Husker in WI

At least he owned up to it, lol. We've all been there, that's just the type of thing that creates panic. Injury didn't seem that serious, so if he was off the depth chart I'd be very concerned. https://twitter.com/RobinWashut/status/1196469715952193536

Did the media get a different depth chart than the one posted to Huskers.com?

Fair enough. I still don't like that if everyone does their job, we get Jonathan Taylor one on one with Bootle. I don't care if that's in a hole or in space, I don't like the match up. But like you and Cdog are pointing out, that's more personnel than anything. And I suppose you can't completely restructure your defense late in the year when injuries have changed the Safety outlook, but I was just cringing every time they came out in this formation.

And I don't actually have a problem with this if they've got the guys they want at Safety. But it seems like they knew/planned on Bootle being back at Safety this week, and this is just not his strength. If this is Deontai, sure - still don't love him taking on a lineman, but a lot of times they ran this and Bootle was free to make the tackle. It's just that asking him to take down Taylor one on one is a mismatch - I don't know exactly how to scheme around that, so I can really only criticize so much. I'm sure the coaches wish we had more Safety depth too.

True, and I'm not claiming I have better ideas. I'm sure whatever I came up with would have massive drawbacks. But having a gap sound defense isn't difficult, having a gap sound defense where the guys have a reasonable chance at being able to do their assignments is. This specific play Bootle and Barry are done from the beginning, Barry because of leverage and Bootle because he's supposed to take on the Tackle. The dline and Bootle even do a good job here, and it's still an 8 yard carry by the backup.

For sure, and I'm curious how it would've gone if we were at full health. But I'm still baffled at things like this - I'm surprised they didn't run out of this more, we're just not equipped to stop any runs to the TE side here.

That's a good read, although a little short because it sounds like he's pretty private. But I didn't realize he hasn't been flagged in almost 3 years, that's nuts. He's always been underrated in the NFL, he's a stud.

I retract what I said about special teams being better now - that was terrible all around. Offensively, we've got to figure out how to finish. Some of those 4th down playcalls were a little sketch, and some of them we jus tneeding a dude to make a play. I love Mazour, but against teams like Wisconsin he just doesn't cut it. We missed Wan'Dale a lot. On the bright side, running game was solid which was unexpected. Martinez needs to come up with a strategy for when there's a spy. I though he did in the third quarter, baited the guy up and threw around him. But then later there were a few plays where he seemed surprised a guy was there, 4th down beign the key one. Defensively it was better than past games, but that's not saying anything. Bootle can't be a safety - he's a good corner, but he's just not a great tackler. Also hated some of our scheme stuff, although I admit I'm not an expert. But every time the ran trips with a TE on the opposite side, with the RB to the trips side it put Bootle as essentially an OLB to the TE side. If we've got Deontai or a healthy Cam maybe that works, but at best it's Bootle one on one with Taylor and at worst Bootle has to take on a climbing Guard. Yikes. In fairness to Chins/the defense, we were half strength at best. Darrion, Carlos, and Deontai (even a healthier Taylor-Britt) would've made a big difference. I think the most concerning thing on D for me is we never get stops after a sudden change. Take Illinois for example, with our 4 offensive turnovers inside our own 40. That's a tough spot, and I understand we'll likely give up some points. But you've got to shut them down sometimes, and at least hold people to field goals. If we turn the ball over in our own territory, it's almost always a touchdown. Good defenses find ways to make those FGs and sometimes get the ball back.

And yet Wisconsin will come rolling in with their true freshman NT and no depth behind him, and I suspect we won't move the ball particularly well. I agree with you, I just wish we had the players at other positions where freshmen needing to contribute wouldn't be a huge problem. Wisconsin's NT can make mistakes, because the other 10 guys will clean them up. We really need our NT playing at a high level to have a chance right now.

I mean Rudolph was definitely asking for a fight, but he wasn't asking to get clubbed over the head with a helmet. The crap he was doing happens all the time, I haven't seen anyone swinging a helmet since the Miami/FIU brawl.

Any specific reason for Ferguson, or just saw the writing on the wall and stopped working?

We better be looking hard at NTs if that's the case. That already worries me, although it seems like maybe the staff is fine with one big boy NT and then playing the bigger DEs against certain teams. I just don't know who the backup for Damion will be next year - I guess it's scary enough if it's a true freshman like Hutmacher.

Seems like there are times he trusts the play design a little too much instead of reading it. Both the interception and the last 4th down play, he's throwing the outside switch route all the way. I'm not sure if it's because he's trying to force it to JD, or if it's because that play has worked all year and he's just assuming that's what will be open. But both times the inside guy was open.

Yeah that's what I meant, just kind of butchered the thought typing it out. I'm good with a Jaimes - Hixson/Piper - Jurgens - Farniok - Benhart line next year.

I didn't get the sense he had overtaken Farniok, but he certainly would've been given every opportunity. And even if he was about the same as Farniok, I haven't been terribly impressed with Hixson and Wilson so it could've made the line better by upgrading Guard instead of Tackle.

That's a lot of interesting info. A lot of people had been talking about it, but i don't recall the coaches specifically mentor Farniok to guard, glad that is indeed the plan. And nice to hear about Henrich - again we assumed if healthy he should be good enough to play, but nice to know that's the case.

On the old board this would've only been like 10 pages.

Some corner, more receiver, neither particularly well. I'm not an expert and am definitely willing to be corrected - I'm not asking for examples just to be a jerk, I just really don't see many issues from him when I rewatch the games. Admittedly I'm not rewatching them focused entirely on one player at a time, so it's not as thorough as it could be. The mistakes I do see from Jackson seem to be brought up repeatedly, much more so than similar examples from other players.

I'm his mom! No seriously, I think he's played well and it just bothers me that he's basically a punching bag for a vocal group of fans. He was terrible and seemed to have a terrible attitude early on in his career. I think he has corrected both of those, and it feels like some fans are completely unwilling to give him any credit for it. I'm probably a little over-aggressive defending him - mostly because he gets randomly bashed out of nowhere a lot, a lot of times for reasons I don't agree with. And I'm sure that makes me seem obnoxiously defensive, but IMO some people are obnoxiously critical of him. I have been similarly defensive of Martinez, and to a lesser degree Farniok.

Yeah, I mean mock drafts are all a crap shoot at this point. You get clicks by throwing new names on there. Whether or not Jackson is a first round pick, he has played well this year and I expect him to be picked in the top half of the draft at least. I'm terrible at projecting draft stuff anyway, but it's also not a great measure of the player in college. Ozigbo and Morgan were no less great at Nebraska because they weren't drafted.

Oh right, that's the Bunch reference - my bad. I don't follow all of the transfer portal stuff obviously, but I haven't heard many situations like Bunch's where they ended up staying. His is pretty unique too where I think he's good enough to play somewhere, and is just behind guys who are better. I know Bryant is only a redshirt freshman, but given our RB situation and the fact he doesn't seem close to sniffing the field, I dunno why he'd stay.

No, it doesn't have to be the top of the list that's true. I just have not seen the same things many are claiming about Jackson. I've seen a few plays with poor coverage, but very few to be honest. Then one or two plays like the Purdue touchdown, which is still at most 1 percent his fault. That's the only play I can recall with a lack of effort, and I don't think it had anything to do with motivation - he just thought the play was made. He can't think that way either obviously, but it's not like he just didn't care enough to try.

I think his point is we'll never know in a Nebraska uniform at least, since he's transferring.

Do you happen to have any examples other than the same 2 or 3 people keep bringing up? Do you really think Jackson (or any of our corners really) are anywhere even close to the top of the list of our defensive issues this year?

They definitely haven't been living up to the standard performance-wise, but handing out/pulling the blackshirts multiple times a year is worse in my mind. I assume Frost/Held/Austin have a deeper grasp on the Blackshirt tradition than I do, and I'm sure they're not happy about how they look right now either. But it just gets ridiculous when they're constantly being yo-yoed - now it's the starters and 2 guys who the starters should be emulating in practice. Not a problem for me.