Tackling Must Improve Against Arkansas State

Mr. Hanway, your somewhat obvious point about tackling has merit, what about a defensive line that couldn’t even get by a line with three freshman and Donald Duck???  How depressing was that?  More to the point, how does our mediocre coaching staff make a worthwhile change with only four more days of practice?  You are a “Tank half-full” kind of person, and, it’s appreciated.  Course, you are also a darn good writer and know a thing or two about football…so tell me truthfully, what chance do we have against OSU, Michigan, Michigan State etal when conference play begins?  I’m seeing four more regular season losses and a fifth if we stumble into the Toilet Bowl or whatever…love to hear thoughts on that…

Saturday concluded that our defensive is way too “white” and that senior leadership we thought we had, is nonexistent.  Third week in the season and it appears we have to go back to the start, with tackling drills.  Really Bo? a defensive guru should have some hard hitting players out there, but it appears our lack of solid recruits has begun to catch up with us.  Going into this season I had the most confidence that we would be going to Indy for the Big Ten Championship.  Now, I fear for our players in conference play.  Wisconsin and Mich have both had their struggles this far but they seem lightyears ahead of us.  Dont forget when we have to roll up to Mich St., it could get ugly very fast.  I dont even want to think about going to Ohio St.  And I hope we have leaned not to overlook opponents, bc we forget this basic rule every year.  If we dont get out act together by this weekend, Arkansas St is about to light us up for 600 yds.  No player on that defense deserved to be called a blackshirt.  They have disgraced the name in the first 2 weeks of the season.  I still will support my team till the day I die, but goddamn I thought we had grown pass this.  We need to stop playing down to our opponents, and our players need to understand that they have not proved one thing to us in the last 2 years.

I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon and thrash the Blackshirts more than they need.  Therefore, individual defensive stats (or lack thereof) will not be stated in this post.  However as a unit, some scary facts after Saturday’s game:

NU’s D now ranks 96th in total defense

It would have been the worst defensive performance in Nebraska history had UCLA not taken a knee on the final play .

Arkansas State had 619 yards in offense last week vs. Memphis and 519 yards against Oregon in their first game. 

We absolutely need a bounce-back game this week with many of the younger players getting valuable playing time soon before B1G Ten conference play. 

GBR!!!
http://www.B1GRedFootball.com

Same BS, different year with this team. Ups, downs, defensive struggles, problems tackling, problems scoring in close games, baffling play calling, lack of defensive pressure (without Suh, that is), preseason hype where someone (Compton!) says “we can win ‘em all”...
I’m just going to enjoy the ones we win and not think about the losses. UCLA was my Groundhog Day moment, where I realized I need to enjoy the good times, concentrate on positivity, and resist frustration. I just bought an enormous amount of life insurance from Ned “The Head” Ryerson (BING!) and will now plow Andie MacDowell until her teeth aren’t gross.
Big Red ‘til I’m dead. No matter what.

This defense makes Craig Bohl look good.

It is pretty scary to think that this was (basically) our worst defensive performance of all time in terms of yards.  I was a bit worried that our d-line/special teams coverage (two of our worst position groups) coach from last year would be taking over the D. It appears the fears were confirmed.  For some reason, I was hoping for some sort of miracle transformation with Papuchis, but it appears that if Pelini doesn’t squarely take over the defensive coordination/play calling, etc. in the near future, he might not be coaching Nebraska at all much longer.  Somehow we managed to hold UCLA to 36…but it’s painful to contemplate that Kansas scored 76 on us with less yards.  Just shows how we might do against Michigan this year if we stay on the same track and play a team that can actually finish drives.

I think someone else’s point about our coordinators having 1 year of experience between them, at their job, is definitely showing…we are being subjected to way too many “learning experiences”.

Cubehead - post of the year award, esspcially the Andie MacDowell comment.

I too will ignore all the posts about bad coaching and tackling ect. (we all have eyes) and just enjoy wins when the come. One thing you can say is they have nothing to lose now, so play loose. Bring on trick plays and lots of blitzes.

Lack of recruits, recruits, recruits won’t help tackling.  NU’s recruits are too slow, too mediocre.  Sorry to say it, too much turnover in coaching and systems, crappy weather, too many other better programs leave NU as a mediocre team I still will follow.  It’s been 12 fricken years ya’ll!!  I miss even watching the painful orange bowls from the glory days…........  GBR

What defense? We actually have a defense? hmm weird.

I watched this game from a seat in the south endzone of the Rose Bowl. It’s simple. The HUSKERS defensive coaching staff is playing a MATCH GAME, resulting in complicated defensive calls getting to the players way too late on the field. It’s a reactionary tactic. The defensive players looked confused and out of position most of the game. And on several plays were not even set when UCLA snapped the ball. Bo can fix this with a heart to heart talk with his defensive coordinator. He (John Papuchis ) needs to be told to (1) Simplify the defensive calls (2) Establish an on field general to relay defensive calls, change them if necessary while getting players in position before the ball is snapped (3) ATTACK instead of react. In other words put a hat on a hat & play HUSKER style defense.

Bo suh graduated 2 fricken years ago,he’s not comming back.Your defensive line sucks.Your defensive schemes are tearable,they require NFL talent you can’t recruit.Your LB look like their running in quicksand,and you have a on the job training 1st year D-coordintor. I’m just guessing here,but maybe this my be the problem with the husker defense. What the hell is going on BO?!!!! Bring me back my BLACK SHIRTS!!!!!!!!!

Captain Bly,

Assuming you are indeed a Husker fan (posing as a fan is a frequent trolling technique for bashing a team), Nebraska did have 3 sacks in the game and I agree with Pelini’s assessment that they should have doubled the number of tackles for loss that they had.  So the D-line (particularly Ankrah) did a decent job getting into the backfield, they just didn’t close the deal once they were there. 

I think the focus on fundamentals for the coaches this week is a good place to start.  The defense actually had a fairly good day against Southern Mississippi (holding them under 300 yards).  Better tackling would take this defense a long way.  If they bring guys to the ground when they get the chance, they will look much better.  One thing to remember is that with the exception of 1984, Nebraska has always had a tough time against UCLA in Southern California.  The conference championship defense from 1988 managed to get lit up out there.

I always like Nebraska under Pelini against pocket passers.  So I think Wisconsin will wilt in Memorial stadium and firing their offensive line coach at this point sounds like a bad idea.  I think Nebraska could actually win at Michigan State, provided they don’t let the environment overwhelm them (thankfully, it won’t be a night game).  Iowa and Penn State have pocket passers too (and not much at running back), so I think you could get four conference wins there.  I like NU against Minnesota.  I think they have a good chance against Northwestern and Michigan as well.  I can’t really envision a win in Columbus though.  So I think 6-2 is a realistic expectation in conference play and might be enough to play in the conference title game.  I like NU’s chances in that game since I have little respect for this year’s Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue, or Indiana teams. 

A loss in a bowl game is a real possibility so 9-4, 10-4, or 9-5 (if they lose the Big Ten championship) might be where I’d project this team.  That goes out the window if they get outscored this week.  I saw a number of 8-win predictions for NU this year, so I can’t say I’d be shocked if it happened.

It seems when talking about the Huskers that there are a lot of things to “fix” (I hear that word a lot from the coaches and players).  One thing they can’t fix, or coach, is speed. There are some faster defensive players setting on the bench that could start to see some playing time but overall the defense is slow and to fix that problem during the season seems unlikely.  I would think that the only way to fix team speed (or lack of) is in recruiting.  Osborne dealt with the same problem in the late 80’s, early 90’s and did indeed fix the problem by recruiting faster players and we all know how that turned out.

@ Sick and tired- was that English, bro? Wow!

How many years can we listen to ” we need to fix this, fix that, recruit speed, execute tackles, etc, etc.” until we actually hire a staff that has a proven record of executing a solid defense and offense?

This is what you get when you hire an albeit popular guy who has never had head coaching experience to be your new head coach. As we’re rudely finding out, if you want to be an iconic program like we used to be, you have to have a top notch coaching staff. Unfortunately, we don’t. I don’t think Bo Pelini would even be a good defensive coordinator at this point. I don’t know how he got such a moniker as defensive “guru”, but “guru” he ain’t. My original thought was to fire the rest of them, keep Bo on as DC, but now I’m even questioning that…these last 2 years have been aweful as far as defense goes…I see no signs whatsoever that the guy can coach defense or recruit defensive players. He had a lot of great players, all Callahans recruits except for Lavonte David, that made him look good. That’s it. And Ross Ells? Are you kidding me? This guy is absolutely worthless! Our linebackers and special teams are almost as bad as our front line! 96th in the country overall. And Barney Cotton? Might as well of hired Barney Rubbell from the flintstones!
I hope you guys are proud of yourselves making the kind of money we all dream about, putting out that kind of product onto the field. I’d be embarrased. If these guys are so good, how come they didn’t know something like this was probably going to happen? You mean to tell me you don’t know EXACTLY how good your players are? And you make how much?
I say fire to lot of them and start all over. Hire proven guys like UCLA did, like Michigan did, like Ohio State did, like Alabama did…it seems to work. And turn Nebraska around to be the program we ought to be instead of being a learning and development place for new coaches, or folks that want to get into the coaching profession. Screw this year as it’s already over essentially…all the rest of the teams we play saw our performance too you know, and are licking their chops…we aren’t going to be winning many games this year folks, sorry, not with this team. I’m always hoping for a big turn around, or a miracle, but I just don’t see it happnin’. Not if they are as bad as they showed last Saturday. Man are they horrible! We’d almost be better off going to the local high schools and seeing if they can suit up for us.
See, this is what happens when said non experienced “head coach” hires non experienced, no name guys who have never held the position of offensive or defensive coordinator before…they have this thing called a “learning curve” where it takes several years for them to hone their skills and perfect their craft…to cut their teeth so to speak. Is Nebraska now a coaching in development school? Where folks come to learn their craft to eventually move on to better positions? Appearently we have. Gee, thanks Bo. I’d say give back the money Bo, you certainly didn’t earn it.

Good coaching makes average teams look and perform good.  Poor coaching makes good teams look and perform poorly.  Good coaching makes good teams win National Championships.  It’s coaching that makes the difference, it’s always coaching that makes the difference.  It’s not the weather, it’s not the players, it’s not the crowd noise, it’s not the playing field, or any of the other myriad of excuses and reasons for poor play…it’s the Coaches, pure and simple.  It isn’t as simple as Ws & Ls,(though good coaches seem to win more than their fair share), it’s how we played the game, how we played every play and every quarter right down to the last snap until the whistle blows, always believing we had a chance to win.  If you want the best…you hire the best and then…
watch the fur fly.

Oh good Lord, what a bunch of whiners.

Furier (SP) made and athletic catch under coverage
and managed to tip the ball to himself for a touchdown.
He was covered, the pass was broken up, but he showed
the athleticism often displayed by folks out in California and
got it on the second effort.  Hats off to UCLA on that play.
Great second effort.

BTW, if that pass fell incomplete, we would have won.

Or how about Baptiste barely off the jump on the defensive
play that he attempted to make on a 35 yard pass?  Yes, I know
he almost had it, right?  “Oh I don’t care about almost…” yada yada.  Well, if he had broken that play up, yep, we probably would have won.

Needling Nebraska fans need to remember, often times, it isn’t
the tackling, it isn’t line, it isn’t the speedy receivers of the opponents team that do you in.  Sometimes, games are won and lost on what some reffer to as “Second Effort!”

UCLA, thank you for an outstandingly entertaining game, and hats off to your reciever Fuerier (SP).  Great second effort on that.

A for Nebraska’s D.  You were out there for 94 snaps.  Let’s have the offense run the ball a little more and see if they can’t give you 5 minutes less time on the field.  How does that sound?

We are NOT whiners…We just HATE it when we lose.

<b>NEBRASKA:<b>  More Academic All Americans in 23 years than any other program has generated it its history!