[Husker] Defense

[Smith, William]

First, I'm admitting upfront how much I don't know about football.  After a lifetime of watching thousands game, I should be much better informed.  If you ask me what the corners' run responsibilities are in a 3-4 versus a 4-3 alignment you'll get complete silence.   Press me about what happens when the offense stacks all the receivers to one side, then puts a man in motion,  how should the weak-side linebacker react when the coach is signaling a cover two, I'll give you a puzzled look.  It's embarrassing really.  

But like all good football fans, this ignorance doesn't stop me from having opinions (strong ones at that) about what's wrong and what needs fixing after my favorite teams gets its butt kicked.  

The D looked great early.  OSU didn't get a first down until the second quarter.  Then the floodgates opened.  

One key was pressure.  We did blitz more early.  At some point OSU moved Miller around more on rollouts and counter plays and we had trouble containing him.  They also went to the tight end more which made it difficult to control all the passing lanes.  It seemed we sacrificed the pressure to get more containment and coverage.  Unfortunately we didn't get either.   

As the game turned into more of a track meet, their O-line seemed to control our D-line.  

Several folks have suggested that somehow young athletes don't understand Pellini's schemes.  That may be true.  But how is it that his best defense was during his first year?  If "can't learn his schemes" is the problem, we should have seen plenty of evidence then.   Plus I'm not sure how much I buy the fact that this defense was built for the more wide open B12 and as opposed to the rough and rugged B10.  Seriously, that's a copout.  A good defense should be good no matter what the profile of your opponent.  

My own sense is we don't have the personnel to match up well.  It feels to me, in the comfort of my living room, that this team has the heart.  I'm not sure it's got the muscle.

Bill Smith
Towson MD 



-----Original Message-----
From: husker-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:husker-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Nick Chevance
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2012 10:42 AM
To: Husker List
Subject: [Husker] Defense

So, any thoughts on why we put on the heavy blitz in the first quarter, then pretty much abandoned pressure for the rest of the game?
 And I'd love to hear any discussion on why the zone read was so spectacularly mis-read time and time again. Its not like we haven't seen it before. Even a few times in practice, maybe.

I knew this was going to be a tough game, especially after we gave them the ball a couple of times. But this was fail on a big scale. Its not that we struggled to stop them, its that they didn't seem to struggle against us.

I'm at a loss.

Nick
--
"In politics stupidity is not a handicap."
Napoleon Bonaparte

_______________________________________________
husker site list
husker at tssi.com
http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/husker