What did we learn? - Game 1 - Colorado

I learned that a proper S&C program is ESSENTIAL to building a strong program. First time I've seen our guys consistently win the battle @ the LOS against a decent P-5 in a long time; on both sides...

Yesterday's loss was very encouraging for me. The "team" play was very good.... unfortunately, we just had to many "individual" mistakes (2 fumbles; two HUGE drops, the PF penalty late, AM's int.)

 
I learned that we still committ way too many costly penalties.

Some of our players do not play smart football at all.

We should have won this game.

If Martinez can’t go next week, we are not going to win many games.

We should not have many expectations this year as we will be disappointed. The coaches still have to teach Riley’s players good smart football free from stupid mistakes and penalties.

When your opponent is facing 3 and 24 with less than 2 minutes in the game and you bail them out, you don’t deserve to win.

On the upside, I think we are heading in the right direction. We just need to be patient. 

 
JJ Husker said:
I may have more things after I watch the game on DVR but from being in the stadium I learned that this team will play football and they are going to be exciting to watch. Sure there were some (plenty) of mistakes, turnovers, drops etc. but for the most part they looked considerably improved in all phases of play and coaching. As much as I hate losing, especially to CU, I can accept it when it comes with obvious effort and heart. This team exhibited that they are young and have much work to do but this is light years ahead of where we've been with the last 3 coaching staffs. I liked what I saw.

From this thread I learned that we have some fickle fans who have their head so far up their a$$ that the only thing that matters to them is the final score and damn the obviously improved product on the field 
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Ya, especially the ones saying "The season is lost..."

I'm like, "...we're one damn game into this season!"

We might be be 5-7 or 6-6 by season's end.  We could be better than that or potentially worse.  But I'm not ready to say the season is lost until we get to November at least and can't get enough wins at that point to even make a bowl game.  Then ya, the can be considered lost and at that point, start building for next year.  But let's give Coach Frost, his coaches, and these players the benefit of the doubt.

 
The team effort was impressive against a good offensive team in game one. Winning 6 games plus will depend largely on the health of QB's. I think Bunch can win us some  games until Martinez comes back which I think he will. The lost sucks, but the improvement from last year is clearly evident. even now I  think we will see substantial  improvement in multiple areas against Troy next week Let's keep the faith. Frost is a great coach and I only see us trending upwards moving forward. No one except maybe Ohio state will dominate us this year IMHO.

 
Normally after a game like that I'd start a thread and type out a long somber post that got some cheap upvotes.  It just doesn't feel right though, even a couple days later.

10/28/17

That's the last time Nebraska left the field the victor....against Purdue.  Before anyone thinks I'm going to say the sky is falling. not so fast my friend.

We get dealt a rough hand in week 1 and the dealer flubbed a card and we had to scrap the whole game.  Turns out we needed that pretty badly.  We allow ourselves to go down 0-14, they miss a couple field goals, a bone headed penalty that could have sealed the game and here we are yet again.  Wallowing after another loss.  It's become our identity.  But things are finally different my friends.

Saturday, watching us battle tooth and nail every play, I felt something I had not felt since right before we pissed it away to BYU.  It was emotion.  It was investment.  It was excitement.  Overall though, it was the thrill of fandom.  How much more fun was watching THAT team play vs the last 3 squads we have watched limp out tail between their legs beaten before the whistle?! This team plays hard.  This team plays with desire.  This team WANTS to win ball games.  I never thought I'd see a team less interested in winning but that's what we had a year ago.  Not now, not again....ever.

I'm calling my shot now.  We take down Troy big.  Then, we go into Ann Arbor and beat Michigan.  We may only win 6 or 7 on the year, we're already in a hole.  But this team WANTS to win games.  You can't put a price tag on that.  Go Big Red.

 
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I learned that this is going to be a fun season. Last year was the first time in my life where I didn't care if I missed a Husker game or not. We also have an identity for the first time in what seems like an eternity. Love the aggressive play, love the commitment to the run game, love how we have Adrian Martinez on our campus and not Tennessee's. Sure we didn't win the game, but this season was never about wins or losses it was about improving from what we were before. And if game 1 is any indication, we are going to be a really really good team by the end of the year and a scary team for anyone to face next season. We've been hearing over the years that teams aren't scared to play Nebraska and expect to walk all over us. You start sacking the quarterback seven times and run for over 300 yards then teams will begin to fear us again.

The penalties and turnovers will fix themselves, it was our first game for crying out loud. The foundation is strong though, and I'm excited for the future. 

 
D Line was certainly impressive. How nice was it to see the pocket consistently collapse on an opposing QB? I think that kind of pressure and multiple sacks will rattle lesser QBs. Montez is a gamer and probably one of the better QBs we'll see this year. 

 
Aside from Martinez getting hurt, this is probably the best I've felt about a Nebraska loss in a long, long time.

Three positive takeaways:

- The defensive line and front seven played very well, particularly in passing situations. They exceeded my expectations. They've already had half of the total number of sacks the team had in all of 2017.

- AM is the real deal and they've got some great weapons offensively. It's going to come down to consistency and better ball security but my, oh my. Their trajectory is incredibly positive.

- This team plays with passion and fire, even though they're not where they need to be. They give a damn. You can see it in their play, aggressiveness and sideline demeanor. They're also tough and very well conditioned by my eye test.

Three negative takeaways:

- Ball security. Huge, huge issue this game, which goes without saying. AM accounted for two himself. That was pretty disappointing.

- 3rd down defense was inconsistent. They had some big stops in the 2nd and 3rd quarter, but the 3rd downs they did give up were absolute daggers later in the game.

- Penalties. Say what you will about the refs, but most of the calls I saw seemed pretty spot on. You can't give the refs a reason to take the game out of your hands and the team did that a little too much Saturday.

In the end, what often loses games? Turnovers and penalties. Nebraska didn't do well enough there despite their aggressiveness. These things will get better as the team gets more comfortable with what they're doing, but we'll have to see how long that takes.

 
Redux said:
Normally after a game like that I'd start a thread and type out a long somber post that got some cheap upvotes.  It just doesn't feel right though, even a couple days later.

10/28/17

That's the last time Nebraska left the field the victor....against Purdue.  Before anyone thinks I'm going to say the sky is falling. not so fast my friend.

We get dealt a rough hand in week 1 and the dealer flubbed a card and we had to scrap the whole game.  Turns out we needed that pretty badly.  We allow ourselves to go down 0-14, they miss a couple field goals, a bone headed penalty that could have sealed the game and here we are yet again.  Wallowing after another loss.  It's become our identity.  But things are finally different my friends.

Saturday, watching us battle tooth and nail every play, I felt something I had not felt since right before we pissed it away to BYU.  It was emotion.  It was investment.  It was excitement.  Overall though, it was the thrill of fandom.  How much more fun was watching THAT team play vs the last 3 squads we have watched limp out tail between their legs beaten before the whistle?! This team plays hard.  This team plays with desire.  This team WANTS to win ball games.  I never thought I'd see a team less interested in winning but that's what we had a year ago.  Not now, not again....ever.

I'm calling my shot now.  We take down Troy big.  Then, we go into Ann Arbor and beat Michigan.  We may only win 6 or 7 on the year, we're already in a hole.  But this team WANTS to win games.  You can't put a price tag on that.  Go Big Red.
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Couldnt agree more. yes we lost but almost every phase across the game was improved from what we have seen. Sure we have lots to clean up- but its the first game and we played ALOT of young guys. Freshman are going to make mistakes. 

Everyone needs to chill out who is stressed because we didnt win 70-0 our first game. Go back and look at current iconic coaches in their first season taking over a historical program who had fallen on hard times. I will pick the only 2 recent ones I can think of. Nick Saban went 7-6 overall- 4-4 in SEC. Pete Carroll went 5-7. Point being- struggling in year 1 reflects nothing on Frost. The team passed the eyeball test in game 1 as far as the direction of the team.

 
This loss was not a result of lack of effort or crappy schemes, which is what we had gotten used to. The loss was largely due to sloppiness and mental errors, which are correctable and probably could have been partially cleaned up if we had been able to tune up against Akron. If anything, many of the mistakes we saw on Saturday came from young kids trying too hard. Over the past three years, I don't think we would have accused the team or the staff of that particular trait.

 
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