lo country

The bolded. Spot on. We are friggin NU. Why in the world are we still complaining about guys starting who can't tackle or block. Stuff that kept anyone who has ever played organized football, AT ANY LEVEL, of the field. Yet week in and week out, w still see guys missing tackles, missing blocks, forgetting snap count and fumbling..... Do these kids get it done in HS and then regress? Did we just recruit with the "hope" they learn?

that sounds so easy just recruit a bunch of guys that have the size and smarts to play out of highschool only sign 4 and five star guys that are starters there freshman year because there are so many of them that you can get a full 25 recruit class a year of just them That's the thing. We seem to have too many swing and misses and then fill our class with guys who are "below the radar" or" came on strong senior year" or "need a little time to develop". Look at all the teams that currently have true or RSfresh leading the charge. You do not win a MNC by having 60% of your OL composed of walkons. You do not win the MNC by having your starting center, a ocnverted DL, beat out schollie guys and start. Spencer Long is an exception, not the rule. Also read an article from Shatel IIRC, that said Bo currently has 15 commits and we can take as many as 25-28. Signing day is around the corner. What do we do? Schollies to walk-ons? Schollies to guys no one else wanted?

Quit recruiting project players and guys we can develop. Bo has shown a complete inability to develop anyone. Just look at the 20+ OL on schollie and 11 at the DL spot. Recruit guys who can play from day one. Can the 2 gap D crap. Quit having our QB lead the nation in fumbles for 3 years in a row. Stop the TO;s period. Limit penalties. Start developing some depth. It is evident outside RB and WR we have none. Safeties next year? No experience. LB's? No real experience. QB? Forget it. TE? Same. OL? None. Punter/Kicker? No............. An article from Shatel IIRC, summed it up about the difference with Bama and the others. One word.....Effort. Bama plays with the most effort and urgency in the country. Flawless. Like NU used to be. UGA and LSU have comparable athletes, but both lose to Bama because of effort. Bo needs to find this effort and keep it up for 4 quarters. A player half asses on the field, he can ride the pine. Penaly, hit the pine. Fumble, even at QB, hit the pine. We get kicked in the nuts, we give up. ie Hail Mary, AA fumble, Miller's TD run this year, UM punt penalty last etc.... We do not recover from these shots. Effort, not quitting..........

Our first win was almost 20 years ago. Bama's last win was last night. They are remembered, we are forgotten. IMO, we are, hands down, the better run. Look out our ranked wins, margin of victory etc......

They did play well against Georgia. False. The defense was absolutely embarrassed by Georgia. Just because it wasn't as bad as the Wisconsin beat down, doesn't mean they played well. Giving up 24 yards per completion to any QB is a total collapse. 589 yards and 45 points is not a good day by any standards. Record setting day for Murray. Most yards, longest play this year from scrimmage etc....... Folks are delusional thinking our D played great. We stopped the ru, but completely abandoned our pass D. Although I will say, it did look like they had to picks not get called (both for TD's) and the no call intentional grounding helped them as well. I am tired of the yearly melt downs, the blow out losses, the "you got to be kidding me losses" and teams and individuals having record setting games against us.

Yep. The blowout losses, giving up like 50 points per loss average this year, almost record setting yards UCLA (on the ground) and in the air (UGA) and it really brings one back to reality. Had we suffered 4 close losses, much easier to say we are almost there. Having Wisky hang 70 and OSU hang 63 shows we have a long way to go.

Take care. Check in from time to time!

But the flip side is on 3 and 3ish to keep the drive alive and stay in the game he feels phantom pressure scrambles out of the pocket and loses yards, when he had that same throw open again if you would have just settled and took a hit if need be. I did notice TM got skitterish and bolted from the pocket when there was no immediate threat. I wrote it off to having questionable protection all year and a self defense mechanism. I did notice it several times though. Last season Martinez worked with the QB coach on mechanics ie foot placement, squaring the shoulders, follow through etc..... IMO, he was such a train wreck mechanically that was all they really had time to work on. His miscues this year, were not really a result of poor mechanics, but not progressing through reads, finding the outlet receiver etc..... I am hopeful that in year 3, Martinez will know the play book as much as possible (no wasted time "learning" playbook)and that his time with Calhoun will be spent with reading defense, pocket presence and looking the D off. Things that elevate a QB from serviceable to intangible winner. I also think that this time i the system will also allow Beck and Ganz to work on the same issues. Again, IMO, some of the passes thrown this year would not have been possible last year.

The thing that made us great was what you described above. Solid, butt kicking D and an offense that would run it down your throat. Nothing you could do to stop it. The D actually became stifling when we truly went after speed. To beat a dead horse, McBride said they went after 3 things in this order: Speed, ability to tackle and size. Speed and the fundamental skill of tackling trumped size. Look no further than David to see this effect. Watching Ou and A&M is like night and day compared to our D. Plays on the ball in the air, speed and an uncanny ability to tackle in space and not miss. Ultimately until we become great at the basics, ie tackling, penalties and ball control we are doomed. An average athletic team with sound basics, IMO will always beat a superior athletic team that misses tackles, blocks, gets penalties and turns the ball over. The NU teams of old were not stacked with modern day 5 star kids. They were sure tacklers and played to the best of their abilities and were sound in the basics. The bolded above is a look at Bama, ND, Wisky, SC, Stanford etc.... Solid D, pound the ball and run you into submission. This post might have been in the first half. During the 2nd half, I felt better that the Husker defense wasn't the only sad unit to show up this bowl season....We looked better than Oklahoma, something people would have gladly accepted two short years ago. In the 2nd half I should have edited the post! A&M still looked fast, mean and sure, OU not so much.

Here is an interesting comment brought up last night during the A&M vs OU game. Announcers were speaking of Manziel at QB and they said that in the spring he was turning over the ball. A LOT. Sumlin told him that he would not have a QB that turned the ball over. Wasn't going to happen. Seems like Manziel took this to heart, got the job, the Hypesman and beat Bama. Not a knock on Martinez, BUT our QB has led the nation for 3 years in fumbles. OUR QB. The guy who touches the ball every offensive down. We have won games because of and in spite of Martinez. The TO's have got to be fixed. Doesn't matter if we have 5 stars at every position, you turn the ball over like we do, you are going to lose a few regardless of talent. (look at my Dallas Cowboys and Romo) Also saw a stat mid season that showed teams with the lowest TO's were also top ranked. IIRC the list included KSU, Oregon and Bama. PLay sound fundamental football and we can win despite a perceived "lack of talent". If we can't get the "talent" coach them up and make sure they are sound fundamental players. Both of these, development and attention to the basics really seems lacking. Until we fix these two issues (one's the staff and team control) we are going to be a 4 loss team.

This has been our issue all year long. A huge play or mistake just makes the guys collapse. It is not getting behind that takes the wind from their sails, but the manner it happens ie the AA fumble, Michicken roughing the punter, Miller's run, Wisky with the long TD to open against us in the B1G, the Hail Mary against USC etc..... It seems each loss had the one pivotal play that the team couldn't shake. Against UGA Murray throws the pick 6 and comes right back with a score of his own on the very next series. Teams that have "arrived" are capable of over coming these "gut punch" plays. To date, IMO, NU has not shown that ability or resolve.

Very true, but whatever formation you want to pound the rock from (myself I prefer the "I"), you've got to recruit with that offensive set in mind Not a recruiting guru, but could part of our issue on O and D to a degree is trying to recruit a jack of all trades and a master of none. Can a great bulldozer also be great in a passing O, a spread O, asked to pull on toss plays, zone read option etc.......Our O is very multiple, but do we also suffer for that which has improved ie OL play suffers?

The thing that made us great was what you described above. Solid, butt kicking D and an offense that would run it down your throat. Nothing you could do to stop it. The D actually became stifling when we truly went after speed. To beat a dead horse, McBride said they went after 3 things in this order: Speed, ability to tackle and size. Speed and the fundamental skill of tackling trumped size. Look no further than David to see this effect. Watching Ou and A&M is like night and day compared to our D. Plays on the ball in the air, speed and an uncanny ability to tackle in space and not miss. Ultimately until we become great at the basics, ie tackling, penalties and ball control we are doomed. An average athletic team with sound basics, IMO will always beat a superior athletic team that misses tackles, blocks, gets penalties and turns the ball over. The NU teams of old were not stacked with modern day 5 star kids. They were sure tacklers and played to the best of their abilities and were sound in the basics. The bolded above is a look at Bama, ND, Wisky, SC, Stanford etc.... Solid D, pound the ball and run you into submission.

Congrats to both parties, the Pres, Congress and the Senate. You passed a stop gap, 154 pages long that you "read" in 3 minutes. My taxes (along with 77% of Americans) was raised, you simply pushed it down the road for 2 more months, are spending $41 for every dollar cut and managed to get in a lot of pork, breaks for Hollywood and Corporate ....... Awesome, awesome job. Every single incumbent, Dem or Rep needs to be shown the door this next election. If anyone performed their job like these clowns you would have been fired the first week. Why does DC think that we can spend our way out of debt?

At least he plays with pride. Doesn't take crap off anyone on the field and defends the league. A polished, political speaker? No. But speaks his mind? Absolutely. I have no issues with that. I wish other Huskers felt the same way. Maybe we wouldn't have given up roughly 600+ yrds per game in our losses or an average of 50+ points in those. If we had won, the comments wouldn't have been an issue. We were winning against the big, bad SEC with a back up center, 2 other OL walk ons, a DE moved to DT, on DL with a bum leg and one with a broken hand, not to mention LB's who have had issues all year covering in space. Not to mention, until the fumble we pretty much imposing our will with the uptempo O. NU showed pride and progress IMO in that game.

I think this quote sums it up from Joseph: This fact is not lost on Joseph, who came to NU from Tennessee. Joseph has an SEC mentality. What he saw in the fourth quarter was no shock. “For three quarters, we traded jabs,” Joseph said. “But you have to play a perfect game against a team like that. When you give up a couple big plays, their defense smells blood and they can go get it. “We have to get more good players and be able to use them in a rotation, take some snaps off some guys. That's what they are able to do. Late in the game, they have more players with more snaps. They have more good players.” Reminds me of the Huskers of old. Sub guys in without much drop off at all.

If Bo learned only one thing this year it is that we HAVE TO develop depth at all positions. You just can't go with the first string, try to develop only them and expect guys to come in after an injury and play to an acceptable level.

and it wasn't AR's blocking, it was the false starts too. You could feel the steam go out of the O. When Sirles went out, the wind came out of my sail as well. Definitely changed what the O was doing for sure. False starts followed by missed blocks......

WHAT! That is ridiculous.

Rex is solid. On and off the field. A great face for the program. No doubt he will be playing on Sundays. Whom ever gets him will be a steal IMO. I hope the Cowboys or Panthers would like to give him a shot!

Part of the issue was the inability to really get consistent pressure on Murray. You let a guy with his talent sit in the pocket, coupled with the talent of their receivers and any DB's would look bad. Murray threw some great passes and his receivers also made him look great. Evans has played solid all year. IMO, DB's gave up some plays today, but still held the SEC record setting QB to 54% completion rate. It just hurts when he rips us for almost 500 yrds.

In a word defense. From the scheme to the talent to the DC. Folks talk about Bo calling the D and being the DC. If that is the case then free up Paps spot. I liken our issue to that of Jason Garret with the Cowboys. Head coach and OC. There is talk he might be let go. He is stubborn and refuses to get an OC so he can concentrate on the "bigger" issues. Talk now of possibly have Jerry Jones bring in Norv Turner to be the OC. Let Jason know, this way or the highway. Bo might be at this cross roads now. You are kidding your self to think our D has made significant strides. Look out our losses this year. Look at the points scored and the yardage obtained. Embarrassing. IMO if Bo gets to stay, fine, but we need to bring in a quality DC who can fix this. We also need to fix the little things I learned in 2nd grade when I started playing football. Things like holding onto the ball. Tackling. Listening in the huddle to the snap count. Blocking. Not getting boneheaded drive killing penalties..................... If I had to describe teams under Bo, I would have to use words like undisciplined. Lost. Mistake prone etc..... These descriptions have been the hallmark since he has been here.

Disagree. Do we have problems? Yes, but to make a blanket statement like this is just irresponsible. Really??? Over 400 yards passing today by a nobody QB and there's no problem? . Guy has thrown for over 3000 yrds a season in the SEC, a record. If he comes out early is projected as a first round pick. Absolutely the best QB we have faced all year.

Looked at times they took wrong angle or got out muscled at LOS. Murray ripped us for yards. but was still like 18 for 33 IIRC (54%). He just killed us with those long balls. I really think the 2 PI calls really made our guys play a lot less physical. This hurt us as well.

We need some serious help on DL and OL. Saw Evans get pushed around today as well. I also think after 2 PI calls the DB's all backed off. The OL really plays lazy. Watched them today and they didn't really play with fire. Not a lot of hustle. Didn't seem to take Martinez back. AGAIN. Martinez is tough and gustsy. Recruit safeties and convert them to LB's. Go speed, tackling and then size ala Charlie McBride. Our D leaves the middle of the field exposed. Saw it last year and this year as well. I am tired of having teams set records against us. JT looked good returning punts. Held onto the ball. Rex is a beast. Martinez needs to tuck and run quicker sometimes IMO. Cotton had a good game except for the 1 drop.