The Bone Yard

Needles scare me. What about places to go Friday night, Sat before and after the game? We will be in town about 4 on Fri after we stop in South Bend at the College HOF. Good places to eat and of course better places to consume adult beverages.

So back to football . . .

What's up with Martinez' ankle?

Still doing the 2-gap DT thing? How have you liked the Iowa DL coach?

After Kenny Bell, there seems to be a big drop-off in receiving yardage/YPC. What's the word on the secondary receivers?

Looks like his ankle got twisted pretty good Bo says he'll be fine, but who knows

I'm still up in the air about our dline coaching

Our receivers are good Enunwa is a beast especially when blocking for out running backs, Bell and Turner are our big play guys and for tight end Kyler Reed can make plays

Probably not, but I think they can do enough to capitalize on short fields.

Better question is whether Nebraska can play mistake-free football, or near to it. This is a game of inches, and I don't think NU will be able to get away with 100+ yards of penalties and 2 TOs like it did against UM.

they must of ran out of there ritalin

Hey Nosfera2son, who is the girl in your middle poster? She's fine

You know your stuff.

If you were Michigan State, how would you attack Nebraska?

I'm thinking you would look to run right at us, and utilize some counters and play-action with some decent amount of attempts to get it to your TE. No doubt your WR's are getting better, but I'm not sure you can rely upon any of them having a 'game' against Nebraska.

Defensively, how would you look to contain Nebraska's Big 10 leading offense?

I'm thinking you would stay in your base 4-3 package (like you have pretty much done all year) and stuff us in the run game while forcing T-Mart to throw the football.

On the outside, you press coverage when needed, but play more shell coverage and not allow Nebraska to get over the top. You then expect your front 7 to take care of business, and if not, change it up a bit. Hell, even Ohio State and Braxton struggled to move the ball offensively against you, why do you need to change it up all that much because Nebraska isn't more dynamic offensively than Ohio State.

I think this is going to be a low scoring game with a lot revolving around field position and special teams. I don't see either team having much success driving the ball for more than 50 or 60 yards, and it may come down to the kicking game to decide the winner and/or turnovers.

Fully epecting a dandy on Saturday.

That's what I hate, our playbook is so plain. I feel like we aren't utilizing our full potential with this team, and just doing the same couple plays over and over again.

Retain Roushar!

Sincerely,
Every MSU opponent

For the MSU offense, I think you attack Thad Randle in the run-game. Steinkuhler has the reach and experience to be an effective 2-gap DT, but I'm not sold on the Randle/Rome combo yet. Use Blake Treadwell, who's coming on strong at LG, to engage Randle one on one and run Iso to the B-gap on that side. If Treadwell has Randle locked up, should be no problem for the FB to get in the hole and clear out an LB. The C should also have a free release.

Now, this only works in theory, and if Randle ends up getting the better of Treadwell (or McDonald, whichever OG he lines up against), then the run-game is going nowhere fast. Still, running North-South is just about the only way I see MSU gaining yards on the ground with Bell because . . .

. . . .running laterally against Nebraska with Bell is dumb. The LBs are too fast and Bell too slow. I suppose a well set up counter would work, but you'd need the back-side OT and OG to pull around and that take forever and the backside pursuit would likely drop Bell from behind (unless Maxwell wants to start throwing blocks). Wish MSU had a speed RB; counter draws could really work well against an aggressive front 7 ( or 6, depending on what formation you guys roll out)

End arounds/reverses can work against an aggressive defense; misdirection is always a good option, as gung-ho LBs tend to overpursue. Still, great blocking is required, or else all MSU will have done is move 5 yards backwards and change which hashmark they line up on.

In the passing game, crossing routes, crossing routes, crossing routes . . . roll-out & some more crossing-routes. MSU's WRs have been poor blockers this year, making the screen game tenuous already; with NU playing tight man coverage, you can kiss the chances of bubble screens working good-bye. Slants can work fine, but only on downs that aren't 3rd and 7; Nebraska knows that's a preferred route on that down and distance and will gum up the middle of the field accordingly.

The best routes, therefore, are the ones that drag across Nebraska's Cover 2 and therefore go through the holes in the zone. Northwestern did a great job of executing those against Nebraska last year, and MSU has the receivers to run a similar scheme. Combo routes, like a smash route with the slot receiver running a square out route and the outside receiver running a fly, work well against just about any scheme. MSU's Mumphery is a bigger slot receiver (6'0 208) and stands a solid chance of being able to fight past Ciante Evans (nickel back).

Finally, the TE seam is a great zone buster, and MSU is going to have to take some shots downfield. I'd lean towards more complicated routes; there aren't many receivers who are just going to run by Nebraska's defenders. Out and up, double moves, etc. are going to be needed.

I'll get to how MSU can combat Nebraska's offense later on today.

Well, when 5 different running plays all go for between 1-3 yards, it's easy for them to look the same.

There are two philosophies for offensive football. One is to have a lot of plays run out of a few formations (Boise State) and the other is to have a few plays run out of a multitude of formations (Mike Leach). MSU leans towards the Boise State side of the equation, but the running plays out of the Power-I, for instance, look similar (dive, blast, iso), while stretch/counter plays look similar. Sometimes you'll see Bell cut back and think that he's creating on his own, when that was by design on the play (though sometimes it IS on his own).

The passing plays may be quite diverse when you look at where all the receivers are running on a given play, but with the poor protection Maxwell is getting, you're seeing completions on the same check-down routes; there isn't a ton of variety on those. That gives the perception of: run up the gut, run up the gut, short pass, punt, when 2 different runs and a medium or deep pass were the actual play calls.

Taylor seemed to be more effective in the second half when Michigan had worn down. Does MSU rotate linemen to keep them fresh for the fourth quarter?

Aside from last week, you've been almost unable to get the QB down in the backfield, how do you see that changing this week?

How does your coverage account for TE Kyler Reed, one of Taylors' security blanket throws?