Bo knows..the running game is hurting

[Hunter94]

Tidbits from Bo's show

Actually, it's called "The Nebraska Football Show" these days, that 30-minute highlight program Sunday nights with Greg Sharpe and Bo Pelini.

 

Pelini is an example of a head coach who takes losses hard. That's clear in this show.

 

"We made too many mistakes in all three phases," he said, adding, "Fundamentally, we failed in doing our jobs."

 

"We got out-executed and out-coached," he added later.

 

He said the key to the loss was Nebraska's inability to both run the ball consistently and stop the run.

 

"Ultimately, that's what it came down to," Pelini said.

 

Nebraska got good pressure on Tyrod Taylor early in the game. However, "We lost the field-position battle early, and that hurt our team."

 

Of the blocked punt NU allowed, "That was a total missed assignment," Pelini said.

 

Of Ganz's first-quarter pick, "Joe just made a horrible decision. He got baited into making the throw, and the kid made a nice play."

 

Pelini, though, said Nebraska has to do a better job of protecting Ganz in the pocket. "Part of that is having a more consistent run game," he said.

 

I was surprised that Nebraska was outplayed on both sides of the ball coming out of the halftime lockerroom, allowing Tech to extend its lead to 28-10.

 

Of Nate Swift's punt return for a TD, "I can't say enough about Nate Swift and the kind of football he's playing. There's a guy who just knew we needed a play."

[gthogan]

Wow. Regardless of what happens to this guy as a coach, I like his style.

[clone]

did he say "we've got to get better" several times??

[Igetbored216]

I like Bo. He knows what needs to be done...I just don't think he has the talent right now to do it.

[holvy83]

Bo sees confidence in his guys, just like the press conference after the game, "BONEHEAD" plays on defense were too many and costly to the outcome. I saw a lot of mental mistakes on both sides, i still believe it is too early to tell on this team, there will ge a lot of heart and emotion for the Mizzou game that will keep it close, the boys in red want this one just as bad as we do. You never know what will happen, and we say that all over college football this weekend!!

[BigRedfxtoy]

No candy coating and he obviously knows what happened and he is giving the short and skinny of it. Hopefully they can get this corrected and get these kids on the same page. I like the way he says it like it is.. no BS.

[hskrfan4life]

He says what is true we couldn't run the ball nor stop the run. If we could of done those two things it would of been an entirely different game.

[MTHusker]

after reviewing the game last night on espn360, here is my assessment of the running game:

 

First, if you take out Ganz's runs/scrambles, we didn't run the ball all that much.

 

Second thing i noticed was that on about every zone running play, the running back got caught from behind by either a back side linebacker or defensive end. Thats credited to VT's speed and so we probably shouldn't have run any zone plays at all because their defense is so fast. There were some holes on the outside of these plays but the backs could never get there before being caught from behind.

 

Thirdly, the plays where we had pulling linemen were somewhat successful. They usually yielded 4 yards or more but we didnt run them that often. Sure there were numerous times when there were absolutely no places for our backs to go but that wasn't the case every time. Keep in mind that VT's defensive line is really good and has both size and speed.

 

I also would have liked to see a few more screens and draw plays to keep VT's defense honest but that didn't happen. We ran one middle screen that i remember. It went to Lucky and he got knocked down for no gain I believe and that was the end of the screens to the running backs.

 

So I'm blaming our lack of a running game on several things:

1. VT's team speed

2. Some poor play calls

3. and poor execution by the huskers

[skersfan]

Running the ball was the main problem, Saturday night and all of last year. Anytime we faced talent we could not run the ball. Those thinking we were going to have a dominant Oline were drinking the Kool Aid.

We will not get any better at it against Missouri, Tech, Oklahom and Kansas.

 

This is still a talent problem, not coaching, not mistakes, not being coached up. We need to understand that, it is not going to get better with time. Support the team and give Bo the time to correct the problems with recruiting. It will be awhile I think.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

I think the problem is he knows what is wrong, but for whatever reason the problems aren't being fixed. Either that's from the assistant coaches not getting these guys ready for the game or the guys just aren't fixing their mistakes.

[HuskerTrucker]

Inconsistency...all the way around. The running game is as poor now as it ever has been.

[melscott62]

Running the ball was the main problem, Saturday night and all of last year. Anytime we faced talent we could not run the ball. Those thinking we were going to have a dominant Oline were drinking the Kool Aid.

We will not get any better at it against Missouri, Tech, Oklahom and Kansas.

 

This is still a talent problem, not coaching, not mistakes, not being coached up. We need to understand that, it is not going to get better with time. Support the team and give Bo the time to correct the problems with recruiting. It will be awhile I think.

 

 

there you go folks... 4 games in. its official

[Hunter94]

may not be official, but the disturbing trend is obvious at this point and not likely to improve significantly....and that's a fact.

[melscott62]

may not be official, but the disturbing trend is obvious at this point and not likely to improve significantly....and that's a fact.

 

 

because teams dont improve?

 

didnt we have problems running in 2005 and then the lights came on after one game? remember them saying we were close? and then we ran then ball fine in 2006. that FACTS are we dont know. its silly to think we as fans do.

[skersfan]

Reality mescot, that is all.

 

Not bagging on the team. You can only do so much with the cards you are dealt.

 

Go back and look at the talented teams we faced last year. I think Texas was the only team we were even close to being able to run the ball.

 

I am not giving up on the team. I just have feelings that they are not what some think they are and it showed last Saturday nite. Even the VaTech fans saw we were not talent heavy, and comments about being very slow compared to their conference is scary.

 

You have to start seeing what is real, and not hoped for. No amount of pixie dust is going to change this team into a conference contender this year, most likely not next year. See what you have, deal with it and move on. Give Bo the time to fix it.

 

If we lose the next two games like I think we will, there will be many on this board, calling for the head of one of the coaches if not Pelini. When you call for the assistants heads, you are calling the HC questionable.

 

We do not need that. We need to do the work that is ahead of us, move the program in the right direction and never ever get down on them. My guess is by the end of the Missouri game next week we will have boo birds in the stadium.

 

This did not happen over night and it will not be fixed over night. As I have stated numerous times, our problems were not just coaching last year and it was obvious Saturday night. We have better coaches now and will move forward faster, but it is a talent thing as I see it more so this year.