What Did We Learn: Miami Edition

[zoogs]

One of the reasons that BYU and South Alabama didn't run the ball a lot -- they didn't expect to succeed with it.

I think we've had trouble when teams could get their athletes in space. One positive though, though, is how big the defense came up a few times against Miami in short yardage run stop situations.

Also, it's kind of silly to look at nationwide rankings after three weeks of play. Not only is it a small sample size, variance in the kind of schedules played is extremely high at this point in the season.

 

[GBRedneck]

One of the reasons that BYU and South Alabama didn't run the ball a lot -- they didn't expect to succeed with it.

I think we've had trouble when teams could get their athletes in space. One positive though, though, is how big the defense came up a few times against Miami in short yardage run stop situations.

Another reason is that we're #126 in pass defense, so why try to run it?

 

[Igetbored216]

- We have one good o-lineman. Need to recruit some JUCOs that can help immediately while also getting some younger guys to build for the future

- D-line cannot get a pass rush (best lineman up to this point is probably a player that used to be a TE up until this year). Need to follow the above recruiting plan

- Missing Pierson-El more than I thought...would have been nice having him back returning some of those punts

- Valentine was missed in the middle for running plays

- Wilbon needs to see the field (and don't give me the "pass protection" BS...Newby wasn't exactly doing good in this area)

- Need to stick to running the ball more

- Adjustments are nice, but I think these need to be done earlier

- Games like this really hurt my liver

 

[Husker67]

One of the reasons that BYU and South Alabama didn't run the ball a lot -- they didn't expect to succeed with it.

I think we've had trouble when teams could get their athletes in space. One positive though, though, is how big the defense came up a few times against Miami in short yardage run stop situations.

Another reason is that we're #126 in pass defense, so why try to run it?

We're #126 in the nation against the pass with a game against South Alabama thrown in there. Remember how good we made a certain QB from Wyoming look a few years ago? And posters on the old LJS board kept saying how he was going to be playing on Sundays after he lit up Nebraska.

BYU threw for almost 70 yards more than their average against the Huskers

South Alabama threw for almost 60 yards more than their season average against the Huskers

Miami threw for almost 100 yards more than their average against the Huskers

Someone is stopping the pass against these teams

 

[Hunter94]

if Newby is the best we have, then our run game really sucks...

 

[Mavric]

One of the reasons that BYU and South Alabama didn't run the ball a lot -- they didn't expect to succeed with it.

I think we've had trouble when teams could get their athletes in space. One positive though, though, is how big the defense came up a few times against Miami in short yardage run stop situations.

Also, it's kind of silly to look at nationwide rankings after three weeks of play. Not only is it a small sample size, variance in the kind of schedules played is extremely high at this point in the season.

Possibly. That's a little bit of a chicken-or-the-egg argument. Did they not run it because the didn't expect to be able to run it? Or did they run it because they were having so much success passing the ball that they didn't have to?

To some extent, I'm sure BYU and USA felt out-manned on the line so that probably had something to do it. Miami was within a play or two of the same run/pass ratio that they had for the season so far.

It is somewhat of a small sample size but that's how it goes. We've seen the same thing for three games. And I don't think the schedules are that far off. Most of the Power 5 has played one tougher game and one easy game. There'd be some variance on the third game but we're getting a pretty good idea by now. And like I said, we'd have to be giving up 100 fewer yards per game to get in the Top 100. Put another way, if we wiped one complete game out and said we gave up 0 passing yards that game, we'd barely be in the Top 100. That's not a scheduling issue.

 

[Danny Bateman]

One of the reasons that BYU and South Alabama didn't run the ball a lot -- they didn't expect to succeed with it.

I think we've had trouble when teams could get their athletes in space. One positive though, though, is how big the defense came up a few times against Miami in short yardage run stop situations.

Another reason is that we're #126 in pass defense, so why try to run it?

We're #126 in the nation against the pass with a game against South Alabama thrown in there. Remember how good we made a certain QB from Wyoming look a few years ago? And posters on the old LJS board kept saying how he was going to be playing on Sundays after he lit up Nebraska.

BYU threw for almost 70 yards more than their average against the Huskers

South Alabama threw for almost 60 yards more than their season average against the Huskers

Miami threw for almost 100 yards more than their average against the Huskers

Someone is stopping the pass against these teams

Flaws of this stat:

1) Ignores small sample size. Average of three games is rather meaningless.

2) It presupposes that we were playing some scrub QBs. Hill was a darkhorse Heisman guy preseason, Mangum has filled in quite well, and a lot of people believe Kaaya is the best QB in the ACC.

3) Examining the passing yards is rather flawed, since gameplan can dictate more or less passing depending on situation. For instance, South Alabama has rushed 47 and 53 times in their other two games for 200+ yards each game. Miami: 44-226 and 26-195. In our game, they rushed 24 times for 19 yards. Of course they threw for more than their average against us. They were not able to run, down from the outset, and had to throw all game.

 

[EmeraldIngot]

I learned that, if we had a few more LBs, or possibly moved some Safeties to OLB, we could run a pretty good 3-4 defense and a cover 4 secondary.

In the 3-4 defense, your down linemen are supposed to be bigger, run stopping kind of guys. VV would make an excellent nose tackle in this role. Collins would make a good run stopping DE in this system, as would Gangwish or Freedom Akinmoladun. These guys focus on penetration and stopping the inside runs, and in passing situations they take up blockers in the middle, collapse the pocket from the middle, and prevent mobile QB from scrambling up the middle.

The OLB should be converted safeties, both for pass rush and to cover the flats. Also, they should have some speed to chase down opponents running outside. MLB should be run stoppers with just enough speed to chase outside runs and prevent a cutback.

The secondaries, even the new safeties, should be built like and able to run like CBs.

All players key on the run first except on called blitzes. This makes the D weak to PA but not by much. The secondaries number the WR, TE, and RB 1-3 on their side. CB reads 1, Safety reads 2, OLB reads 3. CB always plays 1 man to man. If 2 goes deep, safety covers him man to man, but if he stays short, safety helps CB over the top. OLB covers the flat and helps with WR and RB screens. MLB cover the middle of the field against crossing routes and slants.

In a pass play, 8 drop into coverage except on called blitzes. In run plays, safeties run downhill into the box, so we get 9 in the box.

It's good against both run and pass, can bring as many as 7 or 8 with various zone blitzes, but has to have fast OLB, CB, and Safeties and is weak against PA.

 

[Enhance]

I've noticed people keep saying something along the lines of 'we need to run the ball more' or 'we need to commit to the run more.'

At one point in the 3rd, or early 4th quarter, Nebraska had a dead even split of run/pass plays - 28 runs and 28 passes. The team ended with 32 rushing attempts and 45 passing attempts. The later statistics obviously adjusted because we needed to pass more to get back into the game.

It's not like the team isn't trying to run the football. They are. At one point, they had a 50/50 split. But, no amount of commitment is going to change the truth - our offensive line isn't performing that well and we don't have a game changer at halfback. Despite a first half filled with dropped passes and penalties, we still managed to play through the 3rd quarter with a balanced attack.

Wishing we would run more or hoping for a better dedication to this part of the game won't eliminate the problems we have, in my opinion.

I'm open to anything that can improve this facet of the game.

 

[zoogs]

Depends on your definition of "trying to run". For some that means almost exclusively running, but this is clearly not what they are aiming for. The ideal is a balance and that is a departure from recent years when we had a head coach that wanted to stick to the ground game more.

Time will tell whether or not we have a game changer at RB. Ameer was awfully high on Newby, although it seems (most?) fans feel he is not in that special category, or at least hasn't shown it yet. A balanced approach seems like a good idea.

 

[TheSker]

But, no amount of commitment is going to change the truth - our offensive line isn't performing that well and we don't have a game changer at halfback. Despite a first half filled with dropped passes and penalties, we still managed to play through the 3rd quarter with a balanced attack.

Wishing we would run more or hoping for a better dedication to this part of the game won't eliminate the problems we have, in my opinion.

I'm open to anything that can improve this facet of the game.

A new, highly experienced staff was brought in to take care of these types of issues and get us to the next level. Riley.....and also in this case Cavanaugh......need to get it done without excuse. And we've done very well in the run game in recent years. Every piece of advice this new staff has been given is to excel in the run game.

 

[teachercd]

But, no amount of commitment is going to change the truth - our offensive line isn't performing that well and we don't have a game changer at halfback. Despite a first half filled with dropped passes and penalties, we still managed to play through the 3rd quarter with a balanced attack.

Wishing we would run more or hoping for a better dedication to this part of the game won't eliminate the problems we have, in my opinion.

I'm open to anything that can improve this facet of the game.

A new, highly experienced staff was brought in to take care of these types of issues and get us to the next level. Riley.....and also in this case Cavanaugh......need to get it done without excuse. And we've done very well in the run game in recent years. Every piece of advice this new staff has been given is to excel in the run game.

Two very interesting points.

 

[GBRedneck]

But, no amount of commitment is going to change the truth - our offensive line isn't performing that well and we don't have a game changer at halfback. Despite a first half filled with dropped passes and penalties, we still managed to play through the 3rd quarter with a balanced attack.

Wishing we would run more or hoping for a better dedication to this part of the game won't eliminate the problems we have, in my opinion.

I'm open to anything that can improve this facet of the game.

A new, highly experienced staff was brought in to take care of these types of issues and get us to the next level. Riley.....and also in this case Cavanaugh......need to get it done without excuse. And we've done very well in the run game in recent years. Every piece of advice this new staff has been given is to excel in the run game.

I think they're ignoring that advice. If you're trying to establish the run, is it likely that you will occasionally run consecutive plays with the running back carrying the ball? Of course. Well, that never happened in the 1st quarter Saturday. Not once. And it only happened twice in the 2nd quarter.

There's a big difference between talking about establishing the run and actually doing it.

 

[Bowfin]

Westerkamp is solid gold, but everybody already knew that.

 

[DrunkOffPunch]

But, no amount of commitment is going to change the truth - our offensive line isn't performing that well and we don't have a game changer at halfback. Despite a first half filled with dropped passes and penalties, we still managed to play through the 3rd quarter with a balanced attack.

Wishing we would run more or hoping for a better dedication to this part of the game won't eliminate the problems we have, in my opinion.

I'm open to anything that can improve this facet of the game.

A new, highly experienced staff was brought in to take care of these types of issues and get us to the next level. Riley.....and also in this case Cavanaugh......need to get it done without excuse. And we've done very well in the run game in recent years. Every piece of advice this new staff has been given is to excel in the run game.

The only reason the RBs had success under the previous staff is that Helu and Burkhead were the best RBs we've had since Buckhalter. And AA was the best RB IMO since LP. It had nothing to do with the O-line. Unless you chose to forget the time when the O-line was so bad people here thought they were giving 'lookout blocks' to Martinez like the racist kid from Remember the Titans. We just don't have the talent at RB to mask that fact right now.