Undone

Here's an analogy. For the past six seasons, we can't even walk. We're crawling. You seem to not be talking about walking or maybe even running slowly. You seem to be talking about competing in a 100 yard dash.

I get it. You're taking your frustration of losing the game out on a stranger on the internet. 1st & 10 from the opponent's 12 yard line in this one. We throw on first down and it's an incompletion. Last week, it was 1st & goal on their 7. We throw on that play for an incompletion (and obviously Rhule claimed Chubba decided to throw instead of run). So then in this one, 7 seconds in the game from their 12. For most teams, you want to see another play, I wouldn't ever disagree with that. But, we're a bunch of complete f***-up's. I highly doubt a run play gets into the end zone from their 12, but anything is possible. If we pass, it's pretty similar to calling the pass on 3rd & goal last week; you've got the same QB who threw a dumb pick from basically the same exact spot on the field in the same basic situation the week before. Now the stakes are lower there because it was tied whereas against Wisconsin if you don't come up with 3 points the game's over. So yeah, the situations are similar. They're not identical, but they're similar. Coach was probably gun shy about turning it over. I wanted to see another play also, just saying that for like the third time now.

I have to just point out fans' propensity to focus on what happens in the second half of fourth quarters while simultaneously forgetting about failures that happened for the first 3.5 quarters. Our momentum went downhill when we didn't convert the 4th & 1 in the first half. And then we couldn't shut down some of their short throws, and we couldn't tackle Mordecai in the backfield. Maybe we punch it in on short yardage on goal to go, or maybe they stop us. For me it's just a huge problem that this offense can't even average 5 points per quarter. We should be putting up 20 points in regulation with the athletes we have, IMO.

I agree, Moiraine. I also wish it had gone that way.

This is a legendary tier of bulls***, lol. I haven't drank enough for this.

I agree with everything you said but just have to point out that last week our staff was aggressive in trying to score 7 instead of 3 and we screwed up big time (with the same QB that was playing tonight) and we all lost our s***. Please don't tell me that you won't even acknowledge this. This is a safe space.

You can't be serious.

What skill position has shined? Well, let's see. Here are our injuries: -Gabe Ervin -Rahmir Johnson -Marcus Washington You want Chadwell's scheme, right? How is what we did tonight appreciably different than Chadwell's stuff? We ran option, we ran zone read. We run a bunch of stuff out of the "I" (which lifelong Husker fans generally are really happy about). We needed Chubba's game that he had tonight against Michigan State & Maryland and we're 7-4 right now. Hell, make it 8-4 if he had played like tonight against Minnesota.

Can't understand the point you're trying to make. I was referring to Purdy. Apparently Purdy has had an injury basically all season. To my eye, Chubba Purdy is exactly the kind of QB that works best for this offense. Like, exactly the right guy.

Obviously we're all mad about this, but just to play devil's advocate: everybody was so mad about not getting the field goal last week in basically the same situation...right?

Yes, I know he was hurt earlier in the season. Another thing about this game was that it was hella bad luck for us to get the game where Mordecai didn't melt down with turnovers. So unlucky.

Chadwell doesn't bring anything more to the table for this season than what we've had. We finally put in an actually good QB who does pretty well and doesn't make a ton of dumb mistakes. He runs zone read, option, scrambles...how much more "Chadwell" can it get? The problem was not establishing the run in the second half. There's no "What did we learn" thread to actually talk about the game so I'll just put this here: Purdy really rifles the ball in there. He looks like an actual QB when he winds up and throws the ball. Where in the actual f*** has that been all year long?

Unbelievable that Purdy comes out and plays so well and we learn that he wasn't in the mix earlier in the year because of injury. Like, the most Nebraska thing to happen. Guy throws for 65% and rushes for over 100 yards. We just didn't establish the run in the right ways in the second half. For me that's really the bottom line. The defense played fine overall and Purdy had great stats. Just couldn't dominate the line of scrimmage in the second half. If Purdy had started healthy against Michigan State or Maryland we probably win both of those games by 7+ points. I just can't stand the constant dynamic of "we can actually win this game" and then just blowing it. F***.

The constant f****** dynamic of "I think we can actually win this one" and then blowing it is just beyond old.

Wouldn't be a game without a false start by Prochazka.

We gave up all of the momentum when we didn't get that 4th & 1 conversion. Downhill from there. Hey I have a great idea though! Let's run a bunch of 7 step drop pass plays instead of those toss plays!

Yes I was just creating a couple definitions of some things.

Ha. I bet this game is a big one for you!

So Purdy getting the start then? I just really hope that in the 1st quarter on offense we'll try to establish the run without asking him to pass much.

I think we have to separate out two things under the one umbrella of "play calling:" 1. Calling a play that's a weird choice no matter what given the down & distance (which is probably the most common thing fans do). 2. Questioning why we called what we did given our ability to execute the play. And you mentioned that. It's the second one. But there should be no gripe with item #1; totally fine to pass on 2nd & 8 where you're basically spreading the field out. I honestly love that play...but yeah, there's no QB to execute it. Not a hill I'm gonna die on, but fun to talk about with this one: I honestly think it's a part of Albert's mandate to run some option. I'll probably get a ton of disagreement that it even works like that. I know people will say "no way, Rhule is completely free to do whatever he wants." But I think the staff is running some option because we're Nebraska, damn it. And if that's true, I don't like it.

Man. Just maddening.

Absolutely. I have been saying this for years on this forum. I'd be thrilled to pieces to land more of that "pass-first" guy out of the transfer portal this offseason. I'm tired of the "stacked box but you're telegraphing a run play" offensive scheme, I just really want to see something different. And somebody's going to chime in and say "yeah but we're 32nd in the country running the ball this year in rushing yards per game" It's true, but I still think we wind up in a lot of 3rd & longs and we don't have QB's that can handle those situations much at all. As far as 2022 was concerned, I really think we would have made a bowl game with Thompson if anybody not named Erik Chinander had been coaching the defense for those first 4 games. It was absolutely f****** stupid to lose 45-42 to Georgia Southern.

It's a good point. Now maybe it's more of limiting dumb interceptions though also. That's been a pretty big problem this season also. Another thing that's similar to your point would be how we had two key RB's get injured for the season. So maybe the running QB's filled the gaps there because if I'm looking at team stats correctly, we're actually 32nd in the nation in rushing yards per game. Hard to say all things would have been equal with injuries if Thompson had been the starter but maybe there's something to that one.

The discussion is, would that have not been an issue if Thompson was here. I'm not saying we would have for sure seen better offensive production with him as the starter, but that's the point of the conversation. Well we've actually had a few long throws (a couple of them TD's) this season that got drives going, kept them going, or finished them off. Maybe helpful thing to do is to look at points per game this season versus previous seasons. Here's what that looks like: - 2023 currently: 114th - 2022: 101st - 2021: 78th - 2020: 101st - 2019: 63rd - 2018: 54th In the 2020 season we didn't get the benefit of playing two complete nobodies to blow out because of COVID. But anyway, we're just so bad this year at getting points on the board. So if a QB run game is the only thing making our offense work, is it even saying very much?