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Silver lining

Pennsyhusker

Athletic Director
Aug 6, 2009
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In hindsight none of us should have been expecting a major blowout last night. It should have been predictable that there was no way this team was going to maintain the kind of intensity we saw last week against CU. There was going to be a bit of a let down. It is human nature. And Northern Iowa is a good lower level team. One of those kinds of lower level teams capable of beating some upper level teams. Just ask Iowa.

The silver lining in all of this is that this is the wake up call our defense in particular needed. After all of the hype and praise after the CU game they needed a good kick in the balls to remind them that they can be had. They did a good job of keeping NIU out of the end zone and holding them to 3 points. But to me they still had some of the defects of the 2023 defense. Good at keeping the score down but not so good at getting off the field on 3rd down and not so good at getting pressure on the QB when facing a solid offensive line. They took poor tackling angles and there was a lot of sloppy tackling in general. And the weaknesses of the 3-3-5 came into view when a big running back got 3 -6 yards after initial contact from a smallish linebacker and/or safety. How many times did we see a running back get hit after a two yard gain where it appeared to be a good stop only to have the back gain another five damn yards dragging the defender(s)?

This will serve as a wake up call to our back 8 that they need to improve in their run tackling before we face Illinois and the rest of the B1G. Allowing those extra leaky yards after contact is directly related to not getting stops on third down. Some people on here think playing against running teams is our strength. It isn't. It is our weakness. And it has to improve. I think it will.
 
In hindsight none of us should have been expecting a major blowout last night. It should have been predictable that there was no way this team was going to maintain the kind of intensity we saw last week against CU. There was going to be a bit of a let down. It is human nature. And Northern Iowa is a good lower level team. One of those kinds of lower level teams capable of beating some upper level teams. Just ask Iowa.

The silver lining in all of this is that this is the wake up call our defense in particular needed. After all of the hype and praise after the CU game they needed a good kick in the balls to remind them that they can be had. They did a good job of keeping NIU out of the end zone and holding them to 3 points. But to me they still had some of the defects of the 2023 defense. Good at keeping the score down but not so good at getting off the field on 3rd down and not so good at getting pressure on the QB when facing a solid offensive line. They took poor tackling angles and there was a lot of sloppy tackling in general. And the weaknesses of the 3-3-5 came into view when a big running back got 3 -6 yards after initial contact from a smallish linebacker and/or safety. How many times did we see a running back get hit after a two yard gain where it appeared to be a good stop only to have the back gain another five damn yards dragging the defender(s)?

This will serve as a wake up call to our back 8 that they need to improve in their run tackling before we face Illinois and the rest of the B1G. Allowing those extra leaky yards after contact is directly related to not getting stops on third down. Some people on here think playing against running teams is our strength. It isn't. It is our weakness. And it has to improve. I think it will.
Tackling was terrible at times and I was disappointed on how we played on that side of the ball last night despite only allowing 3 points.

Illini isn’t the real good running team like they had two years ago, they had 137 rushing yards yesterday it’s their QB who he have to get after because they have some good athletic WR’s..
 
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Good game plan by UNI. QB run game helped tremendously. Tackling was disappointing. But even as disappointed as I was still only gave up 3. Offense still needs to capitalize in the second half. Another game they could have blown the doors off and didn't execute. In the 2nd half. Time to move on. 3-0 still feels pretty damn good
 
Good game plan by UNI. QB run game helped tremendously. Tackling was disappointing. But even as disappointed as I was still only gave up 3. Offense still needs to capitalize in the second half. Another game they could have blown the doors off and didn't execute. In the 2nd half. Time to move on. 3-0 still feels pretty damn good
It was actually a sneaky tough match up for the defense coming off playing spread passing teams and that emotional win over Colorado. And the defense was missing two or three starters in the first half. Northern Iowa has a good offense for a FCS level team. 34-3.... all in all, a good win.
 
It was actually a sneaky tough match up for the defense coming off playing spread passing teams and that emotional win over Colorado. And the defense was missing two or three starters in the first half. Northern Iowa has a good offense for a FCS level team. 34-3.... all in all, a good win.
Illini are similar and more like Colorado that UNI, with a better running game but Altmyer isn’t no Sanders..
 
UNI was masquerading as a Big Ten team last night—a sort of Illinois “practice squad” if you will. I was a bit surprised they were able to control the line of scrimmage early but this was just what doctor ordered in terms of getting ready for some of our opponents further down the schedule. It seemed like we got better as the game went on—we started wrapping up and hitting them in the mouth first. No, we aren’t ‘Bama yet but I’m feeling pretty good about this squad— we’ll be ready Friday night. And who knows, maybe Alvano CAN hit a longer field goal as he continues to get his strength back this season. GBR.
 
Tackling was terrible at times and I was disappointed on how we played on that side of the ball last night despite only allowing 3 points.

Illini isn’t the real good running team like they had two years ago, they had 137 rushing yards yesterday it’s their QB who he have to get after because they have some good athletic WR’s..
Do you think yesterday's performance on d will make Illinois think about running more and going away from normal??
 
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