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wcbsas said:
Absolutely disagree with this statement. Benhart is very athletic. He may not have been very well coached. Do you absolutely think BB isn’t trying? Do you absolutely think that Raolia isn’t sitting in the film room talking about form, stance and positioning?

#13 OT in the nation his senior year, #139 ranked player overall, #2 player in the state of MN. Offered by Wisconsin, Tennessee, Michigan, Notre Dame, NW.

Please keep acting as if players and families don’t read this board!
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I don't doubt the athleticism. I'm just not sure what our specific issue is. Benhart gets a lot of crap because he is having to protect the edge. If you get beat out there it shows.

I'm not an expert on the trenches, but it seems like some of the issues come from not knowing their blocking assignments or expecting something different from the D-Line then they actually get. There was one play against OU where Benhart went to block the guy to his left, who the right guard also went to block, meanwhile the guy on the edge flew in untouched and blew up Thompson.

Was he expecting that guy to drop back into coverage? Was it complete miscommunication? Was it part of the play design? I'm not well versed enough to know it. But, there are a lot of plays where our tackles have someone get past them and they seem confused or unprepared for what is coming. I don't know what is causing that. I'd assume that coaching can fix it. The bad plays are more than bad mechanics, it is a problem processing what they need to do. Not sure how much of that the players should take the blame for.
 

HuskerSuperGenius said:
Great post.
Several things:

-My biggest grip with this staff is the complete inability to identify players strengths and use those instead of clearly letting opponents use players weaknesses (see Benhart pass blocking, esp against smaller rushers).
If BB is a "poor" pass blocker then where is the TE on his side helping him? Scheme is your friend!
-It seems from comments and grades that we run block better than pass block so:
With our quality RBs why don't we build a diverse run game, especially with a QB who can help with that?
Not to mention how a running game would help our defense be keeping them off the field!
-Passing scheme: if we pass block so/so, why do we ask the o-line to hold for 4 seconds when we could be running 2-3 second routes with the quality WR we have. Not to mention the Screen game having gone away completely which I thought was the way you defeat pass rush/blitzing teams?! My heart waits to see a middle screen to our highly talent RBs, sigh.
-Finally, I do not believe I have seen a single stunt this year from our D-line. They are not talented enough to just rush the QB (no Suhs in this bunch) so trickery should be the order of the day.
And if you watch #32 (Mathis) rush the passer, he universal runs right at the OT, allowing the OT to get his hands on him so that #32 is then ineffective at getting to the QB. Don't they teach: hand fighting, spin moves, rip move with under cutting OT inside, all things you see with #11 from the Cowboys last night. He NEVER lets the OT get hands on him because he knows then the fights over, offense wins.

You will notice that all of the above is failure of assistant coaches to teach :(

GBR
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I do think we can run block better than pass block, not that's saying a lot. Run blocking has been so-so in my opinion. We hired an OC who we knew coming in likes to throw the ball. That was the biggest question mark with him. Frost was the one who threw in more of the runs/option stuff.

I think we've seen defenses adjust to our weaknesses, like you said. First drive against OU, you saw corners giving our receivers more space off the line. This allowed passes to come out quicker, because they didn't have to fight to get open. After that, you saw more press coverage. That hurts us in a couple ways.

It makes the screens harder to throw, because you have a defender closer to try and blow it up. We saw examples of this in the OU game. We completed a screen pass on the first drive and you could see how open it was going to be before the play even started. You had one corner playing tight, while the other was about 10-15 yards down the field. It made it really easy to block the close defender and open up a lot of space to run. Later in the game, those corners were both playing tighter, so when we went to throw the screen, our receiver was met with contact behind the line of scrimmage. It also means that you have to give guys a few seconds to get off their defender for passes beyond the line. When our O-Line can't give Thompson time, this results in a forced throw or a sack. Normally the way to beat pressure is by hitting stuff deep, but if you can't give your quarterback enough time to go deep, you can't expose that.

I agree with moving TEs into blocking support more. I know the more people we have running routes, the more likely someone gets open, but that is all moot if you can't give your quarterback time.
 
wcbsas said:
Absolutely disagree with this statement. Benhart is very athletic. He may not have been very well coached. Do you absolutely think BB isn’t trying? Do you absolutely think that Raolia isn’t sitting in the film room talking about form, stance and positioning?

#13 OT in the nation his senior year, #139 ranked player overall, #2 player in the state of MN. Offered by Wisconsin, Tennessee, Michigan, Notre Dame, NW.

Please keep acting as if players and families don’t read this board!
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Didn't Benhardt have a foot injury the past couple years? That would definitely explain some of his issues playing in space.

Benhardt's issues have greatly surprised me. I was SUPER high on him - I thought he looked good as a Frosh and had real high hopes. If memory serves correct he was also a champion heavyweight wrestler in HS. Those guys usually have great footwork and know how to work leverage. I just wonder if he's never been able to get healthy which has stunted his development.
 
Cornhuskers7 said:
I don't doubt the athleticism. I'm just not sure what our specific issue is. Benhart gets a lot of crap because he is having to protect the edge. If you get beat out there it shows.

I'm not an expert on the trenches, but it seems like some of the issues come from not knowing their blocking assignments or expecting something different from the D-Line then they actually get. There was one play against OU where Benhart went to block the guy to his left, who the right guard also went to block, meanwhile the guy on the edge flew in untouched and blew up Thompson.

Was he expecting that guy to drop back into coverage? Was it complete miscommunication? Was it part of the play design? I'm not well versed enough to know it. But, there are a lot of plays where our tackles have someone get past them and they seem confused or unprepared for what is coming. I don't know what is causing that. I'd assume that coaching can fix it. The bad plays are more than bad mechanics, it is a problem processing what they need to do. Not sure how much of that the players should take the blame for.
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There were also several plays against OU where the RG blocked down towards the center leaving BB responsible for both gaps - to his right and left. Scheme is also very important IMO ... if you have a player who struggles in pass pro ... why not have a TE or RB there to help and/or chip? If you have a player who struggles in pass pro ... why not play design around that deficiency?

BB is our highest rated linemen in the run game.

The line sorely misses Jurgens and Nourili from last season. Hixon is solid but he requires help (whereas Jurgens did not) and I'm not sure the line calls are as efficient and effective as last year.
 



dparks said:
I thought the same thing about the SD kid Farniok who is doing great in the NFL, albeit at, YUCK, Dallas. He was the same at Nebraska. Got worse the higher his grade level went up and was "stiff". In fact, no offense to him (since he is a proven NFLer) but you could almost put their highlights together and think they are the same player with just a different number.
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Nick Gates as well. Also in the NFL. Didn't he only get up like 12 reps in the bench on Pro day? Seems NU has been pretty subpar on OL development. :(
 
wcbsas said:
There were also several plays against OU where the RG blocked down towards the center leaving BB responsible for both gaps - to his right and left. Scheme is also very important IMO ... if you have a player who struggles in pass pro ... why not have a TE or RB there to help and/or chip? If you have a player who struggles in pass pro ... why not play design around that deficiency?

BB is our highest rated linemen in the run game.

The line sorely misses Jurgens and Nourili from last season. Hixon is solid but he requires help (whereas Jurgens did not) and I'm not sure the line calls are as efficient and effective as last year.
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I like having TEs in to help block, because if they get beat, at least they can theoretically turn around and be open for a pass. If a RB doesn't land a good block it ends up being a sack. But, I agree with you, if we are struggling to block with our five lineman, give them some help.

There is definitely some issues with scheme and communication between the lineman of who has what assignment. Frustrating part is we aren't really getting beat by extra pressure. OU rushing three down lineman and still able to disrupt. They did send linebackers on pressure some too, but most of the time we had the numbers advantage.
 




CrabHusker said:
For the few upper classmen in his era, I agree. Four years of poor S&C can do it. One? Two? I don't see it.

We are in agreement that it isn't just one thing. I'm from the other side of the football, but I know what tentative looks like and we've looked like we didn't know what to do on the O line for some time. Like to see that change, ASAP.
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Catching instead of pitching, to a man, coach or player, the preachings been coming off the ball fast and hard.
Tentative is reserved for chess
 




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