What did we learn Illinois edition

Bottom line, we are overrated. This loss falls squarely on team effort from coaches to players. I can point to at least 10 plays that could have changed the outcome of the game and none of them a ref-related. I am not saying the refs did a good job, they sucked for sure, but they didn’t cost us this game. 
 

Frankly, if we end the season with any record better than 6-6, I call that progress. Sadly, the past two decades have taught us to settle. And to think that we did not like it when we were getting 9 win seasons. You would think that having one of the most promising QBs in the nation, our coaches would be able to pull a win AT HOME against an OK Illinois team.

 
huskerfan74 said:
Bottom line, we are overrated. This loss falls squarely on team effort from coaches to players. I can point to at least 10 plays that could have changed the outcome of the game and none of them a ref-related. I am not saying the refs did a good job, they sucked for sure, but they didn’t cost us this game. 
 

Frankly, if we end the season with any record better than 6-6, I call that progress. Sadly, the past two decades have taught us to settle. And to think that we did not like it when we were getting 9 win seasons. You would think that having one of the most promising QBs in the nation, our coaches would be able to pull a win AT HOME against an OK Illinois team.
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I'm far from a glass half full guy, several OG board members can confirm.

But we're 4 games into the season, I'm not sure we're really know what this team is really gonna look like until we go to the 'shoe.

 
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Undone said:
So it's 3rd & 3 on their 21 with 3:13 left to go in the game. Illinois has burned one timeout already. What you really want is to get that first down with high percentage plays and drain the clock.

If you don't have faith in your kicker, isn't it 4 down territory? And if it's 4 down territory, don't you want to run on 3rd?
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And obviously we will never know. But I’m guessing Illinois planned to play it defensively like that. And, if we are being honest, we hadn’t shown all game we could dominate the LOS. So I’m guessing the conservative run up middle in 3rd gets us 1 yard.  Now we are 4th and two. In our stadium, with our crowd, I’d like to think that’s at least 60% conversion chance for us. But if we fail we lose. 
 

But I’d also like to think it’s an 80% field goal chance for even our inept kicker. But if we fail we lose. 
 

So I can see a scenario where you take chance at a pass play that you feel strongly has a 50ish percent chance of getting you a new set of downs and locking up the clock. Hoping to run up the middle the rest of the game and kick the 20 yard field goal from kickers choice of hash as your worst case. Slight higher risk out the gate but much higher reward.  

 

 
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walksalone said:
I'm far from a glass half full guy, several OG board members can confirm.

But we're 4 games into the season, I'm not sure we're really know what this team is really gonna look like until we go to the 'shoe.
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People overreact after a loss. It’s hard to say how good Illinois is. We’ll know what kind of team this is after the next 3 games. 

Also, people don’t tend to be good at judging what a 20-30 ranked team actually looks like. If Illinois is in the top 20-30 best teams, we probably are too. Time will tell. 

 
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floridacorn said:
I've only seen one angle of this replay, but it seems to me incomplete was an option not even considered.  That DB pulled the ball out with his right hand, but after the ball comes free & both players are on the ground, Neyor has his right hand trapped, & he comes up with the ball in his left.  Unless the ball is trapped between them, he scooped it off the turf. 
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But, the ball never touched the ground so it’s not incomplete.  Someone caught it. 

 
presidentjlh said:
What really frustrates me the most are the penalties. We’ve had this problem for decades now. When does it stop?
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Since there are no consequences for those who commit stupid penalties, it will never end. It is about discipline, and our coaches don’t seem to focus on that. Just like they don’t seem to think that special teams matter. We should try and recruit the best kicker available and the best special teams coach. Since that does not seem to be a priority, we will continue to be one of the most penalized teams in FBS and our special teams will continue to be non-special.

 
Jason Sitoke said:
You did watch the 4th quarter, correct?  Nothing was easy for the OL late in the game. 
 

Saying that a fullback is unlikely to catch a ball thrown accurately is conjecture. What is unlikely?  < 50%?

Every thing we were doing to move down the field in the 4th quarter was via the pass. That’s why I’m ok with it. And those of you being honest would agree if you had a slow white dude with no one within the zip code running down the field with raiola delivering the ball…it’s a good play. 
 

it didn’t work out…it sucks…but the result doesn’t mean the play should be ripped out of the playbook and burned in effigy. 
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It was unlikely because the chances of your fullback catching a 32 yard deep post play is low. I'd say this is evidenced by the thousands of games I've seen where the fullback is not asked to run a 32 yard deep post. It's hard to execute, hard to throw to, and even in perfect conditions - like it was - may not work. 

HuskersNC949597 said:
It's also not Lindenmeyer's fault the ball was overthrown.

Back to the claim they should have run the ball, Illinois had 6 men across the line and 4 more within 5 yards of the LOS. Yeah, I don't know about running it there.

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They have two chances. The beauty is if you don't make it you can take 40 more seconds off the clock and try again. You can even pass on 4th down if you want too, but you can shrink the game. Just because the other team is expecting a running play doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Satterfield is really bad about understanding this. 

 
Special teams needs to be a big focus.  It's almost a coin flip to make a field goal and a lot of leaky yards on returns.  The team can't have that with the small margins between winning and losing in conference.  Tackling needs to be better as well as focus and discipline to avoid penalties.  Like it always is in the Big Ten, 'Husker depth will be tested.

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
It was unlikely because the chances of your fullback catching a 32 yard deep post play is low. I'd say this is evidenced by the thousands of games I've seen where the fullback is not asked to run a 32 yard deep post. It's hard to execute, hard to throw to, and even in perfect conditions - like it was - may not work. 

They have two chances. The beauty is if you don't make it you can take 40 more seconds off the clock and try again. You can even pass on 4th down if you want too, but you can shrink the game. Just because the other team is expecting a running play doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Satterfield is really bad about understanding this. 
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I don’t really follow you on this. What ended up being unlikely was a Nebraska running play being successful. 7 rushing yards in the 2nd half 

 
knapplc said:
I said we should be able to discuss the refereeing when it's warranted.
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Ok, let’s talk about it.  I think the reffing was bad both ways, just like a normal B1G game.  This game probably more calls went against us, but we tend to more see the missed calls one way because we are NU fans.  I think there was a missed PI in the end zone.  I think both the interception in the end zone and the non-late hit penalty were good calls.

But as @Jason Sitoke said, what’s the conclusion here?  Do we say our record is 3-0-1, 3 wins, 0 losses, 1 ref screwage?

knapplc said:
Nebraska went a year without a holding call called on our opponents in Big Ten play. That's not only statistically improbable, it's almost certainly intentional.
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So reading this last sentence it sounds to me like you think there is some conspiracy against Nebraska? If so, how does that work?

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
It was unlikely because the chances of your fullback catching a 32 yard deep post play is low. I'd say this is evidenced by the thousands of games I've seen where the fullback is not asked to run a 32 yard deep post. It's hard to execute, hard to throw to, and even in perfect conditions - like it was - may not work
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I gotta push back here on things you said.   While it’s correct that a fullback catching a long pass is anything but guaranteed, that play up until the throw and catch was executed well (the player was WIDE OPEN) and that throw is easy to make.  Im quite certain DR would say the same thing.  
 

I think your original point does have some merit though that a player who hardly plays and rarely catches passes is the one going deep.  Why not a Carter or Thomas or even Bonner lined up in that spot 

 
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