches needed to figure out a way to kick this in gear. The defense played poorly, but the offense was worse. My initial thought was teams are covering deep and making us go the length of the field because they know we can't without shooting ourselves in the foot. But it's not even that, Minnesota rarely had a deep safety. They know our only big play guys are in the backfield, so they can load the box and get the best of both worlds, stuff the run and not worry about getting beat deep.

 
Husker in WI said:
I dunno what the d-line issue is. I think a lot of times technically the issue was LBs not filling, but it's hard to fill a 15 yard wide gap.
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It is hard to identify some of the problems when you're watching the game live, but our linebackers are the main source of the issues by far, with constantly changing the scheme probably coming in a close second.

Sometimes we line up in a 5-2, sometimes a 4-3, sometimes a 3-4, and occasionally in Nickel. We're a jack of all trades, master of none defense. 

The 3-4 should be really good against the run. But your linebackers need to stand their ground in run fit and attack downfield against their lanes, if that visual makes sense. When we were in a 5-2 and they ran those stretch plays, they'd cut it back inside to what was basically a completely vacant interior because not only did we start the play with two LBs period, but they'd over-pursue and then nobody would be home.

 
thatguy said:
in games that martinez had decent snaps, he still made poor decisions. 

Martinez has turned the ball overmore than any other Division 1 player this season. that has nothing to do with the o-line. vedral in this game was definitely limited by the o-line. but when there were no penalties or whiffed blocks, he made plays. thats more than we can say for martinez.
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thatguy said:
vedral played better than adrian martinez has all season. go watch the tape. his decision making was better. 
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It has a lot to do with the oline. I like how you insist Martinez's problems don't, but obviously Vedral was limited by the terrible line. Vedral wasn't the problem in this game, but I didn't see anything better than Martinez at any point. With the benefit of good snaps.

 
Nebfanatic said:
And what if we go 3-2 or better in the next 5? I don't think its out of the question we look better coming out of this bye week
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Can't look much worse honestly.  Minnesota is 6-0 but I still don't think they are nearly as good as billed.  They gave us everything they had, they made a statement.  They will still get absolutely curb stomped by Wisconsin, I expect them to finish 8-4.

 
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Redux said:
Can't look much worse honestly.  Minnesota is 6-0 but I still don't think they are nearly as good as billed.  They gave us everything they had, they made a statement.  They will still get absolutely curb stomped by Wisconsin, I expec them to finish 8-4.
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They aren't but realistically I think if the offense can find a groove, something I think is possible still, we will turn things around. The defense sucked against Minny but I think if the offense would have been closer to how we want it to look that game becomes very tight.

 
Redux said:
Can't look much worse honestly.  Minnesota is 6-0 but I still don't think they are nearly as good as billed.  They gave us everything they had, they made a statement.  They will still get absolutely curb stomped by Wisconsin, I expec them to finish 8-4.
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Weird thing is, I could see them surprising Wisconsin. Wisconsin will be pissed about last years game, but I think the one weak spot on the Badger defense is the secondary - they still haven't been tested. They're athletic, but Johnson/Bateman/Autman-Bell is a big mismatch. The question is whether Fleck is bold enough to completely change how they attacked us and air it out. I think he probably is, and Minnesota showed at the end last year they can stand up to the run if that's how you're going to attack their defense.

I agree Minnesota isn't as good as we made them look, but they have my attention because they have the best personnel to attack Wisconsin IMO.

 
Undone said:
Probably will draw some fire for this but don't care.

Barrett Ruud needs to get a hold of Colin Miller and coach this over-pursuing bug out of him. It's too late for Mo Barry, but not for the younger guys.
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Miller and Barry have been overrunning plays all year. Honas just doesn't seem to be the player we wanted him to be. Has Alex Davis made a play all year? Tannor has some talent off the edge but I feel we don't use that strength. We run our D where our OLB aren't attacking anywhere close to enough. Might as well run a 5-2 

 
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BIG ERN said:
We run our D where our OLB aren't attacking anywhere close to enough. Might as well run a 5-2 
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There's just so much that's confusing about what we've done on defense so far in this staff's young career here that I'm not even sure where to begin.

We have the bodies to play in a traditional 3-4. Chinander just isn't doing it. To my eye, he's way too keen on being cute and having a ton of different situational looks.

This isn't directed at you Ern but at a lot of other posters here: It's fine to say that some of our seniors are talent-less and that this is the reason for our struggles. I personally disagree and believe that it's coaching. But regardless, there is no excuse next year. Next year we'll have JoJo as a senior and both Tannor and Miller as juniors. So there'll be no more excuses of "well, we're young" or "well, we're ________."

 
Undone said:
There's just so much that's confusing about what we've done on defense so far in this staff's young career here that I'm not even sure where to begin.

We have the bodies to play in a traditional 3-4. Chinander just isn't doing it. To my eye, he's way too keen on being cute and having a ton of different situational looks.

This isn't directed at you Ern but at a lot of other posters here: It's fine to say that some of our seniors are talent-less and that this is the reason for our struggles. I personally disagree and believe that it's coaching. But regardless, there is no excuse next year. Next year we'll have JoJo as a senior and both Tannor and Miller as juniors. So there'll be no more excuses of "well, we're young" or "well, we're ________."
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I posted last year about his alignment on defense and it's still the same today. Minnesota looked to the sidelines every pre snap and then adjusted if they needed to. It was child's play 

 
We didn't have any turnovers and also for those who keep saying he gets paid $5 mill for this. Well no sh1t everyone know his salary just have some damn faith he'll figure it out. This is their first bye week in over two years. He is tired of the product on the field and that's why there were changes in the game and and he got after the players during halftime and even had them running plays during it. He's not clueless.

Also chinader adjusted and went to a four man front. You can put the players in that position but they have to execute. It's on both sides. IMHO

 
Husker in WI said:
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It has a lot to do with the oline. I like how you insist Martinez's problems don't, but obviously Vedral was limited by the terrible line. Vedral wasn't the problem in this game, but I didn't see anything better than Martinez at any point. With the benefit of good snaps.
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show me where i said martinez' problems have nothing to do with the o-line.

disagree all you want, but giving up the most fumbles in the FBS has absolutely nothing to do with the o-line. it takes one player to hold on to the ball. not 6. and most of the fumbles are NOT sack-fumbles either. both quarterbacks have issues being created for them by the o-line. one of them, who is definitely more talented, has compounded issues and made things worse with his decision making and how he handles the ball. the other quarterback hasn't.

that's fact.

 
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