ColoradoHusk

I thought the d-line played very well. Freedom was showing good speed off the edge, and I thought he was getting held quite a bit. Dzuris is a solid player and made some nice plays on Saturday. I liked what I saw from Stoltenburg and Maurice in the middle. Overall, the Blackshirts had 4 sacks, which is a very good number. Yes, they came as a result of a blitz, but they were good calls by Banker.

Do you realize that Lee is not eligible this year, as he transferred from Tulane? All this talk about Lee is worthless for this year. Yes, he is probably the front-runner for the starting QB for 2017, but he shouldn't even be brought up this year.

One thing that bothers me with a lot of fans and their critique about Tommy is that they refuse to count in Tommy's run game. On Saturday,, Tommy had 11 runs for 43 yards According to the play by play, 6 of Tommy's 11 run attempts went for 3 yards or more. To me, those are like completions in the short passing game. So, if I add the 11 run attempts and 6 positive runs to Tommy's passing stats, his passing stats would be: 11 of 21 (52.3%) for 151 yards, 3 TD's, no turnovers, and no sacks taken. The adjusted "completion %" is low, and I would like Tommy's total offense to be at least 200 total yards. But, in a vanilla scheme against Fresno, Tommy's stats are more efficient than first glance would show.

Excellent analysis. I pretty much agree with you. But I would point out that the concern over Langsdorf being afraid of Tommy isn't really an opinion. It's pretty much what Langsdorf said himself. So perhaps Langsdorf is looking into things a little deeper as to what else could or should have been going on on some of those plays. Yes, Langsdorf did show concern over Tommy. Who knows what Langsdorf is thinking or seeing from his eye in the sky. I think Langsdorf will always be uncomfortable with Tommy because Tommy struggles in the go-to plays that Langsdorf and Riley want to run. Conversely, Tommy excels in plays that Langsdorf and Riley don't have much experience designing and calling.

Hardie Buck (see bio below) is the Grad Assistant that works with the WR's, http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=210175343

For an opponent like Fresno, I think the approach to go run-heavy was very smart. NU should be able to do that approach in a number of games this year and get the W. I just think people are concerned about what is going to happen during tougher competition. I think Tommy does some very good things in the QB run game, which helps offset some of his negatives in the passing game. One thing that does throw off the overall stats from the game was that NU ran only 63 plays (from my count of passing and running attempts). That is a pretty low number for college football. The better offenses want to average around 70-75 plays from scrimmage, while the uptempo offenses will get over 90.

I'm curious to see what your findings are. Off the top of my head, he was 5/10 passing so not impressive there. On at least three of his completions he could throw to a wide open first read. Two of his incompletions weren't bad throws - down the right side to Moore and down the left side to Westy - but theyweren't necessarily open and he was going for the home run when there may have been other options. He missed a wide open Newby because his footwork was horrible. And despite all the work we've put in we're completely incapable of running a decent screen (not necessarily TA's fault). So he may have been slightly better than the 50% would indicate. But now that even Langs is scared to throw the ball because of him, I'm thinking that's a pretty bad sign. Would agree with that. The long sideline pass to Moore hit him in the hands, but probably had better options. The screen hit Ozigbo in the hands as well and again the defense was right there. Of course, in that case TA didn't have much choice since you can't really come off to another option without getting an ineligible downfield flag. Note also, that he did have a completion to Carter called back because they couldn't line up right. You guys aren't wrong in your thoughts, but I have put up my pass-by-pass breakdown. It's tough to do a complete review of the passing game without the All-22 view that the coaches have, but I think there are some things that show that Tommy didn't have a "bad" game.

With only 10 official passing attempts by Armstrong vs. Fresno State, there seems to be a lot of concern about Langsdorf being afraid to use Tommy in the passing game, and Tommy continuing to be poor in the passing game. I am not saying either of those opinions are wrong, but I did want to go back through the game and look at all the passing attempts by Tommy and put in my point of view. Now, I am not a QB coach or offensive coordinator, and I am not using the All-22 view which gives coaches the best view on seeing the game. But, I think this breakdown is helpful. 1st Quarter 3rd and 4 from Fresno 38. Tommy makes a simple throw to the right sideline to Morgan on an out pattern for a gain of 11. First read, and he was open, but Tommy did his job. 2nd Quarter 2nd and 10 from NU 30. Play action roll out to Tommy's right. He makes a good throw on the run on a deep out pattern to Moore for a gain of 23. Very good play IMO. 2nd and 17 from near midfield. This is the play after DPE fumbled on the end around, which put NU in a deep hole. Armstrong rolls right and throws a deep pass to Moore along right sideline. Moore has 1 on 1 coverage, but the ball was thrown late and is broken up by the DB. From the TV view, the short routes appeared to be covered. One could say that this is Tommy going for the big play too much, but I didn't think it was a terrible decision, just not great execution. 3rd and 17 near midfield The call was a screen pass to Newby, which Fresno sniffs out right away. The ball hits Newby right in the chest and he drops it. Even if it Newby catches it, the play wasn't going anywhere. I don't know how this play can be viewed as a negative for Tommy though. 3rd and 2 from NU 40. Tommy hits Cethan Carter on a quick hitter and Carter rumbles for nearly 15 yards. However, there is illegal formation penalty which nullifies a positive play by Tommy. 3rd and 7 from NU 35. Tommy sees pressure coming at him and throws a deep pass off his back foot to Westercamp. Everyone is calling this another YOLO bomb, and I don't disagree. However, Tommy didn't have a lot of time to go through his progressions, and was trying to give Westy a chance to make a play vs. 1 on 1 coverage. I don't know if others were open from the TV view. 3rd quarter 2nd and 8 from Fresno 40. Tommy tries to hit Carter on a short pass over the middle. At first glance, the ball is thrown behind Cethan and is incomplete. Looking at it again, it looks like Tommy expected Carter to stop between the 2 LB's in zone coverage, instead Carter continues to shuffle towards the LB to Tommy's right. If Tommy doesn't throw it "behind" Carter, it could have been an INT. Tommy does pass it to a spot that only his guy can catch it. Now, I don't know who's "fault" the incompletion is. IMO, it was a miscommunication between Tommy and Cethan. 3rd and 8 from Fresno 40. There is a protection bust right away by NU's o-line, but Tommy is able to avoid the pass rusher coming through free. Tommy steps up in the pocket and then scrambles left and hits a wide open Moore along the left sideline for a first down. This is a VERY GOOD play by Tommy. He does a great job of avoiding a sack, and makes the smart decision on the pass to Moore. 3rd and 2 from NU 28. Tommy tries to hit Newby, who ran an angle route out of the backfield. Newby was open, but Tommy leads him too much. Others have said that poor footwork led to a bad pass, and that is very probable. One thing I want to point out about this play, was that it was all messed up from the very beginning. Knevel got hurt in between plays, and instead of going to the ground, he runs off the field. There is a mad scramble to bring in a replacement offensive lineman, and get the play off in time. Yes, Tommy didn't execute once the play was ran, but Riley could have called timeout once he saw the mass confusion going on before the ball was snapped. 4th Quarter 2nd and 5 from NU 42. This is the first play of the 4th quarter. After running the ball all game, Langsdorf finally goes to a deep play action pass. It's a great play call, as Moore is wide open behind the coverage. Tommy has good footwork in the pocket after the play-fake, and steps into his throw nicely. Nitpickers could say that the ball was slightly underthrown and the DB almost came back to make the play. But, when Moore is that wide open, the last thing Tommy wants to do is over throw him. Great play call and execution for a 58 yard TD. 1st and 10 from NU 49. Tommy rolls out right and checks down to Ozigbo in the right flat. It's not a great throw, but Ozigbo makes a very nice catch for a gain of 5 Those are all 10 pass plays, with another pass play that was nullified by penalty. Yes, Tommy's stats of 5 of 10 for 108 yards and 1 TD aren't super impressive. But, what if Newby catches the screen pass that hit him in his chest. Then Tommy has a 60% completion rate, and I think people would be happy with that percentage. Tommy also had a completion nullified due to penalty, and the next play resulted in an incomplete pass. People want to use completion % as the best measure of accuracy, but I don't think it's that easy. Breaking down the passes further, I saw 3 short pass attempts to RB's, and only 1 was completed. That's not great, but that did include a dropped screen pass (although it would have been no gain anyway). The missed pass to Newby on the angle route was not a good throw to an open RB. Tommy was 2 of 3 on intermediate passes to WR/TE, and the 2 completions gained 1st downs. I think that's a good percentage rate. On deep passes (over 15-20 yards downfield), Tommy was 2 of 4 with 1 TD pass. I think a lot of coaches would take a 50% completion rate on deep passes like this, as anything more is probably unrealistic IMO. So, yes Tommy did have an uneven game in the passing department. But, he had a pretty good game running the ball, including 2 nice TD runs. He wasn't sacked and didn't have any turnovers. I think NU will need to pass more against tougher opponents/defenses, but for game 1 of the season, I am not going to say Tommy had a "bad" game. I would give Tommy a grade of a B/B- for the Fresno State game. It wasn't bad, but there is room for improvement.

Ummmm... We beat a top 10 team all the way back in November 2015. With the same coaches and pretty much the same personnel Beating a top 10 team doesn't make you a top 10 team.

I quickly went through the game on my DVR and made notes for all the pass attempts for Tommy on Saturday. I will post my findings tomorrow. It's not as bad as lot of people are making Tommy's game out to be.

OWH There were times on Saturday where it looked like Langsdorf was afraid to call a pass play. We all know Tommy isn't the best passer, but he can still do good things in the pass game. Unfortunately, what Langsdorf and Riley want to call in the passing game, Tommy doesn't excel in. I hope Langsdorf can work with Tommy to get a passing game he can be somewhat successful.

Here's the 2018 schedule; and by then we'll FINALLY be free of any players who were recruited or coached by Pelini and his staff. 9/1 Akron 9/8 Colorado 9/15 Troy 9/22 at Michigan 9/29 Purdue 10/6 at Wisconsin 10/13 at Northwestern 10/20 Minnesota 10/27 OPEN 11/3 at Ohio State 11/10 Illinois 11/17 Michigan State 11/23 at Iowa Why is it so bad to be a player that was recruited by Pelini and his staff? They are Huskers just like the guys being recruited by Riley and his staff. The team can't exist with the thought of Pelini guys vs. Riley guys. There are still plenty of "Pelini" guys that the Huskers are going to need in the next 2 years, and the vast majority of the 2015 recruiting class originally committed to Pelini.

I thought they switched sides based on situation last season and did so again against FSU, but correct me if I'm wrong.The D they play has an Open End and a Base End, which is based off the strong side of the offense. It's not a right end and a left end.

Wisconsin played LSU, so that was one marquee game involving a Big Ten program. When OU scheduled Houston, nobody anticipated that to be a big game. Houston scheduled it at NRG Stadium to sell more tickets to OU fans, so they would bring in more ticket sales. Yes, there are some big games involving some SEC and Pac 12 schools, but they also fill out their non-conference schedule with cupcakes. SEC schools also put in a cupcake, non-conference games in late October and November to be an unofficial "bye week" while most schools are deep in the conference schedules. The SEC only has 8 conference games, and aren't close to going to a 9-game conference schedule.

Huh? 2 years from now he's not in the program anymore. He's only got another 15 months at UNL.

I say we get ranked at 24 or 25. We put a whooping on Fresno. Too bad it wasn't a hundred points like all you would like lol. The team played very physical. The only downfall was penalties and a blocked punt. This team will only get better each week, and I expect Coach Riley to get the penalties cleaned up. Mike Riley teams have almost always been heavily penalized. I don't know if he will be able to "clean it up". The penalties from last night are VERY easy to clean up. It's a matter of whether our guys can mentally do it. Has nothing to do with Riley, TBH. It's a fact that Riley's teams have always been highly penalized. It happened at Oregon State. It happened last year. It happened last night. Something will have to drastically change to flip that trend.

I say we get ranked at 24 or 25. We put a whooping on Fresno. Too bad it wasn't a hundred points like all you would like lol. The team played very physical. The only downfall was penalties and a blocked punt. This team will only get better each week, and I expect Coach Riley to get the penalties cleaned up. Mike Riley teams have almost always been heavily penalized. I don't know if he will be able to "clean it up".

No

First of all, the phrase is "heir apparent", and second, Riley is going to do everything he can do redshirt POB. He will only see PT if there are significant injuries to Armstrong and Fyfe. Riley has been saying this since Bush transferred, this shouldn't be a surprise.

The call on Gifford was absolutely the right call. It was late and he went helmet to helmet. He needs to know better, and I wish the team would play with better discipline.

NU won, that's what matters the most. However, the team was sloppy at times and had way too many penalties (especially personal fouls). I am glad Riley was upset with the team's performance. NU didn't play a good game through 2 1/2 quarters. Then it just wore down Fresno State. I don't think that type of performance will do well against the better teams on the schedule. Thankfully, the Big Ten West doesn't have very many teams with a pulse.

I think the offense will open it up when it needs to. One thing I criticized Riley for last year was trying to pass all game against bad teams when they could have ran all day and won. Well, they accomplished that feat against Fresno. I think Riley doesn't trust Armstrong in the pass game, but Tommy does a lot of good things in the run game. Hopefully Riley and Langsdorf will put Tommy and the rest of the offense in a position to succeed.

What? Huh? We aren't going to punt, Fresno will understand the reason, they aren't going to call a timeout and ruin it. Or allow us to score every play so we don't punt.84HuskerLaw has officially lost it.

thatd be me. If i buy tickets, and drive 100 miles one way to go to the game, i'm going to the game. I can sit around, eat, drink, and bullsh#t at home for a fraction of the cost and time. There is nothing wrong with going to the game. Do you just "only go to the game" or do you other stuff while you are in Lincoln? Do you go early to grab some food or drinks? Do you find friends that you can hang out with?

Nebraska 48 Fresno 20 Rush 285 Pass 200