Objectively……..What few teams CAN’T we compete with….??

[knapplc]

Haven't read this thread, but has anyone mentioned Nebraska? We seem to be our own worst enemy most games. Most of our losses in the Bo Pelini era can be directly attributed to self-inflicted wounds.

2008

VA Tech - Good team, but penalties at the end were too difficult to overcome

Missouri - We just got beat. This was a Missouri win, not a Nebraska loss. Doesn't support this argument.

Texas Tech - Several chances to win this game, but costly turnovers (including the game-ender in OT) were our worst enemy

Oklahoma - Another win by the opponent that doesn't support this argument.

2009

VA Tech - Dropped passes, blown coverages, passive defense when aggression was called for, you name it. We did everything we could to lose this game. It worked.

Texas Tech - One of the first lack-of-motivation games in the Pelini Era. We did not come to compete against this team.

Iowa State - Turnover meltdown against a vastly overmatched opponent. A loss at home to a team barely over .500

Texas - The Big XII Championship loss based on horrible play-calling, and overall lack of will by the offense. A very winnable game.

2010

Texas - A complete meltdown on both sides of the ball. Poor execution everywhere.

Texas A&M - zero offensive punch. A loss more on the coaches than the players, based on their insistence of starting an injured QB. Lack of effort by the O Line was key.

Oklahoma - blew a 17-point lead in a game that we had in hand.

Washington - one of the most embarrassing losses in the last decade. Zero effort on either side of the ball.

2011

Wisconsin - they just whupped us. While we did some dumb things, I give this win more to Wiscy than pin it as our loss.

Northwestern - Total lack of preparation and effort by the coaches and team. Several team sources have openly stated we overlooked this team. Very embarrassing loss.

By my count, that's 11 of the last 14 losses we've had where you can directly attribute the loss to our errors, lack of preparation, lack of motivation, lack of effort. That it comes from both the players and the coaches is the most troubling.

So to answer the question, objectively, which team can't we beat? I'd say the team that tops that list is Nebraska.

 

[bshirt]

Heh....there's no way anyone can be "objective" about this subject whatsoever as it's unknowable. It's just everyone's best guess. That's all.

 

[Blackshirt96]

Oklahoma State, Clemson, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Oregon, Stanford, Arkansas, LSU, Alabama.

These are the teams that we would have big problems with. I know Wisconsin beat NU pretty good early in the year, but Wisconsin had a lot of things going in their favor. I really hope Mich St drops a game & Wisconsin beats Penn St. I really would like to see a rematch. The only bad thing is we lost are best DL for the year.

 

[robsker]

Haven't read this thread, but has anyone mentioned Nebraska? We seem to be our own worst enemy most games. Most of our losses in the Bo Pelini era can be directly attributed to self-inflicted wounds.

2008

VA Tech - Good team, but penalties at the end were too difficult to overcome

Missouri - We just got beat. This was a Missouri win, not a Nebraska loss. Doesn't support this argument.

Texas Tech - Several chances to win this game, but costly turnovers (including the game-ender in OT) were our worst enemy

Oklahoma - Another win by the opponent that doesn't support this argument.

2009

VA Tech - Dropped passes, blown coverages, passive defense when aggression was called for, you name it. We did everything we could to lose this game. It worked.

Texas Tech - One of the first lack-of-motivation games in the Pelini Era. We did not come to compete against this team.

Iowa State - Turnover meltdown against a vastly overmatched opponent. A loss at home to a team barely over .500

Texas - The Big XII Championship loss based on horrible play-calling, and overall lack of will by the offense. A very winnable game.

2010

Texas - A complete meltdown on both sides of the ball. Poor execution everywhere.

Texas A&M - zero offensive punch. A loss more on the coaches than the players, based on their insistence of starting an injured QB. Lack of effort by the O Line was key.

Oklahoma - blew a 17-point lead in a game that we had in hand.

Washington - one of the most embarrassing losses in the last decade. Zero effort on either side of the ball.

2011

Wisconsin - they just whupped us. While we did some dumb things, I give this win more to Wiscy than pin it as our loss.

Northwestern - Total lack of preparation and effort by the coaches and team. Several team sources have openly stated we overlooked this team. Very embarrassing loss.

By my count, that's 11 of the last 14 losses we've had where you can directly attribute the loss to our errors, lack of preparation, lack of motivation, lack of effort. That it comes from both the players and the coaches is the most troubling.

So to answer the question, objectively, which team can't we beat? I'd say the team that tops that list is Nebraska.

Fantastic post --- embodied within your summary is all the evidence needed to assert that NU is NU's own worst enemy. Lack of preparation has killed this team time and again

 

[Stickney]

Seriously -- one week after losing to NW -- the board is asking these questions??

 

[huskerfan333157]

The ONLY team where we'd be over matched on both sides: LSU.

All others would be very winnable.

OkieLite would give our pink secondary fits but then I hope TM would light them up too.

agreed. LSU would be the only team in the country that im not sure we could keep it within 2 scores of. okielite will be exposed if they have to play LSU and it wont be pretty, if they werent playing in a very WEAK big 12 they would not be undefeated. i truly believe that alabama would be a good close game within a score one way or another. oregon is an inconsistent team.

and i would pay large amounts of money to play wisky again because im of the opinion that we would throttle them. quite frankly to the tune of 31-10. they have regressed and we have gotten better.

Big 12 is better than the Big 10. Oregon is inconsistent but look at us, we are MORE inconsistent then them. How can our rush defense stop richardson? Look wat NORTHWESTERN did to us last weekend there is no way our offense scores more than 10 points on that defense. You cant point out oregon's inconsistencies and not mention ours.

almost every team struggles with a team or two a season. NW holds little weight to your argument. from what i have seen the BIG is much better than the big12 seriously right now a Kstate team that is downright not good is sitting at 8-2 in that crap conference. have you actually watched any big12 games this season or are you an "ESPN Expert" (definition-gets all football info from ESPN without actually watching games)? again the thread asked who can we be competitive with, not who would we beat without a ounce of doubt. there is no reason we cant compete with Oregon or Bama. and its pretty obvious that we are inconsistent so no need to put that but again that in no way means that we cannot COMPETE with them.

People can use other teams losses, i.e oklahoma losing to texas tech as a reason why we could beat them yet i mention our game to NW and its "not acceptable?" Im just using other husker fans arguments but using it against us. You obviously dont watch football if you think we can compete with alabama. They only give up 50 yards a game and only given up two touchdowns this whole year. Our run d is horrible and they have one of the best olines and rb in the nation. Can we run on bama? no, we cant. Can we pass on bama? No, their secondary would be on our wr's like glue and they can get quick pressure. Can we stop their pass? McCarron is improving and they do have maze so their pass offense is average BUT our pass d is below average. Can we stop alabama's run? No way. Now lets look at Oregon..Can we score on them? Yes we can but they would be able to stop us at least 5 possessions. Would be we able to stop oregon's offense more than 3 possessions? No way. Whos good in the big ten? Wisconsin? Ill give you that, but oklahoma and oklahoma state are better than those wisconsin. Penn state? they havent played anyone. Michigan state? They got their butt's kicked by notre dame. Iowa? they lost to iowa state. Ohio State? They lost to Miami You dont watch football if you think the big is better than big xii. So how is the big better than the big xii?

 

[skersfan]

Knapp,

I normally agree with everything you say. Nothing different here. But I lay more of the blame on the coaching and recruiting. The players are either not able to be motivated, or we are not doing the coaching job needed to be consistent.

I have said many times this team has a problem, not sure what it is but something very close to the above.

 

[knapplc]

Knapp,

I normally agree with everything you say. Nothing different here. But I lay more of the blame on the coaching and recruiting. The players are either not able to be motivated, or we are not doing the coaching job needed to be consistent.

I have said many times this team has a problem, not sure what it is but something very close to the above.

I don't disagree with that at all, and I've said similar things in other threads. I also tie that into my dislike of how Bo handles the Blackshirts - in year four of his tenure, if these guys haven't earned their Blackshirts by the second week of the season, that's entirely on the coaches for 1) recruiting the wrong players or 2) failing to train/motivate them to play to Bo's standards.

 

[skersfan]

It is sad to see what has developed this year. All the hope, top defense in the country, the stories of how it is all coming together. The less than stellar preseason results, then Wisconsin, truly showing where we are nationally. The high for Michigan State, the luck against Ohio State, then Northwestern. Up and down, not real level to play off of.

I really have no idea who we can play against and win. Nothing that we have been shown this year gives us a clue. We have boat loads of top freshman talent setting the bench, undoubtly unhappy about burning a red shirt. Players that really do not appear to care starting over kids that are living to play.

If we do not win out, we have real problems. We needed to win the conference to have any chance of recruiting the Big 10 are my thoughts. We need to get into a bowl game we can win. A beat down by a BCS level team on national TV is the worst thing that could happen to this team, and I do not see the possibility of winning against any of the top 10 or teams recently removed from the top ten.

If this project folds, I do not want Nebraska to ever hire a coach that does not have college head coaching success. I think Bo has the talent, but he is not learning the job on the job. We should never have asked him of that. Not saying he needs to go, but he needs more help from Tom it appears to me.

Nebraska never lost games due to lack of motivation until Clownahan got here. Maybe Tom could help with that.

I just want a win in a bowl game, to end the season on a positive.

 

[JJ Husker]

Objectivity is pretty subjective for this question.

If we were to play our best game of the year and the opponent was to play below what they have typically shown this year, we could still not compete with LSU, Okie State, Bama, or Oregon. As someone else said, we'd really struggle to score on LSU or Bama and we could not outscore Okie State or Oregon.

If we were to play typical of how we have thus far, then we also probably can't compete against Oklahoma, Arkansas, Clemson, Va Tech, or Stanford and it could go either way for anyone else left in the top 25. The only 4 teams in the top 25 I actually we feel we are consistently better than would be TCU, Southern MIss, Penn State, and Baylor. I would put Texas in that group if we didn't have such a history of losing to their inferior teams.

To summarize, we do not match up well and cannot compete against the top 4 teams and experience and track record says that list probably grows to the top 9 teams right now. After that, we CAN compete but, WOULD we? As for the gist of the question; I do feel we are getting more competitive than prior years.

 

[huskerfan333157]

Objectivity is pretty subjective for this question.

If we were to play our best game of the year and the opponent was to play below what they have typically shown this year, we could still not compete with LSU, Okie State, Bama, or Oregon. As someone else said, we'd really struggle to score on LSU or Bama and we could not outscore Okie State or Oregon.

If we were to play typical of how we have thus far, then we also probably can't compete against Oklahoma, Arkansas, Clemson, Va Tech, or Stanford and it could go either way for anyone else left in the top 25. The only 4 teams in the top 25 I actually we feel we are consistently better than would be TCU, Southern MIss, Penn State, and Baylor. I would put Texas in that group if we didn't have such a history of losing to their inferior teams.

To summarize, we do not match up well and cannot compete against the top 4 teams and experience and track record says that list probably grows to the top 9 teams right now. After that, we CAN compete but, WOULD we? As for the gist of the question; I do feel we are getting more competitive than prior years.

Id ask Michigan State to that list of teams we are better than. I also think we are just as good as boise state but youre dead on about everything else.

 

[skersfan]

I think you take Penn State off the list. Under different circumstances I think they beat us. Another of our part of game played. but who knows.

I just want us to win out, get a good bowl and win. Not looking for Nationa Ranking or anything else, just three good wins to the end the season if it is four the more merrier.

 

[iLoveLamp]

Oklahoma State, Clemson, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Oregon, Stanford, Arkansas, LSU, Alabama, UGA.

That's just stupid. We beat Oklahoma State in their house last year and lost by 3 to Oklahoma with a gimpy QB (had a big lead on them at halftime before Martinez got hurt again too) but now we couldn't compete with them?

The ONLY team on that list we have no chance to beat is Oregon. Horrible matchup for us. Other than that we could beat any one of those teams - including Wisconsin.

Hey, the thread asked "Objectively" what teams can't NU compete with... coming from someone that's not a NU homer...I'm being objective. I don't think a team that lost to a 3-5 team at home can beat the elite teams in the nation...and the Huskers have already proven they can't hang with Wisconsin. There is little room for debate in as lopsided a defeat as they suffered in Madison.

Didn't Texas Tech beat Oklahoma at home? Can't use that to decide who we can and can't compete with. And Oklahoma vs Texas Tech was a more lopsided match then Nebraska vs. Northwestern

 

[Blackshirt316]

Oklahoma State, Clemson, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Oregon, Stanford, Arkansas, LSU, Alabama, UGA.

That's just stupid. We beat Oklahoma State in their house last year and lost by 3 to Oklahoma with a gimpy QB (had a big lead on them at halftime before Martinez got hurt again too) but now we couldn't compete with them?

The ONLY team on that list we have no chance to beat is Oregon. Horrible matchup for us. Other than that we could beat any one of those teams - including Wisconsin.

Youre not being objective. Look at our defense compared to last years.No one with any objective thinking or common sense think we could beat oklahoma state. Do you even pay attention to nebraska football? Look who we lost last year from our secondary, there is no way this year's secondary could match with oklahoma states offense. I cant believe youre using last year as a reason we could compete with them this year, that is a stupid argument. You do realiize most of our secondary went to the nfl and we did have one of the best secondaries in ncaa football last year, right?

With that being said, we'd lose for sure to lsu, alabama(richardson would run all over us), oregon, okie state, oklahoma, arkansas. Wisconsin, Standford (Luck would have a hayday against our defense, and sadly kansas state would all be toss ups.

I am being objective. The question isn't who we could beat but who we could be competitive with in a hypothetical matchup.

I'm more than aware of what we lost off last year's Defense but we have also seen this defense is capable of playing better when they play the schemes they did last year as opposed to the ones they played much of this year and against the style of Offenses that Oklahoma State is. They don't run the TE underneath or run the little shunt plays like Northwestern did, they don't scramble with the QB, they still try to stretch the field vertically with 4 wide sets and throw the ball 8 yards and up while mixing in the run game. What OSU does is still very much what Nebraska's Defense was designed to cover and they can still do that with the personnel we have. And Denard can still cover Blackmon 1 on 1 he did last year and he can now that he's healthy this year.

Would we give up a ton of points to OSU? Probably... but I've also seen them get relatively held in check Texas A&M on the road and by a HORRIBLE Arizona team at home (They scored 37 points against Arizona at home). And I've seen them give up 30 points to teams like Kansas, Tulsa and Texas and give up 45 to Kansas State.

IF Nebraska played really well we could score in the low 50's - high 40's against their D and could hold them to about the same, especially if we get them on a day where they aren't firing at peak performance.

Again the Question isn't if we could beat them consistently, it was could we COMPETE with them on any given Saturday for one game and objectively I say with the team we have, yes we could. And that isn't to say we don't get completely blown out either.

Again the ONLY team I see right now that we have absolutely zero chance on any given Saturday to beat is Oregon. Everyone else we could compete with and potentially beat with the right bounces on the right day.

 

[junior4949]

I don't think we could beat anyone in the top five of the BCS. Bama and LSU would simply stop our offense in its tracks. We couldn't score enough points to beat Okie State, Oregon, or OU. After that, I just don't know. The one team I'd hate to face right now would be Houston.