Canary in the Coal Mine

[Pennsyhusker_rivals246774]

It is no accident that our three worst coaches post Osborne all met their demise in the final year of their tenure due to historically awful defenses. I do not think this is an accident. But why is this? Is it just the case that we had three offensive minded coaches who did not give a damn about defense and did not recruit well to it? I think it is something deeper.

The fact is, more than the offense by degrees of magnitude, to play solid defense you have to play with emotion, with a fire in your belly, with a kind of controlled hair-on-fire aggressiveness born of that emotion. So when a defense that actually has some talent and speed starts playing like they have been popping Mydol all week then you know something is not right. No emotion. No fire in the belly. That says there is no motivation and no love for the coaching staff or the program. It says that they know they are going to fail in advance and that robs them of confidence and emotion.

In other words... horrifically bad defense is the canary in the coal mine that tells you something is deeply, deeply wrong.

 

[z28craz]

And to think at the beginning of the season their goal was to be a top 10 defense…

 

[HuskerOH_rivals315145]

You win on defense, entertain on offense...

 

[JOHNNY N]

I am struggling to wrap my head around just how bad this defense is.






Edit; not how bad...i really meant how they can be this bad.

 

[Headcard]

Yep. You have to have attitude, focus max effort on that side of the ball. I pushed back on the whole the team will quit narrative last year because the defense was playing so well and so hard every week. This year is a completely different story, no intensity on that side of the ball what so ever.

 

[NebChicago]

Jim Leonard. Great DC. And perhaps would bring an appreciation for big tough olines and ball control offense

 

[The_Guy_Behind_The_Guy_Behind_The_Guy]

I went to the game last night and thought the Defense had some fire and attitude but they were constantly out of position and one step behind GA Southern.

one more thing…nastier Defenses tend to be on teams that have a strong running game. Not pattycake Offensive Lines.

 

[phoenix4nu]

I went to the game last night and thought the Defense had some fire and attitude but they were constantly out of position and one step behind GA Southern.

There’s a serious lack of talent on defense.

 

[moralvictories]

It is no accident that our three worst coaches post Osborne all met their demise in the final year of their tenure due to historically awful defenses. I do not think this is an accident. But why is this? Is it just the case that we had three offensive minded coaches who did not give a damn about defense and did not recruit well to it? I think it is something deeper.

The fact is, more than the offense by degrees of magnitude, to play solid defense you have to play with emotion, with a fire in your belly, with a kind of controlled hair-on-fire aggressiveness born of that emotion. So when a defense that actually has some talent and speed starts playing like they have been popping Mydol all week then you know something is not right. No emotion. No fire in the belly. That says there is no motivation and no love for the coaching staff or the program. It says that they know they are going to fail in advance and that robs them of confidence and emotion.

In other words... horrifically bad defense is the canary in the coal mine that tells you something is deeply, deeply wrong.

A lot of that was due to the fact they knew they were playing for a coach that would likely be fired at the end of the season.

 

[braves3]

You have to be able to tackle. Chins defense is pretty basic and does not show the offense very many different looks.

 

[TruHusker]

Unfortunately, just one of many symptoms. It just happens to be the D in the spotlight now, but really its been QB play, special teams, OL, DL, no running game something all the time.

 

[nu2u]

Its always the canary that suffers fate. In a coal mine, no less.

When I was young my pet canary died.

So my mother bought another one to replace it, exactly the same, hoping that I wouldn't notice.

But I noticed.

And I killed that one too.

 

[kennyfinpowers]

It is no accident that our three worst coaches post Osborne all met their demise in the final year of their tenure due to historically awful defenses. I do not think this is an accident. But why is this? Is it just the case that we had three offensive minded coaches who did not give a damn about defense and did not recruit well to it? I think it is something deeper.

The fact is, more than the offense by degrees of magnitude, to play solid defense you have to play with emotion, with a fire in your belly, with a kind of controlled hair-on-fire aggressiveness born of that emotion. So when a defense that actually has some talent and speed starts playing like they have been popping Mydol all week then you know something is not right. No emotion. No fire in the belly. That says there is no motivation and no love for the coaching staff or the program. It says that they know they are going to fail in advance and that robs them of confidence and emotion.

In other words... horrifically bad defense is the canary in the coal mine that tells you something is deeply, deeply wrong.

I might add the fetish that a lot of our previous coaches have had for employing unnecessarily complicated schemes. Good defenses play fast. Even when they’re wrong they wreak havoc because they’re flying to the ball. Thinking defenses play slow. They get easily caught out of position or in no man’s land. I suspect that we’re more worried about looking like the smartest guy in the room and ‘preparing guys for Sunday’s’ than simplifying to play fast and well on Saturdays.

 

[Redscarlet]

I went to the game last night and thought the Defense had some fire and attitude but they were constantly out of position and one step behind GA Southern.

one more thing…nastier Defenses tend to be on teams that have a strong running game. Not pattycake Offensive Lines.

And the only way that happens is playing one’s against one‘s during the week in practice..

 

[Redmich]

With the exception of the year 1 transition - Frost has shown everyone exactly what type of power 5 coach he is - there was no ambiguity or nuance required - the cult, however, refused to believe their dear leader could be such a failure and conjured up all manner of excuses

5 year rebuild
Riley
We are more physical
Special teams coaches
Offensive assistants
On and on

and so here we are in year 5

 

[JOHNNY N]

There’s a serious lack of talent on defense.

They appear to be not even lining up correctly.

Mind blowing how bad they are.

 

[braves3]

With the exception of the year 1 transition - Frost has shown everyone exactly what type of power 5 coach he is - there was no ambiguity or nuance required - the cult, however, refused to believe their dear leader could be such a failure and conjured up all manner of excuses

5 year rebuild
Riley
We are more physical
Special teams coaches
Offensive assistants
On and on

and so here we are in year 5

Or just going with your buddies might not have helped. Bottomline he did not get it done.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

The staff ran out of the lazy, horrible Riley recruits that carried the defense the last couple years. Weird they somehow got terrible when all those losers left

 

[cubsker_rivals142943]

They appear to be not even lining up correctly.

Mind blowing how bad they are.

We easily get outschemed with simple motion/shift. The last TD was a perfect example, motion made our LB (15) go outside, QB draw right where he would have been, other LB (28) out of position, can't get to QB before he's gotten 8 yds.

 

[cubsker_rivals142943]

I can't even imagine how many balls were caught vs 23 last night. At some point, you have to try someone else. Reminded me of Pelini, where he would just keeping doing the same thing even though it's getting destroyed.

 

[JOHNNY N]

The staff ran out of the lazy, horrible Riley recruits that carried the defense the last couple years. Weird they somehow got terrible when all those losers left

Riley was a loser. Frost is a bigger one.

 

[RedCap_rivals330392]

I agree that defense has been a huge problem. Pretty obvious. But you would have thought Frost was a good choice with more balance than most having played defense in the NFL. Well, that was wrong. It's just a mystery to me why this year's defense is so terribly bad. The physical talent seems there, but oh my how the fundamentals are missing. It begins with all those missed tackles.

 

[regionsdoc]

I agree that defense has been a huge problem. Pretty obvious. But you would have thought Frost was a good choice with more balance than most having played defense in the NFL. Well, that was wrong. It's just a mystery to me why this year's defense is so terribly bad. The physical talent seems there, but oh my how the fundamentals are missing. It begins with all those missed tackles.

Physically, the safeties and LBs look small for P5, and it’s made worse by the fact they are slow. I don’t understand how the down linemen are so bad. TR was recruited by everyone, and has the measurables that NFL teams love.

 

[Night Goat]

There’s a serious lack of talent on defense.

Lack of talent & lack of depth. Five years into a program and you haven’t recruited the talent or depth to be remotely competitive? Times up.

 

[CameronKrazie86]

I can't even imagine how many balls were caught vs 23 last night. At some point, you have to try someone else. Reminded me of Pelini, where he would just keeping doing the same thing even though it's getting destroyed.

My biggest pet peeve is them not benching guys who consistently miss tackles. At some point, you've gotta try someone else when they aren't getting the job done. Worst case, they still suck but at least you're doing something different.

 

[itseasyas1-2-3]

I can't even imagine how many balls were caught vs 23 last night. At some point, you have to try someone else. Reminded me of Pelini, where he would just keeping doing the same thing even though it's getting destroyed.

No ****. Between Gifford and Hill they wore NU out with receptions.

 

[BaseBallerP27]

Too much throwing the bones after a tackle, even tackles for gains. Maybe less of that.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

Too much throwing the bones after a tackle, even tackles for gains. Maybe less of that.

The best was when they punched it in at the end, and one of their players threw the bones while spinning around the stadium. I bet the Frosturbators loved that!

 

[redfanusa]

The canary was losing to Troy in his second game as head coach.

Since that day, toxic fumes have killed every miner in the mine, and the mine has since exploded, killing everyone in town as well. Then a cloud of toxic fumes from the explosion floated over the county, destroying every plant, animal, and human it encountered.

 

[HuskerInFlorida]

Too much throwing the bones after a tackle, even tackles for gains. Maybe less of that.

This…. And DB’s celebrating while there is a flag on the ground for holding or interference….

 

[mikecanale]

nd

It is no accident that our three worst coaches post Osborne all met their demise in the final year of their tenure due to historically awful defenses. I do not think this is an accident. But why is this? Is it just the case that we had three offensive minded coaches who did not give a damn about defense and did not recruit well to it? I think it is something deeper.

The fact is, more than the offense by degrees of magnitude, to play solid defense you have to play with emotion, with a fire in your belly, with a kind of controlled hair-on-fire aggressiveness born of that emotion. So when a defense that actually has some talent and speed starts playing like they have been popping Mydol all week then you know something is not right. No emotion. No fire in the belly. That says there is no motivation and no love for the coaching staff or the program. It says that they know they are going to fail in advance and that robs them of confidence and emotion.

In other words... horrifically bad defense is the canary in the coal mine that tells you something is deeply, deeply wrong.

You're right, our current defensive roster has more athleticism than any in Frost or Riley era. It does need some time to gel, and probably a more confident DC. The hallmark of the old Blackshirts was their aggressiveness, which in turn reflected the attitude of their coach, Charlie McBride. Will we ever see those Blackshirt defenses again?

 

[dinglefritz]

There’s a serious lack of talent on defense.

D line. Very bad

 

[itseasyas1-2-3]

D line. Very bad

This team, despite the below average OL can move the ball and score points.

I made my ill fated prediction without considering the defense would resort to total ineptness like under Cosgrove.

It's not even, NU can stop people, it's they can't even slow them down now.