Undone

I'm very upset that you beat me to this comment. But I +1'd you anyway.

Is he maybe not as fast as fans had hoped? Who knows? If he finds holes really well and picks up first downs constantly but occasionally gets tracked down by a safety, that's probably the last thing I'm worried about for this season.

You might not be making the point you think you're making. The results of both games were pretty much identical - giving up what should have been a sealed-up win late in the fourth quarter. But the trajectory of the two teams after both of their first games look very different. *Edit* Specifically, in 2015 you had a QB that (I'm really sorry to say) had already reached his potential. You had a staff that had no interest in pushing the players as well as possible in the realm of strength & conditioning. And you had a head coach that really didn't have that competitive drive to be the best there is. And I'm not just saying that in hindsight; I'm talking about the attitude towards winning games that Riley had going into that first season. At any rate...that's all water under the bridge at this point. Shame on me for talking about past coaches.

Yes, Hop Cat is one of the best places out of the newer scene options. Definitely recommend it.

Exactly. Then you factor in an 18 year old, true Freshman QB that hasn't played in a live game environment in two years who throws for a 75% completion percentage and rushes for 117 yards. The mind boggles at how good this team could be. I feel like a lot of the above was incorrectly shoved aside by a good portion of the fan base because of how the last possession by each team went down. It honestly shouldn't.

Mildly curious about which nuts will be cut and how.

It's unfortunately still there. By the way, those stiletto heel boots in your profile picture look like the perfect footwear for walking to that fridge in the background, grabbing three Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers, pouring them all into a different, empty stilleto heel boot, and pounding them as fast as possible.

I told you that I could get you those amphetamines, Moiraine...

Here's another play I loved seeing in the first quarter - an oddly-paced motioning set into a sort of diamond formation where it's a designed pitch to Lindsey. Should play from the right point. Watch Farniok look for his assignment and seal the block:

That second play from scrimmage was so awesome. Martinez looked everybody to his right as if it's a quick screen out wide to Bell, the line creates a massive hole, Martinez goes up the middle. As the disappointment slowly wears off from losing to an old Big 8 rival, I'm seriously so excited for what this offense is going to be with Martinez under center. I can't get my mind around how good it can be if our offensive line continues the improvement it's clearly gained in the offseason. Penalties hurt us quite a bit on offense in the second half. What sucks is that we put up 21 points in the first half but only mustered 7 in the second half. And what further sucks is that even if Stan catches that should-be touchdown reception, they still could have tied up the game 35-35 by going for two in the fourth quarter. In my opinion, this offense and its starting lineup should be able to average 10 points per quarter against every team except OSU and Wisconsin once we get the yips out.

Here's a hypothetical that's kind of interesting to kick around regarding Martinez's status: Let's say the doctors and trainers determine that he's at 80-90% by Friday evening. Should he play? Maybe he doesn't start but comes in at halftime? Of course, we as fans never know what the doctors are actually saying. But reading between the lines I might guess that he'll be around 80-90% by game time (and this is just internet babble for discussion).

Here's a hypothetical that's kind of interesting to kick around: Let's say the doctors and trainers determine that he's at 80-90% by Friday evening. Should he play? Maybe he doesn't start but comes in at halftime? Of course, we as fans never know what the doctors are actually saying. But reading between the lines I might guess that he'll be around 80-90% by game time (and this is just internet babble for discussion).

What we don't have to convince ourselves of is that anything can happen. We saw in the spring game and yesterday that Bunch has good footwork and throws an accurate ball. He also has a serious competitor's attitude and focus towards the game. He'll get blitzed a ton, but that's where Frost & Co. can sweep in to draw up plays to exploit that. But yes, we do have a quarterback depth problem if Martinez is out for more than just the Troy game. Meaning that after him, there's obviously just Bunch and Masker in the QB room.

It's so outlandish that I'm pretty confident it's a troll account.

On defense it didn't remind me that much of the latter half of Pelini's stint once we had entered the B1G. Pelini's defense was not very "aggressive" once he entered the Big 10. I'd describe his defenses during those seasons more as schizophrenic and overly complicated in ways that cost us games we shouldn't have lost. The blitzing puts pressure on your secondary. We blitzed a lot yesterday. But the effort and attitude on defense yesterday looked nothing like anything we've seen in three seasons. It looked very much improved. Here's the big thing I'll say - one measure of large improvement I have for this team would be to finish this season with a positive turnover margin. That would be a huge stride. The turnovers were absolutely the biggest factor in why we lost. I mean, we had 565 yards of total offense and they only rushed for 44 yards.

I'll preface this by saying these two things: 1. Winning every game we play is extremely important to me. It's just in my DNA. When we lose - to anyone - it's like a punch to the gut. 2. I believe that this loss was absolutely NOT on Reed. This was a game where even if Reed doesn't make contact with their receiver and then if they don't convert on that 4th down and a mile and we ice the game, the way I'd feel about our potential is exactly the same - we've got a ton of potential. We had 565 yards of total offense against a halfway decent Power 5 team. Turnovers and penalties are fixable. If any staff is capable of fixing them in the country I'd put my money on this one to do it. Everything is fine. Let's beat the **** out of Troy next week and get our heads on straight to beat Michigan.

Mo Barry in his clip: "This culture has changed, and this game has shown that..." Hell yeah. So good. By the way...his body looked like a freak of nature out there yesterday. Dude eats babies!

I was taking my chimichangas out of the oven and got distracted. I know you can understand.

Our strength is noticeably improved. We all knew it would be, but when it's this noticeable, it's incredibly encouraging. You could see how much stronger and how much better prepared our offensive line was today. In the second half, Frost called a lot of interior run plays. This really surprised me. I imagined this game looking differently on offense, with more wide receiver screens as well as just getting our receivers involved more. I was incredibly surprised to only have scored 7 points in the second half. I truly believe that Adrian Martinez has as much potential as any true Freshman Husker quarterback of the last 30 years. Seriously. Seeing him limp off the field was so hard.

Yes. YES. The emotion he had in the post-game presser...his clearly has a drive to win. He has a drive to not lose a single game.

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Our offensive line looks to be in position to start wearing them down by the end of the 3rd. Our defensive blitz packages are f****** awesome.

Totally agree. It'll mean we're the best team out of a whole host of great teams. I do miss the old emotions and the feel of playing the old rivals. I missed it a lot during the first three seasons after we moved to the B1G but miss the Big 12 less now. What I probably find most regretful looking back on the past decade is how we were actually very close to winning the final two Big 12 championships. In 2009, if Colt McCoy scrambles for another second on the clock, there's that one. And then in the last Big 12 title game of the era in 2010 we were leading Oklahoma at halftime and failed to put any more points on the board and missed that one also. Those two games are super painful to look back on. Would have been so amazing to go out on top when we left.

I think that's a good prediction. I'd think our offense could average 10 points per quarter in this one. A 20-20 halftime tie wouldn't be surprising, with defensive adjustments in the second half allowing us to pull ahead and finish it out in the fourth quarter. But...obviously I'd much rather run up the score and embarrass them.