Morrison

Seiously, how can anyone blame these blowouts on the offense?! I'm sure martinez doesn't have 200 tackles so he sucks! If the offense scores 30 points we shouldn't lose a single game if the d is doing their job. I honestly question if some people watch the games or even know how the game is played when they question the o for the defenses problems!

While I agree with you that that Beck has been very good this year, let's be fair here. In the three blowout games, our offensive miscues have lead to quite a few points scored by the other team:

(Just going off of memory here, so I might miss some...)

Consider:

UCLA: Offense miscues lead to 12 points (maybe 19 points, depending on your viewpoint)

Ameer fumbles our first possession of the 2nd Half inside our own 20 - FG

Taylor throws an interception inside our own 30 - Missed FG (?)

Taylor takes a sack in the endzone late in the game - Safety/TD on ensuing UCLA possession (good field position...not sure if you pin that on the Offense, frankly)

Taylor throws a pick in crunch time, giving UCLA the ball inside our 20 - TD

Ohio St.: 14 Points

Taylor throws a pick 6 early - TD

Taylor throws another INT inside our own 20, returned inside the 10 - TD

Wisconsin: 14

Taylor throws a pick six on the first offensive snap - TD

Taylor throws an interception inside our 20, returned inside the 5 - TD

I think the most important thing we can improve on offensively moving into next year is the consistency in these big games. Sure, we can put up some points, but the offense has really put our D in some horrible positions in these games as well.

I like Taylor - I admire the heart and work ethic he's shown as a Husker - but as long as he is our quarterback we will turn the ball over, be it by fumbles or interceptions. Secondly, the blame for this goes on the O-line. They have done a pretty bang-up job in terms of the run game this year, there's no denying the stats. In pass pro, however, they have really struggled against the more athletic defensive lines we've faced (e.g. Ohio St. and UCLA), which has directly led to some of Taylor's poor decisions and TOs. Also, I don't have the stats in front of me, but I think our conversion % on third and less than two was pretty abysmal, something i attribute almost exclusively to the o-line and the OC.

This doesn't even take into account the propensity for the Offense to inexplicably go 3 & out after running 12 seconds off the clock. With more consistency on the offensive side of the ball we should be able to limit the other team's possessions and eat some clock. In most of these games, we rarely let our defense rest and regroup after a long drive - something that the offensive playcalling (and execution) needs to take into account when things start slipping.

So sure, we gave up alot of points in a few games this year, and most of the blame is rightfully on the defensive coaches and players. But don't forget the offense didn't do our D any favors in these games either. While I find most of the criticism of Beck to be irrational, there are some things he does need to improve on moving forward.

The good news is that I think he will. He's shown a TON of potential in his first two years - the improvement of our offense has been tremendous. Hopefully we can keep the guy around for the next couple of years - can't wait to see what he can do with Armstrong/Stanton and some of the young talent we'll have coming through. GBR

The answer to that is to get back up, buckle the chin strap tighter, and come back meaner and tougher. I have no doubt Nebraska will come to the game ready to redeem themselves.

If any NU fan doesn't think that, then they're only a fair weather fan.

Amen to that!

Hopefully the pity party is about over and we can get back to talking some football...

 

2009 Va Tech, lost 16-15. 0 offensive TD's

2009 Texas Tech, lost 31-10, 1 offensive td, offense GIVES tech a td. I remember watson in that game continually go away from a run game that was working great in favor of slinging it all over the place, but the defense gave up a whole 3 or 4 big plays and some penalties.

2009 Iowa St, lost 9-7, 1 offensive td, but 8 turnovers, game was inexplainable and cant really put this one on Wats due to 28-35 points being left out due to to's

2009 Texas, lost 13-12. 0 offensive td's

2010 Texas, lost 20-13. 0 offensive td's

2010 Texas AM lost 9-6. O offensive td's

2010 Oklahoma lost 23-20. 2 offensive td's, 1 essentially directly results form turnover getting the ball at 10, other was a long run broken by Helu.

 

It's funny how you can rationalize each one of these games away individually to make them seem not as bad. But, in their totality, the only logical conclusion that is possible is that Watson is the problem.

I don't have any personal animosity towards the man - I am sure he has tried his best to make it work. Further, saying he needs to go simply because he was "part of the Callahan regime" is ignorant.

That being said, he simply has not gotten it done when we needed him to. It's time for a change. Our offensive performances in those losses makes me sick.

We're closer to being "back" than you think. Get the offense turned around (there's talent there, it just needs to be utilized) and we're a top 5 to top 10 team easy.

Hang in there!

Yeah, the D gave up alot of yards tonight, but when the damn offense cannot stay on the field, it gives an explosive team like Oklahoma way too many opportunities to make big plays, which they unfortunately did.

Oklahoma had 5 (!) possesions in the first quarter alone. (in which they were mostly stymied). That should have been enough for a half. The defense wasn't perfect, but it was good enough. Holding them to 23 points, especially considering field position due to the turnovers and punt returns, should have been enough to win the damn game.

I am done with Watson as well. I have supported him in the past, as I think it is possible to rationalize away some of our struggles, but this is just too much.

We are a top 5 team, easy, if we had even a mediocre offense.

Err didn't this thread already happen?

Damn, between McKewon and Chatelain there is some really good writing going on in this state.

I just don't get it. No matter what we do, or what other teams don't do, we CANNOT get any love from anyone. Forde, Mandel, Herbstreit, James, barely Ubben, pretty much anyone willing to talk about the Huskers except Robert Smith.

 

Somebody on Forde's chat asked which defense they would like to see against Oregon's offense. TCU or Nebraska. He immediately responded with the whole "TCU is #1 in scoring defense and the #1 defense." At first I thought maybe he would just want to see TCU, a non AQ team just to see, but when he used the ranking, it just pissed me off. Who has TCU played? Nobody. They shut down Utah, but where are they now? Nebraska is the second best(?), and has gotten that by playing teams that are FAR superior to anything TCU has played. Are the opponents factored into the ranking, or is it just what you've done through the season? I would think these guys are smart enough to give us some love and make some exceptions, I guess not.

You should've been around earlier this season! We were getting some pretty good hype

Unfortunately, the Texas game pretty much ended that....

I really mean that. You are better than this.

In some ways, I really want to agree with this. But, alas, I cannot.

Having class does not mean allowing oneself to be run over without complaint. In fact, taking principled stands (however unpopular the perception) is one of the hallmarks of class.

If standing up for ourselves by raising holy hell about this situation damages our reputation to people hundreds of miles away who will never set foot in this state, so be it. That is an acceptable cost for standing up for those kids who give their blood, sweat, and tears every Saturday for the people of this state and for each other.

So, sure, call it "whining". But if it puts the spotlight on the Big 12 (as it surely has) and helps to ensure a fairly-called game in the CCG, we're willing to take the jabs so those kids out there aren't punished for the petty hubris of the powers that be(ebe) in this conference.

Best of luck to the Aggies in the future

I'm all for the most prestigious match up possible, but man....I don't like our chances against Stanford.

I tend to agree, we do not match up with them very well at all. That being said, Compton is back to being a major contributor which should help stiffen up our D against the run. Nevertheless, I'd still prefer to play a spread-type offense.

Prince becomes finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. There will be hard competition from Patrick Peterson of LSU. Henery is left off either best kicker or punter? Am I missing something?

 

 

Linky

That is a travesty. An absolute freaking travesty.

Arguably the greatest FG kicker in NCAA history and he doesn't even sniff a Groza. What a joke.

Again, this was AT KYLE FIELD! The difference was that we played well enough to take it out of the ref's hands.

I think you're deluding yourself a little bit here. Your win against Oklahoma was as much a by-product of Oklahoma's pitiful short yardage game as it was by "you playing well enough to take the game out of the ref's hands." I mean, I'm willing to give you credit for one, maybe two, stands at 1st and Goal from the one, but how many did they botch? Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it that happened at least three times. Furthermore, they dropped a sure touchdown on the fake field goal through no action on your part. I don't care how good you are, for something like that to happen, you need the other team to help you out.

And I give you credit for last night - your team played a clean game from an execution standpoint. No fumbles, interceptions, missed field goals, dropped passes in the endzone, or other unforced miscues which would allow us to make up for the harm inflicted upon us by the referees. If only Oklahoma could say the same.

You guys can scream all you want about the officiating, but none of you have acknowledged the other areas of the game that played just as big of a role in the loss, if not bigger, than the officiating.

You'll find plenty of those threads cropping up, though to be frank, I'd like to see you put your 3rd string QB out there for half the game and see how well your offense moves the ball. Then, roll out Tannehill with a broken ankle (goodbye bootlegs, QB draws, pocket elusiveness) and try some more. It wouldn't go well for you, just as it didn't go well for us.

You had two turnovers on drives that could have lead to points. You failed to capitalize on three possessions that started at midfield. THREE! Our terrible punting put you in favorable field position all night. If you manage to drive 25 yards on just one of those possessions, then it could have been a completely different ball game. You had 3:02 left on the clock for your final drive and, once again, you failed to produce points.

Sure would have been nice to block without fear of even the possibility of a holding call. Also, it would've been nice if we could have received two 3rd and Long PIs and a 3rd and long Roughing the Passer (a la your last two possessions). Youcouldn't move the ball against us without significant assistance in crunch time either - I wouldn't come here talking about failing to produce points when necessary.

Many of have said the questionable roughing the passer penalty gave us an "automatic" field goal because it put us on the 35 yard line. Not true. Our kicking game, as I am sure you noticed, is still a work in progress. No way was that an "automatic" 3 points for us. Even after the penalty, we drove for another 32 yards. Again, you had multiple opportunities to stop us and force a field goal of greater difficulty.

Agree on this...to a certain extent. But still, we shouldn't have to get off the field 2,3,4 times per possession. Eventually you are going to catch a break (as you did with Gray's 20+ yard run).

The tough part to take about the "we could have done something more to overcome" the referees argument is that you did not do anything more to win the game than we did. The game is a freaking statistical dead heat. You may have caught some rough calls against Oklahoma, but those were nullified by Oklahoma's gifts right back to you. Unfortunately for us, you didn't pay it forward last night.

Simply put, you didn't do enough to lose the game, and that won you the game. I don't begrudge you that - I'd take it in were I in your position, but I also would realize what a gift we received.

Reality is setting in here...

We will not win the Big 12... not because we won't play well enough to win, but because the big 12 has shown that they will not allow it to happen. Let's be real folks, our destiny has been taken out of our hands and there is not a whole lot that we can do about it.

 

 

you didn't play well enough to win last night.

Neither did you...

Hujan,

I included the Nebraska game in those stats, I don't think it skews the numbers terribly over 11 games (plus I'm too lazy to go back and re-calculate).

Does anyone else think it's weird that we seemingly got the most help against the two best teams we've played?

This is a good start, but we need more. The question is how much do Nebraska opponents get flagged when they play Nebraska versus their averages against all other opponents? That will really tell the tale.

 

As I've said, the refs are rarely going to do something blatant to influence a game. It's much harder to detect small penalties that, when combined together, subtlety influence the outcome. Calling holding on Nebraska is an example. But the easiest way to do it is to refrain from penalizing the other team. That's how these guys are getting it down.

 

I'm willing to bet that our opponents have season-lows in penalties when they play us.

Did the research, its not as damning as you would think: Sorry for the formatting, don't know how to fix it

Team: Penalties vs. NU - Yards Season Avg - Yards

Kansas St. 4-30 5.18 - 41.3

Texas 4-53 6.45 - 58.1

Oklahoma St. 8-84 6.09 - 63.6

Missouri 7-40 5.91 - 52.9

Iowa St. 3-40 6.45 - 51.3

Kansas 1-9 6.36 - 60.5

Texas A&M 2-10 8.7 - 68.8

As you can see, things start to get weird after Missouri. I'm not sure what to make of this - three games doesn't seem to be a big enough sample size to draw a conclusion. On the other hand, put into the context of when we became likely Big 12 North Champs (i.e. after we beat Missouri) things do look a little bit murkier.

Furthermore, raw stats don't take into account the sheer number of calls that are just plain weird (Gabbert forward-progress, Rex Burkhead's exorcist impersonation, the Eric Martin Suspension)or simple no-calls (i.e holding).

So anyways, for those who are curious that's how this breaks down.

Do you really think Auburn/Oregon/Boise/TCU/etc. would have been more succesful against a defense that good, with a crowd that crazy, with the calls the way they were, with their 3rd string QB playing for half the game and their starter barely able to walk?

Without Heart?

Did you see Rex Burkhead carry the ball 7 straight times in the 4th Quarter? Did you see Taylor Martinez - barely able to freaking stand - try to scramble and stand tall in the pocket? Did you see Roy Helu break about 5 tackles before scampering for 30 yards? Did you see Niles Paul make catches in traffic?

I can understand the frustration with our scoring output, but to question the heart of the players in light of the adversity they faced tonight is childish.

I will honestly start a pot of cash with $1000 of my own income towards a fine towards Bo on his rant on the officiating tonight. I am just going nuts wanting him to explode and speakhis mind. All this anger cannot be good for his health. I seriously want to see him just let it out in a presser. I know he is thinking everything that we are saying as fans, I just want to help him get it all out.

I am thinking it would be EPIC and am pretty sure tha I would buy a copy of a CD or purchase the video of his "blowing off of steam".

I've been thinking much the same thing...

I could not agree more.

My heart tells me that this is something we could/should have overcome to win - as a competitor you always want to believe that you control your own destiny.

Unfortunately, I simply cannot deny what I saw right in front of my eyes tonight. I honestly wish I could, but I simply cannot. There is no way around it - the fix was in.

That being said, I was incredibly proud of the grit the team showed tonight. There was a ton of adversity stacked against us, the refs themselves notwithstanding. When you consider Martinez's gimp ankle, our 3rd string QB's admirable (if inadequate) effort, a rowdy crowd, and a tenacious opponent, I thought the Huskers really fought back hard in that 4th Quarter.

That drive from our own five might be one of my favorite Husker drives ever, and Burkhead's run to start it off was a thing off beauty - as if he was channeling the frustration of the entire husker nation.

In any event, if we take care of business we still have a great shot of getting the last laugh at this piss-poor conference. This might be just the extra motivation the team needed to get over the hump.

it was ridiculous, Bo owes Legate an apology.

 

Yes he does, Bo really looked like a Jack A$$ for chewing out Legate.

I'm pretty sure at the time Bo didn't know the circumstances, there was no way he could've seen what was going on from the sidelines.

That being said, I'm sure when he goes back and looks at the tape and realizes what happened, he will make things right with Legate.

Just thinking about P. Rhodes call on fake in OT. He basically decided, "Hey I have a wounded QB who has fought and battled to get us back in this game, we are at HOME in OT, we just scored easily on our possession. So I guess I'll put the entire game in the hands of my backup on on a trick extra point play and hope that wins it." If I were a ISU fan or player I would be disappointed that he didn't trust the guys who got him there to finish the job. This single decision could affect the psyche of these team and ruin the rest of their season. Oh yea of little faith. Thoughts?

I thought it was the right call by CPR to go for the win. I agree with some people questioning the way he went about it, but in general I agree it was the right call.

I look at it this way:

The longer the game goes on, the more likely it is that Nebraska, the deeper, more-talented team with a far better kicker than Iowa State eventually assumes control. Compounding this problem, Arnaud had been inconsistent all game long and appeared to have an injured wheel - a bad match-up against our ball-hawking defense. That being said, at that point in time of the game, ISU had all the momentum, and was playing at at least as high a level, if not more so, than NU.

With those factors in mind, the odds of ISU executing the two point conversion are much better than them standing toe-to-toe with us for 2-3 more rounds in an overtime situation.

It's the same principle applied by Boise St. against Oklahoma in the 06 Fiesta Bowl: When you have the momentum against a superior team, you don't extend the game any longer than you have to. Instead, you capitalize on Big Mo when you have it and are in a position to win the game - where you only need to be better than your opponent on one play, not on a series of them.

Thankfully it didn't work in this particular instance, but, on balance, it was the right call to make when you consider the odds.

Bo should be fired that was the last straw for me. That niles fumble was on Q watch it in slow mo iam serious. To think bo would go to iowa states level and play them on their level like that,we all knoe we should have won by more I can take a close win but smokes and mirrors was in full effect How the hell did the iowa state fans knoe that taylor wasnt playing to day?? hmmm makes you have to think about that dont it?? makes me wonder if BO let iowa iowa state win last year?? I say yes becuzz bo has that thing about him that he only wins games when he wants to win them and thats not rite at all .Did we really loose to texas this year? hmmmm I think we let texas win thats what I think. Look what kansas state did to em 2night. U gotta be stupid if u think we beat kansas this year becuzz we wont . I tell you why ,Gill thats why bo will let the jayhawks win this game at are house and thats f'ing wrong. watch and see. Iam very up set with bo and co becuzz every one said taylor was fine and would start. Red flags are allready being raised and this is the guy that said niles was a stud. my ass. Think about this 4 a sec you guys really think hes gonna wanna beat ohio state next year? I say NO we will loose 6 games next year atleast maybe more. And as far as cody green he just let me off 2day I really thought he would be a good player BO exposed his own player and thats wrong. We should all be upset with that . The hell with BO im done with it and thats sad

The awesomeness of this post made me decide to take the plunge and register!