Jason Sitoke

"They outcoached us" -Bo Pelini

I am home

It's like the rock band that opens every show exclaiming 'You are the best fans in the world. We love playing in this city'.

We really don't have the first clue about how the conference stacks up because you have Wisconsin playing absolutely NO ONE non conference. Ohio St barely survived it's all-Ohio non conference tour. Penn St. got beat handily by Alabama. Sparty got smacked by Notre Dame. I can't think of a single point of reference that points to this conference being the 2nd best in the nation. I wasn't arguing that, I'm simply saying if not us than who? and I'm talking Big Picture here, I know the Big XII is stacked for a quick second but that will pass. Pac 12 has two legitimate top 10 teams. I would assert that Oklahoma would be the best team in the Big 10 by a substantial margin this year. And, like you said, the SEC is the SEC. I think you could make an argument that the B1G is no better than the 4th best conference in the FBS. All this being said, I'm not slitting my wrists after today's game. I just realized two things: a) in spite of the glaring weaknesses on this team, we still have a good shot at making the CCG b) that being said, who regards the title 'Big 10 Champion' very highly given the performance of the conference as a whole up to now?

We really don't have the first clue about how the conference stacks up because you have Wisconsin playing absolutely NO ONE non conference. Ohio St barely survived it's all-Ohio non conference tour. Penn St. got beat handily by Alabama. Sparty got smacked by Notre Dame. I can't think of a single point of reference that suggests that this conference is the 2nd best in the nation.

41-38 is a face rape? I'd hate to ask what a seven point loss would have been.

Yeah, Nebraska never ever lost games in the good ol days. i love revisionism. Jason Sitoke, first of all you are entitled to your opinion, but I never said or never meant to imply that Nebraska "never ever lost games in the good ol days." My point was that we used to play with a dominant swagger or edge on both sides of the ball....even when we would lose. The Nebraska teams over the last decade have not played with that same intensity or swagger that we used to. Opposing teams used to be scared to play us because of the style of offense we ran and by how relentless our defense was. My point was that somewhere along the way we lost that swagger. But I never said that we never ever lost a game. Even I know that we are not going to win every single game, every single year...that's just unrealistic. The Duke, teams were scared to play NU back in the day because, due to several factors (scholarship limits, facilities, TV exposure), Nebraska's 3rd stringers were better athletes than the starting lineup of your basic KU, KSU, Iowa St. squads. Secondly, I saw Nebraska lose to an Iowa St team in Ames in 1992 19-10. That loss was as embarrassing and flabbergasting as any loss I can recall. This wasn't Bill Callahan and Sam Keller. This was Tom Osborne and Tommie Frazier. The swagger should have been in full effect after two straight beat downs over top 10 opponents. Yet, they laid an egg, weren't prepared, and paid for it. Lastly, I hate the word 'swagger'. Put it right up there with the word 'moxie'. Just seems like words that people use when they can't articulate why their team performed poorly.

So, we've heard it for a while. Welcome to the B1G! You're about to see what Big 10 football is all about, Husker fans. And so on... What I thought about the Big 10 before this year was that it was the most over-hyped, over rated, slow, boring type of football that was readily available on television. Every year they'd get 4 or 5 teams ranked. They'd each look incredibly unimpressive in non conference play, but then, fortunately for them, they got to play similarly over ranked, over hyped teams ...... each other. They would then beat each other up for the next 8 weeks, while ESPN would talk about what a gauntlet the conference schedule is and how the teams are so elite and evenly matched. Then.....bowl season. And after each bowl game loss by a Big 10 team, the analysts would ask each other 'did we maybe over rank some of these teams?'. LOL So now, as I watch the B1G pull it's usual gambit of playing unimpressive, uninspiring football, where all the teams seem to be able to beat each other and no team resembles anything special, I find myself quite depressed realizing that my Cornhuskers are part of this fiasco. We lost to an apparently very mortal Wisconsin team. Snuck by a very ordinary Ohio St squad. Beat a classically over rated Michigan St. team, who was earlier destroyed by the poster child of hype, the Fighting Irish. And just now lost in a very head scratching affair on their home field against a team with 5 losses. We were over rated. We are mediocre. Welcome to the B1G, indeed.

Yeah, Nebraska never ever lost games in the good ol days. i love revisionism.

I agree with the spirit of this. Difference between teams like OU, Alabama, LSU at the moment, and Nebraska is that they have talent stockpiled because they reside in ridiculously fruitful recruiting bases, coupled with great college head coaches. We have a good coach, and we tend to bring in decent recruiting classes. What it means is that a team like OU can legitimately call themselves a MNC contender about once every two years. NU might have to be more like a 1 run in 4 or 5 year span type of team. Might just have to accept that. There are certainly worse teams to root for in the FBS than our Cornhuskers.

Like it or not, this is who we are under Pelini. It's not bad, necessarily. It just looks that way when we start out the season pointing towards a top 5 finish.

I think we'll make the CCG. But when looking at the B1G overall after the past couple weeks, I also happen to think... BFD

No matter how we lose, people can use the result to suit their own predispositions about the coach and the team. It is damn funny to read the board after a loss like this. This loss falls COMPLETELY on Bo because: a) It's his job to motivate the players and keep them focused on the next game b) He's not playing the players that are difference makers (Osborne, SJB, etc) c) He loses to a bad team every year, so it's a pattern with him and his staff or Bo is a great coach and it's ludicrous to blame this loss on him because: a) His D-line is thin and secondary is inexperienced b) Sometimes Nebraska loses. Get over it. c) Coaches don't play the game, the players do Aren't there some reasonable people on here that have an abstract enough mind to conceive of the possibility that several factors contributed to the loss today. It reminds of people who think that we need to adopt a certain offensive scheme or formation and that will answer all of our prayers. I believe that we learned today that Northwestern was capable of playing 60 minutes of sound football. Nebraska is not talented enough (and hasn't been in over a decade) to overlook any team in the FBS. The defense is still a struggling unit, despite last weeks over achieving performance against a similarly over rated Michigan St team. And the Nebraska running attack is not a given against anyone. Nebraska should be ranked in the 20-25 range. They remain a second tier program, vying for a chance to win a perpetually mediocre conference. Pelini has pulled the program from the doldrums, but they are obviously far from elite. There should be no talk of firing the coach, and likewise no more threads about how 'we could win the national title if .......'. Yes, Nebraska lost a game you wouldn't think they should lose. But it happens. That being said, it does NOT excuse the loss nor should it alleviate the coach from being accountable for how his team fell short today. I think that's a reasonable response to this loss. But this is a forum, so let the volatility commence.

Look, these guys come from a different period in Husker history. They were taught that a blackshirt, more than anything, meant you were a starter on what was likely an outstanding defense at a major program. The blackshirt tradition was started by simply picking out a color of jersey to differentiate the starters from everyone else. Pelini created this concept of 'earning' your blackshirt, which I guess is okay. Although I gotta say, when they're being given out, then taken away, then awarded again....it brinks on gimmicky. It's his program right now, and he's putting his stamp on it. That doesn't mean that ex-players don't have a right to take some issue with it, and being an ex-player who still cares about the program, it certainly doesn't mean that he has to 'shut his mouth' when someone wants his opinion on something NU football related. So apparently we've got people who think that everyone but them needs to keep their opinion to themselves, even writers whose job it is to share their perspective. Odd that so many people who joined a message board to share their, and presumably hear others', opinion, are the first ones to shush a dissenting one.

This article is about as controversial as Carlos Mencia.

Rex Burkhead can divide by zero.

Rex Burkhead doesn't own a periodic table because he only believes in the element of surprise.

FWIW...coming out of high school, Rex ran a 4.46 40 yd. Abdullah was listed as running a 4.51. Believe it or not, Burkhead just might be tough, white, AND fast.

I wouldn't call that a complete game. We jumped up on them early, and didn't do much of anything on offense until Helu's long run in the 3rd. I would say that the MSU game was pretty impressive because, other than a stretch in the 2nd quarter, Nebraska seemed to move the ball pretty steadily.

George Washington: Bats, they are sick. I cannot hit curveball. Straightball I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid. I ask Jobu to come, take fear from bats. I offer him cigar, rum. He will come. Eddie Harris: You know you might think about taking Jesus Christ as your savior instead of fooling around with all this stuff. George Washington: Jesus, I like him very much, but he no help with curveball. Eddie Harris: You trying to say Jesus Christ can't hit a curveball? Let's not start a holy war here.

Point made. Some players sometimes show concern for other players who are injured. That doesn't mean anything to the general thrust of the conversation we were having, but I'll agree with this statement. And I agree with this. I type to read myself write.

I'm not piling on EM for being who he is. I just disagreed with the assertion that you never see opposing players show immediate concern for their counterparts following a violent play.

You're awarded a rare +1 from The Dude. Congratulations! That was a flat out embarrassing display. To say KState was exposed just doesn't quite sum it up.

So nobody should ever celebrate, ever, because on every single play someone could be potentially seriously hurt. That's what you're saying. The player should make the big hit, but stop and see whether the opponent laying on the ground is OK before celebrating every time, and if they don't, they're showing an inhuman reaction. After we sacked Cousins those several times, we should have gotten up, checked his health, and then celebrated. That is so wholly unrealistic. When do you ever see this happen? Watch Lawrence Taylor's reaction after Theisman's leg is snapped in two. It's less than celebratory. LT invented high energy play. What is your point about this? The spartan player walked off the field under his own power. This hit ended Thisman's career. These are not the same. My point is that this is an example of a player knowing the gravity of a play's outcome outside of jumping up and pounding his chest. And obviously Eric Martin is qualified to know whether the player he just hit is or is not concussed at the moment.

Well then wouldn't B1G teams be using their black and blue, north/south style of running football and exploiting the SEC's lack of experience with stopping teams like that? No. SEC teams have a wealth of talent and great coaching at the moment. As much as I hate the SEC hype, there's nothing to indicate that it is not the best conference in the nation. I know fans are obsessed with scheme and some kind of magical formula that allows one team to dominate another. Something sustained, like 6 straight national titles, should indicate that there is something more concrete going on. Like BETTER PLAYERS!!