That is because of our special teams play IMO
Run Defense Concerning
- Thread starter broken record
- Start date
The announcer said we didn’t have enough people on the line of scrimmage on the play where we jumped offsides so it would have been an illegal formation anyway. Don’t know if true or not though
That was the game-plan…they were playing contain the whole game. Sorsby has wheels, but is a career 55% completion quarterback. They were going to force him to beat us with his arm.
No pressure on the QB was the plan…Now to run D is obviously going to require some attention.
.
There are a couple things to consider.
Sorsby averaged over 6 YPC when you removed sacks last year so very effective in QB run game at 230 pounds despite being referred to as a statue in this thread. They also have two nice RBs and last year there top three rushers were well over 2000 yards and Wiscy RB is nice addition and fits well in this scheme so they have talent to be very effective in run game (pass game, not so much)
When you have a QB like Sorsby it changes the numbers and if you go count Nebraska defenders in box we are down 1-2 guys most of the night counting QB in run game. You throw in brand new front seven and inexperience of guys like Davis, Nwareri, VP, McCollough, and Shavers and then run 5 DB lite in box all night and you are going to have some issues.
This Dline is not stout enough to run negative numbers (particularly against as poor in passing game as Cincy is) like we could with Ty/Nash along with experience of Bullock and Gbayor last year. Maybe we get there at some point but this team will need more players in box early in year and Dline will need to be more sound in technique.
It is funny to me that Butler says he wants to stop run but was light in box all night (counting QB as runner) with very inexperienced dline line. Conversly, we have a much more effective passing game yet Cincy was generally even or positive with Dylan not being a runner. One DC's actions absolutely said I want to take away the run and it wasn't Butler yesterday.
While it may turn out this defense just isn't any good against the run they were not put in a great position to be highly effective in that areas either.
Benning said something to the effect that Snow was concerned about some of the bad angles that were being taken in run pursuit. Sorsby is a vet who is very crafty with his feet. It seems some shallow angles were taken by defenders that thought they could get to him, and he was adept at taking the path that led to the most yardage. In my mind, it was a great game for a kid like Nwaneri. He played more because of the deal with Davis, and he had to contend with a QB that was playing hard to get. Good learning experience. That kid is very springy for his size.
Did the George kid play much?
The game was disturbingly reminiscent of two other games in recent memory
1) 2016 against Northern Illinois
2) 2022 against Northwestern
Granted, both of those games ended in a loss, they also served as a premonition for the tone of the rest of the season, and a death note for the staff.
It really feels like Cincy lost the game more than we won it. We looked sloppy, slow, and scared out there.
1) 2016 against Northern Illinois
2) 2022 against Northwestern
Granted, both of those games ended in a loss, they also served as a premonition for the tone of the rest of the season, and a death note for the staff.
It really feels like Cincy lost the game more than we won it. We looked sloppy, slow, and scared out there.
I think you under estimate how fast he was. He’s not TMart fast but he’s similar to AMart fast.
I thought we pretty clearly were trying to keep him in the pocket. He gashed us when we let him out. That’s a game plan thing. We don’t have a Nash that can bulldoze through a double team to apply pressure.
No tackles, saw a report that said 18 snaps but don't remember seeing him much.
If we are looking for silver linings Nwaneri had 6 tackles and 1/2 for loss in his first game which equaled production of VP, Juedy, Leinhardt and Davis combined and was better than any husker Dline last four games of 2024. On one hand Juedy and VP combined for 1 tackle and were single blocked most of night
Probably biggest difference to last year is Ty had to be double teamed and Bullocks was able to run free and clean up in run game. Against Cincy, lineman were getting to Shavers/Trent on second level all night and they were not very effective in running game most of night like we saw with Bullocks last year.
You made me go back and look. You're right, he was back in, thank God.
Also, I see some schematic flaws in John Butler's defense. Seems like he's two gapping which won't be the strength of this defensive line. He has to shoot the gaps and play downhill. We're not getting penetration and pressure to run that style of defense if he's going to run man to man 80% of the time.
I would hope so but that's not what I was watching. I heard reckless abandoned all camp but I saw no one gapping penetration during the game and the linebackers weren't playing downhill, They seem more read and react this game. . Idk maybe they were playing very vanilla this game. 2 weeks to get it right
And if the Nebraska coaching staff can't scheme against that one guy then it's gonna be a long season.
He is not a freak of a mobile QB, he can just run a little bit. That is it.
He is not Michael Vick he is Heinrich Haarberg.
George looked small out there. Short and stubby.
Not sure how well Jeudy played. But I did see a play where a lineman got him to the side and drove him 10 yards off the line of scrimmage. I think we did too much stunting. Seems like our guys are too easy to get off their spot, creates gaping holes.
I am certainly no expert but we definitely got gashed running some stunts.
Also in man alot which makes it harder for players with coverage responsibilities to help when QB scrambles which we saw multiple times.
Additionally we were light in box most of night. When you count Javon focus on there all conference TE we appear to focus more resources stopping pass which we were super successful at. It just came at expense of stopping running game and QB scrambles.
Against any decent offense if you take something away you are giving something up. It felt to me like our defensive focus played to there strength most of night.
I guarantee a team like Iowa sits in there base 7 man front and even brings safety up sometimes and they probably stop run even with slight smaller dine. May also give up more in passing game and to that TE.
End of day if you hold a P5 team to 17 in college football that is solid day. On flip side if we play teams like PSU, Michigan or even Minnesota with that plan and execution from our front 6 we are losing
Will be interesting to see if Butler can defensive staff can develop what we have and adjust to be more effective in run game moving forward.