Hercules

Can someone get a ruling on what happened on the fumble? Thought that anything after the whistle is blown means nothing. According to the refs, we had the ball when they called the play over.

If the fumble was recovered in the immediate play following the whistle, i.e. there wasn't a noticeable break in the action between the whistle and when the fumble was recovered, they can overturn it.

Can Abdullah not carry the ball more than twice in a row? What the hell?

Hey Pelini... feel that seat warming up again?

This game is NOT on the coaches. Nebraska has completely out coached MSU so far this game.

Well, if Tommy's the world-class leader people have been raving about, he needs to lead a TD drive right now.

I think we should just try to block every punt, and have nobody back to return.

There's the review. MSU's gonna get the ball.

why do you try to field that westerkamp?? lucky you were ruled down!

Not sure he was down. Wonder if they're reviewing it...

That's why we can't just run the ball every play. We're against the #1 rush defense in the country and we have a horrendously beat up offensive line. Beck's game plan on the first two drives looked brilliant, but the guys have to make plays.

I'm not saying every play, but when things work, stick with them until they don't.

Everything was working on the first two drives except for the players making unforced errors. I'd rather see the play calling stay like that.

And there was a third unforced error. Can we please get a punt returner.

That's why we can't just run the ball every play. We're against the #1 rush defense in the country and we have a horrendously beat up offensive line. Beck's game plan on the first two drives looked brilliant, but the guys have to make plays.

AA killing it and we pass. Come on man

 

Can't put it on Beck right now. Every play call has put players in position to succeed. That option to Newby could have scored. The short pass to KB had him wide open for a first down. Players gotta execute.

 

Freshmen gotta execute?

Yes.

AA killing it and we pass. Come on man

Can't put it on Beck right now. Every play call has put players in position to succeed. That option to Newby could have scored. The short pass to KB had him wide open for a first down. Players gotta execute.

Two possessions, two unforced turnovers.

Jesus

I am worried about their offense. They're a power team, and the last two times we played power offenses were Minnesota and Wisconsin of last year. Look for Michigan State to use the same blueprint.

It's interesting that all of your questions are about the offense. We are pretty beat up there, and inexperienced at QB… Abdullah is pretty much 100%, but you shouldn't have any trouble holding us below 20 points this year.

On the other hand, the interesting matchup for the day will probably MSU's offense vs. Nebraska's defense. Nebraska's defense has gotten a lot better, but MSU is more committed to the power run game than Michigan or Northwestern, and their coaching staff is smart enough to do what Minnesota's staff did - use the Wisconsin tape from last year to build a game plan.

I think we're going to see the return of the jet sweep this week, and MSU's overall offensive game plan will look a lot like Wisconsin's or Minnesota's. They aren't going to go away from the run, and we'll find out just how much better Nebraska's gotten at stopping it.

I have to wonder, why should this MSU game be any different than the past games we've had with MSU?

In 2011, they abandoned their run game in favor of throwing jump balls into double coverage all game long with Kirk Cousins. They know who they are on offense now, and they will commit to the running game, like they did last year.

In 2012, the only reason we won that game was Taylor Martinez. They shut down every other part of our offense. The only thing they couldn't shut down was Taylor's legs, and we don't have that any more, not to mention the other offensive starters who are missing.

Frost isn't going to Michigan as an OC. He's already got a better OC gig than that.

The thing that impresses me most about Armstrong is something that won't always be depicted on a stat sheet. His ability to make good decisions and pitches on option plays. Even when the defense has it sniffed out, he'll be patient and make a play if there's one to be made.

 

I agree here. We've had a lot of success attacking defenses at the boundaries with the speed option.

Also agree, but don't think that's going to be there for us this weekend. We've lived on that play the last three weeks, and Michigan State has had a bye week to prepare for it. I don't know how exactly they'll defend it, but they're going to have a plan to take away that speed option where we leave the DE unblocked.

I'm kind of on board with the Frazier/Berringer metaphor here. If we could have a healthy Martinez for the Michigan State game, I'd take him in a heartbeat. A healthy Martinez is probably the only guy in the conference outside of Ohio State that Pat Narduzzi's defense is actually scared of.

However, Martinez isn't healthy, and isn't going to be anytime soon. If he gets healthy and gets his timing with the receivers back - then yes, you disrupt the "chemistry," and you play the best player. Just like Osborne did with Frazier in the bowl game.

Armstrong had a great game-winning drive yesterday and runs the option pretty well, but overall, the offense looks more like the 2009 version than it does 2010-2012. And with Armstrong at QB, that's what this game on Saturday is going to be: Hope that Nebraska can score 10 and hold Michigan State to 9.

That said, I'm excited about Armstrong's future. The guys on the radio yesterday were saying he's still not full-speed, still recovering from the knee surgery. If he gets noticeably faster next season, he's going to be very dangerous.

He stepped up BIG in Kenny's absence Saturday. I figured he would be a fast ATH trying to play WR. Couldn't have more wrong. He runs good routes and had some VERY good catches. We are in great hands in future years with Westy and Moore.

Westy and Moore will both be good, but where's Taariq Allen? Still injured?

Abdullah looked fine to me, and he carried the ball 5 more times than he did against MN (which makes no sense, but that's Tim Beck for ya…). I think the offensive line is a far more limiting factor to our running game right now than AA's health.

Terrell needs more touches.

If Taylor plays, we need to use the QB run game the way we did in the first quarter against Northwestern. That's what we should have been doing against Minnesota.

If Taylor's healthy enough to do that, I'd play him. Ron doesn't have the QB run game (which I think we need right now, as beat up as we are), while Tommy has thrown 6 interceptions in his last 8 quarters.

Meanwhile, over the next two weeks, we're not facing Minnesota and Northwestern, we're facing Michigan in The Big House and Michigan State, who arguably has the best defense in the country. If Taylor can be effective, I know he can move the ball on those guys… If it's Tommy and Ron, I'm not sure, but we may find out.

The defense was getting worked over by Northwestern's 5th-string RB for most of the game. I wish I could say bright days are ahead, but I don't know how much confidence we can have in that group. This was the easy game of the month. Or at least it was supposed to be. They came up big many, many times in the 2nd half, though, and that's to their credit. Might need more of that if we're to have any hope of running the table.

 

Ameer is the man! As for the game ball, Westerkamp's probably still holding onto it.

Take a look at the 1st Qtr stats vs the rest of the game, you might get a different opinion on how well the Blackshirts played today.

Agree. The defense played about as well as you could hope for the final 40 minutes. Here's the drive chart:

http://scores.espn.g...ameId=333060158

Tommy's main problem is the freshman mistake of thinking you have to make something happen every play. Martinez had that problem for a while and with experience learned to just throw it away, take the sack, or run back to the line. Tommy will figure that out. The bigger problem is getting adequate pass protection no matter who is QB and calling pass plays that actually get the receiver open. With a great runner like AA ,you'd think we'd use him more with outlet passes on busted plays.

Some of it is that, but some of it is recognition. That last interception, he wasn't trying too hard to make a play, he just flat-out misread the zone blitz. He'll get better.