What Went Wrong On The Offensive Line Against Michigan?

Some overtime line talk for the paying subscribers

Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics.

I had a couple people in the comments ask for some analysis on the offensive line in the Michigan game, and since we have some extra time this week, I thought I’d get into it a little bit.

First, let me say I’ve seen discussion or derision about Nebraska’s level of talent along the OL after the loss. I think people who are feeling that way are either underselling how good Michigan is or overselling the reality of where Nebraska is. UM has had nine players drafted from its starting defense over the last two seasons, and a bunch of guys from this group are going early, too. They rode the unit to multiple playoff berths and a national title two years ago. Turning out freak defenders is sort of their thing. That is not a normal college defense, and that scheme and personnel have made plenty of offensive lines look silly. The idea that NU is somehow failing compared to the broader sport of college football because they had a rough time against Michigan’s level of talent is, I feel, pretty misguided. Most teams struggle against that front, except for maybe the very top-end squads, and plenty of them have had rough games in that spot, too. To me, all that was really proven last Saturday was that Nebraska doesn’t have elite-of-the-elite players along the OL. And, respectfully, if you thought NU — a team that’s made one bowl and had seven total players drafted since 2016 — was at that level of dude up front, I think that’s more an issue of inflated expectations than legitimate reason for concern. The only other team on Nebraska’s schedule that can possibly match that is Penn State. They should be playing more in their weight class the rest of the season. If the line gets cooked against the non-loaded Big Ten teams, then we can talk talent issues.

Diatribe over. So, what actually did happen Saturday?

The answer from my film study was that it wasn’t really any one consistent issue but rather a variety of issues that sprung up at different points in the game. At times there were one-on-one losses, at times blown assignments off stunts, at times issues with the QB holding the ball too long or not getting it out of his hands on concepts designed to, and at times just boneheaded mistakes. These all happened for chunks of the game and didn’t for others, with them all adding up to a pretty ugly performance overall.

Let’s start with what probably everyone agrees on: The tackles were the pretty obvious weak spot if you were watching the game. That bears out in my charting. Entering the game, I had the rate of plays where one of NU’s tackles lost a true pass pro rep at 18.9% of dropbacks. Against Michigan, that was at 37.1% of dropbacks, about doubled, and a quite poor performance. The interior entered with about a 21.5% loss rate, per my charting, and was actually at a 20.0% vs. the Wolverines, so they actually performed a bit better to me than they had in the previous three games. Justin Evans blew a block on the shovel pass on the fourth down play and whiffed on a screen but gave up no pressures per Pro Football Focus, and Rocco Spindler surrendered only two. That duo was completely fine, probably even very good considering the opponent. Henry Lutovsky had some iffier moments but gave up only three pressures per PFF. The tackles were at a combined 13 pressures. The eye test — and the numbers — say the issues were out wide.