I was watching close how badly our oline played last night.. they were ok in certain run blocking but overall just not good. Clearly DR isnt the answer and I know with Teddy hurt for the year and Nouilli out.. can they find guys to fix this? Hixson was decent but honestly the rest are polar bears on skates.so many whiffs out there... I did like the mesh and short crosses with CT rolling out of the pocket but damn man who needs a shot on that oline that hasnt gotten one?
Oline fixable?
- Thread starter yunginsNU2
- Start date
Not this season. Consider this, the next six opponents are better than five of the previous six. It might get worse for the OL.
Not fixable, but Whipple could help by adding more misdirection, draws, screens, quick hits, and yes 3-5 naked bootlegs QB runs to keep the LBs/S honest. The D is just flying to the RB in our obvious run sets. And I just don’t understand how our OL is so physically bad. Some of them look more out of shape/bigger midsections than when they got here. How has Duval not been fired yet?
Would be nice if they could pick up a few solid O-Line players from the portal, or have someone throw NIL cash towards the cause for next year.
This O-line looks like none of them went out for football until their senior year of high school. Their pass-pro looked good early against Indiana but most of the time it's "Yikes!" 
Man I thought they looked better with Banks at LT last week. I know Corcoran has the most talent of all our guys or at least potential but could be the group just gels better with Banks
The other thing Whipp and CT need to do is start running the QB more. Nothing hurts a pass rush more then a mobile QB. The Ends can’t rush as much. Felt like CT should have had 100 yards rushing last night but for whatever reason he’s not running. I don’t know if whip told him to stay in the pocket or he’s hurt or what.
The other thing Whipp and CT need to do is start running the QB more. Nothing hurts a pass rush more then a mobile QB. The Ends can’t rush as much. Felt like CT should have had 100 yards rushing last night but for whatever reason he’s not running. I don’t know if whip told him to stay in the pocket or he’s hurt or what.
Last night reminded me of that scene from Major League where Harris is teaching Charlie Sheen something about throwing every bit of junk he can muster since he don't have the dynamite arm. Last night I continually saw new numbers playing on the O-line that I didn't recognize. At one point, I noticed #77 move all the way from RT over the LT right before the snap to overload that side of the line. They ended up going right. They look like they are throwing every bit of junk they can muster to make stuff work or at least confuse the D at times. It didn't work on that play.
I was happy to see a few more screens this game, but agree we can still do better running some quick routes.
1. There’s a coaching/scheme element that needs to improve, responsible for our mixed up assignment failures. That’s the best chance we have to take a small step forward.
Technique improvement could also occur.
But I have zero confidence in Raiola right now.
2. I’m not sure if our guys are weak, but what’s glaring is footwork. The footwork necessary to do the job simply isn’t there or hasn’t been coached. I think that piece is more difficult to fix at this point in the season.
Offensive line is probably 40% strength and 60% leverage and footwork.
My assessment is we’ve neglected the 60% almost entirely.
To date, I am not impressed with Whip..
He is very predictable and easy to defend.
Rutgers’ D line is not terrible and Schiano does a good job with his schemes. I think our O line is making baby step improvements
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
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No kidding. I recall three (fairly) quick passes to the sideline that worked. One to Travis early on, the one where Grant laid out the defender and the one where the defender threw our receiver out of bounds and was flagged. I thought we would have seen more of those. We had another sideline screen that was a well designed play, but was blown up by one defender on and O-line whiff. Our first play was a RPO bootleg to Travis that went for 8. But for the most part it was runs between the tackles and looking for the long ball. I don't remember the last time we ran a true draw, maybe last year? And our screens are almost non-existent.
The one thing I question about your post is, “Clearly DR isnt the answer.” I’m not defending him at all, he may not be the answer. But I have to question the level of talent, football smarts, and “want-to” of our players. They just look slow and not very athletic.
As an example, I’ll use Corcoran, who’s supposed to be our most athletic. A couple times I saw him put his left arm straight out, put his hand on the inside shoulder of the end, who ran by him with ease.
Now, I don’t know crap about blocking, but in that example, he’s not punching out, no leverage (he was standing straight up and arm went straight out), where he’s not turning or even slowing the defender. Either he’s confused on who he is supposed to block or just doesn’t get technique.
Again, I don’t know blocking, but can easily see you’re not stopping that defender with just one arm on his inside shoulder. It just blows my mind when I see stuff like that.
That’s an exaggeration and you know it. Yeah we lack quickness maybe across the board but they’re all capable of playing P5 football. They’re better than Iowa’s O line
The o line looks slow because they are. Our OTs do not have quick feet. Defenses are daring us to throw deep because they don’t think we can protect long enough and Casey isn’t letting himself be a run threat
Whipple is going to have to figure a way to give Thompson more time to find his receivers downfield, trying to do so from our collapsing pocket offense isn't going to work going forward. I'm not sure Thompson will survive the gauntlet he is about to face in the coming weeks. Whipple and Joseph better figure something out before they do permanent damage to one of our only hopes for a good season.
I know Joseph and Whipple keep harping how tough Thompson is but just because you're tough won't guarantee you'll make it through the season. If I was a member of the OL I would be so damned embarrassed and upset about the abuse Thompson is taking right now and I would be sure to would take it out on the opposing team.
Don't ask me why but our OL seems to have no snarl and bite and that right there is what is keeping Nebraska from being a very good team.
I know Joseph and Whipple keep harping how tough Thompson is but just because you're tough won't guarantee you'll make it through the season. If I was a member of the OL I would be so damned embarrassed and upset about the abuse Thompson is taking right now and I would be sure to would take it out on the opposing team.
Don't ask me why but our OL seems to have no snarl and bite and that right there is what is keeping Nebraska from being a very good team.
RPOs are a good weapon to slow down a pass rush. If we’re going to go straight drop back we have to utilize quicker routes and get the ball out quicker.
Like most things in sports poor footwork leads to poor technique. You have to good from the ground up.
100%. Going to have to max protect, roll the pocket, etc. To take shots down field.
Not fixable right now IMO.
The reasons are as follows:
Just not talented enough for BIG-10 (FBS really), not motivated enough, they don’t demonstrate the ability to overachieve, and have very low football IQ.
Our Offense will not excel until this bunch is long gone and quality depth gets built.
I am highly critical of the O-line and am frustrated just about every play when the whiff in pass pro. I don’t like saying this so often but are the weakest link on the team and don’t do enough to win games.
Lastly, this is not a personal attack because they are good kids. I just wish they find it in them to rise to the occasion and help more to win games.
The reasons are as follows:
Just not talented enough for BIG-10 (FBS really), not motivated enough, they don’t demonstrate the ability to overachieve, and have very low football IQ.
Our Offense will not excel until this bunch is long gone and quality depth gets built.
I am highly critical of the O-line and am frustrated just about every play when the whiff in pass pro. I don’t like saying this so often but are the weakest link on the team and don’t do enough to win games.
Lastly, this is not a personal attack because they are good kids. I just wish they find it in them to rise to the occasion and help more to win games.
I know one thing that must happen next year, we need an infusion of portal OL talent from other schools. It's obvious the recruits Nebraska has signed on the OL for over a decade is just not very good. The OL is the one group that is holding this team back from becoming very good under Mickey Joseph's guidance. Time to clean house on the OL in 2023 and bring in some nasty big guys who will smack you in the mouth.
I think they have enough snarl. I just don’t think they’re quick enough and we’ve had issues picking up stunts and blitzes. That can get better but we can’t give them quicker feet overnight
I don’t claim to be an O-line expert by any means, but since we’re all talking about this I’ll bring up something that I saw when I was watching fall camp practice videos of the O-line on YouTube.
It’s what we used to call a lazy stance. It’s when you look at the lineman and you can tell that the balancing of their body weight is not proportionate before the snap.
I can’t remember who it was, but I could of walked by with one hand and knocked him over. The mechanics were so bad that I remember thinking to myself, we aren’t really practicing that are we?!?
It’s what we used to call a lazy stance. It’s when you look at the lineman and you can tell that the balancing of their body weight is not proportionate before the snap.
I can’t remember who it was, but I could of walked by with one hand and knocked him over. The mechanics were so bad that I remember thinking to myself, we aren’t really practicing that are we?!?
We need better athletes at OT for sure but so does just about everybody. OTs don’t grow on trees
We’ve had loads of highly rated recruits come in over Frost’s tenure, including both tackles and one of the guards. Our problem starts with our OLine coaching and S&C. Unless that gets fixed, bringing in more won’t help.
OL is not fixable this year and it hurts to say that.
All of our new assistants were a major upgrade over prior ones except for DR. He was an unknown due to lack of experience. Now we know he sucks. Hasn't improved over Austin who is a bottom 5 OL coach in all of college football
Agree that we need to spend what is needed on a mother f.. dynamo OL coach
In the future we need athletic road graders, nasty personalities (we are full of pillsbury dough boys) and no OL taller than 6'6" as they cannot get low enough for run blocking
All of our new assistants were a major upgrade over prior ones except for DR. He was an unknown due to lack of experience. Now we know he sucks. Hasn't improved over Austin who is a bottom 5 OL coach in all of college football
Agree that we need to spend what is needed on a mother f.. dynamo OL coach
In the future we need athletic road graders, nasty personalities (we are full of pillsbury dough boys) and no OL taller than 6'6" as they cannot get low enough for run blocking
I took this to heart during high school tennis. Our coach was kind of a d bag, but he emphasized footwork like no other and he turned a scrubby unit into one that was pretty decent.
I don't remember our football coaches talking about footwork much at all, and we were just terrible.
I'd like to know what Whipple is doing to help Raiola's unit out. It's not that they're just terrible across the board, but they don't seem to be working in unison. A quick 260 lb defensive end can go around or inside a 300 lb tackle with pure quickness or a variety of moves. How is he abusing defenders for being overly aggressive? How is he bringing in tight ends and running backs to pick up free runners?
I would love to see a breakdown on TV by someone like Jeremiah Sirles who really understands blocking to diagnose this unit in an unbiased fashion.
Personally, I think we are lacking a cohesive identity on offense. It seems like we cobble together a few plays that we can have success with and try to turn that into drives and scores. Sometimes the defense breaks down and we get lucky and get some points.
I would love to see a breakdown on TV by someone like Jeremiah Sirles who really understands blocking to diagnose this unit in an unbiased fashion.
Personally, I think we are lacking a cohesive identity on offense. It seems like we cobble together a few plays that we can have success with and try to turn that into drives and scores. Sometimes the defense breaks down and we get lucky and get some points.