ColoradoHusk

No. Not thrilled with Riley, but I don't want Bo back. I don't know why this is always being brought up.

At this point and time I would stop thinking of Jano as a fullback and start thinking of him as a just a RB. He will still play a lot of FB/HB stuff, but don't be surprised to see him line up and get a carry out of a single back set. Think Iowa with Mark Wiesman last year or that red headed guy that PSU had running for them for the last couple of years. His name started with a Z. Nothing fancy, but they pick up yards. I agree. I think in normal game situations, Janovich is worth playing some fullback/H-back and some single back sets. I liked the "loaded pistol" set with TA in the pistol set, Ozigbo at the I-back, and Janovich as the offset fullback/H-back. That gives Ozigbo a lead blocker on outside runs, and still allows for some fullback trap action with Janovich.

I would think that you will have to go through the game logs for each game to get the run-pass ratio on 1st down calls. Chatelain said that for Illinois, NU called 11 first down passes. I can't remember how many times he said NU ran the ball.

Here is a list of Janovich's carries prior to the last series for NU. 1st Q - 1st & 10 -- gain of 2 2nd Q - 1st & 10 -- gain of 4 3rd Q - 1st & 10 -- gain of 7 4th Q - 1st & 10 -- gain of 4 4th Q - 1st & 10 -- loss of 4 I would consider a first down carry of at least 4 yards a success. That keeps the offense in manageable situations. Janovich failed the 1st time, was successful 3 straight times, and then failed the last time. Who knows if the failures were "his fault" or if Illinois blew up the O-line. I would argue that even the last carry (where he lost 4 yards) was warranted after 3 straight solid first down carries. Moneyball, you want the ball to go to our backs who have breakaway speed and can find holes? Have you watched the Huskers play this year? Those RB's don't exist. Newby has a terrible time finding a hole and reaching top speed. Ozigbo might be that guy to do that, but I don't know if he has the breakaway speed you want. I think we all want Langsdorf and Riley to run the ball more in general. At this point in the season, Newby, Janovich, and Ozigbo are the 3 RB's who will get the most carries going forward.

Janovich had 11 total carries, 6 of them were on the "last drive" of the game for NU, when NU was trying to run out the clock. Jano gained 30 yards on those 6 carries and he had 2 carries that resulted in first downs. That means he only had 5 carries in the first 55 minutes of the game. Is that too many carries? Now, Jano only had 13 yards on those 5 carries, with is not a great YPC. But, that's what you get sometimes with the fullback. I guarantee you, with all the hype surrounding Jano's performance in the Southern Miss game, Illinois was keying on him every time he was on the field...and our coaching staff should have taken that into account...we wasted a few plays on Jano last Sat. And yes, when you consider that Jano is a fullback and look at his total number of carries relative to the number of carries our tailbacks got in that game, he got the ball too many times against Illinois. Don't get me wrong, Jano's a baller, but it shows me that MR and staff don't understand how to manage the running game. My point is that Jano didn't get "too many carries", and if he did it was maybe one or two times in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. NU needed Janovich on that last drive, that is when he got the majority of his carries, and he delivered. Moneyball, I am not a huge fan of Riley and Langsdorf at this point, but you nitpicking over one or two "too many carries" to the fullback is a little rich. Lots of "little mistakes" add up to losses. Who should have gotten the 1 or 2 extra carries? Newby had a worse average than Janovich. I could see Ozigbo needing to get a few more touches, but that shouldn't be a knock against Janovich.

This. As of now, Jano is one of the top 2-3 options at running the ball for us. Ideally those guys are all RBs, but when you have a solid player and need to provide stability in the ground game, can't complain. He might not get 11 carries every game. Guess it depends on how things are going with the other backs. Would anyone have any issues if Imani Cross were the one getting 11 carries? Basically, Janovich has become the "big, short-yardage situation RB" instead of Cross.

Janovich had 11 total carries, 6 of them were on the "last drive" of the game for NU, when NU was trying to run out the clock. Jano gained 30 yards on those 6 carries and he had 2 carries that resulted in first downs. That means he only had 5 carries in the first 55 minutes of the game. Is that too many carries? Now, Jano only had 13 yards on those 5 carries, with is not a great YPC. But, that's what you get sometimes with the fullback. I guarantee you, with all the hype surrounding Jano's performance in the Southern Miss game, Illinois was keying on him every time he was on the field...and our coaching staff should have taken that into account...we wasted a few plays on Jano last Sat. And yes, when you consider that Jano is a fullback and look at his total number of carries relative to the number of carries our tailbacks got in that game, he got the ball too many times against Illinois. Don't get me wrong, Jano's a baller, but it shows me that MR and staff don't understand how to manage the running game. My point is that Jano didn't get "too many carries", and if he did it was maybe one or two times in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. NU needed Janovich on that last drive, that is when he got the majority of his carries, and he delivered. Moneyball, I am not a huge fan of Riley and Langsdorf at this point, but you nitpicking over one or two "too many carries" to the fullback is a little rich.

Janovich had 11 total carries, 6 of them were on the "last drive" of the game for NU, when NU was trying to run out the clock. Jano gained 30 yards on those 6 carries and he had 2 carries that resulted in first downs. That means he only had 5 carries in the first 55 minutes of the game. Is that too many carries? Now, Jano only had 13 yards on those 5 carries, with is not a great YPC. But, that's what you get sometimes with the fullback. I guarantee you, with all the hype surrounding Jano's performance in the Southern Miss game, Illinois was keying on him every time he was on the field...and our coaching staff should have taken that into account...we wasted a few plays on Jano last Sat. Were the 6 carries that Jano had on the last drive wasted? I don't think so. I think he and Ozigbo were the best options in that situation. There may have been one or two plays earlier in the game where I was wondering why Janovich was getting the ball, but it wasn't like he carried 15 times in the first 3 quarters. Also, with Jano's performance against So Miss, he deserved to get a few carries against Illinois.

Janovich had 11 total carries, 6 of them were on the "last drive" of the game for NU, when NU was trying to run out the clock. Jano gained 30 yards on those 6 carries and he had 2 carries that resulted in first downs. That means he only had 5 carries in the first 55 minutes of the game. Is that too many carries? Now, Jano only had 13 yards on those 5 carries, with is not a great YPC. But, that's what you get sometimes with the fullback. What is the "right" number for fullback carries? Also, as said above, Jano had 2-3 carries as a single back, so it looks like he is replacing Cross as the "big back" for NU.

the current defensive staff's statistics are actually far worse then Cosgrove's. How was that possible? Tommy with his inconsistency and all still makes these offensive coaches look better then they are. I am not happy that Riley threw Tommy under the bus over that third down play. If he only wanted to run the ball, call a trap play or jet sweep. don't blame the kid for your mistakes as a coach. Wise up! Riley/Langsdorf called a Qb bootleg sweep, the next safest play in football next to a kneel down in victory formation. Tommy mucked it up. It is just that simple. He falls down and the game is over. It was the correct call for the situation. RADAR, you're delusional.

You can listen live to Big Red Overreaction on 1620theZone's website. And also, the "official broadcast" has a post-game show you can listen to online via Huskers.com. Severe and Ganz also do a web radio show after each game. It's called The Bottom Line and there is an app for it. I don't know if they take callers, so it's really more of a game break down than 1620. I don't mean to sound like a shill for Severe, I just like his football knowledge, and he is pretty neutral, considering he is not from Nebraska. They also break into the show to play parts of the post game press conference.

I follow all the OWH and LJS guys. Benning and Severe are good to follow, too.

1620 is good with Benning & Sharpe, but I think USC is terrible. I like Severe's internet radio show on Omaha.com. Yeah, I don't much care for USC. Severe's show is ok. With all of these shows I mostly look through the podcasts and only listen to the interviews that look interesting. Also, on "Sports Nightly," which you can listen to live on Huskers.com, on Thursday nights at 7pm they have one of the coaches on for an hour. Those have been pretty good. I mostly go through the shows and listen to the podcasts too. It's lame when Sharpe & Benning do whip-arounds with other Big Ten schools. Just give me Huskers discussion!!

1620 is good with Benning & Sharpe, but I think USC is terrible. I like Severe's internet radio show on Omaha.com.

Thanks! You can also use the private setting on whatever browser you use (incognito for google chrome for example). I typically go with Omaha.com, as I like their writers/reporters better than the LJS.

Eichorst is Finkel. Finkel is Eichorst.

Regarding the pass rush, first and foremost, regardless of the qb and his running ability, the number one job there is to contain. If they walked the d-ends out to ensure that they didn't lose contain, then I'm fine with that. The last thing they want is the qb to break contain, scramble around for 10 seconds and make our secondary cover for that long. I agree that contain is important. However, to not rush anyone over the center (usually the weakest pass blocker on the team) is bad scheme.

Even after the debacle of the 3rd and 7 call, NU still had a chance to stop Illinois from going over 70 yards in 50 seconds. Yesterday on the OWH The Bottom Line show, Joe Ganz did a good job of breaking down the long pass that Illinois hit over Gerry to get inside the 10 yard line near the end of the game. Here is a link to the podcast list for TBL http://dataomaha.com/whlive/bottomline I am referencing the Oct. 5 Hour 3 Segment 2 Nebraska quarters coverage breakdown. Here is a Cliffs' notes version of the segment, and where NU went wrong. They are watching the play unfold from the highlights on BTN2go.com 1. NU is in quarter's coverage, which is fine. But, the CB at the bottom of the field (Chris Jones) has his hips open towards the middle of the field before the snap. Ganz says this is terrible technique being taught by the coaches. In this situation, the CB shouldn't be tipping his coverage in any manner, but also Jones is opening up the middle of the field to the WR. Jones should be forcing the WR to the sidelines, where the sideline can be used as another defender. Yes, giving up the sideline may allow a WR to catch the ball and get out of bounds to stop the clock, but the defense should try to force the incomplete pass before anything else. That's why the WR should be funneled to the sidelines. The QB is able to see the CB with his hips already opening the middle of the field up to the WR, so the QB already knows where he is going to probably pass the ball. This technique being taught the CB's is bad technique. 2. The LB's in coverage aren't wide enough. In this situation, there is no need to play for a run up the middle, so the LB's should widen up so they can get a jam on the slot receiver. Now, I know the slot receiver isn't the one who made the catch on this play, but it shows a huge flaw in Banker's scheme. 3. The front 4 seems to be pressuring Lunt from the outside-in. The DE's are almost in a 9 technique, and the DT's are on the guards. Wes Lunt struggles the most with pressure up the middle, and that's where Collins seemed to have his most success on pressuring the QB. By rushing from the outside and having no one over the center, the front 4 doesn't produce any pass rush and Lunt is able to step up in the pocket and make an easy throw. This can be seen by pretty much watching the pre-snap alignment. I am terrible with technology, so if someone can post a screen grab of this play before the snap, that would be great help.

I don't totally disagree, Tommy takes some of the blame on this regardless. It was stupid to even have a pass play called, but if they told him not to throw it, then he shouldn't have. If Tommy didn't understand the situation they were in and the consequences of letting that ball fly, then that's an issue too. To me, you get the impression Tommy doesn't have a grasp for some of this stuff. I see it with a few of the guys. They just seem to lose awareness. And as for the second bolded part, you're totally right. That's exactly what would've happened and anyone that says otherwise is a farkin' liar. I already posted this, but Husker fans and the media are smart enough to realize that a timeout taken with a few seconds left on the play clock would have been forgiven. Just make sure you run the damn ball on 3rd down.

No kidding. That'll be interesting. Maybe Banderas moves to a new spot. That was brought up to Riley yesterday in his PC. Riley answered that both Bando and Weber are MLB's. I think they are taking their time with Bando because Weber is performing so well.

Must be his excellent pass blocking. That's the only reason. The coaches want to be able to show the defense they can pass or run each play. With Newby on the field, the coaches can show that, even if Newby isn't as effective a runner as other I-backs.

I'm sure Eichorst hated having to work with Bo his last couple of years at NU, maybe that's why he avoided Bo so much. That's just a guess. With Riley, I think Eichorst was getting a man who would be easy to work with, would be a good representative of the University, and would do good enough winning games at NU. I think Eichorst was hoping Riley would bring some stability at NU for 4-6 years before Riley retires. Of course, when Riley doesn't win games, it all blows up in Eichorst's face.

Simply put, Riley was hired because he was the exact opposite of Bo. He was experienced, older, well-spoken, and a NICE guy. He also wouldn't require a large paycheck, which had to help.

Husker Nation and the reporters are smart enough to realize a timeout with 1 or 2 seconds on the play clock isn't a bad thing to do. We would rather have made sure the play is run correctly instead of allowing it to be run incorrectly and losing the darn game.