Husker in WI

Piper wasn't perfect, but I feel like he was pretty good about locking onto his guy when pulling or sometimes just blowing them up. JEJ and Lutovsky have definitely struggled with that, although a lot of their attempts were against the Purdue edge guys and this example was Nouili.

Yeah, as far as our offense versus the opponents defense this week will be similar to last week - solid against the run, grabby man coverage in the passing game. But Maryland's offense is much better, so even with a more typical performance by the Blackshirts our offense needs to be able to hit more consistently in the passing game. I also think we've flashed the ability to run the ball effectively even against decent run defenses, but need to figure out something consistent.

Surprised no one has jumped on the fact that Rhule used the phrase "we have to strain harder."

It's fascinating to me that we are collectively most confident about Iowa, who is the best team out of the 3 by a fair margin IMO. It is at home unlike the other two. Like any stat this doesn't tell the whole story, but anyone want to guess who has the higher completion percentage between Wisky's current QB (Locke) and HH? Sort of a trick question.

He spent a long time both acknowledging that officiating is really difficult and saying we need to play better to avoid even being in the situation. Said things like the missed PI, and missed face mask are just part of the game and don't bother him. But replay missing obvious calls is different - they have all of the time they want and had views clearing showing an outcome they didn't go with. I'm sure there was also a fun phone conversation with the Big Ten office.

Bullock also had a 3rd down drop against Colorado on our first drive after scoring, when it was still a game. We just don't have anyone you can really trust in the passing game - blocking, throwing, or catching.

I also have no confidence in Sims, both drives he's been in since coming back have been incredibly disjointed and that reflects on him. But FWIW there's no way the not snapping the ball when a DL is in the neutral zone is on the QB - either the OL across from him needs to touch him or the center needs to snap it. There's not time to wait for a call for the ball to snap it, and sounds like Rhule expected the Guard or Tackle to draw the penalty.

Well Wisconsin is a night game, which will make it interesting. I do think it's in some ways easier to play in a loud, hostile environment than a totally dead one like MSU though. So who knows.

I have no idea how this is going to go, but they are all 3 beatable. Also wouldn't be shocked if we go 0-3 though. Maryland is crumbling, and I do think our defense is going to come out angry. Their offense can be explosive, but I think we can match up well like we did against Colorado for 2.5 quarters. We just need our offense to avoid continuously putting them in bad positions, but that might be asking too much. It does scare me a little that Maryland has actually been pretty good against the run and susceptible against the pass, we couldn't take advantage of that last week. Wisconsin is a mystery right now - it'll be their senior day which is bad for us, but unless it's a night game and they beat NW I don't think the atmosphere will be anything crazy. And I kinda expect them to lose to NW - Locke is still making some freshman mistakes that NW can definitely capitalize on. First to 10 might win against Iowa, unless there are defensive or special teams scores.

I'll take 89 yards per carry! (From 247 but clearly a typo)

Apparently I'm in the minority here, but I think expecting that your belongings won't be stolen from the locker room while you play a game is reasonable. Whether or not it would be wise, I don't think college students should need to insure their belongings to protect them while they participate in an event that makes the schools involved a ton of money. It's also not an NCAA problem, but I would think UCLA should bear some responsibility. I also wouldn't just take opposing athletes at their word though, so I doubt it goes anywhere.

Minnesota also has the tie-breaker against the "best" of the teams currently tied, Iowa. Kinda surprised Wisconsin's odds are that high, their remaining schedule is comparable to Iowa's and they lost the head to head.

I mean we can get in to turnover worthy plays versus actual turnovers and stuff like that, and there's also the mess of who is actually to blame for fumbled exchanges, or tipped INTs, or completely whiffed blocks. I don't think it's a crazy assertion that they are similarly risky with the ball security when Haarberg is at 2.5 fumbles + INTs against Power 5 teams. Sims is at 3 per game. I will 100% agree there is an objective answer to "who has turned the ball over more?", and it's Sims. Apologies if I've been unclear on that, and I realize I'm making a few different and not well-defined arguments. But I do think things like "Who is more likely to turn the ball over moving forward?" involves more than just the literal turnover results. I'm sure some paywalled site has turnover worthy plays, but off the cuff I would guess it's unlikely that all of Sims fumbles would be recovered by the defense like they have been to this point. And before Purdue, we had recovered 6 out of Haarberg's 7 fumbles - that was clearly unsustainable. If people don't like judging by what was likely to happen instead of what did happen, I can understand that and agree to disagree. And I will admit that "likely to happen" is definitely more subjective, but I also think it's more predictive.

I understand people may not agree with me here, and I get the leeway for a younger guy who will almost certainly improve with experience. But if we want to use QBR, that backs up my point about Northwestern versus Minnesota - Sims had a QBR of 31.7 against Minnesota, Haarberg had a 23.0 against Northwestern. He also had a 28.4 against La Tech despite only one turnover (EDIT: - no turnovers, was thinking of the NIU game) and 157 rushing yards, so I'm a little skeptical of it in general. It is at least some measure of QB play though. With the overall point I'm not really trying to argue that Sims is the better player at this point, just that both have been pretty bad and I don't buy that Haarberg is 'leading us to victory.' We'll never know, but if Sims didn't get hurt I personally think we'd be in a very similar spot record and turnover-wise but with fans getting very vocal about wanting to see Haarberg/Purdy.

I think it's helpful for us that they've thrown their true freshman QB out there a few times. Wouldn't be shocked if he's part of the gameplan this week, and his running ability appeared to catch Minnesota off guard initially. None of their guys look good throwing the ball.

I would argue HH did more for us to lose the NW game than Sims did against Minnesota. Differences are just HH's mistakes happened earlier in the game, the rest of the team stepped up against NW, and they didn't have a miraculous 4th down TD catch. I'm not really calling for us to give Sims another shot - at least not anymore. But I don't think HH is doing any more to win games than Sims was. You could make that argument with the NIU/La Tech games where he was protecting the ball better, but at this point our winning games has very little to do with how the QB is playing.

Realistically, it's about trying to prevent the hits that aren't necessary more than making all hits "safe." I do think the defense player piece is way too vague and limits the defenses ability to knock the ball out as a receiver is catching it, but I get it with some of the hits on QBs. Usually since he's standing in one place it's not crazy to require that defenders not hit him in the head. A defenseless receiver catching a ball mid air is a much tougher requirement.

The Minnesota QB was not a runner, which as I understand it is also a factor and widens the criteria. It's dumb, but a QB in the pocket/receiver in mid air are treated differently than a ballcarrier pushing through a pile.

I would love to know exactly what happened on the 4th down play - Rhule said it was called in wrong, but even in that case you'd think everyone would do the same thing even if it's wrong. And you had Lindenmeyer physically pull Knaak out of his stance and move him to the opposite side of the formation, which was pretty hilarious. I don't know if I can put the playcall on Sims, seems like the left side of the line though it was going the other way, hence the unblocked edge defender. But you can't fumble there, and he went the wrong way on the fake handoff on 3rd down. And it all could have been avoided if one of the lineman just tapped the helmet of the DL who jumped offsides on the initial 4th and 1.

I think the biggest factor is while Haarberg did have 2 bad fumbles, we actually got the glimpse of Sims some of us have wanted and he immediately fumbled as well. I've been pretty firmly in the "Sims can do several things better than Haarberg" camp, but I'll forgive a lot with Haarberg when the alternative just can't get out of his own way. There are some blinders on with Haarberg being the hometown hero, but at this point it's just as much knowing there's not a less turnover-prone option.

As much as I'd like to see that, I don't think it's the case. It is an attractive job, it will be really easy to just put out an average offense and the fans will worship whoever does that. The biggest negative to the job is most likely the internal pressure to keep the existing staff (at least defense and special teams) intact. Losing the DC will be a big deal, but based on titles the LB coach (also assistant DC) is probably next in line. But I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they go with promoting their ST coach once KF retires. And as long as he hires a legitimate OC and the next DC can at least continue some of what Parker has been able to do, they'll still be fine. "Fine" is about to get less impressive without the divisions though, conference championship appearances are going to be a lot tougher.

As long as the team doesn't get cocky it does not matter how we feel. And I think Rhule is on top of it since he came out talking about how the defense really didn't play very well despite the numbers - we'll see if it works, but the offense has zero reason to take their foot off the gas and I don't think the defense will.

LOL - they better start searching for position coaches, because no P5 OC is making that lateral move. Brian is a terrible coordinator, but I imagine there are also restrictions placed on what they are going to do offensively that limit the candidates. I just don't get why you announce this now but let him continue. I guess it's good for recruiting? "You for sure won't have to play for this clown next year!"