Nebraska Football: As Huskers reach NFL, 2019 does make you wonder
Nebraska football had bona fide players in 2019.
This isn’t meant to pile on anybody in the Nebraska football program in particular. However, it was interesting that Steven M. Sipple brought this up.
He wrote a piece on the Daniels brothers going to the National Football League. It was certainly a great achievement, as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers got two very good defensive lineman.
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Let’s not forget about Darrion Daniels either. He made the San Francisco 49ers practice squad. All three of those players were on the Nebraska football defense last season. The run defense was abysmal to say the least. They allowed 4.8 yards per carry, and 5.7 yards per carry in Big 10 play. For comparisons sake, Rutgers was second-to-last at 4.9 yards per carry.
It’s interesting to think about what the capabilities could have been for this Nebraska football defense. When I really think of the defense and their struggles last year, I think more so of the pass defense. To be fair, the running game did get gassed a lot in 2019. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio State are some of the games I can think of off the top of my head where the Nebraska football run defense was like Swiss cheese.
It was difficult to watch, but I’m not exactly sure if it was a schematic thing as much as it was playing against good running backs. Those three teams that I mentioned all had fantastic running backs. For instance, JK Dobbins and Jonathan Taylor are now in the National Football League with the Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts respectively.
The combination of Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks were too difficult for the Nebraska football defense to stop last year. Truth be told, the Nebraska football defense had trouble stopping them every time they played the Gophers.
Sipple is half-right in his article. Last year at least, it was the combination of a good group of running backs plus a bad scheme fit. Honestly, Nebraska had to face some of the toughest running backs in the country last year. Do I think scheme was somewhat of an issue? Yes, I do believe it was. Nevertheless, I think some of it had to do with the talent that Nebraska had to face as well. Sure, that’s not a good enough excuse. However, it seemed like they had their hands full almost every single time they stepped on the field.
Next. Three players I'm happy to see leave Big Ten. dark
Hopefully, with some better recruiting classes, the run defense will be better when football resumes.