What do we change on defense.

Unleash hell and by that I mean moving Crick outside to DE, where odds are he'll end up at in the NFL. TMoore has shown he is more than adequate to man up in the middle. Next buh-bye Fisher give me Trevor Roach. Sean requests more flybys than Maverick in Top Gun. Get Cassidy off the field, give me PJ or Courtney. And finally start mauling the WRs again. The thought that the B1G refs would "severely hamper NU's past playing style in the secondary" is a crock of sh#t. Disrupt the passing game, it will help on ALL levels of the defense.

 
PaulCrewe said:
Unleash hell and by that I mean moving Crick outside to DE, where odds are he'll end up at in the NFL. TMoore has shown he is more than adequate to man up in the middle. Next buh-bye Fisher give me Trevor Roach. Sean requests more flybys than Maverick in Top Gun. Get Cassidy off the field, give me PJ or Courtney. And finally start mauling the WRs again. The thought that the B1G refs would "severely hamper NU's past playing style in the secondary" is a crock of sh#t. Disrupt the passing game, it will help on ALL levels of the defense.
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I like where your head is at Crewe.

 
We have a lot of young guys on defense. I think we'll get better as the season goes along so I think simple game experience is going to make all of the difference. We have the athletes and it's not like they're missing tackles. They just need to learn how to make the proper reads.

 
The first thing they should probably change is their tampons.

Too facetious? I got nothin'.

 
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I'd say fan expectations are the first thing that need to change. There's no magic fix to what ails us. We simply aren't in synch on defense - whether it's ability, experience, coaching, or whatever. This is going to be a rough year on that side of the ball. Hopefully the players get better at the fundamentals, especially tackling. I think the Pelini's get it fixed, but it might not be back to snuff until the end of the year or next year.

 
Hammerhead said:
Bring back Marvin Sanders!
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Sanders is likely done forever as a coach.

But to answer the OP ..

Put EMart at DE over Ankrah/Carter/Williams .. he will blow assignments from being reckless, but we will never have to doubt effort from him like we do others

Replace Baker with TMo/Rome/Randle .. doesn't matter which, because Baker is physically weak and struggles horribly trying to hold up in the run game

Replace Fisher with a dead fish .. doesn't matter what type of fish, it will likely give more effort, be more aware, and have more athleticism .. but really replace him with Roach

Bring back the PESO/LB, put Stafford in it

Put PJ and Osborne at the safety spots .. a certain coach needs to quit being butthurt about Osborne and play him

Dennard and Mitchell should be the CBs, with Bell/Dijon given a chance at the slot .. too many others have been given a chance for guys who performed well in the spring/fall to not be given their rightful chance

 
RedDenver said:
I'd say fan expectations are the first thing that need to change. There's no magic fix to what ails us. We simply aren't in synch on defense - whether it's ability, experience, coaching, or whatever. This is going to be a rough year on that side of the ball. Hopefully the players get better at the fundamentals, especially tackling. I think the Pelini's get it fixed, but it might not be back to snuff until the end of the year or next year.
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I am sorry Red Denver but I call BS and here's why. Crick, Baker, Stache, Compton, David, Fisher, Zo, Courtney, PJ, Cassidy. All the players listed have started a minumum of three games prior to this year. How should the expectations not have been high. All players(sans David) with three years in Bo's defense. That is why this is completely baffling to me. And honestly with these guys my expectations will always remain pretty stout. Someone just needs to snap on the rest of them and be a pissed off, embarrassed leader of the group.

 
The most glaring thing so far to me has been the poor, poor tackling. How many times have we come close to sacking a quarterback, even the less mobile ones, only to see them scoot away. We had a Wisconsin running back hit at the line of scrimmage, but we let him bounce off and score a touchdown.

Honestly, I don't know what the deal is right now. Steinkuhler should probably be on the offensive line, Fischer is playing extremely poorly and the defensive backs look almost as bad as our '07 defensive backs.

 
Sean Fisher is perhaps the least agile linebacker I've ever seen in my life. Someone that tall is not a LB...he's a tight end. I have a hard time believing Compton or Roach are worse than him.

 
Like many of you have said...

-Stafford to OLB or Hybrid, despite being "little", he's a better tackler (which still needs work) than he is in coverage as a safety. Matter of fact, I don't he's been in coverage it's that bad.

-Fisher to the bench, BOTTOM LINE. The turf has more tackles this season than he does.

-Crick to DE, and tell him to slow the eff down when he gets within reach of a mobile QB and stop passing him and going for the big hit.

-Andrew Green to the bench, not sure he's made more than 1 play this season.

-Austin Cassidy to the bench. Anyone else think he's starting because he's a senior? Maybe not JUST because of that, but he's just as bad if not worse than Stafford, it's like having Black Tiedke there again.

-And Eric Martin needs to be starting, this defense has NO, and I mean NO fire. With David and Martin on the field, they might actually have some swagger, and the QB might actually have to make more than one errant throw in a game.

It seriously feels like we just threw a bunch of names in a basket to play around LaVonte and randomly picked them out of a hat and said; "You're starting, go get 'em tiger". Our defense lacks more identity than our offense...and Lady Gaga.

 
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