Where's Wilbon? Here's where...

[Blackshirt96]

If Wilbon cannot block then he is a liablity & I understand why he is not playing. This should be pretty understandable. For those who are saying just put him in for a run play. What happens if Armstrong needs to audible to a pass? My guess would be pass protection is keeping him out of the game & his abilty to catch is a secondary reason.

 

[gobiggergoredder]

Wow...just wow.

Yep, that's right. Don't put him in on 3rd and 18, do put him in on 3rd and 2...with a fullback...and Armstrong at QB...and Reilly hard in motion...but then you say you have it all figured out, right?

I see Shawn Watson has left his mark in Huskerland. Too many people want to play chess and not football.

Now, do you have anything to say that either makes or refutes a point?...

...or are you going to stick with this standard stock answer that tries to substitute catty feigned smugness for meaningful dialogue?

Make him the 3rd and 2 back. He can take over that role. They don't even use Cross for it anymore.

I once sat behind a husker fan at an Iowa State game that said "I don't understand why they don't just run for 4 yards on first down, then 4 yards on second down and then all they have to do is get 2 yards on third down".

Ignore 275 other aspects of the game and the narrow focus will start to take shape.

 

[suh_fan93]

I agree there a ton of variations, but if a back can hit the right hole and has the ability to read defenses he should play. He has shown he can do that, so I doubt it is scheme related. It very well could be, though I'm guessing it is something else.

It's a joke is what it is.

 

[The Dude]

I'm not sure what Wilbon has done to warrant all this attention. Why not Graham Nabity?

Screw your Graham Nabity elitism. Team Jordan Nelson, all the way. That dude showed me some things in the Spring Game.

Wilbon - 2.3 ypcNabity - 2.3 ypc

Nelson - 5.7 ypc

You may be onto something here.

 

[BIG ERN]

Perfect running lane and he keeps wanting to bounce it outside. Seen this a few times on Saturday

 

[Warrior10]

Perfect running lane and he keeps wanting to bounce it outside. Seen this a few times on Saturday

Eh, 11 or 92 is hitting him at the line. But if Cotton? on the edge holds his block Kondolo/Gates probably keep driving out and there's a nice lane he could hit.

 

[BIG ERN]

Perfect running lane and he keeps wanting to bounce it outside. Seen this a few times on Saturday

Eh, 11 or 92 is hitting him at the line. But if Cotton? on the edge holds his block Kondolo/Gates probably keep driving out and there's a nice lane he could hit.

If he hit the hole already 92 and 11 would be 5 yards behind him. The DE for So. Miss did his job to stretch the play out and Newby ran right into his arms.

 

[thatguy]

Perfect running lane and he keeps wanting to bounce it outside. Seen this a few times on Saturday

Eh, 11 or 92 is hitting him at the line. But if Cotton? on the edge holds his block Kondolo/Gates probably keep driving out and there's a nice lane he could hit.

at that point, if he tried to cutback, yes. but he could have hit that hole hard to begin with and he would have had 7 yards before anyone touched him.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Perfect running lane and he keeps wanting to bounce it outside. Seen this a few times on Saturday

Eh, 11 or 92 is hitting him at the line. But if Cotton? on the edge holds his block Kondolo/Gates probably keep driving out and there's a nice lane he could hit.

at that point, if he tried to cutback, yes. but he could have hit that hole hard to begin with and he would have had 7 yards before anyone touched him.

That depends on the positions of #70 (and the players he is blocking and the Nebraska player on his knees (and the players he is blocking). The problem with just looking at a picture in this situation is, you don't know how this play looked a split second sooner.

 

[QMany]

I think Mavric did three screenshots of this play, but I'm having trouble finding it now ...

 

[Warrior10]

Ya I'd like to see multiple screenshots or live video before I could assume anything really.

 

[Mavric]

I haven't done any screenshots for SMiss yet but here's the video:




My take: He definitely should have cut up instead of hesitating but it's not as obvious as it looks like from the screen grab posted earlier. The hole didn't start to open up until Newby was past it so it was pretty tough to see. Also, we run too much of this straight forward, slow developing outside zone play.

Edit: for some reason I can't get the video to jump to the exact spot. The play is right after the replay.

 

[True2tRA]

If Wilbon cannot block then he is a liablity & I understand why he is not playing. This should be pretty understandable. For those who are saying just put him in for a run play. What happens if Armstrong needs to audible to a pass? My guess would be pass protection is keeping him out of the game & his abilty to catch is a secondary reason.

We run the ball into blitzing defenses all the time. Just like every other team on the planet. You don't audible to a passing play every time a defense shows blitz.

When run is called, there's no reason Wilbon shouldn't be out there. Unless of course, there is a reason and we aren't being told about it, which I believe is the case.

 

[Bowfin]

Ignore 275 other aspects of the game and the narrow focus will start to take shape

Ignore the 274 aspects of the game that are largely irrelevant and pick an I back that has the best running ability.

The reason Nebraska has to focus so much on the RB's ability to pass block might be because they have difficulty finding running plays that consistently leaves them in "second and manageable" or "third and short", making almost every third down (and half of the second downs) a passing down. If one could start to pick up chunks of yardage by running the ball, then the running back's pass blocking abilities is now filed under "who cares?"

However, I don't have to answer for the success of this team, so Riley and company should do what they believe will get them in the Championship Game and let history be their judge, not me.

 

[True2tRA]

Good find on that play above. There were multiple examples of Newby doing that, but that one I specifically remember during the game.

Three things about Newby:

Too much hesitation.

Tackled too easily.

He seems to run straight at defenders and try to juke, instead of running into the lanes that have opened up.

I'm not a big fan of this kid, and that's my right. I like Wilbon better.