Should NU Play Five Linebackers Against Northwestern?
The book on Northwestern's offense is an easy read. Quarterback/receiver Kain Colter can kill you with his legs. Running back Venric Mark can kill you with runs and in the return game. No one else does much of anything. Given the Huskers' great difficulty in stopping running quarterbacks, how do you handle that? Load the box. Bring nine men near the line and dare them to beat you in the passing game. So far this season, they haven't done much of that. Even when Colter went a perfect 10-10 passing last week, that produced just 63 yards.
Sometimes, the Wildcats opt to bring in pro-style quarterback Trevor Siemian and use Colter as a receiving weapon. Nebraska can only pray they do this, since Bo Pelini defenses have been so effective against pocket passers. If Northwestern is smart (and they're kind of known to be), we won't see much of Siemian on Saturday. Which is why (the real) NU's starting safeties should be thinking like linebackers.
Expect the run. Fill a hole. Trust your corners to be good enough against a very ordinary batch of receivers. Siemian and Colter have combined for a mere four touchdown passes in seven games. Make them complete passes to score points. Do everything you can to take away the run.
On offense, the Huskers can air it out. Northwestern has been a good rush defense but not so good against the pass. They don't get a lot of pressure on passers. Kenny Bell, Kyler Reed, and Jamal Turner can all have big days. Nebraska can also throw the ball to Ameer Abdullah and Rex Burkhead out of the backfield.
The Wildcats are an opportunistic team. They know they can't match their opponents at the line of scrimmage. Instead, they exploit opportunities by winning the turnover battle and using big returns to get short fields. Then they rely on Colter and Mark to do the rest. The Huskers need to be aggressive offensively and stuff the run defensively. Otherwise a rerun of the upset in Lincoln is a real possibility.
10/15/2012
Like the approach
10/15/2012
I am hoping that the third time will be the charm against a dual threat qb… Isn’t it the job of the coaching staff to be opportunistic and the inverse, to protect your weakest links? We appear to be the more athletic team but can our coaches anticipate our weaknesses that NW will attack? I know what game tapes I would be watching.
10/15/2012
Epic Road Trip? Maybe, Maybe Not.
Earlier this year, this game seemed certain to be a total sell out as Nebraska’s first actual visit to Evanston, Illinois in over eighty years (the teams having met during the interim in Lincoln and San Antonio for a bowl game).
Despite national network television coverage and the fact that the tickets for the game have sold out (Ryan Field is a small stadium that seats about 49,000), I doubt that a capacity crowd will be in attendance—probably more on the order of 40,000-41,000+. Speculators seem to have purchased many tickets expecting to resell the tickets, but apparently Big Red is coming in significant numbers, but there is not enough interest for the game to be a complete sell out that will draw an in stadium capacity crowd.
Maybe Ohio State was a more attractive road trip.
10/15/2012
NO!
Nebraska should NOT play 5 linebackers against NWU.
Good lord, just because the QB isn’t known for passing
doesn’t mean he can’t pass. Now, if you want to rotate
in a 3 - 4 or a 4 - 3 to give them different looks other than
your Peso, sure. Give them a read then change it up.
That would be fine. But 5 Line backers? Good lord.
This is Northwestern, Not Alabama.
10/16/2012
Peliini has been the master at switching people from one position to the other to fulfill a need. What we need is speed at LB position more than we need more LBs. I would like to see one of under utilized DBs move to outside LB.
10/16/2012
No way. Gosh the linebackers we have are slow enough. If we did that all they would need 2 do is spread them and slow a deep ball and they would get beat every time down field
Helena, Montana
10/16/2012
We also have a dual threat QB…why aren’t we doing whatever the opposing teams are doing to us, granted, we still manage to put up enough points that should win any football game, but UCLA & OSU managed to a whole lot more up than we did because we weren’t attacking the way they do. Mabe we just don’t have the people to defend against a good dual threat QB, but it seems that we could develop a defense just playing scrimmage against ourown offense.
10/16/2012
Load the damn box it might actully work against mobile QB’S?!!! What the hell is the diffrents your giving up 60 F IN POINTS ALREADY!!!!! TRY SOMETHING NEW JUST MAYBE YOU’LL ONLY GIVE UP 40 IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE!!!!! JUST SAYING
10/17/2012
Let’s see, we are having trouble finding 2 or 3 linebackers worthy of playing time so how would we ever get 5 on the field. Ciante Evans should NEVER be on the sideline in favor of Fisher, Whaley or even Santos. It’s not like NW has Jerome Bettis running the ball, play Compton with 6 DB.
Helena, Montana
10/18/2012
Anybody know what’s going on with Rex? Will he be on the field at Northwestern?