[Husker] Some A&M observations

[Scott R Lawson]

Hi all-

I was watching the re-air of the A&M game last night (not sure when it
first aired though?) on Fox SW and I was able to rewind plays and really
get some good looks at the team. Overall, the defense seemed to play
much better in the first half than they have been playing, but in the
second half seemed to be worn down by the option and the running back
Lane. Some other quick observations, not in any particular order-

 

-          The defensive line simply cannot get off blocks. I've noticed
this all year, actually, and I'm certain this is not making the
linebackers' jobs any easier at all. It seems to me, and I'm not
familiar with the program enough to know this for sure, but it seems
like the Huskers are not nearly as strong physically than the offensive
lines they are going against. Add that to the fact they don't seem to be
taught in practice how to get blockers off them, and it spells disaster.

-          Marlon Lucky makes an awful lot of plays, but I've noticed
that he seems to get caught from behind far too often considering his
speed (or what people have said he runs anyway). It's almost as if they
over use him, and he gets tired and therefore caught by players who
appear not to be as fast, or he is in fact not nearly as fast as once
thought, I'm not sure.

-          Keller will go 4-5 plays making the worst decisions possible,
then will throw what looks like a Brett Favre laser shot in between 2
defenders for a great play. This is baffling to me- he seems very
inconsistent, but yet has the arm to bail him out when he makes some
questionable throws into double or even triple coverage. Then there are
times when he will throw a ball right at a defender, almost as if he
decides who he's going to throw it to before the play even develops, or
before he recognizes the coverage. I'm not sure why this happens, it's
as if he is in another world on some of these pass plays NU runs. He
will most certainly play on Sundays, but he will need to be taught not
to telegraph his passes (he locks on to receivers badly) and take care
of the ball better.

-          Bowman is clearly playing hurt, and I give him much credit
for sticking it out when many would tank it at this point.

-          Roy Helu is Deion Sanders-like quick. He will be a difficult
matchup in this offense (or some variant of it when Callahan goes) for a
few years.

-          The defense stays in the same set up throughout most of the
game, and I'm not sure why. The few times Cosgrove called blitzes they
seemed to work, but you could count them on your hand (at least the
plays I saw, some of this game was clearly edited for time on the
re-air). At this point, you may as well call blitzes 75% of the time
because everything else is not working and what's the difference if it
backfires?

-          Corey McKeon seems to shoot gaps almost blindly at times, I'm
not sure if these are part of his responsibilities or what, but it seems
like he is misreading the guard every other play, and it leaves him
badly out of position. The linebackers are making tackles 10-15 yards
downfield, but much of that is due to the defensive line not getting any
push whatsoever.

 

So, I'm certainly no expert, but this was the first time I've been able
to sit down and really sort of dissect a game, albeit on that was on
television film not game film, and the 2 A&M homers calling this game
were worse than Jim Rose could ever be!

 

The defense is not being coached well, and I'd like to know what's going
on in the weight room as well. I know people sometimes put too much
stock in weight room numbers (he benches this, I squat that, whatever)
but to be honest, this does matter tremendously at this level. In the
NFL, ALL the players are relatively similar in terms of strength (at
least respective to their positions anyway), but in college you can get
some real disparities in team strength, and I'd be willing to bet
Nebraska is far below what they have been used to over the past 15-20
years or so. Does anyone remember the Husker Power site, and all the
performance numbers being posted each spring? Does that still happen?
I'd like to see what these kids are being asked to do in the off season,
my hunch is that it is not up to typical Husker standards.

 

Scott in NY