What did we learn South Alabama?

ColoradoHusk said:
Honestly, South Alabama could have a better defense (especially the d-line) than Colorado.  CU's D looked horrendous last night.
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This is very possible. CU's D was virtually non-existent last night but so was CSU's, and CU's offense appeared quite a bit better than S. Bama. I hate to do too much comparing or to put too much stock in the first game of the season but I do know our offense is going to have to function much better and our D is in for a stiffer test.

ColoradoHusk said:
I may be in the minority, but today's offensive performance may turn out to be a good thing for the unit.  The o-line should improve, as they gain more experience.  Martinez's performance should be a good learning tool for him.  There were a few plays where he was trying to force the ball into Wandale or Washington, instead of going through his reads.  Mike'l Severe tweeted that Spielman was open on a number of plays.  Spielman is NU's best WR, and he wasn't targeted very often.  The coaches will show that to Martinez and the performance should improve.  The other WR's will need to continue to read coverage and find spots in the zone for Martinez.
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I also think not steamrolling USA could pay some pretty quick dividends. All we've heard for the last months (and therefore also the players) is high praise and talk of contending at the top of the division and conference. This may have been a very good time for this type of wakeup call. I don't know if the players were buying into the hype or not but it sure did seem like they weren't as hungry as they'll need to be.

 
JJ Husker said:
This is very possible. CU's D was virtually non-existent last night but so was CSU's, and CU's offense appeared quite a bit better than S. Bama. I hate to do too much comparing or to put too much stock in the first game of the season but I do know our offense is going to have to function much better and our D is in for a stiffer test.

I also think not steamrolling USA could pay some pretty quick dividends. All we've heard for the last months (and therefore also the players) is high praise and talk of contending at the top of the division and conference. This may have been a very good time for this type of wakeup call. I don't know if the players were buying into the hype or not but it sure did seem like they weren't as hungry as they'll need to be.
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Comparisons based on one game are generally not a good idea, and I agree with you. CU’s offense still looked very good last night. I’m hoping it was due to CSU’s defense being terrible. NU’s offense will have to play a lot better if the game turns into a shootout. 

 
There may have been too much preseason hype.

There is definitely too much overreaction to our 14 point win. 

How the rest of the season goes? No idea. I think you can take precisely zip away from this game. 

This is a rhythm offense, and there was a lot of stuff in this particular game to gum up the rhythm. The high snaps. The turnovers. Not even touching the ball most of the third quarter. The very different styles of Mills vs. Washington, thrown off by Washington's momentum killing fumble. A fourth quarter spent just trying to get off the field. 

That successful first drive was no less "vanilla" than subsequent drives. It was just more successful. This same offense will be more successful in coming games, and this same Adrian Martinez is going to have some great games. 

In the long history of Husker QB suckage, Martinez' 13 - 22, 178 yard 1 INT performance doesn't come close. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
There may have been too much preseason hype.

There is definitely too much overreaction to our 14 point win. 

How the rest of the season goes? No idea. I think you can take precisely zip away from this game. 

This is a rhythm offense, and there was a lot of stuff in this particular game to gum up the rhythm. The high snaps. The turnovers. Not even touching the ball most of the third quarter. The very different styles of Mills vs. Washington, thrown off by Washington's momentum killing fumble. A fourth quarter spent just trying to get off the field. 

That successful first drive was no less "vanilla" than subsequent drives. It was just more successful. This same offense will be more successful in coming games, and this same Adrian Martinez is going to have some great games. 

In the long history of Husker QB suckage, Martinez' 13 - 22, 178 yard 1 INT performance doesn't come close. 
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Mills fumbled, not Mo, but the rest of the post is spot on. 

 
The offensive line play was weak and therefore the run game never really got established.  Martinez did not have his best game.  Overall, very concerned that the offensive line is not good enough.

The defense played better than I expected but the pass defense had big holes despite the intercepts.  I think this may have been a result of playing a lot of zone. Overall, I am happy to see they are playing much better.

Concerned that the second stringers seemed to outplay the players they came in for.  Didn’t the coaches see this in practice?

I watched the the Colorado game.  They are much better than South Alabama.  The Huskers will need to play much better to beat them.  We can’t rely on Pick 6’s and fumble TD scores to win every week.  The Blackshirts will give up some scores this year and the Offense must score big on their own each game to get the win.

 
r06ue1 said:
7 - 5 seems a bit high for my pick, hope I'm wrong.  

Negatives:  

1.  The offense after the first series.  

2.  Turnovers.  

Positives:  

1.  Defense forcing turnovers and scoring.  

2.  Special teams (other than the fumbled return).  

3.  We didn't show Colorado anything on offense, hope that was by design.  
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I always thought that. For the past like 15 years.  I finally realized that what we showed was what we were.  We had no secret awesome sauce, no hell to unleash.  Vanilla and crappy was the best we had to offer.  Now with Frost's comments above, I'd say he went in as vanilla  and bare bones as possible. By design to add as we go along and not show our hand too soon.  He put nothing useful on film for anyone except for our own guys to see blown plays and missed assignments.  The OL getting beat like  a drum, Martinez playing far below his abilities and miscues ie TO's, high snaps, issues with Mo etc caused some issues that I am sure he didn't anticipate.  Not having the complete game plan, you go with what you have.  The D stepped up and did nothing different save actually play much better and get the TO's. No exotic blitzes or formations.  They just made plays.  IMHO, had we made half of the tackles we missed, a lot of the discussions become moot.  The game isn't close.  

IMHO, Frost felt the O had enough in the tank to win.  It didn't and the D did what it was built to do.  Got the TO's and made the stops.  

I still think Martinez has something going on.  I used the word earlier in this thread that he looked apathetic when playing today.  Unusual for him.  Like he didn't have that competitive drive going.  Just my .02

 
I'm not down on this team like some people. I'm frustrated by the offense, but I think that will get cleaned up.

This is exactly the type of game that we would have lost in years past, but instead we won it. I know that the game was close at times, but it never had that out of control feel. USA took advantage of good field position and turnovers to keep it close, but they weren't running roughshod over the D. In fact, they were like 5/13 on 3rd down. The defense played well without any help from the offense. Early on I thought they tried to prove too much and over played, but they settled in and I think that'll continue on this season. 

Martinez certainly had a poor game, but he's a great player and he'll fix it. The o line is a concern, but it improved over last season and I think it can again. Practice and games are different animals and we needed a game to figure that out. 

Honestly the fact that we won this game is a good sign. The team is learning how to win in the face of adversity and we haven't don't that for years. 

We have a lot of things to clean up there is no denying that, but we got a win and learned a lot as a team. Frost and co will make adjustments and clean things up. I'm still excited for this year. 

 
HIHusker said:
That's why I said 'might', but you are right.  I'm with the optimist fans that we had a bit of first game jitters/youth.  That being said, we have to get out sh*t together asap.  We have a very favorable schedule this year, might as well take advantage.  I pray that we show up as world beaters in Boulder.  Losing to them anywhere, anytime is almost the worst (see Texas for that).  Too much reliance on either the D or O for entire stretches of the season will be a problem.  No more 2009's please, thank you.  Game ball goes to the D and Spielman today.  Jurgens is young but his performance today was unacceptable. 
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Robinson also had a good game

 
A surprisingly frustrating game, but that may be a good thing. I trust the coaches and players will take a good look at this game and work to fix what went on.

Mainly concerned with the offensive line. The run game didn't get going and I think that gave So Alabama some momentum and belief. A lot of reasons for that, the high snaps, personnel available (Mills isn't a run side to side guy). I'm not as concerned with Adrian, he looked tense like he was over thinking things. He should just go out and play. Football is fun, and he didn't look like he was having fun. 

defense played really well. So Alabama's scores came from short fields. Everything else was mostly snuffed out. Tackling can improve, but I thought it was a good start.

 
And...a win is a win. We didn't win until October last year, so it's nice to start off 1-0, even when we didn't give our best shot and received a better than average shot from our opponent. 

on to Colorado, let's hope we see a different offense.

 
It'sNotAFakeID said:
And...a win is a win. We didn't win until October last year, so it's nice to start off 1-0, even when we didn't give our best shot and received a better than average shot from our opponent. 

on to Colorado, let's hope we see a different offense.
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Hate it when iowa fans troll our board.

 
KCBuc said:
NU is not athletic.
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This is just totally inaccurate. In terms of high school recruiting rankings, there's probably more talent at the skill positions on this team than any team since either '99 or '01. 

Our problem in this game was at center and left guard. Both of those spots got blown up the entire game. South Alabama comes in and knows the only chance they have at winning is stacking the box with 8 guys all game. In turn, Frost wants to try to get some practice time in on the inside zone running plays but we just didn't have the push on the offensive line to make it work.

This offense was at its best last season when Frost called the wide receiver screens from the very first offensive series; it spreads the defense out and softens up the interior for the run game. But that just wasn't going to be the game plan in this one.

As our left guard & center spots get more reps this offense is going to be just as good or better than last year. Book it. Wan'dale already has me convinced that he pretty much fills in for Morgan - teams have to decide whether they're going to double team him or JD. Pick your poison because our offense is going to be great this season.

 
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We lost this game the last 2 years. Anything about the offense has been said many times in this thread. O-Line needs to get better and they just didn't have the opportunity in the 2nd half to get into a rhythm with the D touchdowns and ST touchdowns. Jurgeons wasn't ready to play, snapping too high and getting beat (though getting beat wasn't limited to him). CBs and Lee played out and Chin called some great blitzes that lead to 2 strip sacks and a TD.

 
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