Beating Teams We "Should" Beat

[cm husker]

Nebraska had no starting veteran QB

...and Purdue had a redshirt freshman taking snaps, so that sort of cancels each other out.
I am not minimizing what Purdue did, but they aren't exactly the Monsters of the Midway.

A really good redshirt freshman, as it were.
All in all, we shouldn't have lost to Purdue. But I don't think that loss is as ugly or awful or low-point as, for example, the 2009 ISU loss. That Purdue team could easily be 5-4 the same way we could easily be 9-1.

This also made me LOL.

Did you watch the Purdue game? It wasn't as close as the score indicated. It was a disaster in play calling. Would have been similar to TO lining up Turman and having him throw the ball 50 times. Just utterly awful coaching job.

At least in '09 there were something like 8 turnovers, including a couple in the redzone, that caused that loss.

 

[cm husker]

The MSU game was a gift. I can't believe the MSU defender dropped the interception.

That would have been an excellent pick; just pulling out of coverage and getting in position for that play was impressive.

What surprised me was their secondary giving up two huge chunk plays to westerkamp. Three freshman starters in the secondary will do that, I guess.

 

[lo country]

No no no...look...the MSU win is great but lets not use that great feeling to start pretending like Purdue is a good team or even close to that term.

9 point dogs at home to a 3 win NU team. 5 wins in the last 3 years.

This is what we started to do with Wyoming a few years back..."Well that QB will be in the NFL...I bet they win 10 games this year...That WR is probably getting drafted in the 3rd round"

This. When we start to rationalize our losses..........

 

[brophog]

No no no...look...the MSU win is great but lets not use that great feeling to start pretending like Purdue is a good team or even close to that term.

9 point dogs at home to a 3 win NU team. 5 wins in the last 3 years.

This is what we started to do with Wyoming a few years back..."Well that QB will be in the NFL...I bet they win 10 games this year...That WR is probably getting drafted in the 3rd round"

This. When we start to rationalize our losses..........

Only fair. We rationalize the wins.

 

[Red Five]

The MSU game was a gift. I can't believe the MSU defender dropped the interception.

That would have been an excellent pick; just pulling out of coverage and getting in position for that play was impressive.

What surprised me was their secondary giving up two huge chunk plays to westerkamp. Three freshman starters in the secondary will do that, I guess.

Or Langsdorf did an excellent job of scouting the Sparty D and coached up Tommy on what to expect.

Ninety-one yards away. Fifty-five seconds to go. Yet Tommy Armstrong felt really good.

Mainly because he felt the Huskers knew exactly what Michigan State was going to show on defense.

"We knew exactly what we were going to run, how we were going to run it, who we were attacking before we even entered the game," Armstrong said Monday.

Junior wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp praised Michigan State for having a real good defense, full of ball hawks, but on that final series, the Spartans were in a defense that left them vulnerable in the middle of the field.

So NU ran Westerkamp on a post route for a 28-yard catch, then ran him on a post route again for a 33-yard gain.

It's something Husker offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf had told his players he felt would be there if such a critical drive arose.

"This is the play we're going to win it off of," Armstrong said Langsdorf told him. "It was. It was crazy. We got to the locker room and he was like, 'I told you, I told you. This is the play we're going to win off and it happened twice in a row.' He's a great coach. He prepared us well, we studied as much as we could. We dissected their defense as much as we could for that situation, and it was kind of funny, because we got into that same situation of what we thought we were going to get into."

http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/football/2015/red-report-armstrong-was-confident-how-nu-could-attack-msu/article_548c5c1c-27f9-5352-859a-136f455b6375.html

 

[Mierin]

No no no...look...the MSU win is great but lets not use that great feeling to start pretending like Purdue is a good team or even close to that term.

9 point dogs at home to a 3 win NU team. 5 wins in the last 3 years.

This is what we started to do with Wyoming a few years back..."Well that QB will be in the NFL...I bet they win 10 games this year...That WR is probably getting drafted in the 3rd round"

This. When we start to rationalize our losses..........

Only fair. We rationalize the wins.

Yup. We only won because Cook was off. So it doesn't count.

 

[74Hunter]

I fear MR will win just enough to keep his job. My prediction is we lose to at least one bad team every year, and we beat at least one top 20 team every year.

This is exactly what it will be.

1 or 2 big wins a year...2-3 weird losses a year.

Yeah, he'll give us false hope just like Billy C did in 05 and 06.
It'd be better to rip the band aid off and start fresh before he is able to drag us further into his abyss.

 

[74Hunter]

No no no...look...the MSU win is great but lets not use that great feeling to start pretending like Purdue is a good team or even close to that term.

9 point dogs at home to a 3 win NU team. 5 wins in the last 3 years.

This is what we started to do with Wyoming a few years back..."Well that QB will be in the NFL...I bet they win 10 games this year...That WR is probably getting drafted in the 3rd round"

This. When we start to rationalize our losses..........

Only fair. We rationalize the wins.

Yup. We only won because Cook was off. So it doesn't count.

Just like the only reason we beat Ohio in 2012 was because Miller got hurt.

 

[dergibog]

I remember that 92 ISU loss vividly. ISU ran for 373 yards that day against a No. 1 ranked Husker team that had just pounded CO and KU. They ran it through us to the point of comedy and ball controlled the game away.

An unforgettable loss, indeed.

But that loss is as responsible for Husker lore as any win. It's not that you lose, it's how you respond.

As I remember it, that was the only time an Osborne coached team lost to a team with a losing record. Iowa State finished 4-7 that year.

A freshman named Tommie Frazier started after that, and changed the Huskers' fortunes.

I vividly remember that loss. I was so depressed, I started growing a beard. After the Purdue loss, I started another beard. GBR!!!

 

[74Hunter]

I remember that 92 ISU loss vividly. ISU ran for 373 yards that day against a No. 1 ranked Husker team that had just pounded CO and KU. They ran it through us to the point of comedy and ball controlled the game away.

An unforgettable loss, indeed.
But that loss is as responsible for Husker lore as any win. It's not that you lose, it's how you respond.

As I remember it, that was the only time an Osborne coached team lost to a team with a losing record. Iowa State finished 4-7 that year.A freshman named Tommie Frazier started after that, and changed the Huskers' fortunes.

I vividly remember that loss. I was so depressed, I started growing a beard. After the Purdue loss, I started another beard. GBR!!!

Frazier started the ISU game in 92. His first start was against Mizzou that year.
Edit: we weren't ranked no. 1 when we lost that game, either.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I have a feeling some people are going to make this the most amazing Husker season ever...while others will rank it as the worst ever.

 

[InOmaha]

I have a feeling some people are going to make this the most amazing Husker season ever...while others will rank it as the worst ever.

That will be the players and coaches. If they pull out a 7-6 record with 2 top ten wins in 3 weeks and a bowl win versus going 4-8 and staying home.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I have a feeling some people are going to make this the most amazing Husker season ever...while others will rank it as the worst ever.

Interesting. I haven't seen or heard anyone claiming anything of the sorts is even possible.

 

[InOmaha]

If they get to 7 wins, I'll be amazed.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Tough week for good teams vs. teams they should beat.

Michigan shouldn't have needed two overtimes to beat Indiana.

How does TCU beat 0-10 Kansas by less than a touchdown?

Oklahoma State almost blew their playoff chances to Iowa State.

Clemson had its hands full with 3-7 Syracuse.

Purdue challenged Northwestern, much the way it did Michigan State, and Iowa had to hold on against Minnesota.

Arkansas probably should have challenged LSU, but sure wasn't expected to beat them by 17 in Baton Rouge.

College football parity doesn't mean everyone is 6-6, but almost any game can turn into a trap game.