Where the 2008 defense came apart

[husker70]

First it could be said too many snaps, not enough consistent offensive support. Too many emergency appearances. But where I think it really came apart is on the philosophical level. What? Well Coach Brewster and Coach Roof were on the same page last spring. It was alingment, assignment, and tackling. That gives everyone a job, and discipline is the key. You have to carry out your assignment, you must be there if the defense is going to work. Simple you say, well there was also that little matter of take away Tuesdays. Where striping the ball, punching it out, scooping it up and returning it. The results early on were amazing. And the identity changed to a turnover priority. Following the win at Illinois the change became apparent. The alingment, assignment, and tackling was replaced with the idea of making a play, and the bigger the better. Assignments were missed, takles missed, and the runs became longer. The pass coverage as well was cheating for the pick rather than covering the reciever. Double moves, quick cuts and recievers were running free.

Memo to Coach Cosgrove. Alignment, assignment, and tackling are about as simple as you can make it.

 

[Schnoodler]

I've seen how the scenario you've described looks and I don't recall this to have been an issue. I did however see over pursuit and getting burned on misdirection which I think is result of our philosophy. Mostly I think we didn't quite have the depth to handle a TOP problem.