roundegotrip

I'd like to see Beck sprinkle in some more of those awesome mad scientist option plays he's got hiding in his playbook. That two read play we ran for a touchdown, that roll out rushing/screen pass option play we ran with Turner, and that play where they brought Turner in motion towards the center of the field, then snapped the ball and ran it back in the direction he'd just come from with him as the pitch man. That is some great stuff IMO, and I'd like to see us spring more of those to see if we can catch defenses napping.

$2000 worth of damage? Was it a solid gold bumper? And $500 worth of damage to a '97 Olds Aurora? If you can drive that car away from an accident, I'm pretty sure you didn't do $500 worth of damage to it.

Me neither, but only because they're not in our division. I think it's incredibly likely that he is going to come in to Ohio St. and win and win and win.

Two years is not a lot of time, but when your only conference win in two seasons is a home win over Colorado, that is pretty rough. And according to that article, Kansas owes him $6 million. Two years after they paid Mangino $3 million to go away. Holy cow...

And wasn't the other one a hail mary to end the first half of the OSU game?

Offensive-Line: Without rewatching games to specifically break down each guy's performance, I don't feel very comfortable handing out individual grades. As a group, I'll give them a B- Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: Kenny Bell - B+ Quincy Enunwa - B+ Brandon Kinnie - C Jamal Turner - B Tim Marlowe - B Kyler Reed - B Ben Cotton - B Quarterback: Taylor Martinez - A- I-Backs/Fullbacks Rex Burkhead - A Ameer Abdullah - INC (as a kick returner, A-) Tyler Legate - B Defensive-Line Baker Steinkuhler - B+ Terrence Moore - B- Chase Rome - C Thaddeus Randle - C Jared Crick - INC (was probably on pace for an A-, I think people sold him short on his play early in the year) Defensive Ends Jason Ankrah - C+ Eric Martin - B- Cameron Meredith - A- (Quietly put together a good season: 53 tackles, 5 sacks, INT, FF) Josh Williams - C LInebackers: Lavonte David - A+ Will Compton - B+ Sean Fisher - C- Alonzo Whaley - C Secondary Andrew Green - B+ Alfonzo Dennard - A Ciante Evans - C+ Damion Stafford - A- (Another guy who quietly had a good season: 75 tackles, 3 TFL, 9 PBU, FF) Austin Cassidy - B+ (Is largely being underrated for his play this year: 68 tackles, 2 INT, 4 PBU) PJ Smith - C Lance Thorell - C And I'm giving Brett Maher an A for his all around great play in the kicking game.

Mixed metaphors for the win.

MSU better not be on cruise control today, or NW is gonna jump up and bite them.

Defenses have keyed on him an awful lot this year in the option game. Taylor's best plays with his feet have been scrambling to buy time to pass, scrambling for first downs then sliding/getting OOB to protect himself, or handing off/pitching on the option, because defenses just aren't letting him run by design. So he isn't busting huge runs this year, but what he is doing is keeping himself healthy and sustaining drives, maybe the top two things that killed our offense last season.

His mechanics look almost identical in those videos to my eye.

I think this is the biggest thing to take away from this season. From our sophomore quarterback to freshmen RBs and receivers, young linemen, first year OC... the way it's all coming together, we have the potential be an offensive juggernaut the next couple of years.

Who was the best kicker in the country last year? Who was the best overall player in college football the year before that? Awards are nice, but I put more stock in numbers.

Honestly, I want NU to play the best team they possibly can. I always want to watch them playing against the best possible competition. I know the games we lost this year were all tough to take for different reasons, but we do have wins against two teams currently ranked in the BCS top 20, one of them on the road and the other by three touchdowns. The team finished the season well today, and without a CCG game to play in, I think they are going to be healthy and hungry come New Year. I'm looking for the return of Bo's typical bowl performance, so bring on S. Carolina or Georgia or Arkansas. I want to see it.

It could be that Bo has made a conscious decision to stop regularly feeding the beast that is fan expectations. We all know Bo wants to win, and the expectations from fans are already extremely high every year. No need to keep banging that drum all the time, especially moments after watching his team play hard and earn big win at home to finish the regular season.

+ 1 billion.

24

Haven't done this in a long time, but I think I'm walking away from this one.

We're discussing competitiveness, and speaking of homerism, I think your assertion that Nebraska wasn't competitive regardless of the Taylor Martinez interception extravaganza is wrong. They were competitive for 25 minutes, and in your house, too. The question for me is in a rematch could they be competitive for four quarters. I think probably yes. It doesn't mean Nebraska wins, because I do think Wisconsin is the better team, but to assert that Wisconsin would just blow them off the field again in a rematch, I don't find that very objective.

Just a reminder that it was 14-13 Nebraska late in the 2nd quarter when Martinez started throwing those INTs.

Taylor's improvement is partially about decision making and letting the game come to him, but I think it's also about what he's doing with his eyes. He can get through more than one read now. When he gets into trouble, he scrambles and keeps his eyes downfield instead of just tucking and running. He's even starting to look safeties off, amazingly. He somehow managed to see Burkhead on that option pitch yesterday, and on that similar play passing to Rex when he was being pulled down last week. He's also gotten better at reading the coverage on his receivers and placing the ball where the DB can't make a play on it. I think the game is slowing down for Taylor and he is really starting to see the field. I've thrown a lot of support behind Martinez over time, but I never expected him to take such big strides so quickly as a passer and as a game manager... if he keeps developing like this, he is going to be a nightmare for opposing defenses for the next two years.

It was a typo, bro. He had seven tackles at halftime. But still. Led the team with 13 today. He's really improved over the last 5 or 6 games.

Maher. The name of the game today was field position, and he came up big, especially on that 61 yarder. The long FG he hit and the long FG Penn St. missed ended up being the difference.

Really? You think him hiring his high school buddies was a "good" decision? Honestly, it's really tough not to laugh at you right now. You have given these coaches, after making several changes, absolutely no time to become cohesive and work together. What, you think losing one of the best secondary coaches in the nation and making a multitude of other personnel changes means everything is going to be lean and dandy right away? Incumbents mixing with newbies isn't going meld together so simply. I respectfully suggest you think before you post about that which you are clearly not understanding or have too high expectations of. Ah yes, having hope that a Head Coach will hire some people with proven track records in coaching and recruiting; is my out of this world expectations. Instead he hires his BROTHER, a bunch of HS coaches and prior graduate assistants to fill his primary coordinator and assistant jobs. Most of his assistance have been there for four years...... Beck, Cotton, Ron Brown, Garrison, Dobson, Papuchis etc. WTF are you talking about? no time? Take off the glasses, cause you clearly cant see straight. I respectfully suggest you think before you post about that which you are clearly not understanding or have low expectations of. Yes, the defense took a step back this year. Starting the season down your four best defensive backs from the previous year will do that to you. But they're starting to play better and we'll see how they finish. If you think that with Pelini's track record on defense this is anything more than a blip on the radar, I don't know what to tell you. Now, our offense is averaging 34.7 points per game this season. That is our second highest scoring output since 2001. For a first year offensive coordinator, new WR coach, new RB coach, new offensive line coach, new TE coach, and a bunch of freshman and sophomore players. I think it's pretty tough to rationally criticize Pelini's hiring practices at this point.

Your thread title is misleading, because that is actually a huge whopping dose of perspective.

I agree that the overreactions to losses like this sometimes border on lunacy. I have a hard time reading these threads because it makes me squirm when I see people embarrassing themselves. Go for a walk, or go hug your wife or play with your kids or pet your dog for a few minutes before you come on here and click the post button. If that doesn't work, go have some fun on a Saturday evening and get a good night's sleep. Then come back and discuss the game. The reactionary posting isn't good for you or anyone else.