Around the Big Ten

[WM Wolverine]

We don't know how good Cal is, I think they might be better than some think.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well, Northwestern also won on the road in a situation that Big10 teams have traditionally struggled in

[Hannibal]

We don't know how good Cal is, I think they might be better than some think.

Possibly, but they were playing lots of freshman, including a guy playing his first game at QB, and NW's defense was absolutely shredded. I expect them to play in a lot of high scoring games this year. They won the game on two pick sixes, both of which were tipped passes, not DBs making a great break on the ball or the QB throwing under pressure.

[iam416]

Very difficult to do ratings based on Week 1 cupcakes. For example, I would say that the 2011 Buckeyes looked "better" than the 2013 Buckeyes in their respective season openers. Extrapolating from a home win against a MAC (or worse) team is a fool's errand, IMO. I mean, my guess is that UMass is will be atrociously bad this year (maybe slightly better than they were last year). So, Wisky torched them? Whatever. Michigan obliterated them last year. That said, I do have a couple conclusions I feel comfortable making.

*I think NW will be a tough out. Hanni is right that they benefitted from two Pick-6s. They also fell victim to a wacky fake FG and played virtually the entire game with Coulter. The defense did a nice job against the run. And while they gave up 450 yards passing, it took 64 attempts. Not a great effort, but I don't the defense was terrible.

*Iowa is still bad. I like Northern Illinois. And Iowa played them even. If Iowa were in the MAC, I'd give them a good chance of making the CCG (if they were in the East). They are not.

*Michigan State is going to be Michigan State. And that means they'll probably play a lot of close games, regardless of competition, and probably lose more than they win because they can't play from behind.

*I wish I could have seen how UNL was playing against Wyoming. That could be a concern, but I just don't know what they did. I'll defer to Entropy and Hoss.

[iam416]

Oh, and it's going to take Hazel awhile. Heh.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Regarding NfW being a tough out. I thought so too ...... Until I read a by-line tracking across the bottom of the ESPN sports screen late yesterday that QB Trevor Siemian is out for the season and Colter was concussed. Can't seem to verify either of those ESPN by lines this AM. Anybody know?

Big blow for NW if Siemian went down. He is really good.

[entropy]

my concern right now for UNL is offense first and defense second.. sounds odd, but let me explain.

On defense, we stayed in a cover 2 shell against a spread team with a QB who could run the ball. Sitting in our seats, we could tell based upon who followed the RB when he went in motion, what Wyoming would do. They had numbers for most of the game. You can't expect your team to win 8 on 6 most of the time. When UNL did bring a safety down, I think they had more success. That seems fixable. And so is the lack of rotation on the DL.. Both of those could drop the yards given up by a 150 or so easily..

The optimist in me says UNL was just holding back until UCLA. The pessimist says Bo won't move out of the 2 high shell even against spread teams with a running QB. I know you give up something in every defense... but I'd rather not give up 10 yard runs by QB's.. that's just me.

What doesn't seem fixable short term is a couple guys who continue to take bad angles AND tackle poorly. the LB's are young and made mistakes... they also got caught in traffic quite a bit. These things take more time.. I still think we have a safety talent issue..

On offense.. I thought Taylor and Ameer looked slower than last year. It could be just the game and the chances, but they looked slower. Most guys looked better, just for the record. We have a real problem at TE. Can't catch and can't block. He missed a lot of fall camp and it showed. Why UNL just didn't go to FB sets is still puzzling me. the FB was destroying guys.. Which brings me to my second thought on the O.. if something works, use it till the game is out of hand. Way too cute and numerous times put guys in positions to fail (QB sneak with an undersized center for example on 4th and 1). Beck seemed to call plays because that is what he wanted to do that day, not based upon what worked. Normally, I'm a fan, but I think he had his worst day as an OC. It felt to me like a coach running a scrimmage where you try things or put people in situations to see how it works. I was not happy with how our OL played off the snap. They were hesitant and didn't dominate guys who were undersized. They looked rusty. This is supposed to be the unit that takes pressure off the young D and they didn't deliver... if they don't turn it around quickly, UCLA will beat nebraska. The O has to keep the pressure off the young D and give them time to learn.

[iam416]

we stayed in a cover 2 shell against a spread team with a QB who could run the ball.

Heh. That's not going to work.

Conversely, OSU fans continually bitch about OSU playing Cover 4 against spread teams (well, not specifically, but "playing soft coverage"). Interestingly, Buffalo more or less didn't account for Braxton all game--playing roughly the same scheme UNL did. They gambled that OSU would want to have Braxton throw the ball, which they did. But he never really ran until 4th quarter (where he tore off huge chunks). Probbably could have rushed for 200.

So, oddly enough, it felt a little like a scrimmage on offense, too, for OSU. Though not in the same way.

I'm curious to take a look at UNL this week. Thanks for you take, Entropy.

[entropy]

UNL did run some zero coverage as well, with success. however, a CB did miss a tackle that resulted in a long TD. pick your poison, right?

in the later part of the 2nd and most of the third, they were bringing down the safety.. which helped. Wyoming had the most problems during that time

[entropy]

it also wouldn't surprise me to see a couple true freshman start by conference play on D.

[Wild Hoss]

I’ll add a couple observations.

1) Its plainly obvious that Bo’s pattern matching scheme simply doesn’t work in college, because pro style offenses are vanishing faster than the compact disc. He’s got to find a means of dialing it back and working portions into our coverage approach as one part of the whole rather than the Base...like Saban does. Being complex and predictable isn’t a good combination.

2) Even up against the numbers, our DL often got completely washed out on many running plays. Its one thing if you cannot make the tackle, but its another to get shoved eight yards upfield in the process.

3) I am concerned that our OC has one eye on selling himself for a head coaching job.

4) Penalties...again.

5) Conditioning. It looked to me like WE wore out, and Wyoming was the stronger team at the end.

Inauspicious beginning to say the least.

[entropy]

I also don't like that we ask our DE's to crash inside.. if the LB doesn't make it or makes the wrong read, the RB or QB has the edge

[Wild Hoss]

They are trying to compress inside to help the DTs and MIKE, who have to cover 4 gaps.

This makes it next to impossible for the DE to cover the C or D gap (Outside the OT or TE) against anything lateral, so the OLB has to read the inside gap then hustle outside to fill that as well. He is, in essence, 2-gapping also.

[iam416]

First, I don't understand why anyone plays a Cover-2 against the spread these days assuming the QB can run. It's assinine. In the B10 there are games where you can play it as a base -- Wisky, MSU, PSU, Iowa, Michigan. But, you're bending your defensive players over if you're sticking them in a Cover-2 against the spread. However, that only explains bad results against spread teams.

Second, if the UNL front-7 is mediocre that's a huge problem. They can't get "washed out" by Wyoming. That would explain Wisky and UCLA from last season.

In any event, there's no excuse for the defensive play, at least from last season. The Wyoming game, especially after it was 37-21, may have been more of a scrimmage scenario. When Heacock was DC for OSU, it was, at times, a painful operation to watch against spread treams. Constant C-4; limit run game; every pass in front of you. Teams could move between the 20s all day if they were patient enough to take 6 yard passes. But, (a) they would typically get behind the sticks; (b) lose options when the field became compressed; and (c) OSU had the talent and discipline to handle their assignments. So, OSU put up great numbers in less than dominating fashion.

I get the sense that Pelini wants to look dominating -- to be aggressive and force punts from affirmative defensive plays rather than a team dropping a 3rd and 5 or something. Form over function? Also, he could be a magnificently stubborn jackass.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Not sure I agree with the notion that a C2 scheme is a bad one against the spread.

I would think the reason a DC adopts a cover 2 strategy is because he doesn't feel he has the talent at CB to run a cover 1, for example, which, if I were a DC, that would be one of my base schemes againts a spread team. Don't know Neb's talent level there so hard to comment further.

Generally, aside from appearing most of the time that the coaches had no clue what they were doing on defense during the RR days, the player's suffered from poor position coaching. I'm not sure there was ever a coherent defensive strategy either so, the poor position coaching was made worse by this problem too.

DB talent under RR was also poor. Elites who were defenders and had eyes on the NFL certainly didn't want to play at M. The accuracy of that observation is supported by the strong emphasis placed on recruiting talent at the DB position when Mattsion arrived. And, for sure, Mattison wants to run an aggressive man coverage type defense and needs corner talent to do it.

IMO, when a weaker opponent like Wyomming runs up 400+ yards on your defense it's not so much a matter of scheme selection by the HC or DC as it is a matter of some incoherence in teaching and implementing that scheme ....... at least that's what I think happened in the Shaffer, Robinson debacles at Michigan. Maybe that applies at Neb, maybe it doesn't.