BOurNe sUpremacy

So, our DTs and DEs are basically useless against the run, reading between the lines.. LOL no, not useless against the run. The question asked was for 'thoughts on why they were gaining like 8-9 yards a pop in the ground game'. Just answered what I saw on those type of runs. The second level struggled. Formation and Strategy played a part. Throw in limited and/or inexperience, a mobile QB that was also an accurate passer, and they struggled. Until we brought a safety up from the third level in the third quarter, I saw the second level struggle throughout the first half. It was as clear as the middle of the field to see that, more often than not. Unfortunately. Against more talented teams -UCLA, Northwestern, Michigan - the chances that we might play from behind with that same 1st half strategy will probably increase. Nice analysis, now I'm really scared...

So in other words it's fine to be very optimistic by the fact that the final 6 or so minutes of ridiculous nonsense is covering up a decent body of work by the defense (or the whole team for that matter) the other 54 minutes of the game, yes? I thought our body of work the 1st half was bad, regardless of 'pure' or 'impure' averages. I thought we were getting owned from the get go. The 3rd quarter was probably better, but I probably didnt notice cuz of the PTSD from the 1st half.. The interception in their redzone seemed to change the momentum greatly as we were sitting on a comfy lead and I actually cant recall the events leading to their 2 quick scores in the 4th, except they involved some long passes with some huge breakdowns in the 2ndary. The 4th qtr was kind of a blur to me. now, see once we got to the second quarter, it appeared to me that the guys had "settled in" and become adjusted to that game speed for the first time. Wyoming scored at the beginning of the 2nd quarter and didnt score again till the end of the third. I thought the D played very well in those middles stages. Even Randy Gregory made his presence very known, even though it will not go into the books. I'll have to look at stats or rewatch the game, though I dont particularly want to. Seems like Wyo had more than their share of 8+ yd carries on the ground against us. What I'm getting at, is our DL is not a disruptive, run stuffing force. They were getting pushed around by friggin Wyo. What happens when UCLA rolls into town?

So if the QB has to just dance a little and run or pass for 20 or more, then it is an effective blitz? Anyway, going back the last few years, what I have observed is our blitz's aren't generally arent that effective. Seems like the LBs usually get picked up by the RB too. Sometimes the CBs/safeties make the play.

Pretty good description of the bowl game too. I've never seen Bo's blitz's to be effective, they always wiff or get picked up by the RB and what not. Now is the time for over exaggeration. Tell that to Brett Smith.

Pretty good description of the bowl game too. I've never seen Bo's blitz's to be effective, they always wiff or get picked up by the RB and what not. Like Mitchell's blitz on the two-point conversion? ok, give more examples....

So in other words it's fine to be very optimistic by the fact that the final 6 or so minutes of ridiculous nonsense is covering up a decent body of work by the defense (or the whole team for that matter) the other 54 minutes of the game, yes? I thought our body of work the 1st half was bad, regardless of 'pure' or 'impure' averages. I thought we were getting owned from the get go. The 3rd quarter was probably better, but I probably didnt notice cuz of the PTSD from the 1st half.. The interception in their redzone seemed to change the momentum greatly as we were sitting on a comfy lead and I actually cant recall the events leading to their 2 quick scores in the 4th, except they involved some long passes with some huge breakdowns in the 2ndary. The 4th qtr was kind of a blur to me.

Pretty good description of the bowl game too. I've never seen Bo's blitz's to be effective, they always wiff or get picked up by the RB and what not.

I guess thats why we lost to Wiscy last year: they had a zillion long runs and TMart only had the one. Their 'pure average' was much better.

So, our DTs and DEs are basically useless against the run, reading between the lines..

Ok, thanks

11) any thoughts as to why they were getting like 8-9 yds a pop in the ground game? That worries me, alot. I said he "CAN" be. Not that he is. He was taking on double teams and collapsing the pocket like we haven't seen in a while. I was referrring to the D in general.

Coaching. On the flip, I think we gotta remember Christiansen is one of the better OCs around.

I dont think the sky is falling, but I think 8-4 is a real possiblity after what I saw Sat. night. Too much youth on the D. Going to be many nail biting games this year, like last year. I won't say 7-5, but yea, I'm thinking that too, dont tell anybody...

11) any thoughts as to why they were getting like 8-9 yds a pop in the ground game? That worries me, alot.

I have total confidence in Bando and Gerry to become great players. I wouldnt write Santos off though, he had a great year last year, he's a very good player.

Kenny Bell did it! The Fro' is in a universe all his own.

I gotta give the kid alotta credit, yea he was threading the needle, like ridiculous stuff--time after time. He was a top 10 QB last year in rating and stats, so yea, he's the real deal. Had Manziel like moves in the pocket. If he was bigger he'd probably be on a big time team. Got overlooked, apparently, when recruited.

Hey, I'm big on Cross, he looked fantastic, I've been giving him love for over a year now and he didn't disappoint Saturday night--quite the contrary. Comparing him to Newby is like apples and oranges, Cross being more he pounder, though it's fab that he has the moves of a smaller back. Newby is, well, the newbie, though he looked like a seasoned veteran out there. He appears to be a special talent. Seemed like he elevated the game of the rest of the team when he was in there. Cross is going to be a great one for us too, as is Abdu. We are lucky. If we had Adam Taylor on board, wow! Guess he's not ready, which surprises me.

I actually think Bo's D scheme is meant for all these spread crazy, pass happy Os, I mean, why else would he have Gregory dropping back off the line and 6 dbs on the field, etc. I think the central issue has been and still is that we haven't had anything close to the quality DL players we need to pull the thing off. They have little push and hardly any disruption and seem pretty useless playing patty cake in the gaps too. I think ya gotta have a DL that dominates the other team's line, no ifs ands or buts. And it all flows downhill from there. Our Dbs didnt look the greatest the other night either, not for a 2 deep, veteran crew. Well, A Green has proven himself over and over that he can't get it done, Mitchell seems to have regressed since early last year. Ciante is holding his own and SJB could be a gamer. Cooper/Jackson, well, they are learning on the fly. The team plays inconsistently and is sloppy around the edges and that's on Bo and not something I'm holding my breath to be corrected anytime soon.

Don't see a single post here where someone is claiming to be a better DC than Bo Pelinin...just that his defenses aren't as great as we thought they were. I think Bo brought a lot of inovation to the league from the NFL...some ahead of the curve stuff. Now the rest of the coaches are catching up and Bo has shown an inability to take his game to the next level. Whether it's due to hiring underlings instead of proven people to be his coordinators (fresh perspective is not a bad thing) I don't know....don't claim to know. But his teams are consistently sloppy and that's a reflection on the coach. His teams take plays off and often don't play hard for 4 quarters...that's probably again the coach. Again, doesn't take a proven DC to see the poor habits his players have had for 5 years. Habits that have cost us games many times... In other words, you don't have to be a musician to know when a song is bad. No. You don't. However, you also don't know anything about why it is bad or how to fix it unless you are a musician. You just have an opinion about it. So many are upset with the SCHEME of the Nebraska defense when I am certain they don't understand it let alone have the slightest idea how to fix it. But they KNOW it is the scheme. The damn thing works. Pelini didn't invent the things he is doing. He learned and adapted them. Also, for those of you saying he never adjusts it I invite you to watch the cover 3 in the 3-2-6 that we ran which was brand new. Or the single gap in the second half with 2 LB and 5 DBs all running man with little to no bracket from the safety unless they were only three wide. First half LB covered RB motion, second half a DB did and LB stayed in run responsibility and QB contain. I am not satisfied with that performance, none of us should be. I am, however, realistic in my expectations of a bunch of inexperienced guys playing at the same time. You would be amazed if you knew, no matter what level of any sport you coach, how an inexperienced player will run everything right in practice and then shot the bed when the lights come on. Now imagine havin 4 or 5 of these players together. They don't yet understand how to play together and they saw a bunch of things they had never seen before. When evaluating this game you have to look at individual wins also. Gregory consistently won his matchup. So did VV. SJB was good. Evans was great except for about 3 plays. Thought Cooper was good. If we continue to not get better with THIS TEAM as we progress through THIS SEASON then we can talk about coaching. Right now it was one game. It wasn't a good performance. I can promise you no one wants to get better more than those guys in that locker room. The real measuring stick is improvement, the talent is there it is just young. Now if we get to October and this is still happening then I will wonder about coaching issues. Just not after the first game. Why would I want to know exactly how to fix it? I'm not getting paid 3 mil/year to put a crap D on the field.

Tom's bowl record is 12-13, including losing 7 straight from '87-'93. Sometimes what we accomplished in his final 5 coaching seasons is what we remember most.....and for good reason. I clearly remember those years. They were a bitch as a fan. I was either in the stadium, in the early years of those teams, or in a radio station control room listening, as I worked in broadcasting. They were tough years for sure. I guess where that time differs is that, we all knew, or suspected, that we had a winner in Tom. The bowl losses hurt, some very badly, but we had a guy we KNEW could figure it out. And we gave him the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how long it took. Today's world is different. A coach gets, if they are lucky, three years to turn it around or to reach for a ring. Any kind of ring, whether it be a conference championship, a major bowl, a benchmark win against a serious rival. Tom didn't really have to deal with as much pressure. There WAS pressure, just not so immediate. In that sense, I feel for Bo. A lot of the internet fanbase is thinking he has to win NOW. It took tom a LONG time to get to the MNC level, and even longer to get the first MNC. The Florida teams were Tom's bane, and it took awhile. I feel we are close with Bo, that he is close to breaking through. I only hope we give him the time to do so. It may well be another 5-7 years. The most important point is we have not dropped off the radar nationally. When that happens, I will also accept defeat and say let's move on. So far, we are in the mix. We are ranked, it's early, and who knows? Now I am rambling. Time for another glass of wine. Tom's world really wasn't much different. It's pretty common knowledge he seriously considered taking the Colorado gig because of the criticism he was taking from the fanbase. I think I read somewhere on HB that even some of the boosters were questioning Tom's abilities and were discussing the idea of hiring a new coach. Personally, the problem I see are a lot of Nebraska fans are spoiled. They became so spoiled from the latter years of Tom's career that they act as if they're entitled to root for a team that dominates every aspect of every game in every season. It's not going to happen. It didn't happen during Tom's career, it didn't happen during Devaney's career and it sure as hell isn't and won't happen during Bo's tenure. This is probably the first season in a long time when IDGAF how the season pans out. Win, lose or draw, there will be next season and another season after that and another one after that one and so on. Why stress and get all butthurt over a bunch of kids playing a sport who don't seem to be playing up to fan expection. I really don't think asking Bo Pelini--you know,the defensive 'guru' who was hired on that basis and makes about 10k/day 24/7 just for rolling outta bed in the morning--to put a defense on the field that doesn't give up 600+ yds, now on an increasingly frequent basis, and get blown out on the big stage as being spoiled. Can we keep it more in the 400 range? Ok, I'll settle for 500 from time to time. I'm not asking for a MNC ring anytime soon, but I am fairly CC ring starved, like most us spoiled fans. I dont think that is asking too much from a guy who gets paid 3 mil per to head one of the most storied programs in the country. We have to have some standard(s), don't we?

Games different. The landscape of college football is different. The team that was #1 in the country in November just last season? That team? yeah, they just lost at home to a Div 1-AA team. You have to let the 90's go sir. that sh#t's never happening again. Dont bring up Bama. They havent been half as dominant. I think he's talkin' 70s, 80s and 90s. I know, I was there too--'old' fart.

What's really sad is that only 2 TOs in a game seems like an improvement.

You mean, like dis?