HuskerNation1

He was walking on his own, but not without noticeable pain. Let's pray it is not serious.

Simply amazing....that snap was right to him, and he botched another snap. Abudullah picked it up but wasn't in a normal running stance which enabled this injury. On top of that, outside of the TD pass, Armstrong continues to make bad decisions and poor throws.

The Big Ten West is really flexing its muscle in my opinion. Wisconsin and Iowa are both playing extremely well, and Nebraska too. In the East MSU seems to be the only team playing good all around football. OSU has been pretty inconsistent. I would like for Wisconsin to be ranked this week, and Iowa on the verge.

I honestly don't think the SEC plays tougher schedules than the Big Ten or any other conference. Most SEC teams rated high in the polls will play one difficult game against another top-5 conference opponent, and then have 3 other relatively easy games. The thing that the SEC obtains by putting their cupcakes later in the season is this...by having more intriguing conference matchups early in the season, the pollsters and TV networks like to air two ranked teams playing each other, and thus they are more likely to give SEC team a higher ranking to create publicity. Then the winner of that game will suddenly jump 5-10 spots in the rankings as most other schools (like in the Big Ten) are playing their cupcake game in weeks 1-3. And here is the real key to the SEC bias...once there are enough SEC teams in the top 15, when the play each other, the winner just keeps rising, and its like a self-fulfilling prophecy where one SEC team must be great if it can beat another SEC team in the top 10 or 15. My advice to the Big Ten...engage in a Big 10/SEC challenge, or a Big Ten/Pac 12 challenge EVERY year, and then find one other strong opponent to play in non-conference so there are only 2 cupcakes on everyone's schedules. I do like the idea of having some conference games start as early as week 3 (instead of week 5 like it currently is for most Big Ten teams).

excellent post I agree with everything you say Thanks man. It looks like the SEC bias is still alive with LSU's rise above us in the AP poll, and the fact that Ole Miss didn't fall very far. As far as this playoff committee goes, I think its a dumb idea to release any polls now. Just wait til "selection sunday" as we do in basketball, and let everything play out. I really think in the end that the committee will reward some conference champions.

While I think Wisconsin will be tough for us at Madison, has anyone realized just how favorable Wisconsin's Big Ten schedule is this year? It's ridiculous. We are arguably their toughest competition, and they get us at Madison, and they don't even play MSU,OSU or PSU at all.

I totally agree here. Wisconsin seems to be a team that comes to play in big games too, and if we are up there at night, they will be ready for us. The difference with this year's Husker team compared to when we last went to Madison though...is that this year's team has great confidence and leadership and I feel truly believes they can win on the road anywhere.

Does anyone know if this will be on again? I didn't get a chance to DVR this and have not seen it listed on BTN for the next few days.

Bo is definitely right on his assessment here. While the SEC may still be the top conference overall, that gap has diminished in the past few seasons. Here are some key reasons the SEC bias is problematic. 1. When the polls come out at the beginning of the year with many SEC teams ranked high, when a non-SEC team loses in the non-conference season, the SEC teams poll status is elevated further. By the time conference season begins, the SEC is in a situation where they have 6 or 7 teams in the top 15, and thus every week there is a big matchup of top 15 teams. When one team goes on a roll and beats 2 other top-15 teams, they suddenly rise drastically in the polls as Ole Miss or MSU has. It's kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy where only a great SEC team can beat another great SEC team. 2. The SEC is always given the benefit of the doubt. Case in point....had Texas A&M lost the same type of games while in the BIg 12 (prior to getting destroyed by Alabama), they would have fallen out of the top 25, and would not have hung around. Missouri is another example where, by joining the SEC, they are suddenly a part of point 1 above, and found themselves last year in the top 5 late in the season. They are the same damn team that they were in the Big 12, but because they joined the SEC, they must now suddenly be better?? Its hard to explain that just a month ago, A&M was ranked in the top 5 given the way they are playing. 3. Georgia is a great example of SEC bias. While I agree Georgia has played better ball the last week or two, they lost to South Carolina earlier in the season at a time when everyone assumed South Carolina was great. But South Carolina lost to Missouri, who lost to Indiana....aren't they in the Big Ten? And didn't NU, another Big Ten team, beat Georgia earlier in 2014? Yet prior to NU's loss to MSU, a 1-loss Georgia was still ranked several spots ahead of NU. So in the end, is the SEC a good conference...yes....but that doesn't justify the SEC bias in the number of teams ranked, as well as the position/seeding of the rankings. Assuming two SEC teams don't make the top 4 teams in the playoffs, there will be more opportunity for a non-SEC team to knockout the SEC team in the playoff, and things can go back to normal where the media doesn't assume an SEC should win the NCAAF championship every year.

Against a team like IL with a weak Rush defense, it's a no brainer to keep pounding the ball. But each offensive game plan needs to be geared to the opponent, and against a top-tier opponent, I would expect our coaching staff to have an arsenal of plays to try if the bread and butter play (handoff to Ameer) is not working. I don't think fans are asking too much for Beck to gear his gameplan and playcalling to the opponent we are facing.

You sound like Sipple trying to place no accountability on Beck. I think B, D, and F in your list above were NOT demonstrated in Saturday's game. The adjustments made late in the game came way too late. Also, we have 2 other RB with playing time besides AA....can you tell me how often they were used in multi-back formations or a jet sweep...or any sort of rushing attack that mixed it up. Indeed TA and the O-line deserve much blame, but to suggest Beck does not is absurd.

Not giving the ball to Imani once in the entire game was unconscionable. I totally agree. Not only would it have added some confusion in our rushing attack, it would have allowed another blocker for Ameer at times too.

I agree 100%. The last 2 weeks we have been running the ball, so keep on doing it. We had great field position in the first half and they were keying on Ameer, so why not play action on first down. By 3rd down, there ears were pinned back and they were coming. I agree as well with both of you...that has been my frustration/venting in other threads too. Beck's primary responsibility is to give the offensive players the arsenal they need to defeat their opponent on any given Saturday. Some Saturday's basic vanilla will work fine, but for a team like MSU, we needed to see more variations of the playbook that leveraged the strengths of our players. Also, regarding Tommy losing his composure, especially in the 2nd quarter, I would have taken him out for a drive or two and let him regroup and re-focus. I've seen it done many times at the collegiate level, and 9 times out of 10 the starter comes back in and gets the job done. Tommy certainly came alive late in the game, but we needed him to get back on point by the 2nd quarter. That decision to keep Tommy in would fall with Bo and not Beck.

One game should not end a Heisman Run. If so, the leading candidate (Mariotta) would be out too, which I don't think will be the case. These things ebb and flow.

Did any of you catch Sipple's editorial out this morning. http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/sipple/steven-m-sipple-another-wild-ride-leaves-huskers-woozy/article_9669d092-456a-5bb1-a2d7-d45d1581f512.html He made some good points that everybody would agree with, but this one baffled me...."Its hard to blame Nebraska offensive coordinator Tim Beck." What the heck? I don't understand why Sipple feels the need to suck up to this coaching staff and not call it like it is. While I agree that Armstrong and the O-line didn't play well, TA didn't get really razzled until the 2nd quarter, and up until that point in time, the playcalling was horrendously predictable. It was obvious that MSU was keying on Abdullah, so why not mix up the rushing attack by using the Jet Sweep, or putting Cross in with Abdullah to create confusion. Instead, time and again, we see Ameer back there alone with Armstrong with absolutely no variation. This team desperately needed some early creativity to gain confidence that they could build upon through the rest of the game, and unfortunately it wasn't until late in the 3rd quarter and 4th quarter when the playbook opened up and we had MSU guessing what we were going to do. So while some of the players underperformed, I completely disagree with Sipple's refusal to put any accountability on Beck.

I can't wait for Suck-up Sipple to write yet another editorial defending Bo and this staff.

That throw by Cook personifies the difference between Nebraska and MSU. He makes the perfect throw to keep the drive alive, and set up the dagger TD that was just scored.

Time for a big play on defense. Our D may need to score our TDs tonight.

I wouldn't speak so soon. Rutgers is a good team and if we overlook them we may pay.

Umm...TA is pretty much like Taylor was his first 2 seasons where he would panic under pressure.

Exactly...and its our coaches job to pull him out for a series or two to get him calmed down...make him re-focus and realize his starting job is on the line.

One thing I didn't expect to happen after tonight's game was to have a QB controversy. On the biggest stage of his career, Tommy is coming up empty. I honestly thought he was a gamer and would be able to handle the pressure.

I'm having visions of Taylor Martinez again with how TA is panicking.

Westy is always ready to make plays...you have to get the ball to him.

TA is rushing his throws big time. He needs a sedative or something.