Hujan

Was JUST going to post this. It's getting out of hand. How cool would it be for NU to gather signatures of Husker fans who will boycott an ABC/ESPN broadcast if Cunningham is assigned to the game. He might as well openly root for our opponent; it would actually be easier to take.

Ditto. I kind of expected the OP to argue that Husker fans should put the officiating conspiracy theories to rest. Not so. Here's the deal: The massive no calls in the Texas game (did they ever get called for holding?), the Martin suspension, the Gabbert fumble . . . one of those things by themselves does not a conspiracy make. Two of those things does not a conspiracy make. All three of them? Houston, we have a problem.

Mizzou fans want to point to a couple of blown calls to show that there is no conspiracy and that the game was called bad on both sides. What Mizzou fans don't understand---and what these images show---is that you are always going to find calls that referees missed because they didn't see them. I've seen this in every game I've ever watched. What has Nebraska fans puzzled are the bizarre sleights of hand that occur under the spotlight. There is no better example of this than the Osborne fumble hit on Gabbert. It was clearly a fumble, the review process was suspiciously mishandled, and the explanation (forward progress) is insane. This is the smoking gun for officiating conspiracy theories as far as I'm concerned. MIssed calls are one thing, but this is unprecedented. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfYxKRR2Wl4&feature=player_embedded

Squeaky clean. Hard to see this drawing a suspension, IMO. Weren't we saying this last week? Martin's hit was "cleaner" than this as Osborne clearly contacts Gabbert's helmet with his own helmet. I disagree. Some angles made it look like Martin's helmet was the first part of his body that made contact with the victim. Also, Martin had several aggravating factors not present here: 1) He left his feet to make the hit 2) The player never saw him coming 3) He flexed/celebrated after making the hit 4) He was seen laughing about something on the sideline 5) They victim was down on the carpet for a long time Now, I personally think all of these factors are irrelevant and should not have resulted in a suspension. But to old men in suits who feel compelled to show they are not going to be soft on "vicious hits," these factors were more than enough to pull the trigger. More importantly, none of those factors are present for Osborne's hit.

It's because we rolled through a bunch of mediocre teams pre-Texas. Texas exposed our offense for what it was and forced us to make changes. Okie State exposed our defense for what it was and forced us to make changes. Missouri feels like the first complete game we've played where we played well on both sides of the ball in the same game against a quality opponent. Hasn't really happened up till now. Now the question is if we can keep it up. The problem is not that we have one loss; it's that so many teams ahead of us will either be undefeated or will have a less-ugly loss to their credit. Texas stuck the knife in by winning that game and is proceeding to twist it around by blowing @$$ every week since then. And they haven't even played Texas A&M or Okie State yet. And talk about problems playing at home! Texas has lost their last three home games to UCLA, Iowa State, and Baylor. Yeesh!

Akshully, their defense is not too shabby. It's definitely underrated because it lives in the offense's shadow, but it's not bad in its own right. They end up having to spend a lot of time on the field because Oregon's offense scores so damn fast.

Squeaky clean. Hard to see this drawing a suspension, IMO.

Edit: Double post.

My guess: 1) Oregon 2) Auburn 3) Boise State 4) TCU 5) Utah 6) Alabama 7) Stanford 8) LSU 9) Wisconsin 10) Oklahoma 11) Ohio State 12) Nebraska I'd like to see Nebraska ranked in the top 10, but I don't think it will happen. Frankly, Ohio State is unbelievably overrated in my opinion. Their "signature win" was a home game against a badly overrated (and now unranked) Miami team. Otherwise, they haven't played anyone except Wisconsin, and Wisconsin dominated them. Seriously, check their sched, it's pretty sad: Marshall, Miami, Ohio, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Purdue, Minnesota. If you take out Wisconsin, the rest of those teams may have won a total of 10 games, am I'm not exaggerating too much. LSU, in my view, is similarly overrated. Their "signature win" was against a rapidly deteriorating Florida team. Fortunately, they play Alabama and Arkansas on their way out of the SEC, and I expect they'll lose both. Oklahoma has to win the "horseshoe up the @$$" award for repeatedly falling bassackwards into rankings it doesn't deserve. Everyone---including Oklahoma fans and players---had a collective "Whaaaaa?" when OU was ranked #1. They are immediately exposed by an above-average Missouri team and somehow manage to stay in the top 10. Their Texas win at a neutral site is now worthless, leaving them with a blowout victory over a mediocre ACC team (aren't they all?). Assuming they remain in the top 10, Oklahoma will have the distinction of being ranked above the team that beat it, and the team that beat that team. Auburn and Alabama will both play each other, so one will drop from the top 10. TCU and Utah play each other, so the loser will drop. Wisconsin will continue to bleed out from a gut shot, as it's win against Ohio State drops in value and its loss to Michigan State looks worse and worse. And, of course, we will get a chance to knock out Oklahoma.

At times, we play like the best team in the country, but I still think we're not consistent enough to claim that distinction. My rankings: 1) Oregon 2) Auburn 3) Boise State 4) Utah 5) Alabama 6) Nebraska 7) TCU My prediction is that 'Bama will beat Auburn and that Oregon and Boise State will play for the national title. It would actually be a good game.

Yeah, but a K State loss means an Okie State win. We beat both, so I don't see that game hurting our stock. The Washington result hurts. Texas just blows. If it's possible, I think they emphasized the UT-NU game more than we did. That game is looking more and more like an aberration every week.

Can anyone advise where to send complaints about Cunningham's commentary? Dude needs to give it a rest, honestly. Given that college football's target audience is predominantly male and predominately young males, ESPN/ABC can't be pleased with Cunningham having himself a good cry in the booth every time someone makes a good hit. For crying out loud. Cunningham, the ladies on The View called; they said to stop being such a sissy.

Ed Cunninghman?