The Reason We Lost

[germanforbigred]

I don't understand how everyone can say this is Watson and the OLine's fault. The OLine allowed Helu to rush for 170 against a pretty good defense. Watson had some great calls (the QB draw on 3rd down?) Lee and the WRs just didn't execute the way they needed to. It was a tough place for Lee to get dropped into in his first road game. The drops from Meno (I mean, JESUS) and one from Paul didn't help, but damn, he just looked awful in the second half. I'm not one calling for Cody Green, but Lee struggled mightily today. That red zone offense was pathetic.

 

yeah the first one was great, but he did call it a few times too often after that and everybody saw it coming. also think Bo should have went on 4th and one get the yard and end the game or turn it over and they still have 60 yards to go

[jkstlrnu1]

Dont know if this has been posted. so mad i cant think. Good riddance Shawn Watson!!!! call a play or 2 that will get us a 1st down & game over. Im sick of seeing our offense go into a shell. I cant wait until you go somewhere else. & before you think im out of line, just think about it....... I dearly love the Big Red but I cant stand to see our coches on offense go into prevent mode any longer!

[Ringer02]

the punt was a good call, vt hadn't scored since half-time, for them to drive the length of the field in two minutes without timeouts is absolutely appalling. That one is on the secondary.

[irafreak]

I just think Watson over thought things too much. Helu was having a monster game. They couldn't stop him when he was given the inside trap play. I mean Watson coaches at colorado and runs that damn counter play on us in 2001 for 4 quick scores but today he gets away from what's working?

[REDSTEEL]

I really think the logic is...do we put the pressure on the strength of vtech (the defense) and go for it or punt and put the pressue on their weakness .... seemed like the right call.

 

Isn't their specialty blocking punts and special teams? So giving them a chance to block a punt is logical?

[Red Storm Brewing]

How can some of you guys not realize we played the 4th and 1 call to our strength not theirs. Both of the defenses were the players today. If the one guy who's sole responsibility is to stay deeper to the deepest threat blows his assignment, which he did, you get burned. Tyrod Taylor isn't the next Joe Montana by any means but even the average Joe can feel like him when a receiver is streaking down the sidelines by himself.

[DCHusker]

 

You're already losing a lot of momentum by being forced to punt with 1:00+ on the clock, you're on the road, you take the risk and try to end the game....

 

Explain that one to me. You lose momentum by punting? How? The offense had been putrid all day. We put it back on the defense and VA Tech's offense. A battle we had won all day and give them incredibly long field.

 

Don't see how that took away momentum AT ALL.

 

Because you're trying to run out the clock and they've stopped you from doing it with over a minute left....

 

You can't have it both ways...you're saying that giving them the ball at their own 39 is a HUGE momentum shift, but giving them the ball at their own 10-20 is a victory for us....I don't see that big a difference between the two...

[HSKRNOKC]

How can O Hanlan let that receiver just coast down the sideline. He must have a giant stick in his ass. Missed assignment, blown coverage, game breaking play.

 

Constant O line mistakes and horrible qb play...

 

Oh well.. another one slips through our hands..

[irafreak]

Yep. You could argue it either way. The offense had 5 field goals...gotta have touchdowns.

[Fuzzy]

How can O Hanlan let that receiver just coast down the sideline. He must have a giant stick in his ass. Missed assignment, blown coverage, game breaking play.

 

Constant O line mistakes and horrible qb play...

 

Oh well.. another one slips through our hands..

 

I cant blame this completely on O'Hanlon, i blame West as well for letting him go.

[jkstlrnu1]

@ least we didnt do anything the rest of the country would expect us to do @ this point. WIN a game against a good team. Good to not do anything to ruin our reputation. Thanks Shawn. Good luck being Head coach @Colorado

[Apathy]

Here are the reasons why we f**king lost.

 

1. 1st and Goal and had 4 penalties to take us back to the 35-40 yard line.

2. Matt O'Hanlon leaving a guy wide open just like the Texas Tech game last year

3. Receivers can't catch a cold even if they really wanted too

4. Defensive Lineman not attacking Tyrod when we had pressure on him (which allowed that last TD)

 

I am really embarrassed by this Nebraska team that showed up today. Ya our Defense played really well but our Defense only played 58 minutes of football. They allowed a game changing catch to lead to the last TD and didn't put much pressure on Tyrod when he threw that TD. They were standing back jumping in the air instead of attacking him which I doesn't make much sense.

[BigWillie]

 

You're already losing a lot of momentum by being forced to punt with 1:00+ on the clock, you're on the road, you take the risk and try to end the game....

 

Explain that one to me. You lose momentum by punting? How? The offense had been putrid all day. We put it back on the defense and VA Tech's offense. A battle we had won all day and give them incredibly long field.

 

Don't see how that took away momentum AT ALL.

 

Because you're trying to run out the clock and they've stopped you from doing it with over a minute left....

 

You can't have it both ways...you're saying that giving them the ball at their own 39 is a HUGE momentum shift, but giving them the ball at their own 10-20 is a victory for us....I don't see that big a difference between the two...

 

Okay, simply put ..

 

You punt the ball on 4th down. Defense and ST comes off the field and Tech's offense comes on. Do they come on inspired and the crowd really that fired up?

 

Defense makes a stand. Crowd goes insane. Tech sideline goes insane. Tech's offense comes onto the field inspired. Our offense comes off the field deflated and our defense sees that.

 

Which swings momentum more?

 

If you cannot realize that, then I don't know.

[Husker_x]

 

I say it again, and I'll go to my grave believing it. You have a running back averaging over six yards a carry. A QB sneak/draw hadn't failed all game. Sometimes you just have to smash through for that yard and damn the torpedos. But he played conservative. He did the safe thing. Well whoopie.

 

Moving forward I hope this staff never chickens out like they did today. If you want to have a team with attitude, you've got to believe you can get one God damned yard to win the biggest game of your life.

 

Couple things ..

 

Try not to say GD. Really disrespectful although I know you are using it to just force. Just not the proper way to do it.

 

And again, you are not wrong in believing that. However, with the way our defense had played all day do you not believe those 30 extra yards would be invaluable once we went into our cover 2 shell? If we had not gotten it, we were playing cover 2 either way to keep things in front of us. Those 30 extra yards with no timeouts left for VA Tech would be huge.

 

A bigger argument you should be making is Pelini wasting those timeouts so easily. If we keep those timeouts, completely different situation, especially at the end.

 

Apologies for the offense.

 

But while I know that punting the ball was the 'smart call,' here's the problem. Two, actually. The first one––and I'll even say the moot one––is you run the risk of popping in the end zone anyway and you move the ball twenty yards. Didn't happen that way. Maybe it would have been better if it did. Who knows.

 

Second, and this is the important one, is this. There comes a time when this team, this program, needs to believe that it can TAKE victory. 4th and 1 in opposing territory? We're Nebraska for heaven's sake. If you want a program that's dominant, it starts with believing that you can get one piddly yard when the biggest game of Pelini's Nebraska career is there for the taking. Sure its risky. Sure it's going to look terrible if it fails. But you know what? Tom Osborne went for two when he could have kicked the field goal and won the championship by default. That was the Nebraska that would have won today.

 

This defense did everything it could to hand Watson and Co the game on a silver platter. We obliterated Virginia Tech on the field today. And then when the moment game to power through for one more yard when that defense was so tired they could barely stand straight, we pussied out and put fate back into Virginia Tech's hands.

 

The coaching flaws didn't stop with that call. The timeouts, the penalties, substitution errors, offensive scheme, WR coaching––all failed today. But the fact was we were one yard from beating a team this program NEEDED to beat. And we chickened out in the moment of truth.

[NYJ0815]

@ least we didnt do anything the rest of the country would expect us to do @ this point. WIN a game against a good team. Good to not do anything to ruin our reputation. Thanks Shawn. Good luck being Head coach @Colorado

 

Loudmouth idiots like Mark May will be on tonight bashing the big xii again. Count on it. Was REALLY hoping for a big one today. Let just hope they learn their lessons and take it out on Mizzou.