#33

[HUSKER 37]

I applaud O'Hanlon for chasing him down and saving the TD, I applaud him from making the sack the play later. Unfortnately, we did not apply enough pressure on the next play to keep them from scoring.

 

What are you smoking.....O'Hanlon never should have let him get so open?

 

Ok, let me put this in a sentence that you can understand me.

 

Yes, O'Hanlon blew the coverage and let Coale get behind him, with some help from West letting him go. But for the people who call him out for knocking Coale out of bounds on the 3, instead of letting him get the TD and offense gets a shot at a FG.

 

Im no way condoning what O'Hanlon did as far as coverage goes, as a good thing. But the effort to knock him out of bounds, the sack, that was good job on him. Blackshirt defense doesnt just give up TD's, they make an effort to prevent them.

 

It's called "losing the battle to win the war"...

 

I don't in any way think O'Hanlon should've given up on the play. (Your instincts should take over).

 

But by the time they were showing the replay, I was hoping they'd call it a TD..(Our 2min. offense is probably a lot better than our 20 second Offense).

 

Sure there's a small chance that we could stop them on 1st and goal at the three...But I like our chances a little more if we're behind by one (or three) with the ball and two minutes left.

 

It's sorta like having a snap over your punter's head into your endzone and him running out of bounds to save a TD rather than risk a left footed 5yd punt or a block.

 

And...

As far as O'hanlan...

I hope someone tells him that even Mike Brown got burned a few times..

 

Good job shaking it off!

[BlackShirt1340]

I love how everyone is throwing O'hanlon under the bus. Obviously he is not the Troy Polamalu of safeties, but he is the best we have. If ANYONE was performing better than o'hanlon then THEY WOULD BE ON THE FIELD! It's very simple.

 

Obviously O'hanlon, and the secondary in general, F#$%ed up something fierce on that pass play, but this loss was not AT ALL his fault. This was a total team effort and if our offense had been able to generate even ONE touchdown in the red zone, we would have had the game well in hand.

 

I mean, SH##! If we hadn't taken ourselves OUT OF FIELD GOAL RANGE from 1st and goal at the six, the game would have been over. They MIGHT have tied it up, but I highly doubt it. I find it absolutely ridiculous that people are jumping all over one player, saying he lost the game, in a TEAM game.

 

Oh, and in a reply to an earlier post, O'Hanlon was NOT recruited and given a scholarship to play at Nebraska. He walked on, made the team and busted his ass to earn a scholarship and starting spot. He's not some spoiled, lazy athlete that they brought in. This isn't the callahan era, this coaching staff doesn't play certain players just based on their star rating or how good they look like they'll do in the NFL. Quit whining about O'hanlon having to come out to put someone else in... If there was anybody else who could do it better, they would have matty on the bench. And who knows, maybe after this week's mistake, someone else will step up and get the starting job, but I highly doubt it. Just deal with it. We lost this game because our offense picked the biggest game of the pre-conference schedule and one of the biggest in recent memory to become completely inept inside the 20.

[nillie welson]

Matt O'Hanlon is a poor man's version of Pat Ricketts, except he plays safety....if what he does near the back of the defense can be called "playing safety". If O'Hanlon is the best at that safety spot, the kids behind him should quit IMO because I don't want to see them on the field. (I'm being sarcastic, but only in reference to those behind O'Hanlon).

 

Are his parents rich, because there has to be some reason, unrelated to football , as to why this normal human being is on the field with football players! (* I do not really believe there is anything dirty going on behind-the-scenes, I'm just sick of watching everybody run right past the SAME person).

 

The excuse is -- well, so-and-so doesn't know the defense as well.... Matt knows the defense, but he CAN'T execute it when it matters most.

 

Here's a new topic: What Nebraska safety has been worse? (congrats if you can come up with that answer)

[HUSKER 37]

...

 

Here's a new topic: What Nebraska safety has been worse? (congrats if you can come up with that answer)

 

Here's a better one.

Name a Safety that has never been burned.

[Pasadena Husker]

if you really want to rant about o'hanlon's performance go over to the woodshed. somebody has already started a nice thread.

[HSKRNOKC]

Ok I have had plenty of time to calm down and I would like to apologize.

 

I was bashing O Hanlon pretty bad. I apologize to him and the board for having to read it.

 

I realize now that there were many, many mistakes that lead to that loss , not just one play.

[HuskerJosh]

No, you can't blame the game on O'Hanlon. Did he have his best game? Of course not. O'Hanlon plays his ass off when he's in there. That said...God I wish Thenarse could understand how to play safety.

[Enhance]

This argument is absolutely ridiculous and idiotic.

 

Thenarse is more athletic than O'Hanlon, but Thenarse doesn't read the offense as well and has generally proven himself to blow a lot of assignments. O'Hanlon on the other hand knows the defense very well but isn't as athletic. The guy made one bonehead play, after playing a great game, and then he comes back and sacks Taylor on the following play. Give the guy a break. We lost this game for more reasons than just O'Hanlon and the secondary. Why don't you go rag our offensive line for screwing up on 4 plays for 30 yards worth of penalties.

 

And yes, O'Hanlon played a HUGE role in the Clemson game. Hagg may have had a pass break up and a key sack, but O'Hanlon broke up a winning touchdown pass on the second to last play from scrimmage. If O'Hanlon hadn't broken up that pass (which was in the receiver's hands by the way) the Gator Bowl outcome would not have been in our favor.

[WCHusker]

No, you can't blame the game on O'Hanlon. Did he have his best game? Of course not. O'Hanlon plays his ass off when he's in there. That said...God I wish Thenarse could understand how to play safety.

 

I agree. There are many places that you could lay the blame. If you want, blame it on the opening kickoff return. The # of chances that the offense had is just depressing. Turn one of five fg's into a TD & this is and we win.

 

I'm going to go beat my head against the wall-again.

[father5]

You are blaming O'Hanlon for that play? Watch the replay.. .there were two receivers breaking in the flat that he had to cover. #5 was out of position.

 

I'm pretty sure O'Hanlon is the safety, which means he cannot let anyone get behind him. Sure kids make mistakes, but no one can say he made up for it. Closing speed? So what. Sack at the 11? So what. they were inside their own 20 and needed a gigantic pass to beat us. Screw the guys in the flats. If a guy makes plays like that he shouldn't be on the field, particularly at that point in the game.

[Igetbored216]

I will just say that our defense did not lose the game on Saturday.

 

You don't go down the field to kick field goals. Our offense was abysmal (with the exception of Helu), and Lee can say what he wants, but it was obvious the pressure got to him.

 

What a horrible way to lose a game. I'm still sick from it.

[broganreynik]

Anyone blaming West on that play obviously doesn't understand how a cover 2 zone defense works. As much as it sucked, it didn't cost us the game. The horrible pass rush on the touchdown is what did. Or maybe that penalty that cost us yards AND time on the second to last play of the game. All in all, we played a horrible game in regards to our pass offense, and still almost won. If Zac Lee can get back on his horse, I'm pretty confident in our team, and honestly think we could win out.

[gmoney88]

Anyone blaming West on that play obviously doesn't understand how a cover 2 zone defense works. As much as it sucked, it didn't cost us the game. The horrible pass rush on the touchdown is what did. Or maybe that penalty that cost us yards AND time on the second to last play of the game. All in all, we played a horrible game in regards to our pass offense, and still almost won. If Zac Lee can get back on his horse, I'm pretty confident in our team, and honestly think we could win out.

[Enhance]

I will just say that our defense did not lose the game on Saturday.

 

You don't go down the field to kick field goals. Our offense was abysmal (with the exception of Helu), and Lee can say what he wants, but it was obvious the pressure got to him.

 

What a horrible way to lose a game. I'm still sick from it.

 

 

Couldn't agree more. We held this team to 16 points, and with the exception of two big plays (one on special teams and one deep pass play) our defense completely shut down VaTech's offense.

 

Our offense just could not get anything done. We tried passing into the end zone from the goal line, maybe at a time when running the ball in would have been a better choice considering Helu was having a great game.

 

We made 6 trips to the redzone last saturday and only came away with points 3 times. Get a touchdown just one of those times and the final score ends up being 19-16.

[Cy the Cyclone]

Watch the actual game film and not just the angles and coverage you get from the ESPN highlites. Then, you might notice not only West leaving his man for O'Hanlon to cover but also the CB getting beat on the other side on a nice post route while the weak side safety backpedals to...somewhere totally out of the play. So...which of the two guys does O'Hanlon cover? Leaving a guy naked out there and then riding him for a blown coverage is real bad form. Want to ride somebody? Start with the CB's. From what I can see, neither one provided consistent lock-down defense on the VT receivers.

 

Looking at the entire game, it appears to me that one of the main things that got drilled into the defense was to contain Taylor...not let him scramble and get outside. Make him beat you with his arm and not his legs. Throughout the game, whenever Taylor looked like he might take off, corners and LB's were breaking coverage to stuff him and leaving receivers matched up with 1 on 1 coverage from the safeties. It worked okay for the majority of the game since, let's face it, Tyrod Taylor is NOT the greatest passing QB to ever hit the field, but even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while if he looks long enough.

 

Unless everything went absolutely perfect for the entire game, both safeties were pretty much screwed from the start.