Husker in WI

This is news to me. Did he literally only watch the 4th quarter of Colorado?

I learned a significant portion of you guys are on crack or something. There is room for improvement for Martinez, but that was an excellent game. Was tentative running like twice and missed a few throws, that's it. Are we just ignoring those errors from last year? Or in other quarterbacks? Nobody goes 25-25 passing, and a few of his incompletions he at least gave the receivers a chance. Go rewatch the games last year and tell me this is significantly worse. It is possible to have a great game with a few bad plays. I'm not that concerned with the line as long as Jaimes is healthy. Being disruptive is NIU's thing, if you get yards on them it's the way we did - big plays offsetting some TFLs. Blame the coaches too if you want, apparently they were in a defense we didn't prepare for we were in 11 personnel, which is usually a lot of the time. This is as disruptive a defense we will play this year. We will play better ones, but we're improving and I think disruptive Ds are the ones with the most potential to shut down a Frost O.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I agree that would not be moving the needle, but we're 1-1. Any team in the country could still technically end up 4-8, let's get a little further into the year before deciding we're stagnant.

It looks like those numbers don't include Illinois State since they're an FCS team. Which is fair, but NIU's run defense is considered a strength from what I've heard. Haven't allowed a 100 yard rusher in a long time, last year they were 11th in rush yards per game allowed and 2ns in YPC allowed. New team this year and they probably won't be that stingy, but I don't think looking at their rankings based on one game against Utah is an accurate look at their run D.

Lol, that Illinois graphic is trash. It would be nice to get some kids from St. Louis.

These open guys also might be his last reads, it's not like he can magically see the whole field and jump straight to the open man. But you're right, it seems like he spends a long time locked on to one guy and any of the things you listed could be why. I would think film study and experience will help. Might go hand in hand with the coaches comment about looking for the perfect play too - if he expects a certain receiver to be open on the play, that would make him a little slower to move on to the next read.

That looks sick, and I love the idea. #Blackshorts doesn't really do much for me though.

And yet you're against Thurston's idea about fans calling the plays? EDIT: I remembered your position from that thread incorrectly, my bad. I feel like all of these are good things, but there is a limit to how much you offense can encompass. We would all love the team to be able to go 5-wide air raid on one play and then run an I formation triple option on the next, and arguably we do have the personnel to do that - Spielman, Wan'Dale, Mills, Washington, and Stoll could work. But there is already a ton in the offense, and at some point adding things is lowering the level of execution for everything. Only so many reps in practice.

Well it didn't work very well, I think it was more of a fan service play than an indication they were putting in FB formations. We have been under center a handful of times for sneaks and jet sweeps, I'm sure we have some fun play action off of those down the road. Doubt we see more FB though, even though the fanbase would love it.

If there's a talent differential, sure. Alabama played New Mexico State last week - I doubt they made many in game adjustments, and probably didn't concern themselves with any adjustments NMSU made. NMSU was going to get beat no matter what adjustments they made. But in a close game the changes teams make in game usually have a big impact.

It was very poorly officiated, agreed. The only holding I remember being called on Colorado we got the sack anyway, but there were several plays where a dlineman would come free and then get yanked back, no calls. And not allowing a substitution on the final drive was ridiculous, it's not like we waited too long - our guys were subbing as soon as the Colorado receiver subbed.

Fair enough. I just still don't see any real issue with most of the playcalls, so I don't think it's been a factor. But I suppose there has to be some difference in how you call a game from the sideline vs. up in the booth. Like others have said, that Mesh play is generally a very safe way to get a few yards. I don't think there are any pass plays specifically designed to defeat stunts, maybe screens I guess.

For the first one I initially agreed, but honestly that's just hindsight. Washington is open and he absolutely should have thrown it to him - we just know it was incomplete so the TE looks like the better option. Just needs a slightly better throw, he's not supposed to be Sam Keller where the check down is option #1. On the 2nd and 20, I thought the same thing - I'm not sure he knew exactly where the sticks were, and I'm sure he's not being encouraged to cut back to the middle especially with his minor fumbilitis. But I've gotta think if he realized exactly where the marker was he would've cut it up and at least gotten closer.

I don't think we were slow adjusting to anything other than the stunts, and the reason there is the adjustment is for lineman to do their jobs. Colorado came up with some good calls and used them wisely - it's not like they ran that double corner blitz the entire second half, they pulled it out when they needed it and knew it would work. The stunts were good calls, and the Colorado staff deserves credit for switching to them. But by the time we get to the 4th quarter that's on the oline (and Colorado's dline for executing them well), not on either coaching staff. And don't get me wrong, I love Frost, but the leaps people are taking to absolve him of the blame are ridiculous. Playcalling is bad - is it secretly Walters now? We're adjusting too slow - is Walters not seeing things fast enough? It's not like Frost is infallible and the rest of the staff are to blame any time there's a coaching issue. I don't agree the narrative that we didn't adjust from a coaching perspective, it's just hard to preemptively adjust and Colorado made their change-ups count. Couple that with calls that require great coordination across the entire oline and it was just enough.

Farniok had problems, but let's not pretend he's the only one. The LT didn't pick up his corner blitz which arrived at the same time either, and if we really want to point fingers that's probably the wrong protection call from Jurgens/Martinez. I don't know exactly what they're supposed to do there, but even if Farniok magically blocks both of his guys Martinez is getting crushed from the blindside. Not as bad as a few plays at Michigan, but that's the entire line. For the second bolded part, not gonna happen. I guess that depends on what you mean by "be okay with," but an intentional grind it out drive just isn't part of this offense - even in the 4 minute offense we tried to take a shot. I'm also curious if anyone who knows more about line play knows what you do with that simulated pressure? You have to respect the possibility of all 7 guys coming - should we have been protecting outside-in so Martinez could go outside the pocket? Do the Guards need to bail out wide to pick up the blitz once their responsibilties drop? Or does Martinez just need to treat it like a draw? I'm sure there are other possibilities as well, I just have a hard time believing there wasn't some way to handle that.

I don't think they would need to be tipped if in a press conference, other teams are better at finding this stuff than writers. It is an excellent article because I'm not good at identifying schematic things, but no D1 staff would need an article or a press conference to see it. I think it's time for the oline to prove they belong out there though. They know how to block stunts, high school lineman know how to block stunts. Well executed stunts are tough, that's why people run them. But either get it figured out, or see if the next man up can.

It's a little easier to come up with adjustments week to week than it is in game. Obviously the in game adjustments need to be better, but we'll have adjustments and extra focus on things like stunts. I don't think any of the things in the article are unsolvable for Frost's offense - I think it's a leap to suggest the staff doesn't know what Colorado was doing or doesn't have answers. Some different things that need extra prep for sure, but stunts and simulated pressure should be solved by the line gelling. Which, to be fair, could be a problem.

Those are several adjustments, and Colorado didn't roll them all out at once. And for stunts in particular, while I'm sure we have some plays that would specifically take advantage of the movement, for passes its really on the lineman to handle them. Can't really call a stunt specific pass protection.

Oh got it, thought you just meant in either year individually. Still, given the first years record Colorado was the first possible game to get win #6. As long as we get it this week, it's only one week off of the fastest it could be. Totally agree I didn't expect it to be this long for win #6, but I've moved on from last year and getting it in week 3 instead of week 2 isn't that crazy.

I mean.. we've played 2 games in year 2, so it is literally impossible for us to have cleared that this year. We'll talk if we don't clear it after 12 games this year.

I haven't heard the "here we go again" feeling comments from players this year, and I don't think last year's comments factor in other than informing us it has been an issue in the past. Like BigRedBuster said, unless we're talking about last year the only relevant game is Colorado, and I didn't see it or hear it from the players, despite a few questions being asked about it specifically.

I agree the difference is there, but it isn't judging by W/L then.

Kind of a double standard there, no?

Yeah, he is absolutely one of my favorite players on the current team. But he is very inconsistent, I was hoping there would be improvement this year but haven't seen it so far. Still got some time, gotta think extra time was spent on putting yourself in a good position to tackle after last week.

Walters mentioned the coaches (himself specifically) needing to trust young players enough to put them in the game, and I really hope he means it. Said plenty of guys are practicing well and they always say you'll play like you practice, they just haven't been put in. I really don't know why we haven't seen guys like Rahmir Johnson or Miles Jones, but both seem like they could be in that bucket.