Rumors of the Blackshirts’ demise have been greatly exaggerated
Slow defensive start par for the course
While Taylor "Tatts" Martinez--I promise you I'll never call him T-Magic--dazzled everyone wearing red on Saturday with his feats and feet of Crouchian proportions, the new "5X Improved!" Blackshirts seemed to get a collective "meh" from most.
Where was the ferocious, throat-ripping attack dog of a defense we remembered from last year? This was Western Kentucky afterall, picked by many as the worst team in all of college football. What were they doing getting one first down, much less 14 of them?
Bo Pelini called the defensive performance an "absolute embarrassment," laying the blame, as usual, on the staff while serving public notice to the team that he wasn't happy. True, the Hilltoppers 179 yards rushing were the most the Huskers have allowed since getting clubbed 62-28 by Oklahoma in November of 2008. Yes, there were some needless penalties again.
"I thought overall defensively, I thought it was an absolute embarrassment. I thought it was coached poorly, that starts with me. I don't like anything we did defensively. There were a couple of things we did OK, but we did not play up to our standard." -Bo Pelini on the defense
Part of the issue here is simple context. Everyone remembers the high profile lockdowns of Texas and Arizona to end the season last year, but those were above average efforts for even a great defense. Between the two of them, Nebraska gave up barely more than 300 total yards. You're not going to get blankings like that game in and game out.
Yet the fact that those stellar defensive performances came at the end of the season illustrates the larger point: Bo Pelini defenses get better as the season progresses.
In the season opener last year Nebraska gave up 358 yards to Florida Atlantic, the Blackshirts highest total of the season until Colorado put up 403 yards in the regular season finale. In 2007, Western Michigan came in and gained 350 yards. Nebraska's first six opponents in Pelini's first year all surpassed the 350 yard mark. But none of their last three that year--Kansas State, Colorado and Clemson--even got to 300.
The same was true last season. In three of the last four games of 2009, Colorado being the outlier, Nebraska held the opposition under 300 yards. I didn't see much last night to make me concerned that this defense won't round into similar shape. If you wanted to be totally sunshiney you could accurately call it, from a yards perspective, the most successful defensive debut of the Pelini era to date.
But as the coach himself has said and reiterated on a number of occasions, "it's not about yards, ma'am, it's about points." And Western Kentucky's points did come on two long drives. They earned those and should've had another if not for an untimely fumble.
Sr
• CB • 6-0 • 190 lbs
Dejon 's full bio
No they weren't the defense we saw at the end of last year. Few, if any, are. But if forced to lay blame, I'll put it on Martinez. He's too fast. The Huskers scored too quickly. Nebraska again lost the time of possession battle, although it's usually a losing battle in mismatches like these, and the defense was on the field for 62 plays.
On the night, that's 4.8 yards per play, a number that'll give you a Top 25 defense every time. Expectations at Nebraska are higher than that but for game one with essentially six new starters on that side of the ball, I'll take it.
9/5/2010
This is the time of year when defenses are supposedly ahead of their bretheren on the other side of the ball. Offense looked sharp with a RS QB at the helm. In watching the game again, I can see the Blackshirt front four getting handled as the game wore on. Backs were getting into the second line of defense which is why David had such a big game, and their QB got very little pressure in the second half. Work in progress. Better be ready for the Vandals which can put up alot of points. GBR!
9/5/2010
Toast. It’s not what you want for dinner.
Is the defense more vulnerable against a balanced offense, with a quality vertical passing component? That didn’t show up as too costly, this game, but it’s what burns Nebraska in tight games, when the deep middle isn’t a strength. That’ll only be revealed when teams have success running to set up a quick strike over the top. Which, will come up soon enough. Half the schedule is capable of doing that.
It’s not that I’m so concerned about it. The inexperienced guys WILL get better. Just picturing Pelini’s glare, insures that. He knows where to assign the blame; he knows where the solution starts.
This is a good team, which will improve, like the other good teams. The questionable matchups just look slightly more questionable, is all. Team speed is good. Maybe the fastest squad, this era. That’s still a big deal. All other things being close to equal, speed’s the difference maker.
How’bout “T-Mobile”?
9/5/2010
People need to relax and remember that these first 2 games amount to nothing more than preseason games…......well unless you are Kansas =p. No amount of practice can prepare you for the actually speed of a game, and you could see in the 2nd half that the blackshirts are still getting there legs under them. Having said that I think BO is holding out on the D a little, maybe saving up for Washington? How many times did we really see them dial up the pressure yesterday? Not many. This can allow even a bad offense to get into a rhythm.
9/5/2010
Just as the offense is vanilla in the first few weeks, so is Nebraska’s defense.
We won’t have a clear picture of what to expect from this team until Locker gets rattled in Seattle.
9/5/2010
Some good statistics here. I feel a little better having read this and will reserve my ultimate judgment about this year’s D. Having said that, I still say we are unreasonable to expect a D that is as good (let alone, better) than last year’s. I just hope they can play “nearly as good” and let the offense make up the difference (and I think they are more than capable of doing this).
@Greg: “T-Mobile” is a GREAT name! Wished I thought of it.
9/5/2010
If Bo is “holding out” on the defense until more difficult games then we should not expect to see much more until ?_____? If you saw BYU’s team of true freshmen and sophomores handle UW then you’d agree that the Huskies are not much more threat than the Vandals. Locker did not live up to the preseason hype (and BYU is notoriously weak against mobile quarterbacks). So IF Bo is holding out, I don’t know when we’ll see the full array of defensive packages. Could he really hold them until Texas?
9/5/2010
Hujan,
Thanks!
On HuskerMax, I noticed Justine Prestidge used it too, but I didn’t see his posted article one that site, moments before I scratched this one out. (Just in case I get called out for “plagiarism.”) Which, believe it or not, has happened with couple of guys using the same single word, on separate sites, on the same day! The horror!
Martinez is definitely going to end up with a nickname that’ll stick. “T Magic,” obviously. I like “T Cool,” because I thought his postgame presser was a riot!
9/6/2010
Greg,
No worries; I hear you on the plagiarism thing. There’s a reason great minds think alike. T-Mobile is the best of the “T-” based nicknames I’ve seen. With Martinez and Burkhead in the backfield together, I guess you could call it “T-Rex”? Huh, huh? Not bad, right?
And yes, his press conference was great. He has the quintessential SoCal attitude. Given that I’m from San Diego, I am very used to it. I had to remind myself that he is only 19, as well.
9/6/2010
OK everybody… the T-Rex thing is just too good.
I nominate this for their theme song.
“I go big on the weekend. I go… T-Rex”
Courtesy of Oakland’s own, Wallpaper.
(forward to 1:00 if you want to get straight to the track)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8iSm5ybipI
Des Moines, IA
9/6/2010
Don’t have much to say other than if the defense gets a turnover keep the ball. Don’t fumble it. LOL =)
9/6/2010
I think Bo did hold out a bit. I didn’t hear much pressure being put on the QB throughout the game (Minus a serious hit by Crick). I think Bo and Carl wanted the secondary to take most of the heat during play because they are very young and playing a team like this will help to build actual game experience.
The announcers were quick to mention that P.J. Smith is True Freshman during the interception so it came as no surprise to me when he fumbled it away (Heat of the moment mistake, I’m sure).
I said all last year (post Mizzou) and I’ll say it this year too; Dejon Gomes is a play maker and I think he is going to be a big factor. The announcers said he was walking gingerly off the field after the game. Hopefully it was nothing serious.
9/6/2010
T-REX is on…. who will be the first to show up with a T-REX head, 29.99 on Amazon, with a Corn Cob Dome ?
9/6/2010
just has bill said: bo/watson went vanilla they arent stupid they are not gonna give scouts something to look at when they review this game. on offense all we say was watson basically run rich rod spread zone read option and keep it simple.
on defense we are rreally missing suh and compton/fisher. if we have the lbs wku doesnt get those runs off bc they would be running to fisher n compton. remember whaley/david didnt get that much snaps and only did when the injuries happened.
its the first game you want mistakes like this to happpen now then to happen in oct or nov pelini defense improve has the season goes on and watts isnt going to show much outside the fact that t-magic is a skillful runner. my biggest concerns are this: can tmagic win games with his arm, and can the Lbs improve because if you look around the big12 its changing to a power game esp in tex/ou/kstat/ okie st. teams have realized they cant fling the ball like they used to so their gonna pound the rock. normally that wouldnt concern me but with out suh and most of our Lb corps nebraska will have to shut the run down or forget how good the secondary is bc nobody will be passing to much if they can get big runs.
we should be fine its the first game, plus we have an easy schedule and next year our depth at lb will be excellent.
9/6/2010
I’ve watched the game a couple times now. I think the D just relaxed a little in the 2nd half. In the first, they were pretty solid. Some mistakes, but did very well. I think they held to 80 yards. That’s dang good. I think they took the 2nd half off. I’ll bet brothers Pelini won’t let that happen again. “Finish” will be the message.
San Diego, CA
9/8/2010
Glad you guys like the “T-Rex” idea. Maybe instead of the “Wildcat” formation we could call it the “Raptor”? I could do this all week.
9/8/2010
LOVING the “Raptor” formation.