tOfficial B1G championship game week thread. Huskers v Wisky

[huskers1217]

When's the game?

 

[Brasky]

7:17 CST

 

[Brasky]

Dienhart: Scouting reports on Huskers, Badgers Big Ten Network

The Big Ten title game is almost upon us, and who better to break down Nebraska and Wisconsin than coordinators from other Big Ten schools? I dialed up six Big Ten coordinators from both sides of the ball and talked off the record with the guys who watched film, prepared game plans and stared down each team on a Saturday this fall. I asked them for their frank, candid and unvarnished analysis of each team.
Here is a collection of what they told me about each team.
TEAM STATISTICS Nebraska Opponents
SCORING 425 271
Points Per Game 35.4 22.6
FIRST DOWNS 281 206
Rushing 154 89
Passing 104 89
Penalty 23 28
RUSHING YARDAGE 3026 1994
Rushing Attempts 566 478
Average Per Rush 5.3 4.2
Average Per Game 252.2 166.2
TDs Rushing 28 17
PASSING YARDAGE 2505 1826
Comp-Att-Int 199-317-9 161-354-11
Average Per Pass 7.9 5.2
Average Per Catch 12.6 11.3
Average Per Game 208.8 152.2
TDs Passing 22 12
TOTAL OFFENSE 5531 3820
Total Plays 883 832
Average Per Game 460.9 318.3
KICK RETURNS: #-Yards 36-766 30-639
PUNT RETURNS: #-Yards 28-271 21-241
INT RETURNS: #-Yards 11-163 9-130
PENALTIES-Yards 76-738 67-622
PUNTS-Yards 53-2212 81-3228
TIME OF POSSESSION/Game 30:54 29:06
3RD-DOWN Conversions 71/164 61/184
4TH-DOWN Conversions 6/8 4/13
SACKS BY-Yards 29-169 24-191
TOUCHDOWNS SCORED 53 33
FIELD GOALS-ATTEMPTS 18-24 13-21
RED-ZONE SCORES (46-55) 84% (29-38) 76%
NEBRASKA SCOUTING REPORT
Nebraska has the secondary to press you in coverage. They have the physical safeties and the corners that gave us a lot of issues. … The area we hoped to get Nebraska was in play-action because they commit those safeties and linebackers to the run so much. If you run downhill on Nebraska, the linebackers and safeties can get lost a lot, so you are able to get fullbacks and tight ends in some spots and get them open. But against us, they didn’t have to play the safeties down to stop the run because we couldn’t get the run established vs. them. Wisconsin may be able to do that. …
The Nebraska safeties and linebackers will have to be involved in stopping the run, and then Wisconsin can come back with play-action. That’s hard for a defense that commits to stopping the run to deal with. That’s an area Wisconsin has to be licking its chops over because of how aggressive Nebraska is. … (Nebraska offensive coordinator) Tim Beck has done a tremendous job of running that offense. They changed in the last two years. They are smart with how they go about running the offense. They will look to the sideline and get themselves in a good play. That’s smart offensive football. They have the power game, where they will run the power toss and try to pound you. The next play, they are running a zone-read keeper with a tight end blocking the safety and getting after you with that 11th man, the quarterback. …
I think (Taylor) Martinez is really good. He is as fast as can be and he really got us a couple of times. I think Nebraska is a lot harder to defend (than Wisconsin). … How do you stop Nebraska? You have to be very disciplined. We overemphasized something going into our game with them and they didn’t do it, which hurt us on one of (Martinez’s) big runs. Regardless of how bad people think he is throwing the ball, he can make throws and he runs that offense. There is a reason why they are the No.1 offense in the Big Ten. … I thought they had the best receivers we saw all year. Kenny Bell is really good.
We had more respect for their receivers than any others in the Big Ten. … (Ameer) Abdullah is a good player. I wouldn’t be surprised to him and (Rex) Burkhead both in there at the same time. … I probably underestimated Wisconsin’s (defensive) front and probably overestimated Nebraska’s front. I think we pushed around Nebraska up front, which was good. …
If you don’t have a tight end in the game or attached to the formation, (the Nebraska defense) is going to play with one linebacker in the box and expect the safeties to come make plays. But their safeties didn’t trigger. Nebraska has better corners than Wisconsin. But I thought Wisconsin’s linebackers were really good. … They blitzed us zero times on first and second downs.
They said: We are going to play our “quarters” coverage and try to make it hard for your offensive linemen to get up the field to the second level and we are going to run like heck at linebacker and safety. If I had to do it over again, I probably would have taken more play-action shots over the top of the safeties’ heads as they were screaming down (to play the run).

 

[Red_Alert]

Wisconsin has the most solid set of LB's in the B1G.

Like I've said before, if I were to build a defense by layer it would be Mich St's front four, Wisconsins LB's, and Nebraska's secondary.

The Husker LB's are gonna have to have a big night tomorrow to fill some holes in the D'line. It's not like they haven't had to do it all year tho.

 

[HuskerPower52]

I think we should play the scrubs to give wisco a chance.

 

[HuskerPower52]

I will make a prediction that Nebraska throws a lot this game. I think Beck will switch the offense to something no team we faced has seen this year. Bell and Turner are going to get a lot of passes and then we will run. Just a thought. But we know we can run on these guys and when we start torching these guys on short quick passes it will really open up the run game. And pass game out of the back field

 

[Red_Alert]

Agree. As much as it drives me insane and ups the risk factor, NU's gonna have to throw the ball tomorrow night to help open up the running game. Iowa was proof of that.

 

[oaknightshockey1]

Agree. As much as it drives me insane and ups the risk factor, NU's gonna have to throw the ball tomorrow night to help open up the running game. Iowa was proof of that.

i disagree if burkhead is back. i think because of abdullah's performance this year we underestimated what he would have done this year had he not been injured. what i saw in the iowa game was incredible. he provides the power, abdullah provides the speed and agility. i think we will run the ball at will against them.

 

[Smart]

Wisconsin is a one dimensional team w/o a mobile QB.

Pelini should be able to scheme that offense.

Wisconsin's got a good defense, but Nebraska's offense has been running well on "good defenses" for the last 7 weeks.

Curt Phillips is definitely a mobile quarterback. Even after three severe ACL injuries, he has 4.6 speed.

 

[Red_Alert]

Phillips Rushing

Ohio St. 6 for 3 yds
He lost 36 yds in sacks, so his net rushing was (-33 yds)

Penn St. 6 for 13 yds
He lost 14 yds in sacks, so his net rushing was (-1 yd)

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

Maybe he ran fast, but ran directly into the defenders in those games?

:popsnoidea:

 

[Smart]

Phillips Rushing

Ohio St. 6 for 3 yds
He lost 36 yds in sacks, so his net rushing was (-33 yds)

Penn St. 6 for 13 yds
He lost 14 yds in sacks, so his net rushing was (-1 yd)

There were no planned runs, which is typical for our team. Even last year, Russell Wilson had zero planned runs the entire year.

As a Freshman (before the ACL injuries), he was used much like Blake Bell at Oklahoma or Tim Tebow his Freshman year, as a replacement who everyone knew was likely to run but he could throw if he had to. He averaged about 10 YPC.

The injuries have taken him from a 4.4 40 to a 4.6 40, but he is still capable of breaking a run. Indiana knows that full well.

 

[ForkEmBucky]

Either way, it was his second start.... Not a whole lot to work with there, statistically.

 

[Red_Alert]

Bo's done with his presser.

Pelini and Pensick will rotate at center.
Burkhead is 100%

 

[Red_Alert]

Bielema is next up

 

[Brasky]

where are you seeing this RA

 

[Red_Alert]

where are you seeing this RA

1620 carried Bo's presser live.

 

[Brasky]

Ah I see, I'll just go to the podcast now then.

 

[Red_Alert]

Yeah, it'll be on the podcast.

I don't know if they ever got to Bielema as I wasn't paying much attention then.

 

[Brasky]