Undone

I don't think I've ever seen a more needlessly drawn out discussion on this board about such an insignificant play than what we've had in this thread. Haarberg struggles badly at throwing a deep ball. That's the problem. Let's be honest, if he would have tried to go to Boerkircher he probably f**** that up, too.

Those are just their passing numbers, though. Last year Ohio State averaged 192 rushing yards per game, so if we add those two numbers together and then look at Ohio State's record over the last decade we're going to say they're not "high powered?"

You can absolutely replace them with a different kind of high-percentage pass play or some kind of outside run. And maybe the ratio out of total plays called stays the same but you save them for the second half. Rhule can say "we wanted to start the game off with a TD" until he's blue in the face, but his team just almost never executes that play well. So, it's weird to expect anything from it for me. It just hasn't looked good at all. The definition of insanity, etc., etc. In past years that INT probably sets up that game for the 'L.' This year we have an insanely better defense, so it wound up being basically inconsequential. In another game it may not be.

These comments are directed entirely at our staff and not at you. Here's the thing I've been saying on this though: how many times in games does our staff have to watch us fail on these kinds of plays before they realize that they need to maybe dial them back? Because usually our QB or our line or both just don't execute them well. Yeah, we did then fire on all cylinders on the big one to Coleman in the 2nd half. But I think our team needs to be running to setup the pass and not doing it the other way around.

End thread. Sell domain name "huskerboard.com" to someone that wants some weird corn burlesque fetish stuff. Format c:\. Throw harddrive into Holmes Lake.

He really drives his back leg into the turf hard to accelerate when he makes a decision on where he's cutting to. I think he has good potential. Would love to see him have a 100 yard game down the stretch.

It's Boerkircher, and maybe he does if Ricky throws the pass of his life and hucks it as hard as he can. Let the official record show this post being critical of Haarberg's throwing.

I think it's just coincidence on timing. Purdue had O'Connell go to the NFL. Mordecai at Wisconsin was a 4 star recruit when he enrolled with Oklahoma and two transfers later was still considered a 4 star, but he's been s******* the bed. Northwestern & Iowa haven't had a good QB in a long time because they're known for only playing defense and can't recruit other skill position players. Illinois as a program has been on the up & up and honestly their QB is about on par for who they are as a program (decent but not "good" by any stretch). And if we're honest with ourselves, our program is a dumpster fire so not much surprise for us there, right?

Our defense made their offense look stupid in that game. Pretty great.

Our chances keep going down now because of injuries on offense. Having actually won the last two games the odds of course started to go way up, but the latest round of injuries hurt the chances pretty bad. Honestly though, if our defense plays like it did against Northwestern in each remaining game I don't know who is really scoring more than 17-20 points on us. We just can't seem to get away from turnovers, but at least false starts were better.

Agreed. I was going to make this comment yesterday but the thread is honestly such a cluster**** that I didn't think it was worth it. I'm also still mildly amused at comments that Haarberg isn't taking criticism because he's from Nebraska. A rough estimate would probably show 50% of the posts in this very thread being pretty critical of his throwing ability.

If this board is an accurate cross section of Husker Nation, I'd say the criticism of Haarberg is very loud. After the LA Tech game, I thought I had seen enough of Haarberg to say he was less mistake-prone and offered more than Sims did. After I watched a few more games I'm starting to feel like Sims should have maybe gotten the nod against Illinois. But to be clear this is analysis and not "complaining." Yes, I'm glad we have a guy, period, that is 4-1 and our team is 4-3. I really don't give the situation any kind of an extra boost in favor of Haarberg because he's from NE.

Agreed. I just don't really think it's even a subconscious preference towards Haarberg because he's an in-state kid. I mean I'm sure there are a few people out there that are taking him over Sims for that reason, but I don't think they're a large portion of the fans on Team Ricky. I do agree with this one. But being a former star player of the team is surely on a different level than just being a recruit from Kearney, right?

One area where that big play hopefully helps us out in the next couple games is teams being concerned with him running the deep routes and having it loosen up the middle of the field.

I think the summary is that specifying time frames is important.

We had 163 yards rushing and 85 yards passing. Our leading rusher averaged 6.1 yards per carry. What would the number of rushing yards be that would have made it not disappointing? The coaches are pretty dumb if they can't see what Haarberg isn't capable of doing at this point. There's plenty of opportunity for the 1's on offense to improve in the passing game against the 1's on defense in practice. I think the play call on the first play by the coaches is way less about "learning how to pass" and more about being a little too worried about not being able to line up and run the ball on a B1G opponent. We wanted the element of surprise and there's nothing wrong with that, but I think we've seen enough of Haarberg in those situations to know it's maybe not worth the risk. I think this is the second time we've done this on the first play (not that the first time was a pick, but an incompletion). So to the point of seeing what the team can and can't do...let's maybe just not do that anymore.

Totally.

Yeah. Now I wouldn't really want either guy being the QB that's trying to throw on that 2nd & goal from the 6 at the end of the first half against Minnesota where Sims throws the INT. But that game was pretty win-able regardless if Grant doesn't fumble in the 4th quarter. We're a fumble and a false start (in the same game) away from being a 5-2 team right now because of how good our defense is. Different train of thought: Chinander consistently flew under the radar as a huge problem in Frost's program because so many people expected Frost, the offensive expert, to win games on offense. Our program was so overdue on getting a good defensive coordinator that it wasn't even funny.

This is the thing to start talking about and focusing on. Forget lamenting about the offense. I just can't believe how much disruption the line is causing to move the other team's OL out of position. And I think Butler is a very underrated player, it's like he's around the QB on most of the sacks.

Coleman is a good player. Get a QB in here who can throw the ball to him in a catchable vicinity (which we don't even really have right now) and he'll be tearing it up.

So f****** awesome!!!!

It's an awesome night in Lincoln tonight!

To the point you were making though, the play Coleman made underscores it; you get that long, burner receiver that beats a guy one on one and you throw the ball to him for a big play. The kid has a lot of potential and I'm really glad he chose to play for us and not go somewhere else. We just need a QB that can scan the field and get the ball to guys like him, Fidone, and Kemp (who is of course now hurt).

Reading comprehension. I said "they're not just good with X's & O's." That means I believe they're good at X's & O's.

I think Rhule and the coaches he's brought with him seem like they really know what they're doing. They're not just good with X's & O's, they seem to have figured out how to motivate this team in just one offseason. We aren't out there playing scared like we have for so many years. We've rotated so many guys in on defense that it's crazy. I love how fast & fiery we are on that side of the ball. Feels so good to have a winning record after the 7th game. That first play by Haarberg...big yikes. I feel like he threw that pick the way he did because of how he leans out of his throws to side arm it. Fidone is slanting to his left and he leans out of it and backwards to his right and the ball is terribly short. Really bad stuff. But, the TD pass to Coleman was a great play and there were still a couple bright spots here and there on offense.