3rd and long

I don't know if we have time to throw downfield. Draw or screen, something to slow down their D

Good aggressive attacking D, how about some misdirection.

NO PRESSURE!

That one I think TM has to read and see that there is nothing there. Looks like he could have kept and maybe had something on the corner. Safe play though, works a lot of times.

Very sure hands.

Was that Zoogies?

This. Martinez is looking scared What are you talking about? Beck is the one that called 3 inside runs. If we would have gotten stuffed outside, everyone would have said we should have pounded it inside. Sometimes the other team makes plays too.

Nothing wrong with the calls, if we punch it in, everyone says great call. Good defense my MSU.

Still no pressure at all on the QB though.

Totally wrong. They're extremely similar in that their overwhelming asset on the field for "both" wasn't their 40 or 100 yd dash time, jukes, passing prowess, qb reads, toughness, etc, etc.....it was their insane gap speed (5 to 10 yds). "Both" had/have acceleration on the football field in full pads that almost nobody else has. It completely wrecks defenders angles of pursuit resulting in so many big plays they both were/are famous for. Opposing DC's are rightfully terrified of that threat and attempt to marginalize that threat at almost any cost. That results in opening up opportunities for our other skill players that of course our hater fans are and will always be completely oblivious to. But Bo isn't. Or Beck. Yeah, Crouch was a tougher runner. But with a "very" few exceptions Crouch wasn't running over people every play as some suggest. Not at all. Tmart (just half way through his soph year) is already better pitching the ball and arguably better passing. Or at the very least by Crouch's mid soph season (go watch some NU game films of 1999). They're "both" are/were great offensive weapons for reasons that the typical dim-witted hater could never comprehend. But again, Bo & Beck do. So did Frank. GBR!! Fortunantly, us dim-witted haters have you to show us the light. You lend a lot of credence to your arguments by belittling those who don't agree with you. You may find this hard to believe, but there are people out there that do know something about the game and enjoy a good discussion about it without resorting to name-calling because they disagree.

Or the power, or the toughness, etc. Basically, Taylor is not much like Crouch except that both are very fast. Basically, J. Montana was not much like T. Brady except that both were good passers. Except that there is a big difference between being fast and being a good runner of the football. Crouch was miles ahead of Taylor in terms of running ability. Vision, power, physicality, ability to make a defender miss, etc. All Taylor has going for himself is speed. He shys away from contact, doesn't read lanes very well, has fumbling issues, the list goes on. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Taylor supporter, but when it comes to running the football, he is not like Crouch (not even close). That is exactly correct. However with many, presenting something like this is pointless. Even if you do support TM, if you point out the fact that there are deficencies you must be a TM hater and really want Carnes to play. While I admire the level of some's support, their refusal to acknowledge the weaknesses have me no longer posting anything that is not gushing accolades in regards to the QB, might as well go beat your head against the door rather than say anything that might be construed as critcal, regardless of if what you say has merit. Lol! What a load..... Tmart gets ripped apart by our own fans every single day on this forum. "Any" rumor is suffice to assassinate his character for the last full year and more. To pretend it's all or even a majority being objective analysis of his assets and liabilities on the field requires a firm and unshakable belief in the tooth-fairy. I've never seen even one single poster here claim he was a great passer, doesn't make mistakes, doesn't fumble, etc, etc. Not one. "Nobody", despite your BS claim, denies his liabilities. However, to some posters here and to our HC & OC he is still on balance a serious offensive threat. At the very least the best we have. The truly endlessly repeated harping on those liabilities simply gets old. That's all. GBR!! I didn't see anywhere is that post where his character was assissinated. Someone made a very objective comparrison between TM and Crouch, and you jumped in with the Montana/Brady line, which was in no way relevant. I've read ton's of very objective analysis of his game on here, and most of it lately has also given him credit for the way he has played in the last game and a half. Guess what, no one is denying the fact that he is a huge offensive threat, but you can also OBJECTIVELY discuss areas that need worked on. Again, this is why I've tried to stay out of the TM threads lately. You can't have a logical discussion about him anymore.

Or the power, or the toughness, etc. Basically, Taylor is not much like Crouch except that both are very fast. Basically, J. Montana was not much like T. Brady except that both were good passers. Except that there is a big difference between being fast and being a good runner of the football. Crouch was miles ahead of Taylor in terms of running ability. Vision, power, physicality, ability to make a defender miss, etc. All Taylor has going for himself is speed. He shys away from contact, doesn't read lanes very well, has fumbling issues, the list goes on. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Taylor supporter, but when it comes to running the football, he is not like Crouch (not even close). That is exactly correct. However with many, presenting something like this is pointless. Even if you do support TM, if you point out the fact that there are deficencies you must be a TM hater and really want Carnes to play. While I admire the level of some's support, their refusal to acknowledge the weaknesses have me no longer posting anything that is not gushing accolades in regards to the QB, might as well go beat your head against the door rather than say anything that might be construed as critcal, regardless of if what you say has merit.

He's getting lots of practice reps and at times is all world but he will then turn around a make two or three boneheaded plays. Realize this is year one for everybody. He's just having troubles. He's probably a case where being a gifted athlete has done as much to hurt his progress and develop it over his life. He can't make every play all by himself like he could in High School and he needs to learn to read the defense better. Top it off by it occasionally working when he does go all impromptu so its hard to actually believe you should do XYZ when Q sometimes works. He remembers the one time it worked and not the 5 times it ruined everything. He still puts himself into trouble when he shouldn't. Like any QB making the reads and checks is the key to being the #1 guy. He'll get more time when he shows he'll do that. It's kind of funny (ok maybe not) but that description could also fit TM to a T. Guess when you have young QB's, that kind of comes with the territory.

My thoughts exactly. I have seen several looks at the final play in the Wisc-MSU game. I'm 100% sure the ball crossed the plane. If you draw a thin line across the goal line and the player, and you pause it at the right second, you see the ball crossed. It kind of looked to me at one point he was pretty upright and turned back to his right, and at that point it looked to me like it might/probably have crossed the goal line, but I'm still not 100% sure. And to me that is the question, without a camera right on the goalline to give a defenitive angle, do you overturn that call at that point and end the game.

If we have the screen pass in the playbook, this is the week. Get one of the RBs the ball in space with only four or five guys between him and the endzone, I like our chances. Tricky touch passes for TM though.

I think you are correct. Our DL needs to get pressure on Cousins and do so w/o having to depend overly on the blitz --- that said, the NU DL has not been able to get pressure w/o blitzing against vastly inferior lines than the MSU line. So... I predict little success. Also, our blitzing has been basically non-productive as well. Also, the DL has allowed our opponents to run well against us. The second factor... nearly as important as what you mentioned is our OL against their DL. Here, I think we may get some running yards (but then again, if we are behind early and by a wide margin we will be forced to pass often...problems). Can our OL protect TMart for him to complete some passes? I am not sure. If so... we may score some. If not... And that has been a problem... TMart has not had great protection in the past --- and that against lesser DL's than that at MSU. Seems to me we will likely lose the battle in the trenches on both sides of the ball... As such, I tend to think that the game will not be overly contested... but probably not a blowout either. Say... MSU scoring 28-34 or so points and NU scoring 7-17 points. I'll take a semi-middle road prediction and have it MSU 31, NU 13. Now... since this is a "why I think we'll win" thread I will add this --- if Ameer gets the ball kicked to him several times and we get great field position multiple times (or, better still, he takes it to house once and gives us great field position the other times) AND we get a big offensive play or two AND MSU has say... two key turnovers preventing them from scoring (or giving us a short field) --- then we will win. I think we've shown we cannot get consistent pressure on the QB with just our front four, and with no pressure Cousins will pick us apart. We have to blitz him, but somehow have to do it more efficently. Using Compton or Fisher doesn't work because they're not fast enough to get there. I think our packages have to include the secondary guys or David, someone who's fast enough to either get there or at least disrupt Cousins timing. And does it seem like when we do blitz, if there is a blocker they seem to run directly into them instead of trying to skirt the block or make a move to go past? Stafford seems to me to be the guy who could be usefull coming off the corner, he's fast enough and if he does get there once at full speed, Cousins will be looking for him the rest of the game.

That's right about where they deem his forward momentum is stopped, if it's in bounds they will keep the clock running. I thought the receiver lost possesion of the ball and it should have been incomplete, but the replay coverage was poor the entire game. Seems like there were numerous occasions where a second look would have been good and they never went back to the play. But it sure didn't seem like there was "irrefutable eveidence" to overturn the call. But it also didn't look clear cut to me that the ball crossed the goal line in the MSU-Wisc game. To my understanding, it has to be clear cut to overturn, and to my eyes, neither of those were. Maybe the Big 10 replay guys like to feel important.

I really like this post, lots of good facts. I think the fact that Cousins is not very mobile is a huge, huge advantage for us. We do such a poor job of collapsing the pocket inward on the QB that the running ones pop outside and run for big yardage against our man coverages. If we do bring blitze packages (please, please get after him like crazy), I think this might finally be the game we rack up a few sacks. If we don't pressure him though, they have a couple of receivers that look like they can do some serious damage. On offense I'd like to see a steady diet of Rex, I would love to see him get 25 carries. And when they load the box (which we all know they will), play action for TM, not straight drop back. Also, I really hope they again emphasize the dump offs this week, and maybe a screen or two, usually pretty effective against good, aggressive defenses. Rex out in space equals good things. Also would really prefer not to see TM running the down the line option, he just doesn't seem comfortable there and we can't afford those wayward pitches. If we want him to have an option, I would rather see it out of the zone read. I'm curiuous why we broke out the reverse against Minnesota, maybe to show MSU something else to work on, but I sure would have liked to have that one fresh for this week. I hope there is something else in the bag of tricks this week, maybe involving Turner. W/R's can't have bad drops this week, have to make the routine play every time, maybe last week there were some concentration lapses due to who we playing? I think the biggest factor in our favor is something many have alluded to, MSU is coming off three huge wins against long-time conference rivals. No matter how you try and get kids up, this one may not carry the same weight with them as the last three. I look for something in the 31-27 range, I just don't know which way.

Bingo. Thanks! They want that to happen for basically one reason, to say they were "right" No, they want "that" to happen so if their starting QB, who happens to run, A LOT, goes down with an injury, his backup doesn't come in and look like a "deer in the headlights". It really is a no-win situation, obviously your starter is still young and needs his time also, and backups need their time. It really did boil down to the defense not getting Minnesota stopped in the fourth quarter. Although I would have liked to seen Carnes a little earlier, he would have had the entire fourth if the defense could have gotten the O back out there. The thing that bothers me more though is that, in my opinion, there are three main guys we absolutely cannot afford to lose, TM, Lavonte, and Rex. We know how much David has held up this defense this year (how bad would it be without him?), and though I think our young backs are going to be outstanding,but how many times does Rex make a spectaular two or three yard run for a first down when he should be stopped for a loss. I hate seeing them out there when the game is decided. I know you can't play away from injury, but I really believe keeping them healthy is paramount for us.

Looks to me like they have a good pair of receivers, good size and good speed. If we don't get consistent pressure on the QB, those guys are going to do damage. I see them looking to try to minimize Burkhead as much as possible and force TM to beat them. He'll break some big runs but I think they're going to force him to throw the ball. And contrary to what most think here, I'm not convinced our passing game is there yet. We still have too many drops and too many of TM's passes are off just enough that against better defenses at the best they will be incompletions. Slant's thrown behind receivers will get someone killed across the middle. I don't think the Minnesota game really gave us anything, execution looked somewhat sloppy to me, and that's understandable, how do you really get yourself completely mentally prepared to play a opponent you know is so inferior. But we've really only played one solid half of offensive football against a quality defense and I just don't know what to expect. The thing in our favor though is that obviously MSU can suck it up also, how in the world did they lose to Notre Dame?

I guess, but I don't see why we would not want Brion to be more game ready. When he is going to be called on in the event of injury to do some of these things in a critical game, it shouldn't be the first time. IMO, we've made pretty poor use of the time our backups have been in, on top of not getting them enough time during the opportunities we have had this year. Thats what I've been saying all along. If we have any injuries, we're not going to have guys ready.

I want to see Carnes run the option.

Fantastic block by #31, is that Zimmerer?

Does Bo go to Brione now?

Yes Taylor has been off a little. The helium ball he throws will do that. But that last one Bell was a perfect ball. If Bell is stumbling and has his feet under him that is an easy catch. Turner's dropped TD too. I don't how you could have an easier pass to catch. This, Jamal isn't gonna have an easier TD catch for a while. I didn't see that one, stupid customers showing up during a Husker game.