Huskerfan1985

That doesn't explain why our O-Lines and D-Lines are getting pushed around by FCS and WAC teams. Easy answer: They are used to practicing against each other. The D line looks like they are used to playing against a well....young inexperienced o-line everyday....oh wait. The O-line is just plain young and not that great. Not trying to be critical but that O-line just ins't what we expect. They will likely get better as the year goes on, but I don't think you will see drastic O-line improvement for YEARS. You can place blame where you like, bad coaching, technique, experience, whatever, but when you're starting walk-ons and freshman at key line positions, it's a good indication of where your team is at. How many other top 25 teams have similar lines?

93 tackles for Gomes is a lot! I had no idea that he put up those kind of numbers this year. I'd say he's definately overlooked and underappreciated. I guess you could make the argument for the entire secondary, but wow, 93 tackles is a good showing.

It's a good point. The argument is basically that Prince so terrified opponents that they hardly ever threw his way. He had one statistically poor game, and the others were pretty good, or pretty quiet. The reason Dennard had such an exciting year is that nobody would throw at Prince's half of the field. That makes him pretty good, I guess. I definately agree, also I think Prince's run support was often overlooked. I just feel bad that he couldn't record an INT this season. I believe he had 2 that were called back due to penalties though.

Not trying to complain or take anything away from Prince, but is anyone else kind of surprised he got 1st AA without recording a single INT this season. Don't get me wrong, I think Prince is a great CB, but I didn't think he had a great statistical year. Congrats anyways.

Here's another concern I have for this offense. Quarterback growth and development. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last QB to start 2 full seasons was Zac Taylor. How long ago was that? Watson has been here long enough to recruit and develop the kind of players he needs to run his system, whatever that is. Why is it that this year his best option was a RS Freshman. What does that say about the development of Lee and Green. You can argue that we wanted to run the zone read, but after Kansas State, how effective was the zone read? it has been an insignificant (or ineffective) part of our offense, so Taylor must be the best passer on the team then right? Otherwise, Lee or Green would be starting because Watson's incredibly difficult offense that's hard to learn but appently easily defended would be impossible for a RS Freshman to understand. With all the transfer rumors and what not, it's possible someone new starts at QB next year as well. I'm okay with taking our lumps and going through young QB mistakes if it means eventually having an experienced, well developed qb down the road. But, Watson's track record doesn't let me believe that this is possible. With all the talk of Bubba Starling, Turner, or Carnes, what makes you think we wont have a brand new offense made to suit one of them next year? I'm just really frustrated with this offense and lack of leadership.

If Green is truly the #3 QB why was he being played ahead of Lee early in the season and even sharing some time with Martinez?

Here's my take on this "offense". First, am I being overly critical or does it seem like DJ Jones screws up multiple times each and every game? We harp on Niles (and rightfully so) but it seems Jones is often our own worst enemy. We talk about depth and development, at what point does he get held accountable? Another frustrating aspect of this O is the qb situation. Since the start of the season, it has been very unclear about the depth chart at qb, except that taylor is the clear cut starter. Green was #2 early on, but when a spark was needed against Texas and Taylor was knocked out vs Missouri, it was Lee we turned to. Suddenly, after Missouri, Green is the go to guy now? I know, rumor has it that Lee is out for the year, yet why is it so hard to come out and say that. Is it really that beneficial to keep everyone in the dark? Perhaps there are good reasons for all of this, but it seems inconsistant on the coaches part. I can't think of any other program where die hard fans would struggle to name the qb depth chart like us. Another issue I have is I'm not even sure what type of offense we have. Can anyone tell me what exactly our philosophy is? Is it pistol, zone read, wildcat, spread, power run, wco, etc..? after 11 games i dont know (Oh wait, we are multiple ). I can only name one game that i was impressed with the offensive gameplan and that was OSU. However, it appears that was a fluke because every other game looks the same. We got lucky vs Missouri because Helu played the game of his life. Otherwise, vs any decent defense we struggle. This A & M game was a long time coming. Just look back vs. Kansas. The D held them under 100yds for the GAME! Yet we could only muster 20 points at home! Honestly, what did we think was going to happen in front of 90,000 hostile fans vs an aggressive and more talented team? After 11 games we are pretty much where we were last year. A defense we can rely on and an offense that doesn't know where to start. Thanks again Watson.

This team won't live up to expectations because they average nearly 4 fumbles a game, don't play well at home, and can't seem to cut down on the penalties. I really want to believe that this is a 1 or 2 loss team, but when you fumble 4 times a game, you're going to drop some games that you shouldn't. While there is obviously time to correct these issues, we've been pretty fortunate in recovering a majority of the balls we put on the turf. Hopefully we buck these trends, if not, I think we're looking at a 3 or 4 loss team, which for me, is not living up to expectations.

Despite the ugly loss,Nebraska held TU to 4 of 16 passing for 62 yards. If you would have told me that Texas would only need to complete 4 passes and walk out of Lincoln with a win I would have said you're crazy. 3 of those completions were to RB's, only one receiver caught a pass for Texas. After Saturday, i guess you can't take receivers "catching" passes for granted but holding an opponent to 4 completions is typically a good recipe for success. However, despite the stingy pass defense, it seems our d has been getting somewhat gouged by mediocre runnings qb's (Gilbert and Coffman). Perhaps that's just because Ricky Thenarse plays on our d, but we seem to play very pass heavy and allow opponents to maintain time consuming drives. I know we run a bend, don't break d, but it's frustrating watching Gilbert Grape run for 71 yds. I'm not really going anywhere with this, but I was surprised that despite how ugly this game was Texas only had 4 completions. Pretty sure it just reiterates that WE lost this game ourselves with our ineffective offense more than anything. At least Okie State doesn't play D.

Not sure if I follow you. John Elway couldn't run a zone read, run based offense, which is clearly our focus. Are we going to need to pass? Absolutely. Does Martinez's skills as a passer leave something to be desired, you bet. I guess my point is that Martinez had his worst game, as a passer and rusher, against the worst oppenent we have faced. I really think it had less to do with the SDSU defense than Martinez's accuracy. I did not watch the whole game, but from what i saw, he was throwing to open receivers. His passes just weren't accurate. Against our previous, more talented (I know, not saying much) opponents, he seemed to fair much better. As for Bix XII competition, i won't disagree much with you. No way we run all over everyone or count on T-mart's arm to lead us to victory. But, I think you will see him develop as a better passer. He's only a freshman with 4 games total of experience. It's a little short sighted to say he cant improve from his worst game this season, let alone his whole career. Also, make no mistake, this team, just like last year, is all about the defense. Our defense will keep us in every game, just like last year. Our offense needs to only score more than the defense gives up. With T-mart, Helu, and Burkhead ready to break a long run at any moment, i like our chances. I'm not saying we'll put up 50 on every team in the big XII, but the opportunity for big plays on offense this year is at least possible.

The offense concerns me as well, but I feel like we have many more positives this year, even after the SDSU game. Recievers were definately open, we have a "homerun threat", we have RB depth that serves a good change of pace, and our O-line has shown flashes of dominance. To me, it's just getting Martinez to improve his throwing accuracy on a consistant basis. While T-Mart has had a tendancy to underthrow longer passes, he's been pretty accurate with the short game. However, that was not the case vs. SDSU. From what we have to gauge his performances on, I believe we'll be several notches better than '09. The reality is though, with any RS Freshman at QB, you're going to have ugly games and need help from the D. Fortunately, we have that luxury.

Thanks, hopefully i can catch a replay. With the move to the Big 10 this shouldn't be a problem much longer

Does anyone know if it is possible to download or re-watch the NU vs. SDSU game online? I only watched parts and would like watch the full game and try understand what happened for my own satisfaction. Any help would be greatly appreciated. GBR!

I can't really back it with stats (i haven't checked), but does anyone else feel the steinkuhler has been playing better than Crick so far this year? Perhaps my expectations for Crick were a bit high, but he's definitely not the same player without Suh lining up next to him. Going into the season we knew we would miss Dillard and be young at LB, despite the injuries, but it seems to me that the D line has been inconsistent, at best, at stopping the run. While i still feel our D is VERY good, it seems our true strength is the secondary. Its almost like we hope our opponent gets tired of the 3 to 4 yd runs or gets behind by too much that they are forced to pass. Vs SDSU, the game was close enough that SDSU really didn't need to give up their game plan and stuck with the short yardage runs. In the end, they obviously ran out of time and did pass, which they paid for. As for the rest of the Big XII, K State and as much as I hate to admit it, Iowa St, look to be frustrating games unless our run defense gets shored up, or we jump out to a sizable lead. These teams seem to execute simple, more run based schemes, much like SDSU, but with more talent. As long as NU plays mistake free football, i have no doubts, but that's a big question mark with a RS Freshman at QB. Hopefully we forget about SDSU game, get the run defense straightened out, get Martinez completing passes again, and all will be fine. I couldn't imagine many things worse than dropping one to K-state our last year in the Big XII. I guess time will tell. GBR.