3rd and long

My questions/commments on the calls (for what my opnion is worth) Cotton's penalties--understandable, you'd like him to control himself better, but lets be honest, most everyone here would have reacted the same way. And it's almost always the reaction that gets seen and gets the call. The PI's--Dennard's was close, could have gone eitehr way, but in a game this physcical, probably one to let go. That being said, if one offical throws a PI flag on A&M, how does it get picked up, it's a judgement call, you don't overturn a subjective judgement call. The roughing the passer was the bad one, it changed the game. What are the illegal formations. At this stage of the season, how does that happen?

Man, some people are harsh. I know some players are real a**holes(Daniels, fair game), but I have a hard time making fun of a kid whose upset after a tough loss.

It seems like we don't have the "great hands" player this year, ala Nate Swift, that you can put back on punt return and feel very comfortable that he will always catch the ball cleanly. Not worry about a return, just field the ball. I don't know who our holder is on extra points, but he did a great job. It looked like every snap was just off to his right, he had to turn his body to catch and still get the ball down. Kudos to him. I think the gunner who went down was Jase Dean of Bridgport.

I have to admit, I saw a whole lot more passes that were uncatchable than were dropped. But I think someone made an excellent point earlier, when you grip that ball tighter to keep it from slipping, it does funny things when you throw it. The playcalling certainly did not give us the best opportunity for our offense.

I could see the call being made on the horse collar. Suh's hand looked like it started much higher on his back(right around the pads)then slipped down and grabbed jersey. It took a couple of replays to really confirm that he had just jersey, so I can see how that one could have been missed. The call that I'm still trying to figure out is the hands to the face. Who called it. The ref went to Bo and asked him if he wanted 3rd down or move them back and replay second, so he obviously thought the call was on Missouri. The umpire is looking at Suh's back, so I'm assuming he didn't make the call. How does a side judge make that call? Who threw the flag?

I'm proud of myself, only turned it off briefly during halftime(and I admit to usually being one of the worst for this sort of behavior). I could lower the heart rate on occasion though by flipping to the presidents cup between plays.

I'm generally pretty happy with Watson, but that was ugly. With the aggressive way Missouri's backers were attacking the line of scrimage, why not some play action instead of straight drop back. With the backers at the line, it would have been fairly simple then to slip the tight ends into that vacated area(although I'm not sure we could have gotten the ball to a wide open reciever in that first half).

Looked to me like he tried to come out after the long run, he looked like he was signaling the sideline for a sub, I was surprised to see him still in there on the next play. After the game when they showed a wide angle shot of the players walking off the field, you could see Helu walking off looking like he was fine(I know thats pretty tough to infer from that long distance picture). But it does jive with the word that it was a stinger.

I feel pretty confident with our team for tonight, but the thing that makes me uneasy is the weather. Funny things happen when conditions are like what they are supposed to be. If the game is close, one slip by a defender, or a mishandled punt, things like that occurr more often when the weather turns to crap. The solution is for the Huskers to simply dominate so that one freak play or occurence can't change the outcome.

Man I'd like to be watching the game in Phoenix. That would mean I could have already enjoyed a beatiful day on the golf course before watching the game. Guess I'll have to settle for trying to stay warm all day before settling in in fron of the big screen in the basement.

The incessant(sp?) talker(who works for me)who really knows nothing about football, but feels he has to commentate during and after every play. I'm watching the game, I don't need this idiot pointing out obvious things to me. And even though most of the time what the announcers have to say is gibberish, its still nice to able to hear the TV once in a while. But what can I expect, the guy is a HUGE Illinoise fan, thinks Juice is the next real big thing. Thanks rant over. Thats why I love night games, don't have to watch with anyone since the wife is not a fan. On a side note, watching the Altitude channel last night(which I really like, the show a lot of RMAC football), they were showing Golf Colorado at the Colorado National Golf Course. Making a big deal out of their driving range ball picker cart. It has a big N painted on the side and a Nebraska helmet on top. They were making a big deal out of the fact that you can "take a shot at knocking the husker helment off the picker". Guess the envy runs deep.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I do believe we've had a Culture Club reference dropped on us. I knew somebody would catch it. So is it now, Fro George?

Just so we don't get Musberger(he is still with ABC right?), I absolutely can not stand to listen to him.

Six touchdowns are made up this way. MU loses Maclin, Daniels, Coffman--that's got to be worth at least a couple ofTD's. NU still has a dominant front four, the DB's are a year more experienced, the LB's who redshirted last year can run, and the entire defense is now comfortable playing in this system. They are at least two TD's better than last year. NU has a legimate running game this year, the line is reminescent of the Husker OL's of old, and Helu is rapidly turning into a true feature back. We don't have to rely on Ganz throwing for 300 yards this year. Two TD's more effective offensively. Now to keep that two TD improvement, we HAVE to be able to put the ball in the endzone, five field goals most likely will not be enough. I don't think anyone would argue the fact that Missouri overall(and especially at the skill positions) as to be down at least a little bit from last year, while Nebraska's talent is overall improved.

I can only base on what I've read here about Missouri and the few plays of the NU-VT game I saw. Helu is explosive through the line tackle to tackle, and it doesn't have to be much of a hole. He clears the line quickly and LB's and DB's better be sure tacklers or he's going to have numerous big runs. If thats the case NU should be able to control the clock and use the running game to set up play action passes. If we are effiecent of first down and don't put ourselves in numerous third and long sitituations, Lee should have a nice night. It sounds like Gabbert is the real deal, but that maybe he gets happy feet and breaks the pocket and makes some poor decisions throwing on the run. Not only should our secondary be able to make plays on balls that hang up in the air, if we run any delayed blitzes from our LB's and DB's he could be setting himself up to take some real shots in the open field. It also sounds like our kicking game is much improved this year. Henry was great last year, but it sounds like we're also getting kickoffs into to endzone(which is big because sometimes it looks like we don't cover real well). I think the main thing is to minimize the amount of mental mistakes. I HATE watching timeouts get wasted because we can't get the play in or the correct personel on the field. I think if we play a fairly clean game, our running game and front four on defense turn this game our way. 28-21 NU

Was that the hit on a kickoff that they ruled was not a fumble?

My thoughts exactly.

The tiny bit of the VT game that I saw, it looked like Helu has great hips, he can sqeeze through a very small gap, get to the second level, and then accelerate quickly. If MU is succeptable(sp?) to the inside run game and he can stay completely square while he gets to the second level it could be a huge game for him.

Thats good to know. It was so reassuring last year, you knew if Ganz got the ball close to Peterson or Swift, they would hang on to it. Nothing more demoralizing to an offense to have everyone execute their asssignment and then have a receiver drop a routine or fairly routine ball. And having that deep threat sure opens up the underneath routes. Thanks again for the info.

Nebraska gets hammered in the media about not beating top teams on the road, but I'm curious how Boise State has faired against legimate top teams when they're not on the "smurf turf"(setting aside the Oklahoma game).

I think its time for the Blackshirts, that might even raise the level a little bit next week as they want to uphold the blackshirt tradition and keep them.

Our LBs are young and fast, with emphasis on "young." They're doing fine, and they have plenty of speed, but they're not breaking down on tackles like you'd hope quite yet. They're learning on the job and doing well despite their inexperience. Phillip Dillard got into the VT game and played against ULL and did just fine. He provides some great Senior leadership to this team, so it’s great to see him out there and productive. The funny thing about your question is this – we need less speed from our LBs right now because our D Line is so crazy fast. We’re seeing Crick and Suh running guys down all the time, and two times in the ULL game Cameron Meredith came flying off the End and ran someone down. Meredith, what position is he, I assume a DE? Boy as the season gets going we realize how much we miss having the World Herald out here. Just really not up to speed. Second question. Receivers. I really thought going in we would have a difficult time replacing Peteson and Swift. Anyone stepping up a filling those shoes? Sure appreciate the info.

Overall our pass def has been OK. Better than in years past, that's for certain. We are ranked 31st in passing defense right now, but take that with a grain of salt - VT is a run-first offense, and while two of our opponents from the Sun Belt run Spread offenses, only ULL is a pass-first spread (AR State runs from the spread formation for the most part). With that said, we've seen fewer guys running open downfield than in years past. That O'Hanlon play against VT has been well dissected here and shown that he wasn't as much at fault as you may initially believe. Aside from that play there probably haven't been five more plays where opponents have roamed freely in our backfield. And let's also remember this - we did not blitz against FAU or ASU, and we barely blitzed against ULL. We had some run blitzes against VT and a couple of pass blitzes, but for the most part we've done what we've done without bringing extra guys. That bodes well for blitz packages against weaker offensive lines like we'll face in the Big 12. Cool, thanks for the info. How is our linebacker speed. It's seemed like in the last few years, we have a really nice blitz set up with a backer coming free, but he's just not quite fast enough to get to the QB before he gets rid of the ball. I have those memories of guys like Terrel Farley coming flying in off the corner and blowing the QB up.

1) How long have you been a member of Husker Nation? Almost 40 years. 2) What/who led you to The Nation? Family 3) Where are you from originally? Panhandle 4) Where do you live now? Back in the Panhandle after several years in Phoenix. 5) Favorite Husker memory?2nd half agaisnt Miami in the Orange bowl. 6) Worst Husker memory?Turners pass getting batted away. 7) Number of home games attended?Around a dozen. 8) Number of away games attended?A few, mostly Fiesta bowls. 9) Favorite Husker memorabilia/apparel?Don't really have much. 10) Favorite place to watch a Husker game? (section in Memorial, bar, friends house etc.) Alone in my basement in front of the big screen. 11) Favorite all time player? Jeff Kinney, Tony Davis, Tommy Frazier. 12) WCO or Option? Combination, get the QB on the edge with a run/pass option. 13) Stevie Pederson or Billy Byrne? Neither, gun to my head, Byrne. 14) Lil Red or Herbie Husker? Herbie. 15) Favorite Husker play? Fullback trap. 16) Favorite game-day beverage? Diet Coke. 17) How did you find HuskerBoard? (referral source) Google.