3rd and long

Count me among those in the "Not Worried About It" column. Disagree. See last year. You mean last year where we were one half of solid football by the defense away from the Big XII Championship and a BCS berth? That last year? No, he means the one last year where we were one half of solid play by the offense (the one where we scored 0 points) away from the Big XII Championship. I'm sorry Knapplc, I'm just being a smartass, both sides of the ball obviously let us down hugely in that game. But put me in the camp that is worried about us being such a hit or miss offense. I hope you're right, that opening up the playbook loosens up opposing defenses. Those big plays are exciting, but I could use a couple of 10-12 play time consuming drives. This should be a really interesting weekend. By the way, what time is kickoff (CST)?

Tmart's two game this year.... rushing, 34 runs, 301 yds, 8.9 ypc, 5 TDS passing, 21/43, 335 yds, I TD, 2 Int (one was the hail Mary) You're gonna to bench that? That's why I even hesitated to post. I knew someone would fire right back with the stats. Yes, the stats look great, but let me ask you a question. Do you believe those numbers are going to be sustained against the better quality opponents? Do you really believe we're going to get away with the throw it up deep and hope philosophy all through the season? Did I say anywhere "I want to bench him"? I'm saying I'm concerned about his progress from last year on areas that are obvious weeknesses, that don't appear to anywhere near being fixed. I have no real idea if we have anyone else who can play the position, but how are we ever going to know? I'll tell you what, lets give the heisman out after two, or three, or even four games, then he'll have two and we'll all be happy. It's similar to the guy who hits .400 in spring training. I just don't want this season to end on a dissapointing note like last year. I'll tell you what, show me the difference, or more importantly, the improvement from last year to this, something reasonable to pin my hopes and expectations on (in this area) and I'll gladly throw in with you and the majority. If you don't want people to respond, why even post? =/Also, most of your post here is based on the notion we've seen everything the offense is going to do. We just don't know that yet. Because I'm looking for more than his stats, which I knew is what I would get back. I want to see signs of improvement from him over last year. Stats tell only part of the story, we all know that. Rather than just come back at me with his numbers, tell me why this year is going to be different from last year. What's changed. And saying Bo is going to put the guy out there that gives us the best chance to win....I know that's true, but really, last year at times he shouldn't have even been out there and Bo wouldn't make a change. I just want reason to believe that this year will be different, and after two games, a lot of things look just the same. Well....yes they look the same in that they're excellent numbers. So you would be happy if they weren't? Man, I really have to go. Please, please set the stats aside for a while. I surrender!

I certainly understand that, and that's all I'm saying. I'm trying to look past those numbers to see the type of things that will help us win games when we're in the meat of our schedule. Absolutey he deserves a shot, he is incredibly talented. Now when that talent combines with refinement is when we hopefully take it to the next level. I'm also looking realistically at what I perceive as faults that need those refinements. And quoting stats from two games doesn't offer that truly realalistic, unskewed view. And now, off to that volleyball game. Hope everyone has a great evening!

N.E. Husker, you appear to be a voice of calm reasoning...what's up with that? Isn't it born into the blood to pamic right away if you're a Husker fan? I am a panicker (sp?) and a true-blue armchair QB, heck, I wouldn't be happy if I didn't have something to worry or bitch about. I hope it's a real butt kicking on Saturday. Now, lucky me, it's off to watch HS JV volleyball.

Tmart's two game this year.... rushing, 34 runs, 301 yds, 8.9 ypc, 5 TDS passing, 21/43, 335 yds, I TD, 2 Int (one was the hail Mary) You're gonna to bench that? That's why I even hesitated to post. I knew someone would fire right back with the stats. Yes, the stats look great, but let me ask you a question. Do you believe those numbers are going to be sustained against the better quality opponents? Do you really believe we're going to get away with the throw it up deep and hope philosophy all through the season? Did I say anywhere "I want to bench him"? I'm saying I'm concerned about his progress from last year on areas that are obvious weeknesses, that don't appear to anywhere near being fixed. I have no real idea if we have anyone else who can play the position, but how are we ever going to know? I'll tell you what, lets give the heisman out after two, or three, or even four games, then he'll have two and we'll all be happy. It's similar to the guy who hits .400 in spring training. I just don't want this season to end on a dissapointing note like last year. I'll tell you what, show me the difference, or more importantly, the improvement from last year to this, something reasonable to pin my hopes and expectations on (in this area) and I'll gladly throw in with you and the majority. If you don't want people to respond, why even post? =/Also, most of your post here is based on the notion we've seen everything the offense is going to do. We just don't know that yet. Because I'm looking for more than his stats, which I knew is what I would get back. I want to see signs of improvement from him over last year. Stats tell only part of the story, we all know that. Rather than just come back at me with his numbers, tell me why this year is going to be different from last year. What's changed. And saying Bo is going to put the guy out there that gives us the best chance to win....I know that's true, but really, last year at times he shouldn't have even been out there and Bo wouldn't make a change. I just want reason to believe that this year will be different, and after two games, a lot of things look just the same. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm skeptical that Beck has unleashed the entire playbook. Too me, it seems pretty obvious that he's a better passer than he was at this time last year. He only got better as the year went on, until the injuries. And I agree he shouldn't have been out there either. That has a lot more to do with Bo than it does Taylor. That's true, I have to think there is a lot more noboby has seen. I haven't seen the difference in his passing, but I've only gotten to watch on TV, maybe it looks better in person. You're correct, we'll just have to wait and see, and I sincerely hope I am the wrong one in this thread.

Tmart's two game this year.... rushing, 34 runs, 301 yds, 8.9 ypc, 5 TDS passing, 21/43, 335 yds, I TD, 2 Int (one was the hail Mary) You're gonna to bench that? That's why I even hesitated to post. I knew someone would fire right back with the stats. Yes, the stats look great, but let me ask you a question. Do you believe those numbers are going to be sustained against the better quality opponents? Do you really believe we're going to get away with the throw it up deep and hope philosophy all through the season? Did I say anywhere "I want to bench him"? I'm saying I'm concerned about his progress from last year on areas that are obvious weeknesses, that don't appear to anywhere near being fixed. I have no real idea if we have anyone else who can play the position, but how are we ever going to know? I'll tell you what, lets give the heisman out after two, or three, or even four games, then he'll have two and we'll all be happy. It's similar to the guy who hits .400 in spring training. I just don't want this season to end on a dissapointing note like last year. I'll tell you what, show me the difference, or more importantly, the improvement from last year to this, something reasonable to pin my hopes and expectations on (in this area) and I'll gladly throw in with you and the majority. Last week at this time, I completly agreed with you. But the question I asked Tmart defenders was "can you see him bring us from behind in the 4th quarter?" and mostly the answer was "No". Well I somewhat changed by mind after the 2nd half. Yes, he had help, but it is a team sport after all.I just wish we could have Fresno States play calling and offensive execution. That is a very, very true statement. What I wouldn't give for Swift or Peterson at WR.

Tmart's two game this year.... rushing, 34 runs, 301 yds, 8.9 ypc, 5 TDS passing, 21/43, 335 yds, I TD, 2 Int (one was the hail Mary) You're gonna to bench that? That's why I even hesitated to post. I knew someone would fire right back with the stats. Yes, the stats look great, but let me ask you a question. Do you believe those numbers are going to be sustained against the better quality opponents? Do you really believe we're going to get away with the throw it up deep and hope philosophy all through the season? Did I say anywhere "I want to bench him"? I'm saying I'm concerned about his progress from last year on areas that are obvious weeknesses, that don't appear to anywhere near being fixed. I have no real idea if we have anyone else who can play the position, but how are we ever going to know? I'll tell you what, lets give the heisman out after two, or three, or even four games, then he'll have two and we'll all be happy. It's similar to the guy who hits .400 in spring training. I just don't want this season to end on a dissapointing note like last year. I'll tell you what, show me the difference, or more importantly, the improvement from last year to this, something reasonable to pin my hopes and expectations on (in this area) and I'll gladly throw in with you and the majority. If you don't want people to respond, why even post? =/Also, most of your post here is based on the notion we've seen everything the offense is going to do. We just don't know that yet. Because I'm looking for more than his stats, which I knew is what I would get back. I want to see signs of improvement from him over last year. Stats tell only part of the story, we all know that. Rather than just come back at me with his numbers, tell me why this year is going to be different from last year. What's changed. And saying Bo is going to put the guy out there that gives us the best chance to win....I know that's true, but really, last year at times he shouldn't have even been out there and Bo wouldn't make a change. I just want reason to believe that this year will be different, and after two games, a lot of things look just the same.

Tmart's two game this year.... rushing, 34 runs, 301 yds, 8.9 ypc, 5 TDS passing, 21/43, 335 yds, I TD, 2 Int (one was the hail Mary) You're gonna to bench that? That's why I even hesitated to post. I knew someone would fire right back with the stats. Yes, the stats look great, but let me ask you a question. Do you believe those numbers are going to be sustained against the better quality opponents? Do you really believe we're going to get away with the throw it up deep and hope philosophy all through the season? Did I say anywhere "I want to bench him"? I'm saying I'm concerned about his progress from last year on areas that are obvious weeknesses, that don't appear to anywhere near being fixed. I have no real idea if we have anyone else who can play the position, but how are we ever going to know? I'll tell you what, lets give the heisman out after two, or three, or even four games, then he'll have two and we'll all be happy. It's similar to the guy who hits .400 in spring training. I just don't want this season to end on a dissapointing note like last year. I'll tell you what, show me the difference, or more importantly, the improvement from last year to this, something reasonable to pin my hopes and expectations on (in this area) and I'll gladly throw in with you and the majority.

I'll get torched for this, but what the heck it's my opinion and how I feel so I'll put my thoughts out there anyway. Does no one see the similarities so far this year to how last year started. My goodness, he was being mentioned in Heisman talk midway into the season, until we ran into high caliber Big X11 defenses with superior athletes. I know he was injured, but he was completely ineffective, and even injured wasn't going to continue with the eye-popping numbers. And yes, I really do know much of that was Watson Yes, his stats look really inpressive, but c'mon, does anyone really think those back footed lobs are going to continue to work when we start playing the big boys with real defenses? We're basing an awfull lot off a throw that Turner adjusted well to and made the catch, and another throw to a wide-open receiver in the corner of the endzone, every QB in the country could have made that throw. The shorter, quicker throws are still more often than not off the mark, usually behind the receiver and not catchable. I realize he's most likely our best option. But for those who state that he is our best QB, no questions asked, how do we know for sure? We haven't even seen Carnes get any meaningful time, and he had option called on I believe five of his six snaps. How can we really know what he might be able to do. I know Martinez is homerun hitter and many of our problems stem from other areas (namely that OL). But I can't believe the amount of people who are completely sold on him as being our answer. If anyone asks a reasonable question that does question him, they get shouted down quickly (I'm expecting mine soon). Yes he's a sophmore, but after two games, does anyone think he has shown improvement over last year? His strenghs are still the same (he's fast and a threat to go all the way) as are his weaknesses (no pocket presence, poor accuracy, horrible ball security). At this point, I think he has a long way to go to being mentioned in the same group as our other QB's (Frost, Frazier, Crouch), and our team around Crouch wasn't anytning to right home about either. I'm just concerned that this year looks an awful lot like last year. Just my thoughts on him. I hope I'm proven completely wrong, and what they worked on in the offseason starts to show itself soon. But at this point, this season looks to me an awfull lot like last year, and nobody liked how that ended.

Even though Carr was most likely in the endzone, the call on the field was out at the one, and from the replays they showed on TV, there was absolutely no way you can overturn that call. They never had a definitive angle of him crossing the goal line or pylon, the only thing you could do was infer where he crossed by seeing where he landed, but in my opinion, there was no way that was overturnable. And most likely, yes, it makes no difference. They have first and goal at the one and probably score the TD, but you just never know what can, and often does, happen. To me, that was wrong by the replay booth.

Ex-freaking-actly. I swear, people seem to want these laser beam rocket passes. No no no, when you get one on one, with no FS (or zero coverage) you simply want air under the ball, the pass should be lobbed up and let your guy go make a play, the chance of picks are almost zero, pass interference comes into play and so do big plays. This type of coverage also opens up one step slants to guys. You are seeing it come along, it will come along. And if he's throwing these, he's not throwing into triple coverage over the middle! And I love those slants it opens up, but at some point for those slants to be effective, he has to start putting the ball in the right spots. Throws too high and to the back shoulder make for situations where balls get tipped up for grabs, or you get a receiver laid out and hurt. The "lob" pass is by far our most effective pass play because the QB can throw it up "in the area" and the receiver can adjust to it. But at some point, a defense is going to take that away and he's going to have to be able to throw to the intermediate routes. And quite frankly, that scares the hell out of me. For all those long pass plays we hit, how many times did our receivers have a step or two on the defender and the ball was overthrown. It's fun watching all those big plays, but the bubble is going to burst. Kind of like college basketball, you live by the three, you die by the three, and thats how I see our offense. Big play or nothing.

I don't ever recall Fisher's name being called. I thought Compton looked extremely slow. We're in trouble when he's covering backs out of the backfield, but I think he plays the inside runs pretty well, which may bode well for conference play. But it does seem that our LB's are making an awfull lot of initall contact two or three yards on our side of the line of scrimmage. David seems to be the only one who consistently is driving forward into his tackles. And that may just be a symptom of our DL not playing well last night, they were getting to the second level on a regular basis, we really had very little penetration up front to disrupt thier offense. I think we have a couple issues in the secondary as well, but I think last night you also have to give Carr a lot of credit, he made some really outstanding throws that were just right on the money. I don't like the big cushion were giving right now either, but with as little pressure as we were getting up front, maybe they felt we couldn't afford to press.

That our new offensive philosophy of just throwing it up deep prevents us from having to watch Martinez throw into thriple coverage over the middle.

Right, because all those records he nearly set were worthless. The ONLY thing preventing Taylor from rewriting the record books was a high ankle sprain. This revisionist history needs to stop. Although the sprain was a huge factor, I don't think it was the only thing. As me moved on in the season to play better, faster and more athletic defenses, coordinators would have schemed to take Martinez away, or at least to really lessen his impact. I think they would have made him give the ball up to the backs. Don't get me wrong, I think he still would have had an big impact without the injury, but the better D's would not have let him have the room he was allowed early in the year. And I really don't know if it would have changed anything about how he reacted in the pocket. I still admire how he tried to play through the injury, but I also really believe he shouldn't have even been out there. Huge potential, but the coaching staff needs to step up to help him reach his fullest.

Even with NFL's reluctance to draft kickers, I think Henry goes higher than people think. He brings the addition of being able to punt too. I really wouldn't be surprised to see someone take a chance on him late third or fourth.

It might even help if our wrs could catch the ball too. Maybe it shocks and suprises them when the ball hits them in the hands, they're not expecting that. In fairness to Martinez, I think he really tried to play through injuries that should have kept him on the bench. I agree with another poster that his motion leaves something to be desired, but if he wasn't constantly put into obvious passing situations (3rd and 12, etc), maybe some of those weaknesses wouldn't be so exposed. I really believe he is a case where coaching(both in play calling and his fundamentals)really did him a disservice in maximizing the potential of a first year QB.

And that "helmet to helmet" he was talking about was virtually imposible to see, both players were going down towards the ground, to me it wasn't even close and they kept harping on it. Much like if Bo looks crosswise at an offical, comments are made, but when the opponents coach is jumping on a an offical, nothing gets said. My Biggest beef right now with college telecasts is the replay, my God they take forever, and on a lot of them the call is pretty obvious. I've come full circle, I would like to see replay done away with. Calls will always be missed, deal with them and move on.

I loved watching the Stanford offense, it was exactly the opposite of predictable. You never knew what was coming, really keeps the defense off balance. I also find it really interesting that they have a tremendous quarterback who projects well to the next level, and yet they don't just drop him straight back into the pocket. They run bootlegs and roll outs and move the pocket, making it easier on him and also opening up the run-pass option when he gets outside with a defender forced into choosing whether to come up or drop and cover the receiver. Did we ever see anything like that this year from the Huskers? Just seems to me anything to make things a little easier for your freshman QB would make sense.

Isn't Rodgriguez a zone-read guy? If so, I vote no. I'm seen enough zone-read this year to last a lifetime.

I agree with almost everything, I don't think he's truly a better runner. He's faster and has some of the best acceleration I've seen in a long time, but Crouch could also make people miss and Frazier...I think he's in a class by himself as a running qb. But you hit the nail on the head with the coaching comments. TO allowed the other three to be competent passers by putting them in situation where they could throw with some degree of success, and that wasn't standing in the pocket. He allowed them to move outside the pocket where their athletism gave them the optin to make a play with their legs if there was no place to throw the ball I agree he's way too talented to just dismiss. I hope adjustments are made that will help him better utilize his skills, and I really hope something changes so the team will play for him.

Along with leadership, we need to become MUCH more disciplined. The double digit penalties are really getting old.

I'm really torn on how I feel about Martinez. He obviously has some incredible skills and the big-play potential is always there. I just don't understand why we don't move the pocket with him. I know its been said he doesn't throw well on the run, but its not like he's tearing it up from the pocket. AT least if you roll him out, if he does see a opening he can tuck it and run. I really feel he wasn't put in a postion to maximize what he can do (once the zone read was taken away). I really believe much of his struggling falls to the coaching staff. That said, what really concerns me about him is the apparent lack of leadership. I realize you can really see very litte from watching on TV, but it sure seems like the team is not enamored of him. I really believe a quarterback needs that charisma or leadership ability to pull a team together.

When it happens in the game is irrelevant. If it is the rule, it's the rule in the first quarter as well as in the fourth. As I said before, I like the rule. But it definetly sounds like the NCAA has to get a handle on how it is going to be enforced and what constitutes the penalty. Always going to be a judgement call so it will always tick someone off.

I didn't see the play so I can't comment on this particular instance. But all in all, I love the rule. I'm so sick of watching these guys showboat in the endzone. Act professional and like you've done it before. Hand the ball to the ref, high five or chest bump with your teammates (who by the way, probably are also responsible for you being in the end zone) and go back to the sideline. Everyone should have to watch a highlight film of Walter Payton and how classy he was on the field, espically after he scored. And yes, I am a crotchety old (well, maybe middle aged)fart.

Thats what my wife always says when she sees her on, "why does everyone get so worked up about her, shes not that great", I told her the same thing as someone else said. She looks awfully good to me and can talk football, that combination makes her rate way up there.