Michigan 32, Nebraska 29. Post Game Discussion

[THE_WIZARD_]

UNL has some very good recievers and TE's...not sure AMart can get it to them on deep routes consistently...and we aren't good enough to just pound at M. I think we'll find some success offensively but not enough...our D will keep us in it early but M pulls away late 34-17.

[lineygoblue]

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[Hannibal]

Battle between the two shittiest coaches in the B1G.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Correct

[froot loops]

If Martinez is going to beat you, it will be with his legs when the routes aren't there. Their special teams are terrible. But their defense is legit and will be tough at night. I expect a rock fight

[AlabamAlum]

In the only Nebraska game I’ve watched this year, their o-line was bad.

[Cody_Russell]

What, week 1 vs Illinois as Bert pulled off the miraculous win?
Appears like Nebraska is a different team more than a month later.

Nebraska offense vs M defense:
Interested in that Nebraska shakeup at OLine. Now they are starting a freshman at LT? M’s edge rushers are playing well right now. Watch out for that.
A big key is Nebraska’s running game vs M’s run D. M shutdown Wisconsin’s rushing attack last week, but now it’s a spread look with Nebraska.

M offense vs Nebraska defense:
My question is how good is Nebraska’s run D. M has a lethal thunder + lightning rushing attack out of the spread. OLine pretty good. If Nebraska can contain that, McNamara will have to step up again.
Might we see more McCarthy too with the QB option plays…

A night game in college football is usually tough. It didn’t bother Iowa last week as they destroyed Maryland. M needs to show up again against a middling(?) B10 team.

[Mike]

Nebraska is improving every week to the point they look like an actual football team.

I cannot stress this point enough: Outside of Bama and UGA, it’s 128 versions of various crap. Think the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament in football form every Saturday. I’ve never seen worse QB play across the board combined with bonehead coaching and stupid mistakes.

Florida had 8 false starts last night and 115 yards in penalties. Miss St. was down to the 11 yard line with a chance to put the game away. They went false start, sack, delay of game, missed FG. It’s a soup sandwich. Spencer Rattler came into the season as the #1 NFL prospect. In the 4th game of the season Sooner fans were chanting for the backup QB to take over.

Nobody is good. Everyone sucks. Including all of Michigan’s opponents. Washington just lost to Oregon State, btw.

Is Michigan good enough to win in Lincoln? Absolutely 100%. Will they? Probably not. Road night games are a killer and this one probably has a lot to do with Frost’s continued employment at UNL. This game will be very intense in front of an insane crowd and I think it will be too much for Michigan to overcome. If, like me, you think Michigan can go 9-3 this season, Saturday’s game is a very likely candidate for one of those three.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Liney, BPONE = Black Pit of Negative Expectations.

This was a term coined during the late 2018 or 19 season (can't remember which) by Brian at mgo a few months before he went off the deep end.

I like Cody's takes. They are pure optimism. First time this season Mike has been nearly 100% committed to an M loss. That worries me.

I didn't see the dismantling of Fitz and NW. Seems telling for sure but if the coaches didn't prepare the team for the option ball that Neb has run with Martinez at QB, that was dumb. Coaches can't just flip a light switch and change up from what ever D Fitz planned for to defend a well executed spread option offense with a legit option QB.

Key is putting a spy on Martinez that can flex to get to him when he keeps it or switch to slants to the TE or Slot. Hard. Dax Hill at SS v Neb is pretty good at that. The CB's have to be great run defenders with the field side guy being especially important in that role. The FS - Hawkins in the D v. Neb - has to make plays. All these guys are capable of making plays if McDonald puts them in a defense they can do that in. ????

This game will peg McDonald as a capable DC or a dud. He did debut the C3 out of a 2-4-5 v Rutgers. There's noting wrong with that coverage v. Neb when the CBs and DEs can execute it. Instead of what we saw v. Rutgers, the corners need to be in press-man. The fits in that D were just OK v. the run. The DTs didn't hold up that well. OTH, there's was noticeable improvement there v. Wisconsin. I wonder if McDonald thinks his back end can't play C3 in press-man and tried backing the corners off - that was a bad plan in the face of QB Verdal's skill set that exploited the free space in front of Green (the flats that he throws well to, not so well anywhere else on the field). Can't give up 7y on easy pitch and catch or stretch runs by the QB.

What's critical in defending a spread offense like Neb's with Matinez at QB is getting the run fits right without giving up pass coverage. This isn't easy. I think we've seen Josh Ross make good calls and when he's not in there at MLB, the front side D suffers. McDonald hasn't really faced a capable running and passing QB like Martinez. I read this morning that getting the WDE in the right space to recognize a QB keep and wall him off back into the box is important in defending a dual threat QB who keeps the ball. If he can do that, the QB gets spilled back into the box and the D gains numbers.

I agree that this game has multiple emotional undertones that affect college players either negatively or positively a lot but it's still about match-ups and execution. Neb apparently looked like world beaters v. NWU on both sides of the ball. It's not going to be that easy v. M

[froot loops]

I don't think you need to spy him.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I don't think you need to spy him.

Not a bad view. I think you are right. If the M D over-focuses on Martinez, it's really easy to lose containment over the other parts of Neb's offense. As I was writing that post above, I referenced some resources on defending athletic dual threat QBs, the part of the post after the comment I made about "spying" him became less irrelevant - not completely so - but it's dumb to do that and lose sight of the rest of your D plan.

[froot loops]

Just going by how he hurt the Spartans, the defensive lineman need to stay in their lanes on the rush.

[WM Wolverine]

That's how you defend the option, it's a very different issue to defend a running threat in the pass game.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Just going by how he hurt the Spartans, the defensive lineman need to stay in their lanes on the rush.

Reading up on the different and current NFL level defenses facing a QB that poses a run and passing threat, one thing kept coming through: gap integrity or gap discipline. The job of the OC is to arrange his formations and pre-snap movement to screw with the defense's reads. This can get really complex at the NFL level, less so in CFB with experience and time to train as factors.

Frosty appears to have been really good at this during his tenure at UCF. Not so much at Nebraska, until maybe now. I have no idea.

M's job doesn't change. It's to see through the disguises and deceptions and get to the ball carrier regardless of who that is.

I did learn on reading today that containing a run/pass threat QB gets hard out of the gun with two backs - 22 personnel with 2 running backs, 2 tight ends, and 1 receiver. A bit easier with just 1 back. I've not watched enough Nebraska ball to know what predominates as the base formation - i.e. one or two backs? Does that tend to signal a run play? Do the other formations, 10, 11, 12, etc, with 1 back and more receivers (from 2 to 5) tend to signal a pass play? Tendencies?

Wiz?

[froot loops]

That's how you defend the option, it's a very different issue to defend a running threat in the pass game.

No it isn't, in the Spartan game he killed them on late scrambles because the edge rushers couldn't keep contain. He is not going to kill you with his legs on designed runs. Your defense is good enough to contain Martinez.