What did we learn? Mich St version

[ColoradoHusk]

I’ve learned that fans still think the “rule” for punt returners to never field a punt inside the 10. This changed about 5-10 years ago when punters became too good at turning the nose over and not having the punt bounce into the end zone.

With Kemp not being any threat to run at all, I think he probably could have let some of those try to bounce in the end zone, but catching a punt at the 7 or 8 is pretty typical now. 

 

[lo country]

Nebraska makes offense look hard.  Nebraska makes passing the ball look hard.

Amazing how easy it can be watching other games today.

Some QB's look effortless......On most teams I have watched today.  Others and their respective team are on a whole other level.  

 

[Undone]

Our defense is the best part of this team, but also overhyped.  They've lucked out from bad drops in some previous games and they just don't create enough turnovers.

I was thinking about this. Our defense holding them to 20 points in a road game is definitely not terrible.

Our pass blocking at times was pretty bad and Haarberg was missing throws. For me this one was on the offense; gotta be able to average like 6 points per quarter at least.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I was thinking about this. Putting up 17 points on the road on offense at least isn't terrible. Our defense holding them to 20 points is also not terrible.

Our pass blocking at times was pretty bad and Haarberg was missing throws. For me this one was on the offense; gotta be able to average like 6 points per quarter at least.

The magic number for me and this offense is 20 points. At 20 or more, I feel good about NU winning. Anything less, that’s a big ask for the defense.  Plus, the field position the D needs to defend is impacted by special teams, which struggled today.

 

[UniversalMartin]

I honestly can't remember the last time NU had 2 QB's on its roster.  Maybe Keller/Ganz?  But Ganz only got the start because Keller broke his collar bone.  NU has had a history for years of getting QB1 as a Fresh and not needing to recruit another quality guy until QB1 was a senior.  We recruited a lot, but none that I recall were ever a threat to unseat he incumbent and there was always a pretty decent drop off from QB1 to QB2... 

Solid observation/fact

 

[UniversalMartin]

Nebraska makes offense look hard.  Nebraska makes passing the ball look hard.

Amazing how easy it can be watching other games today.

Awesome point...i get excited when we get 3 yards. I don't blame the coaches on this though, at least this year, we just lack basic players to make it go. We have some talented dudes on O to be clear, but there is no connection points to put it all together. It's like our O is playing with a basketball instead of a football...it's still a "ball" but it makes the game look awkward and glitchy.

 

[huskerfan333157]

Here's what I learned:  

Raiola needs to go but the other coaches are getting too much criticism.  Guys were wide open but HH missed them. We can't run the ball because our oline is horrible. Defenses will adjust if we always roll out and HH can't throw on the run anyways.  Plus do you actually expect our oline to magically be able to block well on rollouts when they can't block their assignments as is?

Defense played okay. We're playing well above our talent level, that's great coaching. They made stops when they needed to but offense didn't capitalize.  Defense still shouldn't be getting any criticism. 

 

[huskerfan74]

I learned that being in the BIG West helped us get some wins because the truth of the matter is that our offense cannot win games had we played teams with a pulse. We are not a good team and the cupboard is empty. Rhule is doing the best he can with what we have but we need to recruit talent on offense. Our entire offense is lackluster to say the least. Haarberg is not a QB that can lead this team to many wins. One might argue that Haarberg is not a QB. Next season will not be easy and unless we get some real talent in the offseason, we might not get 4 wins next year. 
 

let us face it, we all watched many games today and ours was the most boring and frustrating game. It is as if we are in a league of our own. Even Illinois played inspired football and beat Minnesota in their home.

 

[gossamorharpy]

I learned that being in the BIG West helped us get some wins because the truth of the matter is that our offense cannot win games had we played teams with a pulse. We are not a good team and the cupboard is empty. Rhule is doing the best he can with what we have but we need to recruit talent on offense. Our entire offense is lackluster to say the least. Haarberg is not a QB that can lead this team to many wins. One might argue that Haarberg is not a QB. Next season will not be easy and unless we get some real talent in the offseason, we might not get 4 wins next year. 
 

let us face it, we all watched many games today and ours was the most boring and frustrating game. It is as if we are in a league of our own. Even Illinois played inspired football and beat Minnesota in their home.

It sounds like you woke up today expecting a for sure win and finally learned we don’t have an offense. If you’ve paid attention at all, you wouldn’t be shocked- our offense has been garbage all year and has largely been boosted by our defense and timely turnovers. 
 

I get it, we lost, but you’re being ridiculous looking forward to next year. Schedule isn’t even that bad, outside of Ohio state there isn’t a game we’re a for sure loss in and that includes usc. 

 

[ColoradoHusk]

It sounds like you woke up today expecting a for sure win and finally learned we don’t have an offense. If you’ve paid attention at all, you wouldn’t be shocked- our offense has been garbage all year and has largely been boosted by our defense and timely turnovers. 
 

I get it, we lost, but you’re being ridiculous looking forward to next year. Schedule isn’t even that bad, outside of Ohio state there isn’t a game we’re a for sure loss in and that includes usc. 

The dude is a grump no matter what is going on with NU. 

 

[CheeseHusker]

Haarberg is not the guy. Sims is not the guy. The problem is "the guy" does not currently exist. There is nobody else.

The line is still terrible.

The special teams had an absolute dog. I don't really understand the point of using Kemp if we are just gonna Panico him. Field position was awful all day. The punter was terrible as well.

The officiating..... holy christ.

I kind of got the feeling Nebraska just expected to turn up today and win. At no point did they appear to match MSU's intensity, effort, or desire. It seemed like it was penciled in as an easy win.

And with the way this offense has been performing, no such words should ever be uttered.  Perhaps we can shut down the division talk, at least for a little while. They have to convince me they can beat Iowa and Wisconsin. Both are gettable, but so was this game today.

 

[UniversalMartin]

...
I kind of got the feeling Nebraska just expected to turn up today and win. At no point did they appear to match MSU's intensity, effort, or desire. It seemed like it was penciled in as an easy win...

For the non quoted parts of your post, I agree...but this quoted part, I just don't see where one could even get that take...we looked the same we have all season.. a good D and a s#!tty O...we are, and have been a 50/50 team against anyone that we are in a 60/40 or 40/60 percentage of winning/losing

 

[Mavric]

I’ve learned that fans still think the “rule” for punt returners to never field a punt inside the 10. This changed about 5-10 years ago when punters became too good at turning the nose over and not having the punt bounce into the end zone.

With Kemp not being any threat to run at all, I think he probably could have let some of those try to bounce in the end zone, but catching a punt at the 7 or 8 is pretty typical now. 

Except that we weren't catching them at the 7 or the 8.

And that's a lot more true when it's a high punt that is coming nearly straight down.  Those were line drives that were almost assuredly going into the end zone.

 

[Mavric]

These refs were so against us that they called 0 penalties on Nebraska!

The refs aren't against us.  Technically they don't call penalties, they call fouls.  They called fouls against us but the penalties were declined.

They are going to miss calls but usually they kind of even out.  Sure, occasionally there's a big one near the end of a game that seems to really decide it but there are usually others during the game that went the other way.

But there were multiple calls that were questionable at best and more likely than not wrong and they almost all went against us today.  We didn't deserve to win but we still might have if they would have evened out a little more.

 

[Wistrom Disciple]

Here's what I learned:  

Raiola needs to go but the other coaches are getting too much criticism.  Guys were wide open but HH missed them. We can't run the ball because our oline is horrible. Defenses will adjust if we always roll out and HH can't throw on the run anyways.  Plus do you actually expect our oline to magically be able to block well on rollouts when they can't block their assignments as is?

Defense played okay. We're playing well above our talent level, that's great coaching. They made stops when they needed to but offense didn't capitalize.  Defense still shouldn't be getting any criticism. 

Disagree, with nearly your entire post.

The line did enough for us to win today. When the QB behind them can't consistently complete passes to wide open receivers or can't sense where they are in the pocket, the line is doomed. I don't exactly know what the fans calling for Raiola's job are expecting, but most teams need years of schematic continuity and player development to be among the best. If you can't see progress this year over last, I don't know what to tell you. The development of Justin Evans-Jenkins appears to be a solid example of Raiola's work which is encouraging. 

Entering today we were 25th in the country in rushing yards per game and 21st in rushing yards per attempt. 

Defense should receive criticism when warranted. They were slightly above average today, far from excellent. Our inability to get turnovers is the next big hurdle for the team needs to overcome to move towards that elite status.