Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[entropy]

I really wish penalties were added to this... I suspect UNL would lead the BIG

[lineygoblue]

Henson leaving early messed up Michigan's QB recruiting for a few years.

[entropy]

Those were all M's starters in a row, obviously.

Henson should've had another year, it would've been AA caliber. Mallett should've been in there instead of Threet and probably Forcier too. Robinson looks much better as a Jr/Sr if he's used via RR. It's a great tradition of college QB's at M and hope that cotinues.

agree.. I wasn't trying to imply Michigan does not have a good QB tradition

[entropy]

weather for the Michigan Game:

Saturday, the high will be 45 but it's expected to be dry on Saturday with a low of 29. Winds 13-15 MPH from the north.

[lineygoblue]

Just a good old-fashioned football day.

[hack]

In 97 Griese made his share of big plays, though overall agreed that he was a manager.

[WM Wolverine]

Its not even November.

[hack]

Just venting, but this is the third fucking time this year a family event on my wife's side has killed my shot at watching a Michigan game. FOR FUCK'S SAKES.

Thanks for listening.

[WM Wolverine]

No weddings should be allowed on Saturdays in Sep/Oct/Nov.

[entropy]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd3RNRBrSXI"]Nebraska celebrates after Northwestern 2012 win - YouTube[/ame]

[Wild Hoss]

Fake your own death.

[hack]

I'll get a note from Epstein's Mother's Doctor saying I need to watch the game or else I might get Really Sick.

[entropy]

Former Northwestern player's take on the game [re: ]
10/22/12 11:36 AM Edit Reply
Oftentimes, there is a very slim margin between a win and a loss in college football. That slim margin was apparent on Saturday.

Northwestern seems to have more games than most other teams that come down to one or two plays in the waning moments. On Saturday, there were two plays that come to mind. In the first play, the ball was tipped into the air which resulted in three Northwestern defenders getting a shot at an interception on the same play. The second play was the third-down directly preceding the missed 53-yard field goal that would decide the outcome. If either of those plays had a different result, the Cats would be sitting at 7-1 instead of 6-2.

I had a friend of mine, Adam Ganjani, who is a very knowledgeable football fan, ask me why the Cats didn't throw the ball over the middle. This was a very valid concern, because I think it was apparent to most people paying attention to play selection that Trevor Siemian targeted receivers to the outside of the hashes almost exclusively.

The reason is that Nebraska coach Bo Pelini decided that the Huskers were going take the middle of the field away from Siemian by playing a Cover 2-Man defense on nearly every play that Siemian was behind the center. Yet when Kain Colter was taking snaps, Nebraska not only brought in more physical personnel, they also brought an extra safety into the box to stop the run.

In playing a Cover 2-Man, I think Pellini made a good observation of Siemian's successes this season. When Siemian has been in a rhythm this season, he was completing a number of balls inside the hashes.

A lot of times, young quarterbacks will keep the ball outside the hashes because the game is going too fast for them and the toughest players to read when the game is going to fast are linebackers and safeties, because there are so many of them in the middle of the field. The key to becoming an effective inside thrower, therefore, is to know where ALL the safeties and the linebackers are at all times. I stress the word ALL because, for example, you may have an in-route that you're throwing "off the ear" of the middle linebacker, or as soon as the receiver clears the MLB in his route. So you have to know where the MLB is and also make sure that the next linebacker isn't cheating out of his zone to make an interception on the in-cut throw. If that linebacker does cheat out of his zone, most concepts that are designed to exploit the middle of the field will have a running back, receiver or tight end in the zone that has been vacated by said linebacker.

Siemian happens to be very good for a young quarterback at throwing the ball over the middle of the field. In fact, I think that it is essential for him to attack the middle of the field in order to get into a rhythm.

After seeing that Pelini's defensive game plan against Siemian was designed to force the ball outside the hashes, I started to consider other games where Siemian was not able to complete passes voer the middle, and the first one that came to mind was his only other lackluster performance, against Penn State.

Thinking back on that game, the Penn State linebackers played tighter in the box than the other teams that the Cats had faced at that point, and that caused Siemian to throw the ball outside the hashes a lot and you saw the result -- he had a tough time finding his rhythm. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit, but considering that he has been one of the best defensive minds in college football for a while now, I think that Pelini decided that the best way to stop Siemian was to take away the middle of the field.

The reason why Nebraska was able to run Cover 2-Man and take away the middle of the field was almost entirely because they have a luxury that no other coaching staff in the Big Ten (with potentially the exception of Ohio State) has: he has corners and nickelbacks that he trusts in tight man-to-man coverage, with no help outside, deep. When Siemian was in the game, the predominant package that he faced was a nickel package, and the predominant coverage he faced was Cover 2-Man.

The Cover 2-Man places five of the seven defenders in a position where they can disrupt any middle-of-the-field concepts. That allowed for their safeties to rob anything that came over the middle, whether it be an in-route, a seam route, a choice route, drag, etc., and it put Nebraska's corners in tight, five-yard alignment, inside shade, one-on-one coverage with no over-the-top help.

As soon as I saw on Saturday that those safeties were playing routes inside the hash in their Cover 2-Man defense, I knew that the game was going to be won or lost by the outside passing game. Venric Mark had a great, 80-yard run, where he showed off his speed and his quickness to the hole, but a majority of the drives' results were predicated upon the performance of the passing game.

There are a few concepts that are very effective in attacking a Cover 2-Man with safeties cheating inside. Those concepts are crossing-route concepts, which can be run in a number of different ways; inside receivers running out-routes or sail routes; and lastly, putting outside receivers on isolation routes, such as go routes, stop routes, hitches, slants, etc.

Of these three routes, offensive coordinator Mick McCall chose to attack the defense with crossing routes, inside receiver sail routes, and go routes. The thing that I love about Nebraska's defensive game plan, and Northwestern's response, is that Nebraska was essentially saying that its best players were its corners, and Northwestern was saying that its strongest asset were its receivers.

This kind of one-dimensional "my best guys vs. your best guys matchup" that Pellini's defense created is extremely frustrating for fans of the team that is having a tougher time. If for example, the Cats had completed more go routes than they did, the Nebraska fans would have been upset that they were in that type of "we challenge you" defense at all. Because the execution wasn't there for Northwestern, many fans were grumbling about running different plays. The fact of the matter, though, is that Pelini said our corners are better than your receivers, and McCall accepted the challenge, giving his receiving corps and quarterback a chance to prove that they were the better unit. Unfortunately, on Saturday, the Cats fell short in this area and just did not make enough plays to deserve to win that ball game.

Like I mentioned before, the three routes that McCall used to attack this defense were crossing routes, sail routes, and go routes. On the sail and crossing routes, the receivers just did not create enough separation from the defenders. The reason that this is so important is because you want receivers to set subtle picks for each other on crossing routes and get separation, so that you're delivering the ball to a receiver running full speed parallel to you. If the ball is tipped, it may create an interception. On the sail route, you need separation to complete the ball away from the defender and towards the sideline.

Siemian really was put in a tough position on these routes and did the best he could with what he had. On the flip side of that, it was Siemian who fell short on the deep ball, and the receivers who put themselves in position to make big plays with the right pass. I thought the Cats receivers looked very good running go routes. The key against the type of five-yard, tight corner leverage and positioning that Nebraska put their corners in is to get the cornerback to stop his feet just for a second as you, the receiver, are running by him at full speed.

If the receiver can show enough hesitation to stop the defender's feet, that cornerback will be playing catch-up the rest of the route, because he just gave the receiver a rolling start while he is starting with his feet temporarily in cement. With the exception of the phenomenal throw to Tony Jones for the touchdown, Siemian just wasn't quite accurate enough on those throws that need to be thrown further outside, towards the sideline, in order to give the receiver the best chance at shielding the defender from the ball.

This is what quarterback's practice and call dropping the ball in the bucket, where they imagine a bucket on the outside shoulder of the receiver and want to be able to throw the ball towards that outside shoulder and away from the defender, with the type of ball trajectory that you would use to try to throw the ball into a bucket. When the ball is thrown inside, the corner will have a good opportunity to knock the ball down.

The opportunities were there to make big plays, and the plays just weren't executed the way they need to be. I would have liked to see more stop routes to keep those corners honest. Stop routes look like go routes to a corner but the receiver just stops at 10 yards, which is around the point where that corner is accelerating and approaching full speed, making it hard for him to stop.

I also would have liked to have seen more of Mark when Siemian was in the game, because the personnel that was in against Siemian was small and may have had a tough time stopping the run.

But the bottom line is that the offensive coordinator's job is to give his best players opportunities to make plays. The opportunities were there, but the execution wasn't crisp enough.

I can tell you right now that Siemian knows he is a much better quarterback than what he showed on Saturday and can't wait to get back out on the field. I also think that, as Cat fans, we can see the enormous upside that Siemian brings to the table.

The Cats' receiver corps knows that they were challenged and fell just short, but short nevertheless, against the Nebraska corners. I guarantee you that they can't wait to get back on the field, either.

The defense, which played very well in the first three quarters and then were picked apart in the last 10 minutes of the game, cannot wait to get out and redeem itself. And the rest of the team and the coaching staff can't wait to get the bad taste out of their mouth, either.

In other words, Saturday's game against the Hawkeyes can't come soon enough. You are going to see a team on a mission.

(On a side note: I had a tough time tweeting from the stadium on Saturday, but please follow me on Twitter for in-game analysis in the future -- as long as I am able to get the tweets through.)

C.J. Bacher holds the Northwestern single-season passing record of 3,656 yards, which he set in 2007. He started 28 games at quarterback for Northwestern from 2006-08 and ranks third in school history in both passing yardage (7,319) and touchdowns (43). He played one season for the New York Sentinels of the UFL and currently works in IT recruiting and sales.

[lineygoblue]

I feel your pain, Hack.

2 years ago, my wife wanted to go Christmas shopping on M v Ohio day. I agreed, but only because Rich Rod was still at the helm, and I already knew what was going to happen.

[entropy]

Shoelace:

passing: 83 completions 155 attempts 1264 yds 53.5% 8.16 ypa 9 TDs 9 int's 129.6 efficiency rating

running: 121 attempts 900 yards 7.4 ypa 6 TDs


Taylor:

passing: 124 completions 185 attempts 1615 yards 67.0% 8.73 ypa 15 TDs 4 int's 162.8 efficiency rating

running: 86 attempts 403 yards 4.7 ypa 6 TDs






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