lo country

Faith and Honor held high,

Congrats young man.

Moore leaves because of "personal" issues and fixes his problems by choosing UF. Rome leaves for unknown issues "fixes" things and returns. Unsure of what happened, BUT to come back with your hat in your hand takes some stones and maturity. Good for him. Sometimes lifes lessons are invaluable. Perhaps Rome just learned a big one.

NW, although carrying the B1G banner, will not be a problem. A complete D melt down last year cost us that game. Offense is light years ahead of last year. I also think that after seeing Paps Sat on the sideline, one coach gets "it". It is ok to show emotion, it is ok to play with emotion, it is ok to get a team fired up mentally to lay an a$$ kicking to a team that shouldn't even be on our radar. Now winning the B1G is a hard order, but can be done. None of the teams our that good right now. Unfortunately, just as we are improving and starting to hit conference play and see tougher foes, OSU, Michicken, Michicken lite are all doing the same thing. They have good coaches who, like Bo are doing everything to adjust the on field performance. Calling talent equal across the board ie we have Rex/AA/Cross/Heard, Wisky has Ball. Martinez vs Miller etc..... It will, IMO, come down to coaching and the ability of the staff to develop an exceptional game plan, adjust on the fly and for once, force teams to adjust to us.

That was one aggressive defense. After game ATL said they did a great job of hiding and disguising blitzes. Obvious after 3 INT's on first 3 series IIRC. For an exhibition on how to tackle see SF 49's. Those guys were laying the wood like Lumberjacks.

Anderson himself didn't even know he had this injury. Hard to report it to coaches if you don't even know you have the injury yourself. "Anderson said Tuesday that he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in practice last week but didn't know it at the time. He played with the injury while making his first start in the Cornhuskers' 42-13 win over Arkansas State." http://www.wowt.com/...-170268426.html One tough kid. WOW!

Umm, I'm very sure when the injury happened, they didn't know the specifics of how bad the injury was. Zaire could've have just as much led trainers to believe his injury wasn't as bad in order to get playing time against Arkansas St. I'm not downgrading the notion that an injured Zaire played better than other LB's on the team at the Will position. But i read your statement that Bo and his staff played Zaire regardless of his injury, which i find very hard to believe. Not at all my meaning or insinuation. The wake up call to Bo was in seeing a injured Zaire (not known to staff until MRI this week) being better than some of our previous starters. I am sure that Bo would not play a guy until he was ready. IMO, Bo found out and shook his head amazed that Zaire played on a torn ACL and that he was still better.

Again, a guy with a torn ACL started over healthy LB's with more playing time. Wake up call to Bo for sure (I would hope) after realizing this.

So, a kid with a torn ACL starts over a healthy LB............... what does that say about the state of our previous starters? Damn.

Sipple on Twitter. SUX big time. Someone also mentioned Rose is injured as well. Excuse my ignorance. What happened to him and when? Our thin ranks get thinner. Santos gets time, much more time. Perhaps Alfalfa (sp?) and Brown. Sux for Zaire, saw were he was talking grief from his Juco buddies for not playing yet.

What is odd with the mobile QB as well is that we have one of the fastest QB's in the league to go against every week. Perhaps Martinez is mobile, but not elusive? The 1's do not go against 1's? It would be nice if we would do what teams have done to us since Texa$$ in 2010. Load the box, stop the run (QB). I wouldn't mind seeing that a little to see if we have the horses to make it work. The DB's seem to be improving and appear to be the strength of the D right now. Put them on an Island against Robinsons arm and I like their chances. Not so much with Miller. Get 8 guys in their face and most QB's will have issues. Just have to contain them though.

If Bo is Superman, the mobile QB is his krtyptonite. I know folks say that all team struggle with mobile QB's, but it seems that Bo has no answer to even remotely stop or slow one. I know we do not have the D of Bama, but I would think we are better than MSU and Iowa and they all blitzed like no ones business. The key would appear to simply beat that mobile QB a$$. Bama vz Robinson 27 for 27 yrds, Iowas 12 for 55 and MSU 18 for 42. Now NU 23 for 83. Nu had less per carry yrds, but DR was harassed all game and running for his life. We need to look at previous film and figure something out for sure. We have 3 very mobile QB's coming up.

Absolutely agree with the bold. Don't recruit projects........recruit producers. You get freshman playing and look at the experience you have senior year. 2 deep across the roster. No drop off from the 1's to the 2's. Vets helping and teaching. Everyone contributing. Sounds like a recipe for success or the 1990's at NU. Also lets recruits know they will play, not that "they might". Look at the Gamecocks with Lattimore and Clowney to name one team. Sammy Watkins at Clemson etc.....

I feel comfortable in saying that any coach worth his salt will recognize the ability of having a thud back like Cross. When is the last time we had a big back to use? Remember last year when we, at times, struggled with 3rd and short? Rex is (Ron Brown's description) a war daddy. Rex is a known entity. It will be great to see him back. Now imagine a fresh Rex all season. Give him the majority of carries, but rotate the young guys. With Rex, AA, Heard and Cross we finally have the four horsemen of the apocalypse in the backfield (Marrow a FB so not included). A great problem to have. Throw in Marrow and we have a lot of beef in the backfield. What are the 3 guys averaging? I think it is over 6 per touch. Teams stack the box to stop the run and a new improved Martinez SHOULD be able to make them pay with his arm (if the OL does much better than UCLA and Beck calls a good 4 quarters). Limited diamond with any of the above combination will be a nightmare. Imagine if Beck can install a RB screen like UCLA and Ark St. Even more trouble for DC's to worry about. I think that Bo, after the UCLA debacle, is really open to anything that keeps the O and D more productive. This includes keeping Rex fresh and spreading the carries out. Again, a great problem to have. Not to mention, from the outside looking in, none of those guys seem to be selfish. I think they can all keep egos in check and just play.

We still have an alarming inability to stop a Mobile QB. We have 3 coming up. NW should be 7-0 when we travel to play them. We have a long road to go. We have shown an ability to "get up" for games as well as "let down" for games. I would like to see what we do against a better D before I think that our break down against UCLA was a fluke. Our D was night and day better Sat for sure. We just need to figure out a way to better control the LOS and not allow guys to get 3-4 yrds per carry making it 3rd and short every time. And te obvious, stop the easy screen and RB dump passes in the flats. The upside, Bo realized we were lacking and has a few more weeks to tinker until conference play. Same with Beck's play calling and the comfort level of Martinez. Can't overlook the huge lift of Rex being back either.

Neither of those fumbles were really his fault. The first one was a pass pro failure where his boots got knocked from his blind side,and the second, Braylon just kinda elbowed the ball out on a PA pass. Miscue of playcalling most likely. The only one that was a problem for me really was the Marrow fumble. Even in garbage time. The others are all either oddities that won't generally occur, or a ghost fumble by Ameer. The first one was a completely blown blocking assignment by Ben Cotton. Dude has been really, really bad at his blocking thus far this year. Neither fumble was the fault of the QB. Wonder if his rib issue is a bigger problem than led to believe. He whiffed a couple blocks. Even easy chip blocks.

Yesterday was a marked improvement for sure. We tackled much better. The only problem was the good tackling was generally after a several yard game. need to find a way to control the LOS and find a way to stop those screen passes. Better athletes will eat us alive on those plays. The D will continue to gel and improve (at least the LB and DB's). Unsure what to do about the DL. Maybe just continue to rotate the young guys in. Offensively, IMO, depends on beck and his Jeckyl and Hyde play calling. If he continues to call plays that a) Martinez is comfortable with and b) are to the strengths of Martinez and the team we should be able to score a lot of points. Looking at UCLA, 30 points would generally win any game (at least the majority). With Rex back in a few, I would lean heavy on the run game with hydra RB depth that is our team ie Rex, AA, Heard, Cross, Marrow ARE YOU KIDDING me. Then throw in Reed, Bell, Enunwa, JT, and we are looking very explosive. I think that we will continue to see an 8 man box until Martinez/Beck show that they can handle the pressure. We negate the pressure against a good D and you will see DC's start to sweat and crap themselves. Until then, plan for 8 in the box IMO. I hope Beck dials up some screens to get the ball to the backs in the flats or into the hands of JT. Kind of like the Wats O that was to throw to Lucky out of the flats. Imagine Enunwa on a screen or going in motion and catching a quick swing pass. he might injure a DB.

No one was blocking him because Suh was being quadruple-teamed. That doesn't explain his lack of speed now. In '09 he was flying to the ball; played with emotion; hit hard; made the tackles. Everything the fans were excited about in a DE, Cam had it. Now Cam barely goes thru the motions, is slow as hell, misses tackles and loses about 5 jocks each game. Something is not right about that guy. He should be the guy bringing the heat, a leader on the field, etc. I'll have to take you word for it. I remember Jason Peter fawning over him, but I don't particularly remember him doing anything to stand out. Other than having a cool mustache. IIRC, that was the first or second game of last year. Looking at Cam now makes me wonder if he was being sarcastic. Cam is slow. I am sure he has desire, but much like some of the play calling that forces Martinez into positions not best for his abilities, I wonder if the current scheme simply doesn't work for Cam's abilities. Kind of the square peg round hole thing.

All of the above. Can't really add much. Some guys, mentioned above really stepped up big time. nice to see that Bo and Co actually adjusted the personnel this week to get the W. Should see improvements as the season plays out. DB's played balls out. Hard hits and great in run support. I expect them to to be very good at the end of the season. Really like our depth at the skill positions outside TE.

Was the boss today. IMO, he is greatly improved, but play calling to his and the teams strengths helps tremendously. Guy ran tough as well. Still straight up, but on the TD run, he just bulled in.

O almost guaranteed to get 2 yrds and a full head of steam prior to impact.

They know to go with what works until WE stop it. Gus and their OC will not go from it utntil we stop it. I hope Beck takes some notes.

Almost wish Cooper would "go" on one of those passes

Play action was great. Folks called for it all last week to no avail. Glad to see we actually ahve it in the book

Bell's 'do looks like a wild turkey!