GI56

Can you remember if we ran a triple-option look out of the full house set? I only remember speed options out of it.

First a quick refresher on Osborne's philosophy on the option: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/hokies-journal/2009/10/option_offense_qa_with_nebrask.html For those who don't want to read it, basically Osborne viewed the option like a pass- high risk/high reward. When looking at his run/pass breakdown he would basically consider option plays to be pass plays. In this sense, the option served its purpose today. There were a few bad losses/fumbles, but the long TD runs came off of the speed option. A quick calculation of the raw offensive efficiency of the 1st string offense (see http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2011/3/15/2050106/the-toolbox-offensive-success-rates) gives roughly 27/60 = 45%. Normally this is about average, but adjusted for the opponent would be quite poor. That said, Nebraska ran very little play action today and no option-pass plays. By Nebraska's second drive, UTC players were selling out completely on the edge- on many of the options the line sealed the edge fine, but players from the secondary were rushing up to string the play out. The simplest counter to this is the option pass, which we did not see today. Where the line obviously did poorly was straight handoffs out of the I and pistol. These are plays where you're looking to get leverage and need to make blocks, and it just wasn't happening. Final thought: although the Mocs D was small, it didn't seem that slow. Did anyone watch Wisconsin's defense on Thursday night? Very little speed. No doubt Martinez can shred their D the same way.

Was reading this article about the end of the CU - Nebraska rivalry. http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_18630628 The article mentions that Colorado play 13 straight games this season. Does any one know why? Maybe they had too add a game for the Pac-12 schedule? Just never heard of a team playing 13 games in the regular season before.

Jim Rose

Other than Martinez still has the most unnatural motion.

Just wondering who QB #16 is in this video: The roster at http://www.huskers.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&SPID=22&SPSID=4 doesn't have a QB listed at #16. Edit: Also which QB looks best to you?

Up until right now I was a huge Watson defender. He lost us this game. You can blame Taylor for the first few sacks/fumbles, but Watson putting him in that position over and over without adjusting is embarrassing. Also embarassing: zone-read, loss of yards; zone-read, loss of yards; pass, incomplete. Not just bad play calling, inability to read how players are behaving on the field and changing things up based on that. Rex should've carried us all the way.

OK is stacking the box HARD on 1st and 2nd. If we don't try a drop back pass on 1st down I will start the next Fire Watson thread.

I know this is a terrible request, but does anyone know where to find a video of The Drive with Jim Rose's call. As bad as he was sometimes, I can't stand the TV call of that game.

Apologies from the start if I'm rehashing what others have already posted. 1. Offense QB: We beat ISU with our 3rd string QB, while our best offensive player by far sat on the sideline. Most importantly, we basically played a half without a QB. The opportunity cost of losing any pass ability in the first half (4 pass attempts) and running the wildcat exclusively is huge. The offense didn't play great by any stretch (5 3-and-outs), but capitalized on ISU turnovers and scored in OT. Basically what we could ask of last year's offense. Our offensive production wasn't lacking. Although Green only completed 7/12 passes for 79 yards and no TDs, Green still gained 4 1st downs on 3rd down by passing the second half. In terms of rushing, Burkhead had 129 yards and Helu gained 99 yards for a combined average over 5 yards per carry. 2. Defense Our defense won the game today. ISU had 5 scoring drives: 1. 7 plays, 47 yards: Passing TD 2. 4 plays, 2 yards: FG 3. 12 plays, 75 yards: Rushing TD 4. 4 plays, 14 yards: Passing TD 5. 3-4 plays (can't remember exactly), 25 yards: Passing TD (OT) The 2 long drives that our defense gave up were disappointing, as was the TD in OT, but 10 points were a direct result of Niles Paul's fumble and an extraordinary 57-yard FG given up due to favorable field position given by the wind. The defense also directly led to 14 points with a pick-6 and an interception leaving us the ball on the ISU 44. 3. Intangibles LUCKY BREAKS Consider these losses in the last few years: 2009: #13 VA Tech 16 - #19 Neb 15 ISU 9 - Neb 7 #3 Texas 13 - #21 Neb 12 2008: VA Tech 35 - Neb 30 #7 TTech 37 - Neb 31 (OT) 2007: # 17 Texas 28 - Neb 25 Our lack of offensive production in the first half let ISU take the lead into halftime and hang around emotionally. This had all the makings of a trap game. ISU at home with everything to win (including a chance to play for the Big XII championship) and Nebraska coming off two straight wins agaisnt ranked teams. In the last 3 years, Nebraska has had 2 close wins: the 7-3 win over Oklahoma in 2009 and the 40-31 win over Colorado in 2008. In all 6 of the losses listed above, Nebraska lost by 6 points or less- 1 TD could've swung any game. Feel free to call me a homer but this is the first game in recent memory (last 4 years) where Nebraska has come out with the lucky breaks (especially the pick in OT) to win. Summary: This is what our season would've looked like with last years team. We beat ISU with our 3rd string QB and basically played the 1st half without a QB. We squandered a 14 point lead with a stupid turnover and finally won a game with a lucky break (first in a few years). We're a different team with Martinez and this game should be viewed as an outlier.

No worries now since Mizzou lost tonight.

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure Cotton placed a perfect chop block on him on Helu's first TD run.

We've been running the spinner all year. These articles are a must read if you want to know about the defense: Spinner: http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-pressure-spinner.html 4-3 Over/Under http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-over-under-front_15.html Nickel http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-pressure-7-man-blitz_6823.html Fire Zone http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-pressure-3-seam_3892.html

Yeah I remember reading that too but the scheme stuff is great.

If anyone is interested in how Bo Pelini's defense works and what his philosophies are, the following are great reads: *This is not my blog* http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-over-under-front_15.html *** http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-pressure-spinner.html *** http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-pressure-7-man-blitz_6823.html http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-pressure-3-seam_3892.html

We actually run a 3-3-5 type formation quite often. If you want to see an example look at the 3rd down play on OSU's first drive. 3 down lineman with Hagg/David/Meredith lined up as backers. For a good read about it and other defense we run: http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2010/07/nebraska-pressure-spinner.html

Prince seems to have one major flaw- his failure to look for the ball when it's in the air. Against Blackmon, Prince was in position 90% of the time if the ball was properly thrown. Weeden routinely underthrew Blackmon, who just stopped and caught the ball as Prince kept going. The 80 yard flea-flicker is the best example.

So far: 1 fumble, 1 dropped pick

D will be fine- just a few missed tackles Weeden 0/4

First my two cents on the game (much of which has been repeated elsewhere). Why the offense is fine. 1. Drops. All this talk about firing Watson is nonsense- if one of the 3 TD passes was caught the game has a different outlook and no one is blaming Watson. Drops are related to players messing up and position coaches, not scheme/play calling. 2. The youth of Martinez. Running the zone-read requires patience- the proper read must be made on every play and getting frustrated and rushing the read guarantees more failure. Against a worse defense like KSU's it was possible to get away with a few poor reads as Martinez' ability could overcome errors (see first touchdown against KSU). Lee actually found success with the zone read late in the game, due to proper, patient reads (although the Texas defense might not have respected him as a runner/may have been more inclined to play the pass). Why the defense is fine. 1. The defense only allowed 20 points, 7 of which came after a fumble gave Texas the ball on the 20 yard line early in the game. 2. Texas rushed for 209 yards total. Gilbert had 71 yards rushing on 11 carries, 68 of which came in the first half. This was obviously a wrinkle the D wasn't ready for, but seemed to have adjusted for in the second half. Outside of Gilbert's performance, 138 yards rushing by the rest of Texas' back's hardly means that the Blackshirts were rolling over against the run. 3. Gilbert- 4/16 for 62 yards. Not much to say about this- 41 of these yards came on a pass to Whittaker due to terrible tackling. Intangibles. 1. Pressure. There have been many other posts discussing the poor play of the Huskers in Lincoln. The extreme hype surrounding the game undoubtedly had some influence on the players, maybe accounting for some of the drops. 2. Lack of 'breaks.' Other than Hagg's punt return for a TD, which came too late in the game, Nebraska had no other lucky breaks of note, be it catches or calls by the officials. Hats off to Texas- a perfectly executed, conservative game plan prevented the Blackshirts from getting a turnover, which would've had a huge impact in the game. Final analysis- a one-score loss that could have gone the other way had Nebraska executed/had one lucky break. Why we will beat Okie State. 1. Offense- Oklahoma State is currently 92nd in yards per game allowed and has given up 21 TDs (vs Nebraska's 9). Their defense is more like KSU's than that of Texas and should allow our offense to perform. 2. Defense- although OSU has a prolific offense (2nd in the country), their spread style matches up better with our defense than the offense we saw out of Texas. Throwing the ball often will give our defense a chance to make one of the big plays they had in the first 5 games but couldn't get against Texas. 3. Intagibles- Bo Pelini's teams play well on the road and have bounced back well from disappointments in the past. This week the pressure is on OSU to get the huge win at home. Summary- OSU is a better matchup for Nebraska than Texas and the intangibles are more on our side. I stake what little reputation I have on a big win on the road this weekend.

Lee actually read the zone read better than T-Magic.

Texas seems like the tougher match up. Texas has the fastest/best D that we'll see in the Big XII this year and our offense has yet to play a top tier defense. In terms of intangibles, Texas is fired up not to lose 3 in a row, we have everything to lose, they have everything to win, etc. The game against Okie State could potentially be a top 5 vs top 15 match up if each team wins this week. OSU has a prolific offense and a bad defense, which seems to be a better scenario for us- our strong D neutralizing their offense and our offense exploiting their bad D. That said, a win at an undefeated OSU seems like it will affect our ranking more than win against unranked Texas at home, even though this weekend's matchup seems much more difficult...

Was going to make a post about how well the receivers are blocking. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTMsQtXWpfg On every long run the WRs sealed their CB outside or made a block downfield on a safety.

Don't forgot that there are going to be tons of Nebraska fans in the stadium as well- it's not going to be a 100% Husky crowd rooting against us.

Anyone notice that at the beginning tonight's Saints - Vikings game when the players were introducing themselves Nicks stated that he played for Salinas High rather than Nebraska?