I am again combining these threads into one place and partially cutting down the amount of data being shared for reasons previously described (namely, I don’t have week by week grades, so I’m just making assumptions based on overall movements and trends). As before, if you are interested in the grades but don’t know what they mean, check out my week 1 and 2 threads on these topics.
NU had 68 defensive snaps, facing 39 run plays and 29 pass play situations.
D Line, Interior: This remains one of the big weak points of NU’s team, compared to the edge positions where NU has several guys grading reasonably well. It’s of big concern that O’Rourke has been feasting on the non Big Ten teams on the schedule but struggled vs Nebraska given his size.
O’Rourke: 53 snaps. After a tough week 1, O’Rourke’s grades continue to improve in both phases, up to 74 overall from 69, 67.7 vs the run from 62.5, and 76.8 pass rushing up from 73.5. It will be critical to see if he can continue this against the larger interior linemen he’s about to start facing weekly. Vs the smaller competition, he’s worked up to 116/745 nationally.
Holmes: 26 snaps. Holmes has seen his snap share slowly decrease every game this season and is now on the field less than half the time. He continues to put up consistent scores around 65 vs the run and around 60 vs the pass for an overall around 63.
Story: 21 snaps. He didn’t grade very well vs Miami though with grades falling back to the mid 60’s, down from the low 70’s after SIU.
Jordan Butler: 13 snaps. Finally, we saw Jordan Butler a little this week! He graded very poorly vs Miami, mid 50’s everywhere, but hopefully he was just getting warmed up as an injection of needed size.
Bastone: DNP for the second straight week.
D Line, Edge:
Adebawore: 62 snaps. 77 overall flat, 72.5 rush defense down from 78.5, 82.3 pass rush, up from 75.4. This was the first game where AA didn’t just grade in the mid to high 70’s across the Board, getting only decent grades (bad by his standards) vs the run but elite grades vs the pass. He’s rated 94/794 nationally and 12th in the Big Ten for DEs, including #6 rushing the passer. BTW… Penn State has the two highest rated edge pass rushers in the Big Ten, including national #1 DE Chop Robinson.
McLaughlin: 40 snaps. PFF thought he had an okay game with his numbers all rising 1-2 points but staying in the low to mid 60’s.
Johnson: 34 snaps. Johnson’s snap share has increased weekly and he’s now taking half of the snaps. I understand he’s doing a good number of these from the interior, but he’s still listed as an edge and I believe is mixing around. He’s pretty consistently getting grades across the board in the high 60’s, so he has some ability.
Hubbard: 17 snaps. He’s seen his snap share decline weekly, but this was the largest by far. However, he’s generally been mostly a passing situation guy, and since Miami did a lot more running the football, it could have been situational. His grades were in line with his year-long performance and didn’t change much, which is to say useful as a pass rusher (now 69 overall) but very bad vs the run and overall (50 vs the run, 54.8 overall). He’s clearly a situational guy to NU and PFF.
Jaylen Pate: 4 snaps this week.
LB: Gallagher and Mueller played every snap again.
Gallagher’s game was graded as a little better with the same shape all season: he’s generally decent vs the run but very bad in coverage. Overall increased to 66.1 from 59.3, run defense up to 72.8 from 68.8, and coverage up to 55.6 from 52.3. Gallagher has graded badly in coverage in every game and well against the run against everybody but Duke, who attacked his coverage weakness in the run with their RPO scheme. All this makes some sense to me, but PFF clearly isn’t as down on Gallagher overall as I and some of us have been, although he still has significant weaknesses. Overall, this rates him #16 at LB in the Big Ten, although he’s still one of the worst in the country in coverage.
Mueller is a different story. After getting decent grades vs Nebraska and actually being named to PFF’s Week 0 team of the week, he’s gotten increasingly horrible grades since. His overall is down to 43.2 from 48 last week, ranking him 681st out of 696 national LBs. His run defense grade dropped to 42.4, down from 49.6, and his coverage grade, previously his relative strength, dropped to 45.3 from 49.2. Simply put, PFF thinks Mueller is one of the worst linebackers in the nation.
Metz: 20 snaps. His story has been consistent in limited time, with good overall grades every week (currently 80, flat from 81) decent rush grades (flat at 69) and very good coverage grades (flat at 82 with only two coverage snaps this week playing nearly exclusively vs the run). I continue to be curious if they’re willing to look for more ways to utilize him. Perhaps vs some of the heavier Big Ten teams he’ll be able to be out there more.
Soares and Uihlein DNP
Safeties and Nickels: It is a little surprising that Lewis was notably more the “box safety” this week after usually either splitting time in the box with Coco or being very clearly the Free safety paired with other guys. Not so this week.
Lewis: All 68 snaps, 26 in the box, 24 walked to the slot, and 18 at free safety. His grades continue to recover from curiously awful grades week 1, which were also negatively impacted by penalties, with his overall up to 62.8 from 58.1, his rush defense up to 76.8 from 71.2, and his coverage up to 59 from 55.6. His coverage grade in particular was so bad week 1 that he’s been putting up solid scores every week since but it’s still only climbing out of the hole.
Coco: 65 snaps, 19 in the box, 15 walked to a receiever, and 31 at free safety. Coco’s scores all declined 3-4 points from week one and are not 66.7 overall, 72.7 vs the run, and 64.3 in coverage. So he got barly above 60 grades mostly this week.
Heard: 51 snaps, meaning he played every snap when Metz was off the field plus the 3 snaps Coco missed. He’s been consistent but poor all year per PFF with all his scores sitting very static in the mid to high 50’s.
Wallace: 2 Snaps
Joseph: DNP
Corners: We just aren’t getting a whole lot here, things would be improved greatly if Mitchell was giving very good performances alongside mediocrity at CB 2, but we aren’t seeing it.
Johnson 53 snaps, grades up slightly: overall to 60.2 from 58.6 and coverage to 56.7 from 55.6.
Mitchell: 49 snaps slightly better than last week in the mid 60’s although with a noticeable boost in coverage and from his big blitz play.
Hollis: 35 snaps. Overall 62.6 up from 59.4 with coverage up to 62.3 from 59.3, so a little better game.
Adeyi and Hampton DNP
NU had 68 defensive snaps, facing 39 run plays and 29 pass play situations.
D Line, Interior: This remains one of the big weak points of NU’s team, compared to the edge positions where NU has several guys grading reasonably well. It’s of big concern that O’Rourke has been feasting on the non Big Ten teams on the schedule but struggled vs Nebraska given his size.
O’Rourke: 53 snaps. After a tough week 1, O’Rourke’s grades continue to improve in both phases, up to 74 overall from 69, 67.7 vs the run from 62.5, and 76.8 pass rushing up from 73.5. It will be critical to see if he can continue this against the larger interior linemen he’s about to start facing weekly. Vs the smaller competition, he’s worked up to 116/745 nationally.
Holmes: 26 snaps. Holmes has seen his snap share slowly decrease every game this season and is now on the field less than half the time. He continues to put up consistent scores around 65 vs the run and around 60 vs the pass for an overall around 63.
Story: 21 snaps. He didn’t grade very well vs Miami though with grades falling back to the mid 60’s, down from the low 70’s after SIU.
Jordan Butler: 13 snaps. Finally, we saw Jordan Butler a little this week! He graded very poorly vs Miami, mid 50’s everywhere, but hopefully he was just getting warmed up as an injection of needed size.
Bastone: DNP for the second straight week.
D Line, Edge:
Adebawore: 62 snaps. 77 overall flat, 72.5 rush defense down from 78.5, 82.3 pass rush, up from 75.4. This was the first game where AA didn’t just grade in the mid to high 70’s across the Board, getting only decent grades (bad by his standards) vs the run but elite grades vs the pass. He’s rated 94/794 nationally and 12th in the Big Ten for DEs, including #6 rushing the passer. BTW… Penn State has the two highest rated edge pass rushers in the Big Ten, including national #1 DE Chop Robinson.
McLaughlin: 40 snaps. PFF thought he had an okay game with his numbers all rising 1-2 points but staying in the low to mid 60’s.
Johnson: 34 snaps. Johnson’s snap share has increased weekly and he’s now taking half of the snaps. I understand he’s doing a good number of these from the interior, but he’s still listed as an edge and I believe is mixing around. He’s pretty consistently getting grades across the board in the high 60’s, so he has some ability.
Hubbard: 17 snaps. He’s seen his snap share decline weekly, but this was the largest by far. However, he’s generally been mostly a passing situation guy, and since Miami did a lot more running the football, it could have been situational. His grades were in line with his year-long performance and didn’t change much, which is to say useful as a pass rusher (now 69 overall) but very bad vs the run and overall (50 vs the run, 54.8 overall). He’s clearly a situational guy to NU and PFF.
Jaylen Pate: 4 snaps this week.
LB: Gallagher and Mueller played every snap again.
Gallagher’s game was graded as a little better with the same shape all season: he’s generally decent vs the run but very bad in coverage. Overall increased to 66.1 from 59.3, run defense up to 72.8 from 68.8, and coverage up to 55.6 from 52.3. Gallagher has graded badly in coverage in every game and well against the run against everybody but Duke, who attacked his coverage weakness in the run with their RPO scheme. All this makes some sense to me, but PFF clearly isn’t as down on Gallagher overall as I and some of us have been, although he still has significant weaknesses. Overall, this rates him #16 at LB in the Big Ten, although he’s still one of the worst in the country in coverage.
Mueller is a different story. After getting decent grades vs Nebraska and actually being named to PFF’s Week 0 team of the week, he’s gotten increasingly horrible grades since. His overall is down to 43.2 from 48 last week, ranking him 681st out of 696 national LBs. His run defense grade dropped to 42.4, down from 49.6, and his coverage grade, previously his relative strength, dropped to 45.3 from 49.2. Simply put, PFF thinks Mueller is one of the worst linebackers in the nation.
Metz: 20 snaps. His story has been consistent in limited time, with good overall grades every week (currently 80, flat from 81) decent rush grades (flat at 69) and very good coverage grades (flat at 82 with only two coverage snaps this week playing nearly exclusively vs the run). I continue to be curious if they’re willing to look for more ways to utilize him. Perhaps vs some of the heavier Big Ten teams he’ll be able to be out there more.
Soares and Uihlein DNP
Safeties and Nickels: It is a little surprising that Lewis was notably more the “box safety” this week after usually either splitting time in the box with Coco or being very clearly the Free safety paired with other guys. Not so this week.
Lewis: All 68 snaps, 26 in the box, 24 walked to the slot, and 18 at free safety. His grades continue to recover from curiously awful grades week 1, which were also negatively impacted by penalties, with his overall up to 62.8 from 58.1, his rush defense up to 76.8 from 71.2, and his coverage up to 59 from 55.6. His coverage grade in particular was so bad week 1 that he’s been putting up solid scores every week since but it’s still only climbing out of the hole.
Coco: 65 snaps, 19 in the box, 15 walked to a receiever, and 31 at free safety. Coco’s scores all declined 3-4 points from week one and are not 66.7 overall, 72.7 vs the run, and 64.3 in coverage. So he got barly above 60 grades mostly this week.
Heard: 51 snaps, meaning he played every snap when Metz was off the field plus the 3 snaps Coco missed. He’s been consistent but poor all year per PFF with all his scores sitting very static in the mid to high 50’s.
Wallace: 2 Snaps
Joseph: DNP
Corners: We just aren’t getting a whole lot here, things would be improved greatly if Mitchell was giving very good performances alongside mediocrity at CB 2, but we aren’t seeing it.
Johnson 53 snaps, grades up slightly: overall to 60.2 from 58.6 and coverage to 56.7 from 55.6.
Mitchell: 49 snaps slightly better than last week in the mid 60’s although with a noticeable boost in coverage and from his big blitz play.
Hollis: 35 snaps. Overall 62.6 up from 59.4 with coverage up to 62.3 from 59.3, so a little better game.
Adeyi and Hampton DNP
