How many of the 15 missed tackles you have to tip your hat to Bush or were bad technique plays? I seen some bad dive attempts or hits without wrap up. Lack of speed, I understand can't do anything about that. However, tackling should be a skill learned and fixed immediately.
Analyzing the 15 missed tackles
- Thread starter Bigred511
- Start date
I reviewed the tape once and looked at them. I attribute it mostly to being out of position/bad angles. When our D is in position, the tackling is much better than it has been for a long time. Unlike so many over this season who want a different defense, different DC, recruiting only 4-star players,etc., I think if these guys can have a couple seasons with one DC and one position coach, we will be OK. That combined with better defensive recruiting, recruiting for the scheme, Duval and the nutrition staff making the players better, and renewing the mindset that Blackshirts should be, well, Blackshirts, I look forward to our defense being feared again sooner than later.
I think it is bad habits in pursuit...it is strange that the only guys who can strip and who seem to make aggressive plays on the ball are new guys or guys that were at UCF...it might be the 3 dcs in 3 years, they probably all taught different leverage techniques, and take down tech...our leverage is still pretty bad but that sort of thing gets better in year 2,3,4 because it is complicated and often decided game to game and scheme to scheme. I also think Chin kind of leaves our front 7 out to dry, I didn't notice him bringing up safeties against the run even though Bush probably couldn't beat our DBs one on one. Chin loves having safety help but I think having 8 or 9 guys close to the line would have helped as it seemed we were outnumbered in the box which gave the impression of the massive push.
I think sometimes we forget that the other team is trying too.
Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just fire the DC, complain about him in his first year and eventually call for his head?
Exactly. It's pretty damned easy to say somebody was in bad position, took a bad angle or used bad technique from behind a keyboard. All of the technique in the world goes out the window when you've got a 225 pounder coming at you in the open field at a 4.5 40 clip and you don't know which way he's going to cut. Scheming and tackling a QB with his kind of size and running skills aren't easy.
Certainly lots of missed tackles. But I was more worried about lack of impact on the DLine. Most of the time they were pushed 5 yards downfield before a play could be made. Our pre-snap reads and alignments were not happening.
A lot of the missed tackles and such are generally covered by swarming to the ball and the 2nd and 3rd guys getting tackles. The issue on Saturday is that we didn't have those 2nd and 3rd defenders. Too much man-to-man coverage where our secondary can't see in the backfield.
I am sure the weather had something to do it with it and maybe an off day all around. When you have usually solid defenders like Barry and JoJo blowing play after play and/or missing tackles, something is up. Look at any of the TDs of theirs down close to the goal. Bush or RBs running without being touched by anyone right through the middle and into the endzone.
A lot of the missed tackles and such are generally covered by swarming to the ball and the 2nd and 3rd guys getting tackles. The issue on Saturday is that we didn't have those 2nd and 3rd defenders. Too much man-to-man coverage where our secondary can't see in the backfield.
I am sure the weather had something to do it with it and maybe an off day all around. When you have usually solid defenders like Barry and JoJo blowing play after play and/or missing tackles, something is up. Look at any of the TDs of theirs down close to the goal. Bush or RBs running without being touched by anyone right through the middle and into the endzone.
Winking One can ANALyze things to the end of the earth and what really matters is the scoreboard. Things come at these guys in a split second and it's tough to always make the right decision in the open field. We won. On to MSU. Let Frost worry about fixing mistakes.
Plus Bush is pretty darned elusive - especially at his age. I can see why Coach Devaney recruited him to NU.
Bush and Illinois backs ran hard and just didn't back down, even when the game got away from them on the scoreboard. Possibly an off day for the few defensive guys who usually get things done for NU. Bush has a suddenness to his running style and he can really get somewhere in a few steps. A lot of his passes looked more like shot putting, which was lucky for NU.
I am more concerned about the blitzing - which rarely gets home, even against stationary QBs- resulting in wide open running lanes for a QB that is only going to hurt you running the ball. Idiotic game plan and defensive play calls
It’s like a 10 year old playing Madden who “dials up the pressure” every play because he thinks it’s cool
It’s like a 10 year old playing Madden who “dials up the pressure” every play because he thinks it’s cool
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It looked more like 40 missed tackles against Illinois, or Bush & Co. just made it look that way. 
I tried a thread earlier on this subject, the D Line, was super slow off the snap. Illinois OL had at least 1-2 steps forward before contact on 80% of plays. Add on an additional 1-2 yards push back after contact.
Do you mean Western Illinois? Illinois didn't play Western Kentucky this year. Bush injured his leg during the Western Illinois game so I would hope that they "held him in check". Illinois still won by 17 with a freshman backup QB based on the strength of their run game by their running backs. Troll much?
One of the problems with trying to compare offensive or defensive stats is that not all things can be accurately correlated. Bush's rushing stats this year were definitely affected by his leg injury which took him several games to fully recover from. In turn, when he's injured it affects how effective his RBs are without the threat of him running. Don't even try to assess how O line injuries may have affected his stats. Way too many variables to start picking and choosing stats to draw a meaningful comparison.
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Do you mean Western Illinois? Illinois didn't play Western Kentucky this year. Bush injured his leg during the Western Illinois game so I would hope that they "held him in check". Illinois still won by 17 with a freshman backup QB based on the strength of their run game by their running backs. Troll much?
No, but lazy to check the facts sometimes before commenting.
Plucking a stat and then trying to make broad conclusions from that stat as happens on this board is foolish. There have been a couple of posters on here trying to do just that with Illinois's offensive stats from our game compared to the rest of their season. Bush is the most important part of their offense and he was not near 100% for part of the season. It was like us with Taylor Martinez with a bad wheel and TM had more receiving weapons and was a better passer than Bush. Bush while a different style of guy, is that kind of run threat for Illinois. BTW there have been a couple of posters known to purposefully post false stats just to see if anybody would catch it.
I don't know if still need some time the weight room. It just seems like we are always a touch to slow, or touch just not strong enough. Very rarely doesn't the first guy who gets to the ball carrier bring him down or stop him in his tracks. It always takes 2 3 or 4 guys to finally get the guy to the ground. So it seems when we do actually get the right angle or right read and could actually get a stop for loss or no gain. The ball carrier seems to get those extra yards for gain, or first down. When we can consistently get those stops is when we will really take off.
It will be interesting to see how he looks against Iowa’s and Northwestern’s defenses. My guess is not very good. But we’ll see.
Our unathletic DL got destroyed. When that happens you are always playing catch-up. If we had Clemson’s DL our tackling would have looked totally different.
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it's a mixed bag, we have some guys who are physical, but take bad angles to the ball and other guys who take better angles, but who aren't physical and can get run over.
One argument for the 4/3 in this case is that IMO the LB's and DB's don't have to be as instinctive in picking the right fit based on where and what the DL does against the blockers.
For those who think our DL got blew up, I thought they played better than the LB's or Safeties. The DL to my eyes did their job more often than not, but the back 8 in particular missed so many tackles (and didn't even get to the ballcarrier on others) that it was painful to watch
Probably right but again, it would be apples and oranges. Iowa and Northwestern have had their defensive scheme and staff in place for several years. ANY time you change staffs and schemes there is going to be a learning curve.
Just a wild guess, maybe the coaches had the d line do that to help prevent the quarterback inside run or draw, if your line gets to much of a push then it's a easy 8-10 yard gain if you don't get the tackle made around the line of scrimmage.
Illinois has a serious chance to break the Big Ten record for yards per carry this season. And Northwestern has won the division with the worst running game in the Big Ten.
I'm guessing Bo Schembechler, Red Grange, and Woody Hayes are all crying in Hell right now over what the Big Ten has become.
I'm guessing Bo Schembechler, Red Grange, and Woody Hayes are all crying in Hell right now over what the Big Ten has become.