The Reason We Lost

The game was lost due to Nebraska not getting touchdowns in the red zone. Hold any team to 16 points and you should win. This game is on the offense and NOT the defense even though the blown coverage at the end was heartbreaking. I still cannot tell how good Nebraska is. Lee looked shaky, Helu looked like a beast, and I couldn't tell if the defense was doing so well due to their talent or the lack of talent at the VT QB position.

 
Don't forget Lee's inconsistency. If he hits gillyen wide open instead of flying out of bounds we score a td. He missed guys all day.

 
You changed my mind HuskerX. Maybe too many Solich and Callahan years have converted my thinking. We should've taken the game. I guess I just felt more comfortable all game long when our D was on the field. Offense scared me anytime Helu didn't have the ball in his hands.

 
In the grand scheme, this WILL do Nebraska good. You cannot duplicate a hostile environment like lane Stadium. As much as this feeling blows, Zac will eventually be better for this. Til then, beat up on ULL and get ready for the trip to Columbia. THAT will be the test.

 
Taylor should have been sacked on both of those pass completions on the last drive.

Zac Lee played horridly all day long. Cody Green probably would not have done any better. That pass to Gilleylen was a huge missed opportunity.

I can't believe the defensive effort. I don't think the decision to punt on 4th and 1 is the reason we lost. That game was there for the defense to win. I don't blame Bo for the decision.

I don't think the wasted timeouts made any difference.

That's all. This loss sucks. We have one of these games every year it seems.

 
Husker_x said:
Apologies for the offense.

But while I know that punting the ball was the 'smart call,' here's the problem. Two, actually. The first one––and I'll even say the moot one––is you run the risk of popping in the end zone anyway and you move the ball twenty yards. Didn't happen that way. Maybe it would have been better if it did. Who knows.

Second, and this is the important one, is this. There comes a time when this team, this program, needs to believe that it can TAKE victory. 4th and 1 in opposing territory? We're Nebraska for heaven's sake. If you want a program that's dominant, it starts with believing that you can get one piddly yard when the biggest game of Pelini's Nebraska career. Sure its risky. Sure it's going to look terrible if it fails. But you know what? Tom Osborne went for two when he could have kicked the field goal and won the championship by default. That was the Nebraska that would have won today.

This defense did everything it could to hand Watson and Co the game on a silver platter. We obliterated Virginia Tech on the field today. And then when the moment game to power through for one more yard when that defense was so tired they could barely stand straight, we pussied out and put fate back into Virginia Tech's hands.

The coaching flaws didn't stop with that call. The timeouts, the penalties, substitution errors, offensive scheme, WR coaching––all failed today. But the fact was we were one yard from beating a team this program NEEDED to beat. And we chickened out in the moment of truth.
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Not a problem on the first thing. I know emotions are high and things get said that we shouldn't say. At least the FIRE PELINI threads haven't popped up yet. :)

In that situation, it's almost a guarantee, save for a complete ST breakdown that you will get the ball at around the 10 or inside. Reason being is your punter is skying that punt giving your coverage team extra time to cover the punt. That punting situation isn't meant to pin them inside the 2-3 yard line as you may do early in the game, but just meant to pin them safely as far back as possible, which we did.

But you could say the same thing for the defense. You get to show the team how much you really believe in the defense, the 'Blackshirts' and give them one more opportunity to flex their muscle. Flows both ways there.

That sounds almost as if you are getting on Watson for not being able to score enough. But yet in the last 2 years, how many times has Watson's offense saved our rear end? Like the Clemson game and his adjustments to get our offense rolling? The Colorado game when our defense could not stop Cody Hawkins? The Kansas game? There will be just as many times where we are in the opposite situation than we was today. But I also understand people are frustrated and looking for anyone to blame they possibly can. But I do find some humor in people getting after Watson for one game after everything he has done in the past few years.

You can call that whatever you will. The reality of it is, no matter what Pelini calls in that situation, he was getting grief, unless of course it actually worked. Even more, one blown coverage and no one cares. We all say it was the right call to put it back on our defense, they had did their job all day .. yadda yadda yadda. After the fact doesn't help anything more than cause un-needed controversy.

 
What Nebraska quarterback did not struggle in his first few games? Didn't Tommie stink it up for a while? Our defense played nearly lights out for all but one or two plays. Let's go win the North and give OK/TX/OSU/BU a run for their money in December.

 
BigWillie said:
Husker_x said:
Respectfully disagree. We had all the momentum. Bo had his foot on Beamer's throat. A QB sneak or draw hadn't failed all game and we had very few negative run plans. You just go for it. You TAKE your victory. Even if we failed to convert, we'd still have our stellar defense with 60 yards to defend. It was a bonehead call and it would have been the difference between victory and defeat.
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But here's the thing, IF we do not get it, every single drop of that momentum we had is gone, in one play. The crowd goes insane and you give the Tech offense a shorter field to work with.

You punt the ball away, you keep the momentum we already have and force Tyrod, who had not done a single thing all game, to go almost 90 yards on us.

I like my chances with the latter more than I do anything else.

Unfortunately O'Hanlon botched a coverage horribly. It happens.

Fortunately, we showed what we are capable of.

I've got enough heat to go on Pelini for some mistakes in this one. The punt isn't one of them.

But NOW we get to see what type of real coaching staff we have. A bad coaching staff will let this bother their team for the rest of the sason. A good coaching staff will use this to show a young team how good they really are and as a motivating factor into the B12 schedule.
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I too was afraid Pelini would make a rookie mistake and not punt in that situation..Maybe if we had Castille or a big back that can consistantly lean for two yards after the innitial hit.

I was sorta hoping they'd call that tackle by O'Hanlon a TD..The replay was a little iffy..We'd be behind by 1-3 points with a minute and a half left and receiving a Kickoff...The Defense almost stopped them at the end anyway though.

I know it's in most of your natures to quickly find someone to blame whenever anything goes wrong, but just keep in mind..Long Term..We're definitely on our way back..The wins will come..Hopefully our Coaches will recognize this and not make rash decisions to immediately "correct" things..well..maybe work on hiding your holding from the refs a little better.

 
BIGREDIOWAN said:
The offense and the coaches are the ones to blame for this loss IMO. Besides Helu nobody and I mean NOBODY did a f-ing thing on offense. Kinda hard to do anything though with horrible play calling from Watson. I can't believe we lost this f-ing game, we had this one in the bag! :boxosoap :bang
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No matter how many times you say it, it still doesn't make it true. The 1st and goal and the one breakdown at the end was what lost this game. and of course the TD...But you give ANY QB THAT much time, and they will find a target... :ahhhhhhhh

 
I wouldn't of approved of putting in Green today, and punting was the right thing to do. But Penalties are a killer...they could be blamed for losing this game as it took a TD off the board.

I am not about to start calling for Bo, or any other coaches head. I am also not going to point at any individual player...this was a team effort. Overall the defense did better than anyone would have expected...the offense was dismal, except for Helu's effort.

They have to get more disciplined...fast. We seemed to have slipped back into Callahan mode that last quarter...with the penalties and the blown coverage. I also didn't like the way the D-line held back on that last drive, Taylor had all day to make that throw...there were two defenders in front of him that seemed to just be holding the line, not coming after him.

Bo should have had someone sitting all the way back on the 20 yard line, just in case someone broke out. That was totally stupid, not doing that with less than a minute to go and them running out of downs.

This was a hard loss to take, we whipped them if you look at any numbers except completions, turnovers, and the score. Lee had an off day...there is no denying that. But I am not sure it is time to make a change there, this was only his 3rd start. Green would go through the same growing pains...unfortunately. That is just the way the game goes.

The offensive line is getting better, but they still need improvement. The Defense is coming around, but there are some growing pains there, too.

This is only Bo's second season as a HC, if he is still making the same mistakes, and the team is still not up to speed, and are still getting stupid penalties in another year, people will start talking about changing some coaches. This is still not Husker football.

 
BigWillie said:
Husker_x said:
Apologies for the offense.

But while I know that punting the ball was the 'smart call,' here's the problem. Two, actually. The first one––and I'll even say the moot one––is you run the risk of popping in the end zone anyway and you move the ball twenty yards. Didn't happen that way. Maybe it would have been better if it did. Who knows.

Second, and this is the important one, is this. There comes a time when this team, this program, needs to believe that it can TAKE victory. 4th and 1 in opposing territory? We're Nebraska for heaven's sake. If you want a program that's dominant, it starts with believing that you can get one piddly yard when the biggest game of Pelini's Nebraska career. Sure its risky. Sure it's going to look terrible if it fails. But you know what? Tom Osborne went for two when he could have kicked the field goal and won the championship by default. That was the Nebraska that would have won today.

This defense did everything it could to hand Watson and Co the game on a silver platter. We obliterated Virginia Tech on the field today. And then when the moment game to power through for one more yard when that defense was so tired they could barely stand straight, we pussied out and put fate back into Virginia Tech's hands.

The coaching flaws didn't stop with that call. The timeouts, the penalties, substitution errors, offensive scheme, WR coaching––all failed today. But the fact was we were one yard from beating a team this program NEEDED to beat. And we chickened out in the moment of truth.
Click to expand...
Not a problem on the first thing. I know emotions are high and things get said that we shouldn't say. At least the FIRE PELINI threads haven't popped up yet. :)

In that situation, it's almost a guarantee, save for a complete ST breakdown that you will get the ball at around the 10 or inside. Reason being is your punter is skying that punt giving your coverage team extra time to cover the punt. That punting situation isn't meant to pin them inside the 2-3 yard line as you may do early in the game, but just meant to pin them safely as far back as possible, which we did.

But you could say the same thing for the defense. You get to show the team how much you really believe in the defense, the 'Blackshirts' and give them one more opportunity to flex their muscle. Flows both ways there.

That sounds almost as if you are getting on Watson for not being able to score enough. But yet in the last 2 years, how many times has Watson's offense saved our rear end? Like the Clemson game and his adjustments to get our offense rolling? The Colorado game when our defense could not stop Cody Hawkins? The Kansas game? There will be just as many times where we are in the opposite situation than we was today. But I also understand people are frustrated and looking for anyone to blame they possibly can. But I do find some humor in people getting after Watson for one game after everything he has done in the past few years.

You can call that whatever you will. The reality of it is, no matter what Pelini calls in that situation, he was getting grief, unless of course it actually worked. Even more, one blown coverage and no one cares. We all say it was the right call to put it back on our defense, they had did their job all day .. yadda yadda yadda. After the fact doesn't help anything more than cause un-needed controversy.
Click to expand...
I don't blame Watson for losing this game, though his play calling was subpar at best today. His determination to pass when Lee wasn't hitting the broad side of the barn and the receivers were blanketed stunned me, particularly in light of Helu's monstrous performance. He's done a lot for this program and I'm glad he's here, even after today's lackluster showing.

For me it all burns down to attitude. You play to win, not to not lose. If we had Pete Carroll for one play today, we would have walked out of there with a huge and much-needed win. Instead we punted. That's Nebraska now. We punt on 4th and 1 and give Virginia Tech the chance to win or lose it for us.

Whatever the reasoning, whatever happened before or after, there was one play where we had a chance to grab what we wanted, and instead we gave that chance back to the opponent. Bad call, coach. Better luck next time.

 
Husker_x said:
BigWillie said:
Husker_x said:
Apologies for the offense.

But while I know that punting the ball was the 'smart call,' here's the problem. Two, actually. The first one––and I'll even say the moot one––is you run the risk of popping in the end zone anyway and you move the ball twenty yards. Didn't happen that way. Maybe it would have been better if it did. Who knows.

Second, and this is the important one, is this. There comes a time when this team, this program, needs to believe that it can TAKE victory. 4th and 1 in opposing territory? We're Nebraska for heaven's sake. If you want a program that's dominant, it starts with believing that you can get one piddly yard when the biggest game of Pelini's Nebraska career. Sure its risky. Sure it's going to look terrible if it fails. But you know what? Tom Osborne went for two when he could have kicked the field goal and won the championship by default. That was the Nebraska that would have won today.

This defense did everything it could to hand Watson and Co the game on a silver platter. We obliterated Virginia Tech on the field today. And then when the moment game to power through for one more yard when that defense was so tired they could barely stand straight, we pussied out and put fate back into Virginia Tech's hands.

The coaching flaws didn't stop with that call. The timeouts, the penalties, substitution errors, offensive scheme, WR coaching––all failed today. But the fact was we were one yard from beating a team this program NEEDED to beat. And we chickened out in the moment of truth.
Click to expand...
Not a problem on the first thing. I know emotions are high and things get said that we shouldn't say. At least the FIRE PELINI threads haven't popped up yet. :)

In that situation, it's almost a guarantee, save for a complete ST breakdown that you will get the ball at around the 10 or inside. Reason being is your punter is skying that punt giving your coverage team extra time to cover the punt. That punting situation isn't meant to pin them inside the 2-3 yard line as you may do early in the game, but just meant to pin them safely as far back as possible, which we did.

But you could say the same thing for the defense. You get to show the team how much you really believe in the defense, the 'Blackshirts' and give them one more opportunity to flex their muscle. Flows both ways there.

That sounds almost as if you are getting on Watson for not being able to score enough. But yet in the last 2 years, how many times has Watson's offense saved our rear end? Like the Clemson game and his adjustments to get our offense rolling? The Colorado game when our defense could not stop Cody Hawkins? The Kansas game? There will be just as many times where we are in the opposite situation than we was today. But I also understand people are frustrated and looking for anyone to blame they possibly can. But I do find some humor in people getting after Watson for one game after everything he has done in the past few years.

You can call that whatever you will. The reality of it is, no matter what Pelini calls in that situation, he was getting grief, unless of course it actually worked. Even more, one blown coverage and no one cares. We all say it was the right call to put it back on our defense, they had did their job all day .. yadda yadda yadda. After the fact doesn't help anything more than cause un-needed controversy.
Click to expand...
I don't blame Watson for losing this game, though his play calling was subpar at best today. His determination to pass when Lee wasn't hitting the broad side of the barn and the receivers were blanketed stunned me, particularly in light of Helu's monstrous performance. He's done a lot for this program and I'm glad he's here, even after today's lackluster showing.

For me it all burns down to attitude. You play to win, not to not lose. If we had Pete Carroll for one play today, we would have walked out of there with a huge and much-needed win. Instead we punted. That's Nebraska now. We punt on 4th and 1 and give Virginia Tech the chance to win or lose it for us.

Whatever the reasoning, whatever happened before or after, there was one play where we had a chance to grab what we wanted, and instead we gave that chance back to the opponent. Bad call, coach. Better luck next time.
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+1. Exactly right.

 
Husker_x said:
Instead we punted. That's Nebraska now. We punt on 4th and 1 and give Virginia Tech the chance to win or lose it for us.
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No dude. Bo put it on the defense to win the game . They were the only group of players on the field he had a reason to trust at that point in the game.

 
Husker_x said:
captain obvious said:
Husker_x said:
Instead we punted. That's Nebraska now. We punt on 4th and 1 and give Virginia Tech the chance to win or lose it for us.
Click to expand...
No dude. Bo put it on the defense to win the game . They were the only group of players on the field he had a reason to trust at that point in the game.
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How did that work out for you?
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That's not the point. He took a calculated risk. Considering that VT had 60 yds total offense in the second half, I think he made the right decision based on the info he had at that point in time. And, considering it took a MASSIVE meltdown in coverage to lose that game, I still think it was the right decision.

 
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