Survival of the Fittest

[Husker_x]

Believe it or not I am a pure-blooded Nebraskan who, after a performance like that, has a hand which twitches towards the "hang the coach" button on the recliner. However, being more than just primevil instinct, I do like to sit down and take a look at the game and actually THINK about why I'd want to point the finger at Bill Callahan when, quite clearly, not everything today can be blamed on him. In fact, not much of it at all.

 

1) Keller: What the hell, man? You think this is Kindergarteners Playing in the Sandbox? This is Division I, football bro. Get your sh#t together, or Joey Ganz is going to be running this offense. That said, Keller cannot be blamed for MoPure dropping everything which came in his general vicinity. His pants fell off, he dropped the hotdog he was carrying on deep routes in the 3rd, and a couple times he ran across the field, breaking his route, stepped in front of Peterson and purposely dropped HIS passes, too. And no one else looked much better. But Keller routinely overthrew the ball, fumbled two snaps, tried to thread the needle when on a couple of plays Lucky was itching his crotch while waiting. Not to mention if he even got the idea in his head for one second that a blitz was coming, the play was ruined.

 

2) The O-line: Same thing. This isn't Nevada. We're not at home. Pick up your damn blocks and force open some holes. With the sheer size we have on that line we should have seen a lot more production on the ground. Their pass protection wasn't horrid, exactly, but Keller felt the heat and apparently they don't blitz in the Pac 10, because he looked baffled at this newfangled monderization of defensive strategies.

 

3) Lucky: Still the man. Solid objects cannot pass through each other, and since the O-line felt that their beard-hair was of Norrisian caliber they figured the holes would open themselves. They were wrong. The D just had too many guys in the box and nobody was making anything happen for them. It takes about 4-5 to tango; I'm just sorry he's going to look like sh#t after today, too.

 

4) Defense: Despite a few errant plays, the secondary more or less took care of business. But this is where my hang the coach-ism flairs up. Cosgrove, what in the name of God....WAS THAAAT!!!!!!!! They ran the same damn sweep over, and OVER, AND OVER! Oklahoma did the same roll out last year over and over––you couldn't stop that, and you didn't stop this. Yes, there were a few plays that Doc Oc busted up, but the general tone of their offense embarrassed us today. The front 7 was humiliated. Good plays here and there aside, I just can't beleive how easy that offense made it look.

 

5) Callahan: I didn't see anything particularly wrong with the gameplan. It was just execution. I liked the aggressive call on 4th and 2. I like coaches who have BALLS. If we'd gotten that, it would have been the ball game. Otherwise the general scheme, while vanilla without the motions, seemed to be a good design of favored pass with supplementary run. The recievers dropped so many balls I lost count.

 

Looking forward: I am now going to err on the side of reason and predict a loss next week with SC coming to town. Our D-line gets no pressure on the QB and their O-line is only going to be tougher. Their RBs will be faster, and their receivers will be more open and potent. It will take a game unlike any under Callahan's tenure to bring those boys down. Do we have a shot? Yes. Do we have a great shot? Maybe. Will we win? Uh...I wouldn't bet on it. It seems like we're going to have the same yin-yang team from last season. One week they can't be stopped, and the next week they can't be started. Everyone looked two steps slow and thus they played to catch up, by which time the big plays had already happened. Suh had a good showing, but one guy can't be THE LINE, unfortunately. Tackling again, that's an error of such a fundamental nature that you have to wonder what in the hell our Defensive Coordinator is made of if he can't even teach TACKLING.

 

Like last week, I'm sure I missed something, but those are my highlights. We have little to be proud of in this game except for this: We were able to show up, suck ass, and still manage to win against the defending ACC champs. That's gotta be worth something.

 

And USC must be razed to the ground.

[captain obvious]

Word to thine mother.

[MCAT800]

 

We were able to show up, suck ass, and still manage to win against the defending ACC champs. That's gotta be worth something.

 

And USC must be razed to the ground.

 

I'll give you that, but the rest of your highlights somewhat contradict yourself.

BC is to blame for all of it. WHY??

Because he is the Head Coach. It is his job to recruit, develop, and to fill the staff with coaches that are capable of executing said game plan. If one of those things breakdown, it is the head coaches fault.

And you call a dive on fourth and two aggressive???????? I call it stupid.

[EbylHusker]

Yeah, we beat Wake on the road, let's string up BC and flog him!

 

rofl, whatever.

[Husker_x]

Callahan is not to blame for everything that happened today. Yes, by proxy if anything on the team goes wrong you can blame him, but Osborne had a lot of close ones, too. You have to look at the whole season before we get too edgy about him.

 

And USC must be razed to the ground.

[MCAT800]

Callahan is not to blame for everything that happened today. Yes, by proxy if anything on the team goes wrong you can blame him, but Osborne had a lot of close ones, too. You have to look at the whole season before we get too edgy about him.

 

And USC must be razed to the ground.

 

I agree with ya X, but this wasn't the first time.

It's what I would call problematic now

[NUpolo8]

Absolutely false statements all over this thread.

 

Everyone here can say that Wake Forest is a terrible team until you believe it, but you're wrong. This is a team that won the freaking ACC last year, wanted this game badly to prove it wasn't a fluke, and it was at their house. NU did not show up. Smart, conservative play calling by the offense (with the exception of the 4th and 2 late) and Cosgrove adjusting after the opening drive of the 3rd quarter and the defense showing up huge won that game. You say "they couldn;t stop them" Hell they stopped them the back half of the 3rd and the entire 4th quarter! Put your blame on Keller and Purify simply not being ready for this game. Plain and simple. Blaming Callahan for two gigantic egos not putting their heads in the game is stupid.

 

FYI, there isn't a Nebraska team since the 2001 Nebraska team that would have won this game. It's a long week to USC. Let's go.

[I Bleed RED]

The 4th and 2 play was stupid. We just got stuffed on a run play up the middle (not to mention most of the game) and he ran up the middle and went NOWHERE. Yes, total execution falls on the coaches. If that wasn't the case then coaches would never get fired.

 

I think everyone here knows how I feel about BC.

[Husker_x]

 

I think everyone here knows how I feel about BC.

 

And we care about as much as we did last week.

[TX-Husker-2011]

 

I think everyone here knows how I feel about BC.

 

And we care about as much as we did last week.

 

I concur!

 

 

 

BC is still the man.

[I Bleed RED]

Great reply X.

 

He is the head coach. Everything falls on his shoulders.

[EbylHusker]

 

Blah blah blah. Go back to your site that you claim only wants to hold him accountable, yet is titled "fire coach callahan" or whatever. I'm sure you'll use this win as ammo and we'll continue to laugh.

[I Bleed RED]

Umm, this thread isn't about me. You guys should really concentrate on this board on your thoughts on BC and the Huskers and not me.

 

The "title" of head coach means you take on full responsibility. Ask Lloyd Carr. SO does the term "President" not really mean he must answer for everything?