Taylor's Potential - We Need Fourth-Quarter Taylor in the First Quarter, Every Game

[knapplc]

I just finished re-watching Northwestern game last night and two things popped out at me - we are easily our own worst enemy on that field, and it's often not even close. There's plenty of discussion about the horrors of that game in other threads so I wont rehash that here. Instead, I wanted to talk about something else that jumped off the screen at me, something I didn't notice while in Evanston or watching the replay before:

Fourth-Quarter Taylor Martinez is scary as hell.

The end of that Northwestern game wasn't just good, it was brilliant. It shows why teams are worried about playing Nebraska, and in particular why they're terrified of Taylor Martinez.

There's 8:31 on the clock. Northwestern has just scored their last TD and Nebraska trailed 16-28.

The first two plays are Martinez runs for 8 and 6 yards. 1st and ten on the Nebraska 34. 1st down, Taylor goes back to pass and nearly gets picked off, the ball pinballing around between three Northwestern defenders. 2nd down, Taylor throws to Jamal Turner in the right flat, the DB makes a brilliant break on the ball and should have intercepted it, but drops it.

These two plays highlight the worst of Taylor Martinez. When Nebraska is down, at times he seems to behave as if he's lost his mind. Like Bo recently said, it's seemed like Taylor wants to make a TD on every play. But he's getting better, as evinced by the next series of plays.

Because Taylor had enough of this s**t and Took. The f**k. Over.

Next play, 3rd & 10 at the Nebraska 34 - Taylor hits Kyler Reed for 16 yards and a first down.

Next play, 1st & 10 at the 50 - Taylor hits Ameer Abdullah for a five yard gain.

Next, 2nd & 4 at the NW 45 - Taylor hits Quincy Enunwa for seven yards.

Next, 1st & 10 at the NW 38, Taylor hits Enunwa again, this time for 30 yards to the NW 8 on a brilliant pass.

Next play, 1st & Goal - Taylor hits Taariq Allen for an 8-yard Touchdown.

We kick off, Northwestern does absolutely nothing thanks to a swarming defense and has to punt. One of 10 three-and-outs the Blackshirts forced that day. Any argument that we didn't contain Northwestern and Kain Colter has to stop at that stat.

Next series - 4:10 on the clock, Nebraska now trails 23-28 and needs a touchdown drive, now.

1st & 10 at the Nebraska 24 - Taylor hits Enunwa for 31 yards and a 1st down.

1st & 10 at the NW 45 - Taylor rushes for 2 yards.

2nd & 8 at the NW 43 - Taylor hits Kenny Bell for five yards.

3rd & 3 at the NW 38 - Taylor hits Enunwa for a six-yard gain and a first down.

1st & 10 at the NW 32 - Taylor hits Turner for a 25 yard gain and a first down.

1st & Goal at the NW 7 - Taylor hits Ben Cotton for a seven-yard Touchdown.

We go for two and the try fails. Nebraska takes the lead, 29-28 with 2:08 left on the clock.

On those two drives, when we needed a hero, Taylor Martinez went 10/12 for 140 yards and two touchdowns, plus ran for another 16 yards on three carries. The drives were nine and six plays, respectively, earned seven first downs and 156 yards. They took 4:38 and gave Nebraska the lead after trailing by double digits midway through the 4th quarter.

Northwestern was not playing a prevent defense. They had their safeties in a deep shell and they were playing a loose man coverage underneath. Neither touchdown was given to Nebraska - they took them. In particular, Taylor took them.

The first drive nearly started in disaster, as Taylor nearly (should have) threw two INTs in his first two passes. But for some reason, on the road one week after a horrible game at Ohio State, when his offense had been taking aim directly at its feet all day, Taylor stood up and led the team down the field, twice.

That is the Taylor Martinez the coaches hoped they'd recruited. That's the Taylor Martinez who earned the starting job as a Redshirt Freshman, and that's the Taylor Martinez that has opposing Defensive Coordinators prepping for Nebraska weeks in advance.

He did it against Northwestern, he did it against Penn State, he did it against Michigan State, he did it against Wisconsin and tried to do it again in the Conference Championship, and he tried to do it all in the bowl game against Georgia.

Taylor has worked as hard as any Husker at improving himself. He's given up his Spring Break each of the last two years to work with a personal trainer (seriously - who does that?), and spent more time learning to quarterback each summer. Last year he showed marked improvement in both mechanics and decision-making. With the glaring exception of the first-quarter INT at Michigan State, his interceptions are more a product of forcing the issue or missing his spot than the decision of where to throw it.

There's something about Taylor that usually takes him a quarter, or a half, to get going. It's almost like a boxer who needs that shot to the face to get his blood flowing, but when he does, watch out. He torched the best defense we played last year and played damned well against the rest (including Georgia, where he was nearly a one-man wrecking crew).

We need to bottle that fourth-quarter magic (T-Magic?) and get it going on drive one, first quarter. That's the thing that separates Taylor from the all-time greats at Nebraska (that and the umpty-seven turnovers).

This is why I'm so excited about Nebraska's offense this year. Taylor is the guy to lead this offense, but more specifically, Taylor fourth-quarter-comeback Martinez is the guy. We get that guy all game long and there's no reason this offense can't average 50 points a game.

 

[Saunders]

 

[BigRedBuster]

This season is the fourth quarter of his career. The team has done well but doesn't have a championship the first three quarters of that career.

It's time for that fourth quarter to start.

I am really getting pumped for this season.

 

[Count 'Bility]

When was that sequence in the NW game when we converted a 3rd and 10, got called for holding, converted a 3rd and 18 or so, got called for another penalty, and still almost converted a 3rd and nearly 30? I know it was pretty late. Maybe it was right before the comeback began.

 

[The Dude]

Now, re-read the original post while listening to this song.

 

[kchusker_chris]

Taylor has some pretty awesome moments, but if you read through what you wrote, and then do the exact same thing for the UCLA game - the script is almost identical. Only the outcome is VERY different and Beck is widely criticized for going full Watson. Same script, different outcome and he's brilliant. Show's how much trust he must have in Taylor - because I wouldn't think he'd go 12 essentially straight passes to end a game after what we saw at UCLA. But he did, and it worked that time.

 

[Landlord]

When was that sequence in the NW game when we converted a 3rd and 10, got called for holding, converted a 3rd and 18 or so, got called for another penalty, and still almost converted a 3rd and nearly 30? I know it was pretty late. Maybe it was right before the comeback began.

It was the first drive of the 4th quarter, and I was just going to bring it up (surprised knapp didn't mention it). That sequence was actually the moment in my head where I thought, "Okay. Taylor Martinez has grown up and is going to win this game for us."

If I remember it right (I'm at work so I can't watch it), it went like this:

3rd and 14 - Taylor drops back, protection sucks, he looks to take off running, runs into a NW player, shakes him and pulls it back scrambling to the left, stiff-arms another defender to the ground and throws what would have been a first down completion if not for pass interference. However, we had a penalty as well and then a sideline interference penalty.

3rd and 19 - Taylor has to scramble for his life again, and finds Jamal Turner for another gutsy first down on 3rd and long, only to have it called back due to illegal formation.

3rd and 24 - Taylor threw a pretty decent ball to Kenny Bell but it was incomplete.

Even though the result of the drive was a punt, it showed me how far Taylor had come and how he was capable of winning games, even if it was despite his team and not with the help of them.

 

[knapplc]

It was the first drive of the 4th quarter, and I was just going to bring it up (surprised knapp didn't mention it).

Taylor really played well throughout the game, bulling his way for first downs and running tough. He most definitely set the tone for the offense, but I was lazy and didn't want to describe the whole game, so I highlighted our last two scoring drives.

That illegal formation was called against Andrew Rodriguez, who was - again - lined up off the ball because he was supposed to go into pass-pro on the play. The TV announcers mentioned something about that in a 2011 game, said it was a dead giveaway that he was either pulling or going to pass-pro. It always baffled me that the coaches didn't fix this, or if it was by design, that they didn't get flagged for it more often. Because he did it nearly every such play for two years.

 

[The Dude]

I really liked the QB sweeps we ran in that game. Was kind of disappointed we didn't seem more of it throughout the rest of the season.

 

[knapplc]

I really liked the QB sweeps we ran in that game. Was kind of disappointed we didn't seem more of it throughout the rest of the season.

That's an interesting play. It tries to capitalize on fast-pursuing defenses, but in order to work it relies on strong backside blocking. If we're talking about the same play, it's the one where Taylor's in the shotgun (or pistol - can't remember) with a running back to either side. He gets the snap, takes his first step to the right while both RBs break left, then Taylor turns and follows them as lead blockers.

With Imani and a strong blocking TE on the play side that could be a big gainer for us. The one time I specifically recall that play in the NW game we got five or six yards.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

That Northwestern game was a crazy game. Every time Nebraska seemed to gain momentum (with a sustained drive or 3 and out by the D) there was a mistake to stop everything. In the first half, there were 2 fumbled punts (one that gave NW a short field for a TD) in the first half, and another fumble at NW's 22 yard line. In the 2nd half, NW had the long run to jump out to a 2-score lead, and NU was fighting from behind the rest of the game.

I was very impressed with the way the D hung in there for most of the game, and with the way TMart and the WR's responded in the passing game. Enunwa was a stud that game. He was a great target down the middle at the end of the game.

The thing that hurt the NU offense last year was inconsistency. It caused NU to fall behind big against Wisky, NW, MSU, and Penn State. That inconsistency also led to a poor 2nd half against UCLA. The offense potential is very high if the mistakes (penalties and turnovers) are cleaned up.

 

[The Dude]

I really liked the QB sweeps we ran in that game. Was kind of disappointed we didn't seem more of it throughout the rest of the season.

That's an interesting play. It tries to capitalize on fast-pursuing defenses, but in order to work it relies on strong backside blocking. If we're talking about the same play, it's the one where Taylor's in the shotgun (or pistol - can't remember) with a running back to either side. He gets the snap, takes his first step to the right while both RBs break left, then Taylor turns and follows them as lead blockers.

With Imani and a strong blocking TE on the play side that could be a big gainer for us. The one time I specifically recall that play in the NW game we got five or six yards.

Yep that's the one. I think Taylor also made a nice throw on the run off of it - for a 1st down.

 

[knapplc]

I really liked the QB sweeps we ran in that game. Was kind of disappointed we didn't seem more of it throughout the rest of the season.

That's an interesting play. It tries to capitalize on fast-pursuing defenses, but in order to work it relies on strong backside blocking. If we're talking about the same play, it's the one where Taylor's in the shotgun (or pistol - can't remember) with a running back to either side. He gets the snap, takes his first step to the right while both RBs break left, then Taylor turns and follows them as lead blockers.

With Imani and a strong blocking TE on the play side that could be a big gainer for us. The one time I specifically recall that play in the NW game we got five or six yards.

Yep that's the one. I think Taylor also made a nice throw on the run off of it - for a 1st down.

Now that you mention it, I remember that, too. For a guy who's not a natural QB he's made impressive strides in his skill set. I don't buy in to Bo's statement that Taylor could be an NFL QB, but for college he's just fine.

 

[GSG]

Is there a longer-length highlight video of the Northwestern game? The only ones I've found are only about a minute long

 

[knapplc]

Is there a longer-length highlight video of the Northwestern game? The only ones I've found are only about a minute long

EDIT - ESPN has some highlights HERE. Only big plays, though.