Congratulations on the win

[DocNice]

Obviously I'm disappointed in our finish. But that was an excellent defensive job by the Huskers, and the offense had just enough juice to pull it out. I think the rain was an issue for both teams with dropped balls, and didn't really favor either one in the end.

 

The game honestly went about as I expected. I thought NU would run a little better, but I also thought Mizzou was a bit underrated there. I knew the exterior run defense was solid due to our speed, and NU didn't try to go up the gut enough. Mizzou played aggressive and it eventually bit them on the long pass, but overall played great. The second TD was just a jump ball. Could have been an interception as easily as a TD, so I can't blame them there. And you just can't give your opponent the ball on the 10 yard line. Disappointed in the inability to get it back and the end though.

 

Nebraska, honestly, played terrible on offense until the final quarter, though Mizozu's defense had something to do with that. Lee finally got some swagger, but he's got some serious growing to do. His receivers did him no favors (you need to recruit there big time) but he was off target and rattled most of the game. Hopefully he can grow from this, because this is 2 consecutive road games where he's struggled. That's enough in a defensive battle, but not in a high-scoring match.

 

I didn't like the officiating at all. Some of those holds were very questionable, although they called it consistently, and we didn't adjust. Both the calls on Suh were tough, and the personal foul on Ebner was bull as well. Sometimes helmets collide. It's football. And dragging a player down by the jersey is not a horsecollar. I just hate when officials make it about them. In the end, it didn't really favor one team other than to make it low scoring. Mizzou had a bunch of drives killed by penalties, especially early. The hold at the end was just a killer though.

 

Mizzou was able to run a little bit on the 4 man front, but not as well as they should have. That was really a key in the game. The other key, and in my mind, the main key, was the injury to Gabbert. After that, NU didn't really have to respect Gabbert on the keeper and made the run defense way easier. I know he got the TD on it and kept it a couple of times, but they knew Gabbert couldn't get big yards that way. And more importantly, he couldn't plant properly. He was actually throwing off his front foot, which is a testament to his arm strength, but you could see it in his passes. They were low, off target and a little late. NU played tight defense, but we did have some windows that we couldn't capitalize on that I think Gabbert would normally hit. He was 5 of 8 before that play, with 2 of the incompletions coming on 2nd/3rd and 25 after the penalty, and he had rushed for a first down.

 

I'm personally not real happy with Suh on that one. I like Suh, I've never thought of him as dirty. But I read an article earlier today about how he's working with a former player on bringing attitude, and how it wasn't a dirty play when he tweaked Tyrod Taylor because he was just sending a message. Bullcrap. A dirty play is a dirty play no matter how you justify it, and I remember thinking that well before this play. The extracurricular he gave Gabbert was entirely unnecessary and unrelated to the play, and possibly changed the outcome of the game. The only possible defense for that is he didn't think Gabbert had lost the ball, but I don't believe that for a second. He took a defenseless player and bent him over backwards with his legs behind him simply to send a message. That's not physical. That's not intimidating. That's dirty. Even when you get away with it.

 

Anyway, I don't want to focus too much on that. Injuries happen and you move on. But I do think it had an effect. Nebraska's D was dominant, and even without that, we were going to put up 30, but we would have scored more.

 

On the flip side, Nebraska is lucky its mistakes didn't take them out of the game. Special teams in particular was just awful. Credit the defense for getting those big stops. They hung in there and were opportunistic, setting up the offense with good field position. I think your defense was impressive today, but I also think that this race isn't over, and we've got a very good shot at beating you next year as well.

 

Coming in, I though this was going to be a good game, but I thought Mizzou was better. I'm not sure this game entirely changed my mind, but I did get a healthy dose of respect for NU, especially the defense, and ultimately the matchups ended up in NU's favor. I can tell this is a game that's going to be a hot one for years and I'll be glad when Suh is playing on Sundays and not eating up our offensive line.

[TheCheshireCat]

Nice, respectable post. It was hard fought and Missouri played a lot better than I expected. Gabbert didn't look so hot tonight but you can tell he has potential. They say rain is the great equalizer, I wonder how that played its part tonight. Certainly hurt us both on a few plays. Great game.

[flynlow]

Congrats on the win guys. No excuses from me. We got beat. Gabbert has some serious growing to do, I am very disappointed in him and how he played. The ankle is no excuse. Refs mean nothing. Rain means nothing. If you are a good enough team, you overcome. Yours did. Enjoy it and good luck to you the rest of the way.

[EbylHusker]

Missouri is a good team this year. You guys will end up having a good season despite this loss.

[carlfense]

Sorry. Suh's taking Gabbert down was not dirty. He was behind him and there was no way for him to know that Gabbert no longer had the ball. Good play. Sorry that Gabbert got hurt but it wasn't malicious . . . unlike Weatherspoon punching McNeill in the back as he laid on the ground.

 

No offense . . . but your ballyhooed receivers were totally outclassed by Nebraska's "banged up, slow secondary."

 

Ugly game.

[knapplc]

I'll admit that I gave Missouri less credit than I should have. I've watched their games, and I was honestly not seeing a team that should have competed with us in the trenches. Our D Line did what I thought they would do, but your D Line was VERY impressive. I'm concerned about a repeat of 2008 Oklahoma if our O Line doesn't do better. Hats off to the Tigers for playing damned gutsy and just stellar on defense.

 

Through three quarters this game was Missouri's. After all those stats I pulled, all the games I'd watched, I was just sitting there shaking my head. Straight up, you guys won 3/4 of that game.

 

The fourth quarter... weird. Nobody can blame those TDs on Missouri's defense. They played tough and were put in difficult situations. Two of our TDs could easily have been picked off.

 

Good luck with the rest of your season, and make sure you take Kansas down. We'll be rooting for you there.

[husk3rf8n]

Doc good post. Agree with most everything except the Suh play on Gabbert. No way he could tell the ball was gone and he was just finishing the tackle. I do think the rain gave Mizzou a big advantage in the special teams play because NU just didn't handle it well. That's on the Huskers. They just have to play better whether it's raining or not.

 

Mizzou will still have a great year and as you said, this matchup is now fierce and will be fun for the foreseeable future!

[DocNice]

I'll admit that I gave Missouri less credit than I should have. I've watched their games, and I was honestly not seeing a team that should have competed with us in the trenches. Our D Line did what I thought they would do, but your D Line was VERY impressive. I'm concerned about a repeat of 2008 Oklahoma if our O Line doesn't do better. Hats off to the Tigers for playing damned gutsy and just stellar on defense.

 

Through three quarters this game was Missouri's. After all those stats I pulled, all the games I'd watched, I was just sitting there shaking my head. Straight up, you guys won 3/4 of that game.

 

The fourth quarter... weird. Nobody can blame those TDs on Missouri's defense. They played tough and were put in difficult situations. Two of our TDs could easily have been picked off.

 

Good luck with the rest of your season, and make sure you take Kansas down. We'll be rooting for you there.

 

In the end it's about who makes plays. You made them. I wouldn't worry about the Offensive line. I told you guys we have some really good talent there, and I also said the strength of our run defense was the perimeter. You kept running into our strength. You did a lot better at the end punching it right at us, and that might be a little bit of the coaches fault for not calling a beter game.

[DocNice]

Doc good post. Agree with most everything except the Suh play on Gabbert. No way he could tell the ball was gone and he was just finishing the tackle. I do think the rain gave Mizzou a big advantage in the special teams play because NU just didn't handle it well. That's on the Huskers. They just have to play better whether it's raining or not.

 

Mizzou will still have a great year and as you said, this matchup is now fierce and will be fun for the foreseeable future!

 

Well, I could be speaking from emotion. If he didn't know the ball was gone, then it wasn't dirty. I just thought he did.

[Eric the Red]

I'll admit that I gave Missouri less credit than I should have. I've watched their games, and I was honestly not seeing a team that should have competed with us in the trenches. Our D Line did what I thought they would do, but your D Line was VERY impressive. I'm concerned about a repeat of 2008 Oklahoma if our O Line doesn't do better. Hats off to the Tigers for playing damned gutsy and just stellar on defense.

 

Through three quarters this game was Missouri's. After all those stats I pulled, all the games I'd watched, I was just sitting there shaking my head. Straight up, you guys won 3/4 of that game.

 

The fourth quarter... weird. Nobody can blame those TDs on Missouri's defense. They played tough and were put in difficult situations. Two of our TDs could easily have been picked off.

 

Good luck with the rest of your season, and make sure you take Kansas down. We'll be rooting for you there.

 

 

Respect to MU defense...they were much better than I thought.

[DocNice]

Sorry. Suh's taking Gabbert down was not dirty. He was behind him and there was no way for him to know that Gabbert no longer had the ball. Good play. Sorry that Gabbert got hurt but it wasn't malicious . . . unlike Weatherspoon punching McNeill in the back as he laid on the ground.

 

No offense . . . but your ballyhooed receivers were totally outclassed by Nebraska's "banged up, slow secondary."

 

Ugly game.

 

Well, your secondary certainly played much better than I expected. I don't know how much credit I'm willing to give just yet for being an elite squad. I think the credit really goes to your defensive line for getting pressure with 4 down linemen, allowing you to drop 7 into coverage. I mean, when we had 5 pro receivers on the field at the same time with a Heisman finalist QB, we could overcome that. With 2 all conference level receivers and a good but young QB with a bad plant foot, well, that's what happens with 7 in coverage. I still like our receivers and still think we have one of the best units in the conference, but there's only so much you can do.

[cscott2win]

It's a lot easier to be humble in victory than defeat so I applaud you Doc. I'm thinking we are beat and all of the sudden......... I also thought the refs called this one really bad but equally for each side. It has been that way in all games. I have never seen so many bogus personal fouls for hits and not just Husker games. I disagree on Suh's hit on Gabbert however. Is he supposed to lay him down gently? Get there in a hurry and come with bad intentions. But regardless it was probably only a great game to watch for Husker and Tiger fans and I'm sure the media will call both teams as sloppy. Looks like you'll catch a break against OK lite with all their turmoil and the North title is far from decided. Good luck the rest of the year and I hope you check back in and forgive us for our koolaide drinkin habits!!!

[DocNice]

I'll admit that I gave Missouri less credit than I should have. I've watched their games, and I was honestly not seeing a team that should have competed with us in the trenches. Our D Line did what I thought they would do, but your D Line was VERY impressive. I'm concerned about a repeat of 2008 Oklahoma if our O Line doesn't do better. Hats off to the Tigers for playing damned gutsy and just stellar on defense.

 

Through three quarters this game was Missouri's. After all those stats I pulled, all the games I'd watched, I was just sitting there shaking my head. Straight up, you guys won 3/4 of that game.

 

The fourth quarter... weird. Nobody can blame those TDs on Missouri's defense. They played tough and were put in difficult situations. Two of our TDs could easily have been picked off.

 

Good luck with the rest of your season, and make sure you take Kansas down. We'll be rooting for you there.

 

 

Respect to MU defense...they were much better than I thought.

 

Thanks, though I do think NU's got some soul searching to do on their passing game. You just can't allow teams to stack the box like that against you. Or at least you gotta make them pay. Maybe the rain had something to do with it too.

[huskerstuckinmichigan]

I'll admit that I gave Missouri less credit than I should have. I've watched their games, and I was honestly not seeing a team that should have competed with us in the trenches. Our D Line did what I thought they would do, but your D Line was VERY impressive. I'm concerned about a repeat of 2008 Oklahoma if our O Line doesn't do better. Hats off to the Tigers for playing damned gutsy and just stellar on defense.

 

Through three quarters this game was Missouri's. After all those stats I pulled, all the games I'd watched, I was just sitting there shaking my head. Straight up, you guys won 3/4 of that game.

 

The fourth quarter... weird. Nobody can blame those TDs on Missouri's defense. They played tough and were put in difficult situations. Two of our TDs could easily have been picked off.

 

Good luck with the rest of your season, and make sure you take Kansas down. We'll be rooting for you there.

 

In the end it's about who makes plays. You made them. I wouldn't worry about the Offensive line. I told you guys we have some really good talent there, and I also said the strength of our run defense was the perimeter. You kept running into our strength. You did a lot better at the end punching it right at us, and that might be a little bit of the coaches fault for not calling a beter game.

 

 

No doubt! Even the commentaitors were puzzled by the play calling of the Huskers. They even kept saying quit waisting downs and run the ball up the middle.

[EbylHusker]

Oh btw, it's f'ing hilarious you think Suh's tackle on Gabbert was dirty. The refs had no problem calling personal fouls out there, often on "fouls" that were questionable. So why was there no flag? Because it wasn't dirty, it was a tackle and Gabbert just happened to get twisted up. You made a pretty good post, but the little QQ there shows you to be nothing more than the usual tool.