BigRedBuster

The picture is pretty funny. Old Uncle Joe is the best security blanket for Obama. Nobody wants anything to happen to Obama because nobody wants Joe as President.

I would put the problems at DB ahead of any of these three. Our DBs looked like they had absolutely no clue what they were doing all the way from coverage to tackling. I'm sorry, but when the QB can stand back there and scratch his nuts for 5 seconds before deciding where to throw it then I blame the defensive line. It's hard to cover people for that long. I thought Mitchell played pretty well. I can't say that about any of the defensive line. I disagree. There were MANY times that the ball was thrown quickly and our DB had absolutely no play on the ball. Now, there were a few times that their receiver/TE just simply made great plays like the TD against Stafford and the long reception against Baptist. The Baptist reception was simply an amazing play by a WR. BUT, there were many other times when the DB seemed out of position to make a play or simply was beat and it wasn't because the QB had forever in the pocket. And, that doesn't even begin to talk about their tackling in run support.

I agree with this in addition to what I stated above. After the 1st quarter I started counting guys around the ball diving for the ball carrier and on several plays there were 3-4 guys who mistackled. I can't tell you how many times a D-end came around the edge about to get a sack but they took a bad angle or over ran the QB. Meredith was the worst at it last night. Then the LB's and Safeties were taking HORRIBLE angles and missing. On each of the running plays and a lot of the passing plays where they gained yardage... there was AT LEAST 1 mistackle. Another problem is that when we have that one LB or D-end coming around the end and they miss the tackle, there isn't anyone there to help. How many times when we have a good defense did we see the first man miss on the sack but that makes the QB have to adjust and the next guy come in and cleans him up. That is how many sacks happen. That isn't what is happening here because instead of the D line attacking and everyone getting after the ball, most of them are dancing with the O line trying to see what gap the ball is going through.

I would put the problems at DB ahead of any of these three. Our DBs looked like they had absolutely no clue what they were doing all the way from coverage to tackling.

I think maybe you need to read the words I put in red and seriously think about yourself. What I put in blue is a prime example of why.

You touch upon something here that others might cringe at --- but I think is perhaps a real issue. Maybe I am extrapolating from your perspective too much, and if you get flamed along with me... sorry... You stated something about covering up for an inept staff... I surmise that a reasonable subset of the players are, at this point, aware that the NU coaching staff is inept and in over their heads --- and that a reasonable subset of those players have lost confidence in their coaches abilities. If this is so, it is understandable. I have no knowledge in a direct sense that this is happening... but in an indirect sense we do have this... The team is under-prepared week in and week out. They do not play aggressively and are out hustled most weeks. They play flat, look confused on the field, cannot line up correctly in a timely fashion and they are constantly frantic as the snap approaches on defense trying to determine what they are to do... All of this is consistent with coaching problems. It is rather embarrassing for our staff not to have been able to correct TMarts mechanics and an outside coach did. And most on the team read the posts here and elsewhere on other sites and there are now many, many, many posters that are calling out our coaches for their lack of performance. This is not unnoticed, I am sure, by the players. I have seen this at the HS level several times... where the players lose confidence in their coaches and they play, well... very much how we see NU playing. We have a problem and, I am afraid a problem that will not go away until this staff goes away. I honestly never in my wildest dreams would think that what I bolded would be said about a Pellini coached team. Not saying a disagree with it. Just am shocked that it is now said about his team.

Amen..... If our defense has an average game, we win this game fairly easy. Our defense (especially the pass coverage) was absolutely awful. I don't know if I have ever seen a game where Nebraska defenders missed more tackles. Many times the players were in position to make the play only to fail to finish it off.

I thought Compton played a good game. He is also being mentioned as a possible Big Ten Defensive player of the year. http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/big-ten-post-week-2-power-rankings

I am not putting this loss on the O line. For the most part, I thought they did a decent job on Saturday. When you are going against a very athletic and well coached D line, you are going to have some break downs. This was a close/hard fought game and there were many plays that were very well blocked.

I am not a person who follows recruiting heavily. At most, I follow it at arms length simply because I refuse to get emotionally tied up with decisions 18 year old kids make. However, recruiting is a big factor in the future chance a program has of winning big games. You have to have play makers. Here are the last 5 recruiting class rankings for these two teams: UCLA NU 2012 12 50 2011 55 19 2010 8 29 2009 5 33 2008 10 21 Average 18 30.4 How much of a factor does this have when a program has that much more talent coming in over a 5 year period? Now, I'm not saying we can't beat UCLA. BUT, if this is the case, then we need to out coach the other team and run better schemes that put our players in a position to succeed. We aren't doing that.

If Nebraska never plays the 2 gap system again, I will be happy. It makes no sense to me to have your D line dancing with the O line all day long. Ever since I have started watching football and playing it when I was young, the job is to GET OFF the block. It wasn't the D line's job to stay in contact with anyone. Get free and make a play!!!!!

I am absolutely totally baffled by our defensive scheme up front. If we go against a mobile QB, he either has all day to make a play or if one person gets loose to get at him, all he has to do is get away from that one guy and he is gone because everyone else on the line is dancing with the O line. You want to know why Martinez is rushed to throw many times (even though it's better than last year)? It's because the d line is shooting gaps and getting in his face FAST. If Nebraska never plays a 2 gap system again I would be very happy.

I firmly believe we are going to win. The wild card is how much are they going to improve from week one to week two?

Great...I had a response all typed out and my browser crashed. I'll try to do it again. Wages = Like you said, they are a HUGE portion. I'm not arguing that it is. BUT, government regulations like minimum wages play a big part in that. Environmental laws = This is with everything from my raw material suppliers to us. If our entire distribution chain doesn't have to give a crap about anything, it drops the cost. When my suppliers not only have to spend many millions of dollars to even start to build a plant and then have huge amounts of legal fees to fight environmental regulation and activist threats, that all add costs. Employee safety regulations = These all add costs and China has very little of these. I've already spoken about the lead as an ingredient issue. The Chinese government isn't a regulation here in the US but it plays a big part in this. If all I had to do is break even and then the government would take care of me, I could sell at a much lower price. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking about. Like I said, I'm not necessarily apposed to all of these but it causes us to not compete on a level playing field.

What was I implying? (Not a smart@$$ comment. . .) That was aimed at your comment about freight eating up at least some of the discrepancy. My point was that it doesn't do very much.

Carl.... Here is a good example of what you are implying. We tried bringing on a product line that compliments ours. We weren't going to manufacture it. We wanted to be a distributor of it and sell it along with our products. We reached a distribution agreement with a company that makes probably the top of the line products in that market. They have both manufacturing here in the US and in China. Making the same product in China, I think was around 25-30% cheaper than in the US even after freight. This product is sold with maybe a 10% margin. So, simple math shows you that there was no way we could buy from the US manufacturing and make it work. Our supplier basically just used the US manufacturing for specialty products and orders they had to get out in a very short lead time. Probably 90% of their products were shipped from China in bulk.

Just noting that if you chose to manufacture in China and your primary market is the US . . . your shipping costs would probably go up. That'd partially offset (a small amount, I'm sure) the increased profits from cheaper materials and labor. True....but, the chinese products are still being shipped here and sold at a cheaper price than I can even make them. That wasn't a typo. They are being sold to the customer cheaper than I can make them.

Wrong.... Yes, your wage issue is a real issue. BUT, if I have a manufacturing plant that has to abide by very strict environmental regulations in the US which would greatly increase my costs, why wouldn't I build it in China where I don't have to worry about that at all and the government doesn't give a crap what I do unless the Olympics come to town and all they will have me do is close for a month? And, I didn't say ending regulations is the answer. I said level the playing field. I quoted you poorly, I'm sorry for that. And I didn't mean to imply that wage equality is the primary reason. Certainly regulations have a role to play. I just think the wage thing (and employee benefits, etc) is a larger slice of the pie. The wage (and employee benefits) issue is a huge problem. But, I don't think people realize how big of an issue the other regulations are. My example of my raw material suppliers building plants in other countries is a prime example. That has nothing to do with wages. They WANT to build them here because there is a demand here and they can make better product here. BUT, environmental regulations (and I should include environmental groups fighting them) keeps them from doing it. That is jobs right there that we should have here but they aren't for no reason other than political.

Not sure why that matters but I do ship some internationally.

This is why I refuse to watch the conventions. How can anyone wade through the total BS spewed out by both parties at these elections. All it results in is the base getting all emotionally tied up in knots and wanting to go kick the other side's ass at all costs. 99% based on falsehoods, innuendos and total BS.

Wrong.... Yes, your wage issue is a real issue. BUT, if I have a manufacturing plant that has to abide by very strict environmental regulations in the US which would greatly increase my costs, why wouldn't I build it in China where I don't have to worry about that at all and the government doesn't give a crap what I do unless the Olympics come to town and all they will have me do is close for a month? And, I didn't say ending regulations is the answer. I said level the playing field. Would you save more money by using lead or by paying your employees $5 a day? I guess probably the labor but I really don't know. It could be close. BUT, it really doesn't matter. Both situations make our company less competitive.

I agree. But, it is impossible to get changed. I have personally been involved trying. AND, that only takes into consideration that one aspect of it. It still doesn't settle the issue with wages, governmental subsidies and other environmental regulations my company and domestic industry must face. Another example that is in my industry. We need more capacity in my industry to manufacture raw materials. My raw materials come from natural gas. We have HUGE amounts of that in the US. We should be building more manufacturing of that raw material here. We aren't. Why???? Environmental regulations either prevent it or make it so expensive to get through the process that those companies are building plants on the Pacific Rim and Europe. They make this product there out of oil and coal. Natural gas makes a better product, but we can't increase our production here because of the government. FYI....My industry hasn't had an environmental or health problem from our products and production in probably 60 years. There is no reason why not to build more here.

Wrong.... Yes, your wage issue is a real issue. BUT, if I have a manufacturing plant that has to abide by very strict environmental regulations in the US which would greatly increase my costs, why wouldn't I build it in China where I don't have to worry about that at all and the government doesn't give a crap what I do unless the Olympics come to town and all they will have me do is close for a month? And, I didn't say ending regulations is the answer. I said level the playing field.

I would be better described as someone who is for certain regulations in certain situations but I am a firm believer that most of the time the are poorly written and implemented.

My view is it that you can't have it both ways. You can't have all these regulations in the US and then expect companies to compete with companies that don't have it. IF....the US is going to not force other countries who import products to the US to raise their standards, AND, the US wants manufacturing to come back to the US, then we must reduce regulations. I would prefer that other countries raise their standards to ours. Example.....I don't want products like ours made in the US with lead. BUT, I also don't want to have to compete with products made OUTSIDE the US cheaper because they can use lead. So, when I say that we are over regulated, I am mostly referring to "compared to other countries" who compete with US companies. Now....I do believe there are some regulations in the US that go too far.