DrunkOffPunch

I think I have my lineup set pretty well but I'm looking for for other people's comments/opinions. I started off 0-4 but am on a 2 game win streak. Playing the league leading team who is 5-1 (and a girl) and I'd like for this momentum to keep going. Starters- QB- Phillip Rivers RBs- Arian Foster, DeAngelo Williams WRs- Hakeem Nicks, Mike Williams, Justin Blackmon TE- Heath Miller FLEX- Keenan Allen D- Panthers K- Seattle's Bench- QB- Eli Manning RBs- Stevan Ridley, Chris Johnson, Andre Ellington WRs- DeAndre Hopkins, Roddy White, Randall Cobb-O TE- Charles Clay

1. Oregon 2. 'Bama 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State 5. Clemson 6. Louisville 7. UCLA 8. Baylor 9. aTm 10. Stanford I believe this year the Pac-12 is the best conference in football.

Goodson and Ivory are returning so I think they'll take some of Powell's touches.

Who do you guys think will be the better long term waiver pick-up this week? Willis McGahee - Cleveland Andre Ellington - Arizona Zac Stacy - St. Louis McGahee and Stacy are both starters. Ellington is not but has been steadily outperforming Mendenhall, getting more carries, and is the better catching threat. I play in a PPR league. Right now I'm leaning towards 1.Ellington 2.Stacy 3.McGahee.

Not picking a side but something to add.. Martinez: 1) Led (IDK the exact number) 4(?) comeback victories last year. Not to mention he QB'ed the biggest comeback in Husker history. 2) He is tough. Not nearly as good when hurt, but I'd be hard pressed(is that a saying?) to find many people on the roster that want it more than him. Either way I am excited for the next 3 yrs of TA.

I love the excuse when I point out the first half of the UCLA game that "UCLA was just emotionally drained, then they woke up". Well, I use that same excuse for the 1st quarter and half against SDSU. Excuses absolutely apply for other teams but not us. Absolutely not us. Took my daughter to that game. Her first game ever. Talk about a roller coaster of a game. We were cheering screaming and high fiving everyone around us. That UCLA score right before half had a slight effect on everyone. The second half drained the life out of everyone. I still cheered when the defense was out there hoping for a stop. We didn't get many. The thing was, I could hear people grumbling "here we go again". And I thought, I think they are right. Here we go......AGAIN. Roller coaster seems to be quite a fitting term for this team and this staff quite frankly. An emotional wreck at times would describe both. You can hate the excuses Accountability and EZ, but the fact is, we've seen this show enough to know the outcome. To start expecting it the way I did after that final score of the half.....well it's just unfortunate but common. In the same breath as you are saying how lame some fans excuses and explanations were, well many fans find some of the coaches excuses and explanations equally annoying. To the point of, no, those excuses don't apply anymore. You'd be looking very hard to find an excuse that Bo has given the past year or so. I actually believe he's actually taken sole blame multiple times this season and last. And it really comes down to this question: What more do you want or need him to say? He can't win with whatever he says to the media or fans. There is really nothing that he can say that won't be over-analyzed, spun around, and read into so much that it's made into something it's not by the media or fanbase. You married men or guys with serious girlfriends, does that sound familiar at all? I think this year he's made more excuses than ever. I remember the UCLA game when he said they made defensive adjustments all the time but the guys couldn't get it down (not verbatim) He did a similar thing at the Wisconsin game and really the only loss I remember him blaming himself, it was the Ohio State game. How come we aren't allowed to criticize O Holy Bo, but he can blame our players for not executing the process? Perfect example of why we shouldn't is Martinez. The offense looks sluggish and we go three and out and it's his fault. We score 50+ and he runs for 100 yards and people praise him. It's been like that his entire career. Being the QB, he's an easy target to blame when the offense doesn't execute. Same can be said of Bo with the defense. '09 and '10 defenses were amazing. He got some credit but most of it went to players like Suh and Amukamara. Then looking back people hold an asterisk on those years because Bo didn't recruit them. In the game thread people are quick to blame a player when he misses a tackle or blows a coverage then after it's all said and done blame Bo when we give up a good amount of yards. When a LB misses a tackle or a DB takes the bait when a WR throws him a head fake then gets beat that is what Bo means when he says execute. These plays add up. He's not throwing them under the bus. The players are in position to make a play yet don't. Does Bo deserve a little criticism? Yes, but not all of it. What EZ said was true; no matter what Bo says he can't win. Husker fans are always looking for a scapegoat to blame when things go wrong. At the end of the day the players are the ones that step on the field, and if the 'execute' the way they should and can, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Anybody have thoughts on Roddy White? Some guy in my league dropped him. He's obviously a very good player and since I'm 1 in the waiver wire I'll be picking him up but how long will it take him to overcome him high ankle sprain?

I hear where you're coming from man, which is why we used to just laugh it off. Really, that was just a stream of consciousness rumination: Reflecting on the whole tenure. Thinking about this scheme, whatever gap * X it may be. I have this nettlesome pessimistic suspicion that we simply had playmaking studs at all three tiers, and our vicious destruction of opposing offenses merely a consequence of Suh scoffing at double teams while three guys lined up beside him feasted off the chaos he generated. That's not genius X and O stuff. That's an all time college DT right next to another current NFL player who often gleefully blazed past a single team while that Storm of Suh caused mass wreckage and frustration next to him...and then, whatever panicked or rushed pitch or flare to a safety valve that managed to squeak out of a wide eyed QBs hand was cleaned up by Hagg or Gomes or Prince or Dennard...or O'Hanlon. (Sic?) Remember that first or second series for Arizona in that bowl game, when Matt came flying up and just beat up a WR or RB trying to move upfield after a little screen? That was sound tackling. Our safeties haven't done that since Courtney Osborne got whatever career altering injury he incurred. (Something happened. PJ Smith or Harvey Jackson ain't hitting Gabbert like that. Just not happening. This scheme, what we're doing now, is '09 offense painful to watch. I have consistently stuck by this staff for six years, and I'm not gathering pitchforks over here. I will say though...something's gotta give. I am patient. Past posts of mine will illuminate that. But this guy better figure out a way to make this defense at least an average unit. Average is not an extravagant request. And the disheartening thing is that we're a long way from that. We are absolutely awful right now. Like bottom league bad. And "process" and "execution" isn't enough for me at this point...sorry. This is not a backwater school with kids playing two ways. There is enough speed and athleticism to hold opponents to 400 yards and 28 points. Yes. That is how low the bar is right now. And 28 points seems too low. 400 yards? That's only gets you 2/3 of the way to Laramie. Sorry guys...really longwinded, I know. Just been kind of bottling it up and trying like hell to not worry about Wyoming, focus on the 1st half against UCLA (when they arguably did as much to stop themselves on offense as we did on D.) Arguably because it's unfair to discount what the defense did manage to achieve: Look like a unit capable of getting a pretty decent offense off the field with some regularity. That's our high point. And that included a dropped snap by a punter, two short field scores for us...and some misses for plays that were there for the Bruins. Well said. I actually said something along the same lines as you about the safeties in a thread. It sometimes can be a real roller coaster watching this D. I mean, like you said, against an explosive UCLA O in the first quarter we really had them on the ropes. There's highs and lows. You see a guy like SJB read a QB and make a pick by jumping a route so you ask yourself why can't everybody do this? That's what I don't get at times, but I'll be the first to say I'm optimistic enough that when I see something like that I believe others can do it too. We at times have seen some amazing college football players on Pelini's D. Guys like David and and Hagg who made little mistakes and were complete ball hawks. You can look at the 09/10 defenses and say well Pelini didn't recruit them, but then again most of them(besides Suh and a couple others) didn't really play that much under Callahan. That's why I believe Pelini can repeat those results. I'm not disagreeing with you, more or less just saying I'm an optimist. One thing to take away from the 09 D was their aggressive nature, which is made a bit easier when we were getting constant pressure with 4 guys, but the aggressive nature on this D does need to pick up, and I'm not talking about play calling. Like you said, our safeties were more aggressive, and if I am thinking correctly since our safeties are usually playing a 2 deep zone their eyes should be towards the QB. Guys like O'Hanlon were great at reading run/screen/whatever short play the offense threw at them, and we need that now. OT- Was Osborne really hurt? I always wondered why we never played after taking the starting spot when he was a Freshman/Sophmore. Really liked him as a player.

I wouldn't read too much into that personally. More of an indirect motivational speech. David didn't seem like the kind of guy to fold under criticism, more of the type that hears it and does everything he can to fix these little 'mistakes' and get better. There's more than one way to motivate someone other than praise. Looking back at David's short career, it seems to me like it worked.

Being forced to resign is the PC way of saying you're fired. But you can think of it anyway you want. And to the bolded part, you may think he didn't do anything wrong, but he broke the rules and lied about it. And because of it, it cost OSU a possible MNC last year. What was the dastardly deed Tressel did? That Jim Tressel sure is a classy guy. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/728291-ohio-state-scandal-part-3-of-5-jim-tressel-should-be-banned-for-5-years http://blog.pennlive.com/davidjones/2011/03/latest_scandal_proves_tressel.html http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919258 Give all three a good read. Once a cheater, always a cheater. I'm sure you thought all he did was 'lie about a couple tattoos.' Tressel got what he deserved.

I think he scored 4 points last week. Just sad. Its a mirage! Full disclosure- cowboys fan here. The giants always have part of their season where they go full retard. I fully expect them to rebound shortly. They better, my Hakeem Nicks pick is looking like a waste. The dude didn't even get a catch last Sunday. Tell me about it. This was my team for week 3 in a PPR league- QB Eli Manning, NYG QB @Car L 0-38 4.2 RB Arian Foster, Hou RB @Bal L 9-30 5.2 RB Stevan Ridley, NE RB TB W 23-3 4.3 WR Hakeem Nicks, NYG WR @Car L 0-38 0 WR DeAndre Hopkins, Hou WR @Bal L 9-30 9 WR Randall Cobb, GB WR @Cin L 30-34 8.4 TE Charles Clay, Mia TE Atl W 27-23 4 FLEX Chris Johnson, Ten RB SD W 20-17 9.1 D/ST Bills D/ST D/ST @NYJ L 20-27 4 K Steven Hauschka, Sea K Jac W 45-17 9 For a total of 57.2 points in a 12 team league. Needless to say I lost.

This could also be true but I'm talking about times where he comes up in run support and doesn't even lay a finger on the ball carrier, as has happened several times already this year. The runner gives a little hesitation move and then cuts hard and Cooper doesn't even get close. I think some of theses "whiff" tackles also go back to how much space we are giving opponents. Again, putting guys on islands. These safeties and DB end up in a lot of one on one scenarios and lets face it, one on one vs. anyone is never good. They have the advantage of knowing what their next move is. You don't. Bring these safeties up close. Give them a chance to take an aggressive pursuit angle down the line of scrimmage, or blow through gaps with your DL and LB right there to help you out. Seems better than flying in from thirty yards off the ball straight north and south. While I do agree with what you said in regards to space, I think a lot of it comes down to aggressive decision making by the safeties. IIRC O'Hanlon(as a Sr.) and Asante were very aggressive in run support. They read run and would bolt up from their safety position and meet the ball carrier no more than a few yards from the los(if not at it). They made the first move instead of getting flat footed and waiting for the offensive player to make a move. They were also good at tackling head up. I do realize they got beat in coverage a lot, but as far as the run goes they were the best safeties Pelini has had.

Forgive me for not remembering, but there once was an army/militia (Maybe someone good with history can help me out with this. I want to say it was Rome or Sparta and although I'm not exactly sure who it was, I do know it was around that or the medieval time period.) that listened to soothing violin/classical music to calm the mind before battle. Their idea was it wasn't about charging in a mad rage but rather to be able to think with a clear mind.

Are you watching Purdue hang with Notre Dame right now? Are we better than Notre Dame? Good thing we don't play Notre Dame. Akron almost upset Michigan. Does that make Akron as good as Michigan or Notre Dame?

I don't know if bringing up a week old thread is a no-no. If it is I'm sorry. Anyways...Imani Cross needs more rushing attempts. Just 3 in this game. 17 total. Ameer and Newby have 36 and 23 respectively. Imani brings a new look to the defense. He's more agile this year and easily our strongest back. He pushes piles and gets the hard yards Ameer and Newby are less capable of getting. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but so far he's the only of the three without a fumble. This guy is good and it kills me to see him getting passed up. Spread the love.

SJB had another solid game. Added another int. For reference Amukamara had 5 in '09.

Start of the 3rd quarter we did, not the whole game. First three drives of 3rd quarter- 3 rushes/11 passes 6.75 average distance to go on 3rd down 5 minutes of clock used on these three drives combined Take it for what you will. Maybe it means something to some people to others it means nothing. Just something to think about. Edit- 38 total yards on these 3 drives

When your Defense lets the opponent score on 6 or 7 consecutive drives, most being touchdowns, it hard to not put the majority of the blame on the Defense. Taylor sucked today, but that is not the reason for the loss. Has to be the most ignorant response I've ever seen. Why did they score on those 6 or 7 drives? How often were they out there? Why were they out there that much? How fast was UCLA running that offense? Come on...every loss is a TEAM loss. That offense of ours which was supposed to be all-star fantastic went three and out AT LEAST FIVE TIMES IN A ROW. Ive seen some of your post, mine couldn't have been any worse than most of yours. We run the same offense here, they had all week to practice against a high paced spread team. Your blaming the loss on UCLA running a hurry up offense? wow No, he's saying the offense did nothing to help the defense. UCLA probably started around the 50 yard line the entire third quarter. Did you even watch the game? To add to that, 3 of 4 UCLA drives started at least at their own 42. They scored on all 4 drives they had. We had 5 drives and 4 of them started on our 25. The other started on the 16. Two back to back 3 and outs.

How do people blame the defense when the offense doesn't score a point for 37 minutes? An offense that goes 3/14 on 3rd down? An offense that had two of three touchdowns off turnovers on drives of 26 and 28 yards?

1- Always thought highly of Beck, until now. 3rd quarter was the difference and Beck just kept passing. D got gassed, missed tackles, and made mistakes. 2- SJB must be so good they can't throw his way. After his pick I hardly heard his name. 3- O-line looked good. T-mart had a lot of time in the pocket. 4- Gerry and Gregory have a long way to go. Moss looked really good. He'll get more PT without a doubt. 5- 3rd downs are a cause for concern on both sides of the ball.

What did Bo do wrong? His players came out on fire to start the game. The D was confusing Hundley. We were getting enough pressure to make him uncomfortable with four men. Cue 2nd quarter. O isn't sustaining drives for points. A young defense gets tired from being on the field constantly. A couple of dropped passes, missed tackles, getting beat on routes, and costly penalties were the biggest difference. These are on players, not Bo.

You cant expect the defense this young to dominate for 4 quarters like they did in the 1st half. Up 21-3 after a missed field, the playcalling turned into like there was only 2 minutes left in the game. I dont know what to think anymore. Why do we have to be nicey nice respectful Nebraska all the dame time. We get a foot on the throat, it's time to crush the larynx. This. Missed tackles were a culprit too but jeeze, we had some nice plays and all but why is it always 1st down- run for 3-4 yards. 2nd down- screen play for minimal gain. 3rd down- obvious pass play with slants. Towards the end of the game those slants turned into deeper routes that IDK if they were well covered or if Martinez was missing reads. I hardly argue too much with Beck's play calling when it comes to passing too much, but not today. The run was working. I'll take 3rd and 4 over 3rd and 8 any day. These short passes all over just allowed the safeties to creep up and it hurt our run game. Too much E/W not enough N/S.

I just sacrificed a chicken to reverse the mojo-was I wrong? I hope you have something bigger than a chicken...

1st quater really solid. 2nd half of the 2nd quarter was iffy. T-mart with 3 TD passes, SJB with an Int. Avery Moss getting good pressure on D. Pass defense solid aside from a couple players getting beat. Run defense very solid. D giving Hundley lots of different looks. Edit- This was for irafreak. Forgot to quote.

You guys are reading way too much into momentum. If it's an away game, then maybe I'm scared. Without that bad pitch it looked like we were driving to go up 28-3 or 24-3. We just go out into the 2nd half keep the offense rolling and patch up those plays where we get beat on coverage and we win easy.