Nebraska's Keys To Victory Over Oklahoma State

This was like Hemingway.

I do hate that cliché. I have a blueprint (plan) to buy a Corvette but God knows with 3 kids, a wife, my job, and a mortgage- I can’t afford it! But if I could….

I think that’s a couple mentions of the hangover after last week’s game. You must’ve really hit it hard Saturday night, huh? Party on.

My biggest key to the game is whether or not we can force them to throw the ball on non-throwing downs. It seemed as if we couldn’t do it against Texas, so they ripped 3-4-5 yards on 1st & 2nd downs. The just threw short passes on 3rd when they needed to. If we can limit the rush damage, and force them to put the ball in the air, then I’m not afraid. But if they don’t have to throw, then that’s a bad sign for us.

.. and I too am super-pumped to watch the matchup of the corners vs Blackmon. And you are very right about the rookie mistakes Oklahoma State is prone to making… that is what scares us the most about this defense.

The only thing I would disagree with is that you dont need to get pressure on Weeden. After watching him for 6 games now I think the way he reacts to pressure is his biggest flaw as a QB. Pretty much every INT he has thrown this season has been as a result of pressure. The entire reason the Troy and A&M games were close were because of constant pressure on Weeden. He stopped going through his progressions because of the pass rush.

My only other very minor disagreement is that the OSU linebackers aren’t as fast as Texas’. Maybe, maybe not, but it is splitting hairs. These OSU linebackers, and the defense as a whole, are lightning fast… speed isn’t their problem. Being young and getting out of position is their problem.

Defensively that seems to be a common key in most analysis, and this year we have not seen any push from the front four to amount to anything.

We need them to push the pocket back onto the quarterback and get into the faces of their backs. Otherwise we are gonna have to blitz – not a good thing with a confident passer and the nations number one receiver. They’ll just cut us up over the middle like opponents have been doing to us it seems like for years.

I really don’t see the “we haven’t been getting qb pressure” case. I’m not exactly reviewing tape, but when I see our d-line go into a pass protect scheme, it isn’t really built around stunting and gashing through to the QB. It’s rather about holding your position, letting the secondary blanket any receivers, then making the qb either make a play with his arm or try to run his way out of it after seeing he has nowhere to throw the ball.

This is exactly what SUUUH was great at. Sure at times he stunted/gashed, but more often than not he would hold his position, bat balls up in the air, or fill gaps when the was a delayed run, and I don’t see our scheme changing from last year.

This is also why you see corners & lb’s blitzing so much in passing situations, with the understanding that the line is simply holding their position (or even dropping back a step or two) to make up for the change in matchups from the blitzers.

Hunter is great. Let me get that out of the way. He is dynamic, shifty, quick, he can make himself small in the hole. He personifies everything a coach wants in a running back.

Kanye (David) is very good at covering most backs one-on-one. I watched the K-State game again and noticed how well he reads the screen and the draw. His problem against K-State and Texas was he (through no fault of his own) was watching the RB in draw scenarios instead of the QB.

Most people tend to forget that the Pelini’s defense is designed for the linebackers and safeties to make all the plays. The D-line is to eat up as many blocks as they can so the LBs and DBs are clean to make plays. Suh was extremely good at shedding 2-3 blockers so he could make the play up the middle. Look at the stats from last year, when Suh didn’t have a dominant game Dillard did, and when Dillard didn’t, Suh did. Now that David has a firmer grasp of the defense, he’s starting to flourish. He has like what 47 tackles in the last 3 games?

I’m not really concerned about the “lack of production” out of the D-line because the defense isn’t really setup for them to “produce.”

You forgot one key: Martinex throwing for 300 yards and 5 scores.

How did you not call that?