gobiggergoredder

4) is the biggest question and I don't have the answer. I have been concerned about the effectiveness of this offense for a good chunk of the year. I have been called out in several threads because I called this offense 'Big Play or Bust'. This is no knock against Tmart, but besides his huge games when he is untouched and going for 60, is there anything? This is really more a question about the offense than his skills(he has ability). I had grown confident in the obvious improvement of his passing skills, but he has been limited since his injury. I have been a Watson defender since day one, but I have officially abandoned ship as of yesterday. This offense has no identity. If they aren't making a huge play, they can't score. The play calling baffles me. Why are we running the zone read when they clearly can't execute it (QB is hurt or we have #17 in there). When you allowing a defensive lineman to run free as part of the read, do they go after the slow/hurt qb or the running back that IS GOING TO GET THE HAND OFF???? It is basically a wasted play. aTm loads up the box and there doesn't appear to be any philosophy and/or play change. Against Iowa State the only effect thing we had was Burkhead in the Wildcat and we go away from it. It seems like the Solich offense to me (Everyone knows what play is coming). That two minute drill at the end of the game, much like the another from a few weeks ago, was a train wreck. What happened to Mike McNeil? Where is the guy? He use to be a gamer and now he's non existent. Is Zac Lee really hurt? What's the whole story here? We all bought into Watson when Ganz was making plays. Throw Keller into the mix and he's a pretty weak resume. I'm going to give Martinez the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not convinced we know what we have a QB just yet. I know the penalty concerns are what everyone wants to talk about and rightfully so, but the defense and the 150 in penalties only resulted in 9 points....C'mon Watson. How can Bo take the worst defense in the country to one of the best and we can't score consistently?

Turnovers aren't the fault of coaching. Many are the fault of poor officiating, and many are just brain lapses by the players. Watson has even addressed the situation, saying that they are working on it, but there's only so much you can do from the sideline. Don't even start on inability to adjust. You CANNOT say that Bo and Carl can't adjust after watching 4 years of Callahan and Cosgrove. So we're a terrible offense because we score quickly? Wow. If this team is this bad, I can only imagine how bad the '95 Husker squad was. Against Florida they looked like garbage. That Tommie Frazier dude sucks. Give me a break. Also, when have we even tried to run a 2 minute offense? Like, legitimately tried, not just simply being on offense with 2 minutes left. There's a difference. I believe that the point gobiggergoredder was trying to make is that if it weren't for the big play giving us a quick td (like Martinez with his feet), we probably wouldn't have been able to make an 80 yard sustained drive and still score against some of those teams. Therefor, our "deficiency" of not being able to make a sustained drive was "bailed out" by the big play-making ability of one of our players. I understand where he's coming from. If a team shuts down our big plays this year, they often shut down our scoring. It is a valid point and one that I've often thought about myself. Paul in WI.....You put it better than I could about the big plays.....Thanks. dutch91701, I didn't say the offense was terrible, but thanks for your interpretation. dutch91701.....Turnovers, penalties, dropped passes and mistakes become a coaching issue when the same players continue to make them. I don't like calling out players, but I think there are some legitimate questions as why they allow some player(s) to continually make plays that put the game in jeopardy. As someone pointed out above, this team was a disaster just 2 1/2 years ago. Pelini and the staff have done an outstanding job to this point. This is the guy that I hope leads our team for a long time. My observations are not about wins and loses as much as about how the team seems to be so inconsistent.

I want to first say that I am extremely glad that we have the coaching staff that we do and I hope they are here for a long time. I also believe that husker_99 is on to something. I don't claim to be an expert or an insider, but I do have an opinion. I think Bo and the staff are flat out getting out coached right now. They are surviving on Big Offensive plays and those alone are hiding the problems with the rest of team. I think they are getting beat by special teams, field position, penalties, turnovers and an inability to adjust. Players drop passes and are responsible for penalties. It is the coaches responsibility to determine if these players are hurting their team. Special Teams -Kickoff team is suspect. The only thing that doesn't make everyone hold their breath is that Adi puts in through a good chunk of the time. -Punt Return. Not only can they consistently not field a punt, they get very little yardage when they do happen to get their hand on it. It took half a year to remove Niles from punt return. Obviously dropped passes were huge against Texas, but punt return absolutely killed the Huskers as well. The Rugby punted 3 times before adjustments were made. -Punting. We have a great punter. We give up a lot of yards on punt returns. Watch how many huskers are around the ball when the punt it caught vs when we get the ball. -Punt and kick off teams have been a big factor in the horrible field position the huskers have battled in close games. Offense -Dependent on big plays. K-State & Missouri. Watch the long runs....backs and qb's aren't even touched. Kyler Reed has been a big play receiver. -Penalties and drops at the worst times. -With the exception of the big plays noted earlier, don't appear to making adjustments to what is working. (Using Cody Green to run read option over and over again, going away from Rex running the offense, not throwing on first down against Texas). -Takes too long to get a play in. -At times they look unprepared. Can't run a two minute offense. Defense -Players with a knee on the ground when the ball is snapped. -No pass rush. -Blitz doesn't seem to be effective. -Much like the offense it seems to take a long time to get the play in. -A mobile qb will destroy this defense. Once a running back or qb gets past the d line they're good for 10 yards. -Without Lavonte David, they are in serious trouble. -Great call to change safeties because of poor tackling. -Defense does a great job when they have 80 yards to play with, but because of bad field position they are giving up points.

They have always had experts (I use the term expert loosely). An expert being a former coach or player as hosts. I would imagine it is an effort to increase rating, but I think it's annoying. I think she does ok talking about injuries or interviewing a coach at halftime, but everything else seems like BLAH BLAH BLAH. I don't recall what team it was a few back, but she was literally breaking down a play....what? Thoughts?

I've been there three times and there are husker fans everywhere. They pile us in the south endzone, but every section has a ton of huskers.

Nothing to do with Iowa State, but I couldn't resist.

Real short on time and my photoshop skills are not what they once were. Dan Beebe gave me the inspiration to find some time.

That's what I was afraid of.

Is this ok with Dan, or will he be in sensitivity and anger management training? I want the 'Caveman' to bring the Huskers on to the field Saturday!

This was a classless move by the Big 12. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt. Two of the three NFL fines were garbage and Eric's hit cleaner than those. It's unfortunate.

I agree. This defensive line, as well as the rest of the defense, appears to be progressing like last year. They really didn't start playing lights out until mid year. The front 4 against KSUX was starting to get a good push. This is what we need to look for, not big plays. When they can get solid pressure with the 4 down lineman, it's going to get ugly for everyone.

I think Heard will absolutely KILL IT next year in this system. I agree 100 percent. This sucks because a methed out circus chimp with gonorrhea and no #2 pencils could meet the minimum ACT score.

:facepalm: i appreciate that. i really do. after all of the helpful, informative responses, i was starting to get annoyed, tired of waiting for a worthless and sarcastic response. thank you for providing that for me. I'll be honest. I have no idea where the love affair with Compton has come from. I can only guess it was because he was supposed to be the field general this year. I don't recall at what point he became this seasoned veteran. A few posts up noted that Dillard was an animal last year and that poster couldn't have been more dead on. Once Dillard established himself against VT last year, Compton rarely saw the field. I felt like the biggest question mark on the defense going into this year was who going to replace Dillard and not who was going to replace Suh. We are now at the point were David has more experience than Compton. Not to mention that David appears to be one of the most explosive line backers on defense in a while. He is clearly one of the best linebackers in the conference. I wish Compton the best of luck and I am happy that he will add depth, but if David comes off the field for anything except an injury, I will have to pull my fist out of my TV. Because you know so much more than the Pelini brothers about defense AND their defensive personnel? http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=1515230 http://www.big12sports.com/fls/10410/pdfs/football/2010.pdf Page 3,4

:facepalm: i appreciate that. i really do. after all of the helpful, informative responses, i was starting to get annoyed, tired of waiting for a worthless and sarcastic response. thank you for providing that for me. I'll be honest. I have no idea where the love affair with Compton has come from. I can only guess it was because he was supposed to be the field general this year. I don't recall at what point he became this seasoned veteran. A few posts up noted that Dillard was an animal last year and that poster couldn't have been more dead on. Once Dillard established himself against VT last year, Compton rarely saw the field. I felt like the biggest question mark on the defense going into this year was who going to replace Dillard and not who was going to replace Suh. We are now at the point were David has more experience than Compton. Not to mention that David appears to be one of the most explosive line backers on defense in a while. He is clearly one of the best linebackers in the conference. I wish Compton the best of luck and I am happy that he will add depth, but if David comes off the field for anything except an injury, I will have to pull my fist out of my TV.

Whether Compton comes back or not Lavonte David won't come off the field. He can cover way more ground than anyone the team has. The guy is all over the place. He absolutely blankets the TE's in pass coverage which I haven't seen in a long time.