The fourth down play where both Marsh and Becker were wide open for touchdowns is one of the worst defensive plays I’ve seen. Nebraska acted like it was a goal-line situation where all 11 guys can attack the QB
On one hand, Nebraska's defense played well overall and you can't really expect them to contain Marsh and Becker for an entire game
On the other hand, that specific play was such a fucking awful showing for their defense that it seems like it broke their entire team for the rest of the game
Arguably you could intentionally leave one person open and expect you get pressure before the QB gets to that option but they would get there much quicker with 2 available
Post game presser Rhule and Chambliss said that they subbed in goal line personnel (inferred to be because Aurich didn’t realize Marsh and Becker were still on the field) and the defense didn’t communicate appropriately. The sold out completely for a run.
That or you dialed up the Buddy Ryan Bear Front cover 1 and you immediately got hit by one of that coverage's and front's critical weaknesses: any kind of play action or boot leg run from a hard fake.
Thats been the story all year. Elite on a down to down basis only for incomprehensible mistakes in big moments. We gave multiple 50+ plays to both Maryland and Ohio.
Our coaches actually have a package that features a D-Lineman in the secondary because our coaches are bad at their jobs. They just literally assumed passing was not an option. They didn't use a timeout - something Rhule did on a PAT attempt - on a critical situation because he's out of his depth.
Nebraska Football is a God's honest painful experience, and they have to start winning these games because it's embarrassing. And there's only so much embarrassment fans can take before they tune out.
It must have been an insane gamble on a run, right? Some sort of all out blitz play hoping to rattle the QB before they could lob it? I can't understand the decision.
Couldn't. We were out of timeouts, which is a responsibility that needs to be taken away from Rhule.
Love him as a coach, I have Kool aid in my veins, but his clock management is Iowa corn.
Especially in the series directly following them allowing a back breaking 75 yard TD catch. You’d think they’d be a bit more mindful of containing the WRs
2 games (this and northwestern) where the opposing D sold out hard on the run all game and it worked, right up until the very end where IU finally adjusted to it.
No, I said this because Haines had better defensive playcalling to not do this. They didn't have many breakaway plays, outside of some really bad attempts at tackling
It was especially dumb because we were defending the run pretty well. Given that we didn't need to sell-out to stop a run and there was good reason to think Indiana would pass.
Indiana had only 65yds rushing for the game and at no point in the game really established the run. Biggest run of the day was a Hoover scramble. They did most of their damage through the air. Thus it was dumb to sell-out to stop a run. Which it turned-out we did because we miscommunicated and had a damn goal-line call in. We should have caught it pre-snap and called a TO for but we're as bad about not-using TO's as we are at using them.
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u/RealGreen4 Rhode Island Rams 7d ago
The fourth down play where both Marsh and Becker were wide open for touchdowns is one of the worst defensive plays I’ve seen. Nebraska acted like it was a goal-line situation where all 11 guys can attack the QB