Jeremy

Even without Suh, the Huskers are LOADED, especially on defense. Offensively, there's no tangible reason we can't run up and down the field like an Oregon or Boise State. As the coaches have stated ad nauseum, it all comes down to execution. Maybe we should examine what 'execution' actually is. To me, execution is that all-important flash of time from the snap of the ball to the whistle, when every single player is making rapid-fire decisions. The problem with the boys in red seems to be that more often than not, they were either making the wrong decision, or letting it be made for them. This is on the coaches - if the players don't really know what they're doing, they weren't prepared enough. If Watson didn't know ut was going to clog the LOS to hammer Martinez, he's really not as smart as I thought/hoped he was. After the FIRST play, it was obvious to the entire Red Out Around the World (that helped, didn't it?) that the horns simply weren't going to let Martinez run down the field. To Watson's credit, he did stretch the field with the vert routes - not much he can do, though, when our receivers traded in their appendages for various cooking vessels. If you can't run, you pass. If they don't catch the ball when you pass, you're screwed. And we were. Repeatedly. I hate texas.

Baylor was doing this to us in '08 and '09. They were trying to take the snap before Suh could get back across the line of scrimmage, heck, sometimes half the team was still getting back across the line. Pelini had to chew the ref's ears for a good 5 or 6 plays before they'd even throw a flag. The offense has to let the defense get across the line, and until they do, the ref has to stand over the ball, at least I think that's what the refs finally started doing to give our team a chance to get set on D.

After the first, or even fourth 5-7 yard loss, we should've scrapped the zone read, except for play action off of it - keep throwing until those OLB's and safeties start backing off. Keep throwing. the receivers gotta start catching it sooner or later. ut had guys all over the LOS salivating over the read, and watson wasn't smart enough to take advantage of it. tmart was also pulled because he was becoming a fumble machine - couldn't even handle a center snap. helu and burkhead were wide open underneath all game, and lee finally started throwing to them toward the end. qb trey/draw will be our best play with martinez running it, and we can even run play action off of that. i don't understand why watson kept calling zone read when the horns gameplanned to stop it - it was obvious from the first snap.

"As said before... They make minor changes to the uniform every year, which I'm ok with. But all-reds is not a minor change, and it's cursed. And the N on the helmet is our identity. It's sacred ground. You don't mess with the N on the helmet." Boom.

Texas' 3-66 defeat at the hands of UCLA is still worse than the wreck vs. Tech.

Mack Brown Rosco P. Coltrane Hook Em Clarabell

Disaster if they change the helmets. The simple N has been a symbol of strength for decades.

Boomer Freakin Sooner.

Please say I am not the only one that think Taylor looks like Napolean Dynamite's brother when it comes to throwing the ball. I think you're referring to Napoleon's uncle, Uncle Rico. Unlike Uncle Rico, however, Taylor CAN throw the ball over that mountain. Not the best throwing motion, but the kid's got a cannon.

Agreed. The next 3 weeks will define Watson as an Offensive Coordinator here at Nebraska. Forgetting everything else he's done, this will absolutely be the tipping point for our offense, no matter who is lining up on D. When one hears that future defenses have a blueprint on how to stop Martinez by having TWO spies, one might think - "Crap, there goes the season. Martinez is the reason we're explosive." Wrong. Any offensive coordinator worth a darn LOVES to hear that there is a spy on his QB, because there will DEFINITELY be receivers open. Martinez can throw it, and it's Watson's job to make sure he knows where they will be, and where to throw it. Play action off the zone read should be money across the middle to McNeil, Paul, and Kinnie if the defense is going to sacrifice coverage for simply standing there looking at our QB.

Stupid flag. What's next, throwing a penalty for 'Throwing the Quarterback to the Ground'? Oh, wait, that already happened against Suh.

Appy State was the best FCS team, better than half of the BCS. The real upset that year was Stanford over USC, probably the biggest ever, at least in my book.

We utilized maybe 1/12th of the playbook, and ran the same play over and over. Watson is definitely keeping his cards covered until conference play. That said, there were several plays where linemen missed assignments, and Helu/Burkhead were running into unblocked defenders at the point of attack.

Blocking below the waist: Blatant and legit call. Ball crossed the goal line AFTER his knee was down. They threw ONE FLAG for holding when Pierre Allen was held almost every play, not to mention the other D-linemen. Blatant horse collar on Martinez wasn't called when we normally get one of those called against us in every game. Officials stank it up against us, as usual. Does it excuse our poor play and not burying the Rabbits from the beginning to the end? No. But to say that the zebras cost SDSU the game is ludicrous.

In the Tampa 2/Peso, we're going to give up a lot of those 4-5 yard runs. If we're having the DT's 2-gapping and DE's outside containing, there will be some room for any back worth his salt, especially if our LB's don't play disciplined or get caught up in the trench. The difference last year was Suh, because he would either beat the double teams, or create a huge pile at the LOS and slow everything down. Without Suh in '03, it was a similar story for the Blackshirts - a little mushy between the 20's, but LOCK DOWN in the red zone. On the flip side, the Pelini Bros' philosophy is that there aren't many teams out there with the patience to try to take 3-4 yard cracks all the way down the field anymore, and we saw that from SoDak St. The message the Pelinis are sending is: "Go ahead and try to gash us, but as soon as we push you back or you get penalized, you're going to have to throw the ball. And when you do, we have some absolute ballhawks back there to snag anything and everything." Dennard's INT was a thing of beauty - none of our receivers have made a catch like that all year. Their QB did have a little more time than most of us are comfortable with, but aside from the absolute blatant call on the guard holding Stein (he did a good job breaking through), the guys in stripes refused to call SEVERAL holds on ALL their O-Line. I was about as disgusted with the lack of holding calls as I was with our offensive effort. If the refs aren't going to call holding, I think our guys should start employing some of those shirt/pad/helmet-grabbing techniques. There was also an uncalled horse-collar on Martinez. We get called for that all the time. The 'Taunting' call was absolutely bogus. I hate officials. Aside from a sporadic gain on a slow-developing zone play, our offense will be predicated on play action - no doubt about it. That, and Martinez scrambling on passing plays when his first 2 reads are covered. Something tells me we're going to look a lot like our '03 team before it's all said and done - Lavonte David as a serviceable Demorrio Williams, hopefully.

Kunalic's been called 'Adi-os' for like 3 years now. How about 'Cody Green-horn,' or Ricky 'Bobby' Henry

Oklahoma is going to smash Texas, whether we want them to, or not. Either way is fine with me, because if we both beat them, it will basically make them irrelevant, exactly the insult they've hurled our way for so long. Whether they're higher ranked or not on 10/16 doesn't matter - they could end up with 4 or even 5 losses, and that would be SWEET. But we don't need to worry about that. What the boys in Red need to do is concentrate on the game and even play in front of them. All we can control is how well we do in each game.

Holy kool-aid, Batman. We have at least 5 REALLY tough games before we can even think about Nebraska winning the Big 12, much less playing for a National Title. Kansas State - David and Martin/Whaley are good, but they are certainly no substitute for Dillard, and we can never replace Suh. Daniel Thomas is going to put his head down and come at us behind a pretty tough o-line. If we can avoid turning the ball over, we should control the game, but it'll be a tough one. aTm - They have athletes on offense just like we do, and a couple really good LB's ready to take every shot they can at Martinez - in College Station, just as loud and louder than Seattle. Okie State - Kendall Hunter is probably the best back in the Big 12, and Weeden is really coming around - probably as good as Robinson was. We have not fared very well vs. the Pokes in recent years... Missouri - Everyone will disagree with me on this, but Gabbert and Co. will give us a fight in Lincoln. They have receivers that can take it all the way on any play. ut - Haven't beaten them in over a decade. They're bringing a tough running game, and play action off that - and the Huskies really burned us with play action a few times. Gilbert is probably a better passer than Locker, and he has some pretty good receivers. They have a defense that is arguably as good as ours, and Jeffcoat is licking his chops waiting for a chance to nail Martinez. I'm normally not a Negative Nancy, but Washington really isn't that good, so I don't think we fully know where we are as a team.

Good luck the rest of the season. Beat the Trojans! And the Ducks!

After KU scored the most points on us EVER, giving us one of our most embarrassing losses, don't expect much sympathy here. See you in Lincoln later on, Jayhawkers. (Still, beat Missouri. Every time.)

Got get'em Hokies.

Injuries to starters will indeed affect the Blackshirts, but at the same time, our offense could do a good deal in masking what might be a weakness - if they're better than last year, and move down the field instead of 3 and out after 3 and out, our defense won't HAVE to be as good as it was last year. I doubt we'll see a defense that good for awhile.

I'm sure most here remember - Osborne didn't always have a dual threat guy running down the line with a pitchman, not for his 1st 7 seasons. I read somewhere about the reasons why he implemented the option after starting out with an offense that was very similar to what the NFL had at the time. He noticed after several years that Oklahoma was incredibly hard to prepare for with only a week, given they were different than most, if not all the other teams on the schedule. Then, during the game, he would carefully and tediously build a lead, only to see the Sooner QB run through a tired Blackshirt unit and beat us a lot of times toward the end. So, he got speedy Turner Gill to come to Lincoln, the offense changed quite a bit. However, Osborne didn't want to be Oklahoma - he wanted to build and break tendencies several times during games to keep defenses honest and off-balance. The 1983 and 1995 offenses are probably the best Nebraska's ever seen, not to mention some of the best ever in college football. On a side note, the '97 offense was comprised of 10 of 11 starters from Nebraska. I like where our offense is going, because I think it's integral to have a dual-threat guy taking snaps.

If the Spring Game is any kind of forecast into what we'll be seeing offensively, this year will be drastically different from both last year and '08. I'd say we're upwards of 65% run if not more, given how much zone read we saw, some of it looking like designed QB keep, not to mention midline, sprint option, and even the good old FB trap. The lineman had the biggest splits I've seen outside of Lubbock, but it appears as though we want a dual-threat guy taking snaps, and most passing came off play-action. I really don't know what to expect, but I'm leaning toward pounding between those big splits and bringing play action out of that.

Our next dog will not be named Husker. He will be named 'Tagge.'