I asked the legimate question and got ONE response about the D.

[dinglefritz]

For all the critics of Banker, what would you do differently scheme wise to make things better given the personnel he has to work with? The one response I got was something similar to what Damon Benning suggested I believe. Try to disrupt the timing by jamming WRs at the LOS and then go to more Tampa 2 on the backside. You could tell that while suggesting it, that Damon wasn't sold it would work. You have to have physical corners that can turn and run to do it. Its about the only thing we haven't tried yet. IF I'm recalling correctly that is what Bo did a lot of last year with a lot of safety help over the top. We ALL saw how weak we were against the run with that scheme last year. So, does everybody think that Banker is that stupid that he hasn't experimented with that in practice? OR have they tried it in practice and it looked even worse than what we're doing now. CLEARLY, they are trying to keep everything in front of our DBs after the way Davie got torched on the long fades in the first few games. So when we start trying to jam WRs to knock them off their routes, how loud will the howls be when they go over the top for long TDs? Some people want to say that our DBs looked better last year. Well yeah we protected them by running a lot of zone keeping our safeties deep with help over the top. That put a lot of pressure on our backers, which led to some of the biggest rushing game totals against us in the history of the program. Clearly we're screwed at linebacker for most of the season with all the injuries and lack of talented depth there. What's the solution arm chair QBs? The Banker bashing is just a bunch of BS if you can't propose a solution.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

Spoiler alert for the Dollar General shoppers on the board, our defense is the pizza.

I love pizza. We tried a new(ish) pizza joint in Millard a few days ago. It was crappy. I've never made a pizza in my life (Tombstone not withstanding) so I'm not really sure what to tell them in terms of how to make a better pizza, I just know a crappy pizza when I taste it and it was crappy.

 

[dinglefritz]

Spoiler alert for the Dollar General shoppers on the board, our defense is the pizza.

I love pizza. We tried a new(ish) pizza joint in Millard a few days ago. It was crappy. I've never made a pizza in my life (Tombstone not withstanding) so I'm not really sure what to tell them in terms of how to make a better pizza, I just know a crappy pizza when I taste it and it was crappy.

And how does a guy make good pizza with missing or subpar ingredients?

 

[tpmcg]

For all the critics of Banker, what would you do differently scheme wise to make things better given the personnel he has to work with? The one response I got was something similar to what Damon Benning suggested I believe. Try to disrupt the timing by jamming WRs at the LOS and then go to more Tampa 2 on the backside. You could tell that while suggesting it, that Damon wasn't sold it would work. You have to have physical corners that can turn and run to do it. Its about the only thing we haven't tried yet. IF I'm recalling correctly that is what Bo did a lot of last year with a lot of safety help over the top. We ALL saw how weak we were against the run with that scheme last year. So, does everybody think that Banker is that stupid that he hasn't experimented with that in practice? OR have they tried it in practice and it looked even worse than what we're doing now. CLEARLY, they are trying to keep everything in front of our DBs after the way Davie got torched on the long fades in the first few games. So when we start trying to jam WRs to knock them off their routes, how loud will the howls be when they go over the top for long TDs? Some people want to say that our DBs looked better last year. Well yeah we protected them by running a lot of zone keeping our safeties deep with help over the top. That put a lot of pressure on our backers, which led to some of the biggest rushing game totals against us in the history of the program. Clearly we're screwed at linebacker for most of the season with all the injuries and lack of talented depth there. What's the solution arm chair QBs? The Banker bashing is just a bunch of BS if you can't propose a solution.

i am curious to read the responses to this...i really am.

need to continue stopping the run. it will be tough to watch at times, but i don't want to get gashed in the run game.

 

[rrthusker]

You sound surprised amigo, I`m not. Whenever a real topic on football is started there are always few to no responses. What does that tell you? FWIW I have not bashed Mark or Trey or Hank or even the DB coach. When your roster has 1/3 walk-ons and injuries at key spots with no depth I don`t care if Buddy Ryan is the coach you will have huge problems. Of course it is far easier to bitch than proffer suggestions or solutions. So far all I have read is fire so and so and bench so and so which is great coaching from the fans that bitch the most.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

One problem with message boards, or reading something as opposed to talking face to face, is it's hard to tell when somebody is just talking. When you can't hear the voice you can't hear the voice inflection, you can't see facial expressions, etc, it can be mistaken for botching. For example, I'm not bitching when I posted the pizza story above. I freely admit I have zero idea what to do to fix it, I also expected some struggles this year. So when somebody posts something that could be deemed as bitching, sometimes they are just talking and in all honesty if you talk about this defense it's hard to do so without sounding like you're bitching.

 

[Tulsa Tom]

Spoiler alert for the Dollar General shoppers on the board, our defense is the pizza.

I love pizza. We tried a new(ish) pizza joint in Millard a few days ago. It was crappy. I've never made a pizza in my life (Tombstone not withstanding) so I'm not really sure what to tell them in terms of how to make a better pizza, I just know a crappy pizza when I taste it and it was crappy.

Until you start making pizzas yourself...and at a level much higher than in your own kitchen...then you really should stop eating pizza. Furthermore, I hope you never, ever, ever give pizza reviews online. Unless you can identify the problem with the pizza and know exactly how to fix it, stick with writing about PB&J.

 

[KaptainQ]

Maybe I was seeing things, but weren't the db's playing a lot closer to the LOS this game compared to the 8 yd buffer they've been giving the last 3 games?

 

[red rover 70]

You sound surprised amigo, I`m not. Whenever a real topic on football is started there are always few to no responses. What does that tell you? FWIW I have not bashed Mark or Trey or Hank or even the DB coach. When your roster has 1/3 walk-ons and injuries at key spots with no depth I don`t care if Buddy Ryan is the coach you will have huge problems. Of course it is far easier to bitch than proffer suggestions or solutions. So far all I have read is fire so and so and bench so and so which is great coaching from the fans that bitch the most.

Have you heard any serious talk of grabbing 2-3 Juco's for next year? Primarily 2 lock down corners and a stud DE?

 

[red rover 70]

I would also make it priority 1 to get Collins to come back. I'm not sure if it's NCAA legal but i would guarantee a full ride to any of his future children to Nebraska. We seriously need him next year.

 

[litespeedhuskerfan]

I question if there is such a thing as a "lock down" corner in today's high flying college game, but I get what you're asking. I would think they are looking and I would think that if there were a few out there, and they have a TV, they'd see an opportunity to play right away if they came here.

 

[Tulsa Tom]

For all the critics of Banker, what would you do differently scheme wise to make things better given the personnel he has to work with? The one response I got was something similar to what Damon Benning suggested I believe. Try to disrupt the timing by jamming WRs at the LOS and then go to more Tampa 2 on the backside. You could tell that while suggesting it, that Damon wasn't sold it would work. You have to have physical corners that can turn and run to do it. Its about the only thing we haven't tried yet. IF I'm recalling correctly that is what Bo did a lot of last year with a lot of safety help over the top. We ALL saw how weak we were against the run with that scheme last year. So, does everybody think that Banker is that stupid that he hasn't experimented with that in practice? OR have they tried it in practice and it looked even worse than what we're doing now. CLEARLY, they are trying to keep everything in front of our DBs after the way Davie got torched on the long fades in the first few games. So when we start trying to jam WRs to knock them off their routes, how loud will the howls be when they go over the top for long TDs? Some people want to say that our DBs looked better last year. Well yeah we protected them by running a lot of zone keeping our safeties deep with help over the top. That put a lot of pressure on our backers, which led to some of the biggest rushing game totals against us in the history of the program. Clearly we're screwed at linebacker for most of the season with all the injuries and lack of talented depth there. What's the solution arm chair QBs? The Banker bashing is just a bunch of BS if you can't propose a solution.

Well, first off, I wouldn't worry to much if something we do might be worse. When you have the worst pass defense in the nation, anything we do would have to be better. Second, I didn't get to see last week's game. However, in the first three games everyone was complaining about pass rush. It didn't make sense to me because qbs rarely went through any progressions. For example, I charted the Miami game's first quarter where they threw the ball a lot. There were only two times when Kayaa looked at a second receiver. Most plays the ball was out of his hand at three seconds...3.5 was the longest (without going to a second progression). Blitzing in this situation isn't going to do anything but remove cover guys.

I think we have to jam at the line of scrimmage and give safety help over the top against passing teams and in passing situations. I hear people say, "But we wanted to employ our safeties in keeping the run stopped." If you are getting torched as bad as we have been torched, why would you stop throwing the ball? Drop your safeties back to help out and give your corners confidence that they can give a hard jam because they have help over the top.

 

[Rocky Mtn Husker]

Couple things on this. The first thing is the less talented your players the less likely they will be effective, but I would almost always bring an extra pass rusher. Linebacker one play, safety the next. Risky, of course, but the QB and his line protecting him has to be disrupted and wondering who's coming next. That's the key, has to be disguised well.

What I saw at the game on Saturday was a ton of almost basketball style (albeit illegal) picks and guys just not athletic enough to stay in tight coverage. Saw some good things too in terms of stopping the run and players not getting out of position. We've obviously got some work to do but I think with some little tweaks and bringing more unexpected pressure we can still be pretty good. Rose-Ivey was missed.

 

[red rover 70]

Well, first off, I wouldn't worry to much if something we do might be worse. When you have the worst pass defense in the nation, anything we do would have to be better. Second, I didn't get to see last week's game. However, in the first three games everyone was complaining about pass rush. It didn't make sense to me because qbs rarely went through any progressions. For example, I charted the Miami game's first quarter where they threw the ball a lot. There were only two times when Kayaa looked at a second receiver. Most plays the ball was out of his hand at three seconds...3.5 was the longest (without going to a second progression). Blitzing in this situation isn't going to do anything but remove cover guys.

I think we have to jam at the line of scrimmage and give safety help over the top against passing teams and in passing situations. I hear people say, "But we wanted to employ our safeties in keeping the run stopped." If you are getting torched as bad as we have been torched, why would you stop throwing the ball? Drop your safeties back to help out and give your corners confidence that they can give a hard jam because they have help over the top.

Without a viable pass rush bump and run coverage would be straight up suicidal.

 

[SilentCommit]

If we're going to be this bad at pass defense, I feel like the next best thing would be to pull the safeties back and try to put a lid on the available real estate. At least with that, you don't give up the big play, and you force the offense to drive down the field and execute consistently. Having said that, it's not happening this year. After Saturday I'd guess our goal should be making a bowl game. That would require splitting the conference schedule, which I think can be done. Anything more than 6 wins and we've overachieved for this year. I can see both sides of the argument: we're decimated by injuries, but I think the defensive coaching has been suspect. We'll just have to be patient and see what transpires, though. There's a lot of football left to be played.

 

[red rover 70]

The first second we went to bump and run you would see a double move for a long touchdown. Please think before you type.

 

[SnohomishRed]

For all the critics of Banker, what would you do differently scheme wise to make things better given the personnel he has to work with? The one response I got was something similar to what Damon Benning suggested I believe. Try to disrupt the timing by jamming WRs at the LOS and then go to more Tampa 2 on the backside. You could tell that while suggesting it, that Damon wasn't sold it would work. You have to have physical corners that can turn and run to do it. Its about the only thing we haven't tried yet. IF I'm recalling correctly that is what Bo did a lot of last year with a lot of safety help over the top. We ALL saw how weak we were against the run with that scheme last year. So, does everybody think that Banker is that stupid that he hasn't experimented with that in practice? OR have they tried it in practice and it looked even worse than what we're doing now. CLEARLY, they are trying to keep everything in front of our DBs after the way Davie got torched on the long fades in the first few games. So when we start trying to jam WRs to knock them off their routes, how loud will the howls be when they go over the top for long TDs? Some people want to say that our DBs looked better last year. Well yeah we protected them by running a lot of zone keeping our safeties deep with help over the top. That put a lot of pressure on our backers, which led to some of the biggest rushing game totals against us in the history of the program. Clearly we're screwed at linebacker for most of the season with all the injuries and lack of talented depth there. What's the solution arm chair QBs? The Banker bashing is just a bunch of BS if you can't propose a solution.[/QUOTE

Not everything on the defense is a dumpster fire from a coaching standpoint - In fact Brey and Hughes have done a very good job when factoring in dealing with injuries and/ just lack of players at DE and LB and we are stopping the run which is a very good thing to be sure in this conference.

Secondary is where we have coaching issues imo - this is an area that had some players and had performed pretty well albeit in a different system - being last in the country is a very bad thing and not totally on talent.
I think we need to try a lot of things - pressing the receivers and getting them off their routes would be a start - of we get burned so what we can not do any worse than now. Banker needs to mix his coverages better he needs to get creative to stop the leaks in this Dam - I would try some different players on the DE position - what about a RB who is buried on the depth chart or just wants to help the team - Imani Cross is big enough and fast enough to come in here once in a while and see if he can spark a pass rush - but we need to move some players around to plug some holes

Pass rush will not matter until we get more physical in the secondary- these receivers are running free and the QB is getting rid of the ball pretty quick - so the issue #1 is doing something different in the secondary that what we have been doing - if the coaches do not take drastic measures then its on them depth issues or not

 

[red rover 70]

Plus our corners aren't big enough and just straight up fast enough to play that coverage and recover lost ground. And that's with a decent pass rush. 90% off the time bump and run coverage works because the quarterback has to get the ball away before the route is completed. The corners are just adding salt to the wound for the next down.

 

[Tulsa Tom]

The first second we went to bump and run you would see a double move for a long touchdown. Please think before you type.

Do you not follow the thread? People are talking about help over the top.

 

[Tulsa Tom]

Not everything on the defense is a dumpster fire from a coaching standpoint - In fact Brey and Hughes have done a very good job when factoring in dealing with injuries and/ just lack of players at DE and LB and we are stopping the run which is a very good thing to be sure in this conference.

Pass rush will not matter until we get more physical in the secondary- these receivers are running free and the QB is getting rid of the ball pretty quick - so the issue #1 is doing something different in the secondary that what we have been doing - if the coaches do not take drastic measures then its on them depth issues or not

Well put.

 

[StrongArm517]

Believe our pass rush has been effective at times and really like some of the blitzing schemes. Thank God we didn't go to prevent again and Freedom got to the QB or we could've been a hail Mary victim again. I don't know why the DB's look so confused. Do they have complicated assignments? In man, don't you just line up and go cover the guy or am I crazy?

 

[red rover 70]

Do you not follow the thread? People are talking about help over the top.

Oh....
You mean the Wisconsin 15. That is the defense that guarantees at least 15 yards a carry.

Let's hear more about it???

 

[red rover 70]

Who needs a Tampa 2 when we can run Mark's vaunted Wisconsin 15???

 

[red rover 70]

Ok here it is...
Banker is playing a straight up man to man with a cushion. It is our best chance to be successful. Are we gonna give up passing yards in the open field... yes. But when the field is shortened it is to our advantage. Points>yards. Against the B1G offense this defense should be at it's greatest advantage. Stop the power game and watch the TE. And in long downs they will not have the same kind of recievers like Miami had that we have to cover. Banker knows what we need to do to.

 

[bigboxes]

I question if there is such a thing as a "lock down" corner in today's high flying college game

Sure there are. We just don't have one.

 

[jeans15]

It just seems like you can be very physical with receivers in college football....but we act like we don't want to touch them.

 

[red rover 70]

It just seems like you can be very physical with receivers in college football....but we act like we don't want to touch them.

I think it's because we don't want anyone behind us. If you have to blitz to get a pass rush your already a guy short in a coverage. Isuspect because of B1G personal we might see more chances taken. Also we should be older and wiser to take chances.

 

[Shocker_Fan]

I would also make it priority 1 to get Collins to come back. I'm not sure if it's NCAA legal but i would guarantee a full ride to any of his future children to Nebraska. We seriously need him next year.

Collins is overrated IMHO. There is zero talent on this defense. How many of our players could start for Iowa on defense. I struggle with finding one. Am not sure Riley and Banker realized how bad it was when they took the job but it is bad. If Banker is still having these issues in year 4 or 5 then we have an issue. Otherwise, they get a pass for the first few years until they can get Big 10 players.

 

[Diplomat_Dean]

I foresee a vast improvement during conference play out of our pass defense. I believe we're saving some of our schemes, stunts, and blitz packages for our conference play. I feel like we went out with a vanilla pass and blitz defense, which was ugly at times, unbearable to watch, but yet kept us in games. We have a brand new coaching staff, why give BIG coaches film to study and fully prepare for our defense and blitzes? Now that conference play is here, we can judge Banker's defense.

 

[SnohomishRed]

I think it's because we don't want anyone behind us. If you have to blitz to get a pass rush your already a guy short in a coverage. Isuspect because of B1G personal we might see more chances taken. Also we should be older and wiser to take chances.

I remember this from before - Callahan/Cosgrove had the same problem then when Sanders had the DB's start being physical magically they became pretty good - Not trying to let someone behind you is pantsie football which is our problem - let the kids play

 

[cubsker]

going to have to rewatch, but are we really playing that loose? we seem to get beat over the top for most of the big plays we are giving up. I suppose Miami beat us with some slants and then ran away from our secondary, b/c we're slow, but not many guys on the rest of our schedule are going to do that.

 

[red rover 70]

going to have to rewatch, but are we really playing that loose? we seem to get beat over the top for most of the big plays we are giving up. I suppose Miami beat us with some slants and then ran away from our secondary, b/c we're slow, but not many guys on the rest of our schedule are going to do that.

We're playing five yards off the recievers.

 

[suhnami]

The 1st thing I'd do is switch the base defense to the nickle package. Why do we insist on running 4-3 when we're short LBs? Then I'd find a damn pass rush. Find one guy on the team fast enough to run around their crappiest tackle, make them adjust their pocket, get Collins and whoever else down to 1 on 1 play. I'd also figure out something else to do with McMullen. Get him more involved in the play in the 1st 4 seconds of it. I'd find a ball hawking safety and leave him back nearly all the time and the other guy could be more of a run supporter. All of these things would help out the corners and the pass def.

We've got 120+ people on the team. You're telling me we can't cobble something together that'd fit this?

 

[jflores]

Well, first off, I wouldn't worry to much if something we do might be worse. When you have the worst pass defense in the nation, anything we do would have to be better. Second, I didn't get to see last week's game. However, in the first three games everyone was complaining about pass rush. It didn't make sense to me because qbs rarely went through any progressions. For example, I charted the Miami game's first quarter where they threw the ball a lot. There were only two times when Kayaa looked at a second receiver. Most plays the ball was out of his hand at three seconds...3.5 was the longest (without going to a second progression). Blitzing in this situation isn't going to do anything but remove cover guys.

I think we have to jam at the line of scrimmage and give safety help over the top against passing teams and in passing situations. I hear people say, "But we wanted to employ our safeties in keeping the run stopped." If you are getting torched as bad as we have been torched, why would you stop throwing the ball? Drop your safeties back to help out and give your corners confidence that they can give a hard jam because they have help over the top.

CB speed has been a concern outlined on this board several times post Miami. Damon sounded shaky on press coverage probably because the whole thing is predicated on the CB playing catch up with receiver after he's bumped.

Playing catchup with our CB's, would be an example of the Rivals board "square pegging/round holing" talent/scheme, simply because they want to flame on Banker's choices.

For that matter, there's enough holes that its a "damned if you do situation". If Banker plays coverage, folks would cry about the lack of pass rush. When we blitz and it doesn't do jack, he gets the whole "we should just play coverage if there's no pressure". Etc. I don't know what the answer is, but I'm pretty darn sure that it doesn't present itself as obvious with the injury situation we have.

 

[dinglefritz]

I remember this from before - Callahan/Cosgrove had the same problem then when Sanders had the DB's start being physical magically they became pretty good - Not trying to let someone behind you is pantsie football which is our problem - let the kids play

And who did Sanders have for DBs? I seem to recall that he had guys like Prince etal. We don't have CBs like that on this team right now IMO. So what's your answer to the question about whether or not they tried it in practice? You do realize that they talked about doing just that last spring and over the summer but yet we haven't seen it in games. Do you suppose they realized that they don't have the guys that can play that way successfully?

 

[jflores]

And who did Sanders have for DBs? I seem to recall that he had guys like Prince etal. We don't have CBs like that on this team right now IMO. So what's your answer to the question about whether or not they tried it in practice? You do realize that they talked about doing just that last spring and over the summer but yet we haven't seen it in games. Do you suppose they realized that they don't have the guys that can play that way successfully?

I'm not an expert on DB's, but my general sense is this. We fans want the CB's to be more aggressive on the *ball*, I have a hard time believing that dudes that aren't very aggressive towards the pigskin are just going to go out and manhandle all these receivers with regularity.

The DB's we have may be physical at times, but we knew for darn sure that Prince and Dennard were.

 

[Catch50]

Believe our pass rush has been effective at times and really like some of the blitzing schemes. Thank God we didn't go to prevent again and Freedom got to the QB or we could've been a hail Mary victim again. I don't know why the DB's look so confused. Do they have complicated assignments? In man, don't you just line up and go cover the guy or am I crazy?

Think passing trees. Good coaches design good passing trees and set up routes from other routes.
This is what DB's have to deal with. Run/Pass, Short/Deep, inside/outside. Even the Darrell Revis's of the world have to deal with this.

 

[rrthusker]

Maybe I was seeing things, but weren't the db's playing a lot closer to the LOS this game compared to the 8 yd buffer they've been giving the last 3 games?

Yes most of the time they were 3 yards off the LOS. The problem is neither is good at jamming a receiver at the LOS and they easily run by our CBs.

 

[Tulsa Tom]

Yes most of the time they were 3 yards off the LOS. The problem is neither is good at jamming a receiver at the LOS and they easily run by our CBs.

If you are playing three yards off the line of scrimmage you are in no man's land. You have given way to much room to jam the receiver and you are far too close to ever catch up once he is by you. Playing off (as long as it is less than eight yards) isn't that big of a deal. If you play off, you just have to break on the ball hard.

 

[Scheisse]

I foresee a vast improvement during conference play out of our pass defense. I believe we're saving some of our schemes, stunts, and blitz packages for our conference play. I feel like we went out with a vanilla pass and blitz defense, which was ugly at times, unbearable to watch, but yet kept us in games. We have a brand new coaching staff, why give BIG coaches film to study and fully prepare for our defense and blitzes? Now that conference play is here, we can judge Banker's defense.

They decided to sacrifice 2 wins so we can play real defense against Big 10 teams?