Chalk Talk
- Thread starter jflores
- Start date
Pretty good read. Diaco's choice of staying in base nearly wall-to-wall is puzzling. They surely have worked on some other alignments. No way this approach is tenable against Oregon. RK advocates for a nickel/safety approach with Reed as opposed to Bootle. Dude goes 6-2/210.
The answer in the article is no. Probably no easy fix coming this year.
David Alston also another target along with wade and a couple others
Our Lbs are asked to play on the line to generate pass rush and maintain their assignment in run defense. They shouldn't also be asked to defend 4 receiver sets all game. When your linebackers are asked to do that many things, of course they're going to struggle in coverage. Another thing scheme wise is we didn't need to have 2 deep safeties when 90% of their passes were under 5 yards. Our OLBs were in no man's land all night not being in position to cover a receiver or help out in the inside run game.
Their passes were within 5 yards because the DBs were 8 yards off and the safeties were deep.
Honestly I thought it was a weird read...to me it basically said: this is what we were trying to do and if we had faster and more fundamentally sound players we could of done it...ok...sure...don't disagree...but I'd put it as: if the coaches did their job better, than our players would be more fundamentally sound and play faster
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Seems like there were two basic choices. 1 cover the deep ball with the 2 high shell. Which left the olb's in a tough spot trying to defend the run and pass in space against lighter faster players. And it left no help for cb's on the edge. 2. bring safeties up have cb's press cover to take away the bubble screens and risk giving up the deep ball. Neither sounds good. I believe coach Diaco will come up with a solution. Hopefully the players have their feet wet now and they're ready to battle.
We also need more capable bodies at CB to run man to man all game. Wisconsin seems to run more of a 2-4-5 nickel D, with the OLB's playing more C gap and man coverage.. seems to work quite well for them
But Diaco has never been a guy who is going to run his CBs out there in man to man. If you read anything about his defense, you will remember that he plays 2 deep and 3 deep almost exclusively. There was talk that he wouldn't even run nickel much because of how Kalu can play safety. The stories on his defense also talk about the philosophy of bend but don't break, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
With that said, I think you will see more nickel. But I don't believe you will see much of a true blitz package on 1st and 2nd and normal. What he will do is disguise who the 4th rusher is going to be, but sending 4 in a 3-4 isn't considered a blitz.
With that said, I think you will see more nickel. But I don't believe you will see much of a true blitz package on 1st and 2nd and normal. What he will do is disguise who the 4th rusher is going to be, but sending 4 in a 3-4 isn't considered a blitz.
I again ask the question - where were these problems in fall camp, all we heard was the defense was giving the offense fits and all the different looks and blitzes and such - Maybe we are different against Oregon but this was a bad start and is very disappointing. Its like the goal is to win the off season and not the games in season
I have a couple questions for you. 1 Do you believe they have the personnel to run 2 and 3 deep coverages at NU right now? And 2. What do you expect to see if the opponents continue to dink and dunk them to death successfully?
We're all big boys here. Part of reading off season puff pieces is inderstanding that when the D has a good day or days of practice...it doesn't mean the 2012 notre dame defense is walking out the tunnel. They are off season puff pieces.
The question marks existed at all levels of the D. Could we find a nose...who was versatile enough to play OLB.....with jones out how would a bunch of guys do who had a collective 100 snaps?
Add to that the mystery of why diaco played te most vanilla game plan in his arsenal? Most folks I follow that really have some insight into the husker program don't think we will always be so vanilla....but still...this is a defense that needs reps and bodies to get to that top 15 level.
There's a joke in D.C. That after the redskins win their first game the fan base starts calling into talk shows and talking about going to the super bowl. NU fan base is basically just as egregious with any bits of positive news.
I think we do have the personnel to run cover 2 and cover 3. I mispoke a little earlier when I said Diaco doesn't put his CBs out there in man to man. He does like to play some man under, but in a cover 2 or cover 3 shell they will have safety help over the top. So it is not like quarters where the CB is on an island with no help all the way down the field.
I don't know that he cares if they dink and dunk. I am not saying I agree, but as long as the offense is putting up points, I think he will play conservatively and make teams sustain drives. Especially if its a team that has to go against what they do on a normal Saturday. Example, if Ohio St decided they were going to throw bubble screens all day, and not establish the run or not go deep at all, I think Diaco takes that. They won't do that, so it's pointless to discuss, but that is an example.
I think it may have been stated in another thread, but the defense we ran all through camp looked nothing like what was on the field on Saturday night. You can beat me up for making the statement, as I have no idea, but I know a few people who have confirmed that as well. I guess we will all see what is rolled out on Saturday, but I'd be willing to bet it looks a hell of a lot different than our D last week. Part of it is getting a game under the belt, but most of it will be scheme. I look forward to a large jump, and will for sure be back to own up if I'm wrong. GBR
Anyone I know of who has access to practice said it's nothing like practice either. Big mystery when we roll out more stuff
I have no doubt we, on HuskerOnline, will be the smartest dudes in the Rivals network if we continue to read Husker Chalk Talk every week.
gbr
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I agree with most of what you are saying. The thing I disagree with is the mentality of a cfb player over a pro. These games matter to the kids and their confidence level, when they allow a non power 5 team to run up and down the field because Diaco wants to hide his real defense it's a huge mistake. I will always remember Callahan throwing the back up QB in there and having him keep passing. He simply did not get that giving up 70 points carries over for these players. Pelini was the same and now maybe Diaco
I didn't post about that topic here so I don't know if you were bringing it up as an additional point, but that same point was offered last night by Solana, and by the evidence, its just as ridiculous now as it was last night. Here was my response to him.
Solana hasn't been around that I can tell, in a good while.
Really?
Yah, totally a demoralized and battered team...