Undone

Agreed. I think a couple people here like you said have wanted to make Thompson seem like this lesser player to cope with Haarberg's & Sims' results. From my eyeball test and stats across the board I see Thompson to be more of the "pass-first" kind of guy that this program needed. No, I'm not saying things like "we definitely are 8-2 if Thompson is on the team." Those kinds of statements are silly.

Yep. Thompson was a very decent QB in 2021. And I seem to remember Longhorns fans grading him (higher) on a curve because of how bad their offensive line was that year. But then again, the talent level of receivers there that season was higher across the board. When a guy gets separation & gets himself "more open," it's easier to make the completion. It's weird how little anybody has talked about Marcus Washington being out around here. I think that's been big but then there are still just so many plays where Haarberg has sailed a ball, skipped it off the turf, or not led his receiver even when the guy is open. Like, so many.

That's true but this thread is about our terrible QB's. Throwing the pick on their 6 yards line right before halftime instead of at least getting 3 points wasn't good.

For sure, and we had another 13-10 loss also (to Minnesota). Sims threw a couple extremely costly picks in that one also.

Good stuff! Sometimes total season interceptions & total season fumbles lost isn't as meaningful as it at first seems as far as how it directly impacts the W/L columns. Example: You're Nebraska and you're playing a Top 10 team where the realistic odds of winning are probably less than 10% and we have a ton of turnovers in that one game. Doesn't really matter that much; you weren't winning that one anyway, and then the turnovers from that one game skew the numbers greatly. The completion percentage comparisons between this year's QB efforts and Thompson last year when taking Palmer's targets out are the most interesting stat. But that said, fumbles and just total number of dumb mistakes this year has been insane and has definitely contributed to the W/L column in huge, huge ways. Last year we would have made a bowl game if probably just about anybody not named Erik Chinander was coaching the defense starting in March of 2022 up through the Georgia Southern game.

@Red Five I wonder what the team fumble stats look like between last year & this year. Of course we have two more games left in this season.

This was amusing as his QBR against Maryland wound up being 0.6. I know he only played a bit...but still.

It's interesting to talk about. Vedral wound up with a 55% career completion percentage with 18 passing TD's & 17 INT's. I would say that makes him a shade better than Haarberg, yeah. But he's basically the same player; doesn't have any real passing pedigree and is more in the "run-first" category to me. Fyfe didn't really play all that much all in all. But he wound up with a 52.7% career completion percentage with 10 touchdowns & 6 INT's.

I kind of have to watch the last two games to make an assessment. If both Wisconsin & Iowa blow us out by three scores then I don't see how this season is any better than 2019. Same record, same mistake-prone team. The defense would have gotten way better, that's obvious. But the program would basically be right where it's been at while Frost was here. Maybe slightly better but not anything to feel all that excited about. Basically an argument over semantics than anything substantial. But, have to see what happens in these last two.

Fru used the word "probably" in his original statement: "Probably" doesn't mean "assured" or "definitely."

Yeah and I'm really nowhere close to being in the "fire Satterfield after the Iowa game" crowd. I think the assessment that his play calling is bad across the board isn't really that accurate. There's no way we beat Colorado or Michigan with different play calling. So, there are 2 out of our current 5 losses that for me aren't on play calling at all. Michigan State was just a slug fest between two bad teams. Then in the case of the Minnesota & Maryland game the glaring problem was turnovers (and even false starts in the Minnesota game's case). But just one more time back to the point I was making: if we can't execute simple how are we going to execute "not simple?"

I can argue that putting Grant in over Ervin in the middle of the 4th was a bad coaching decision. Obviously this board has discussed that ad nauseum. So yes, referring to Minnesota as the other one. But the bigger point I was making is that keeping it simple sometimes is exactly what you need to win a game in the 4th quarter.

I think that second statement deserves some unpacking. No, you're not going to win a national championship and you're not going to beat Michigan or Ohio State in a conference title game "keeping it simple" with the athletes we have right now. That's a true statement. But he's creating a false dichotomy there. A critical late 4th quarter situation is not equal to a conversation about the bigger picture. The program has to stop screwing up late in the 4th quarter to even be in the conversation about winning at a high level. And he's had two games where this happened on his watch. I know he said over and over that he took blame for not getting points on that last drive and I love that, but that second statement in the quote is a big deflection.

Thanks for that. I had checked and really thought Maryland was his 4th - thanks!

Agreed. Maryland racked up 384 yards on offense and only came up with 13 points. We're just doomed to fail with these turnovers.

We had a 65% run/pass ratio against Maryland. That's about where we had been at. You probably can't just call 80% runs against a B1G defense. We picked up 183 yards on the ground and averaged 4.6 yards per carry. There's really nothing wrong with that, those numbers are potentially just fine...but then we only had 86 yards passing, and of course threw 4 INT's. Against Wisconsin we're going to have to probably rely on the ground game. Do we even know who's going to start at QB? People have said that Sims doesn't want to play in a 5th game so he can count this season as a redshirt year but who knows if that's even true.

I think we're better against the run than the pass, so him being even 100% doesn't worry me that much. I hear you though that if his injury is still lingering during the game it boosts out chances quite a bit either way. I'm way more worried about our inability to throw the ball and the put a QB on the field that won't turn the ball over like crazy.

I don't want Willy Korn at Nebraska. I don't want to prioritize the speed option & option variants. I want to bring in an actual QB who is good at actual QB things. You know, like reading a defense and throwing the ball? And honestly that player is probably Kaelin. Let's start there. Willy Korn just gets you another Jeff Sims in here because you're prioritizing a track star QB who likely can't hit the broadside of Lancaster county in the passing game. Definitely tired of that stuff. Husker football needs to let go of the option, IMO.

How far are we going back with this assessment? Because if you teamed up even our anemic offense of Frost's year two with this year's defense for this season, we're 7-3. Adrian Martinez was a good QB, and I'm positive that lots of fans that didn't see it before see it now. Rhule whiffed on Sims in the transfer portal and that started the chain of events we have now. It's going to be the most Nebraska thing ever if we lose the last four games when we just needed one win to have the best season in six years.

I can absolutely guarantee you that there was a second passer on the grassy knoll...

We'll probably be at least -3 in the turnover margin and blow it.

Not a good time, @Cy the Cyclone...

Almost can't even bring myself to dissect our offensive box score in this game. It's like watching Iowa on ketamine. Our "starting quarterback" has a 20% completion percentage with 1 interception. The guy who was supposed to be the starter at the beginning of the year - handpicked by the $72M coach - has a quarterback rating of 9.5. I'm not sure I've ever even seen a number that low...oh wait...Haarberg's was 0.6. The 3rd string guy comes in and attempts 3 passes. One of them is a game-ending interception. Combined, they threw for 47% and accounted for 5 total turnovers. And their combined QBR according to ESPN is 29.3. **Jack Woche has entered the chat**

A depressing amount of both bandwidth and time will be spent dissecting Purdy's interception. There's a reason he's the 3rd string QB. Just imagine how bad the kid must have consistently been in practice over the last 8 months to have been beaten out by Sims & Haarberg.