If push comes to Plan B

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Linky-Dinky-Doo

 

If Push Comes to Plan B...

Commentary: NU QB Zac Lee needs to be ready to deliver

by Samuel McKewon

 

December 02, 2009

 

Bo Pelini stood near midfield of the Hawks Center on Wednesday night, stretching his left arm dramatically, as if a gull working out some feathery kinks. Somebody pitched him a ball. A southpaw, Nebraska's head coach cocked and threw – not gorgeous, but efficient – aiming to hit the makeshift south goalpost hanging from the rafters.

 

Bong! Right on the crossbar. Pelini nodded his head and engaged in a bit of strut. If you want to know why Bo's players would bum rush a barbed-wire fence on his command, this is one of those moments. Half of the team is laughing, watching. They want a shot.

 

But they're not the starting quarterback. Zac Lee, smiling – and meaning it – wraps his fingers around the laces. His turn.

 

***

 

He's a manager now. That guy in the tie at the grocery store who fixes all the little messes, locates the tapioca in aisle five and occasionally works register. That's Lee, the junior quarterback from San Francisco charged with leading NU's offense into the Big 12 Championship vs. Texas.

 

I don't mean it is as a knock. The Pig and Whistle needs a tie guy. The Cornhuskers' offense - flush with creaky linemen, mercurial running backs and an offensive coordinator on the Woody Hayes ego diet - needed Lee to be just who he was for the last month, starting with his first touchdown pass vs. Oklahoma. Safe. Smart. In bed by ten.

 

Aside from a brief lapse vs. Kansas State, Lee's been just that: 40-of-63 for 470 yards, three touchdowns, a single interception.

 

“The stats may not be pretty, the game may not be pretty – but really the only thing that matters is that we've been winning,” Lee said. “Doesn't matter how that may look.”

 

Has someone ever told you “don't blow it, OK?” Reassuring like a Denver boot, right? Shawn Watson's gameplan has been a month of measured expectations. An ego diet for him. Even moreso for Lee, who had to harness a quarterback's instinct to be the solution, rather than merely another integer in the equation.

 

“The quarterback has opportunity to make something happen, but sometimes the best thing a quarterback can do is take off and run or make a good decision with it,” Lee said.

 

That's one of the things I've learned this year. There's a bunch of plays in a game where a quarterback can make a decision that will swing momentum one way or another.”

 

The risk aversion worked. Nebraska's defense kept delivering one miraculous play after another. The Oklahoma masterpiece was just the beginning. Strip-n-recovers inside the five-yard line vs. Kansas and Kansas State helped seal those wins. Colorado shot itself in the foot. Baylor did, too, although Lee didn't play a down in that game.

 

“We won five games because we played conservative,” Watson said. “We've played field position, used our special teams, set up field position and we've rushed the football. We're doing three things really well.”

 

But 12-0 Texas is not a comedy of errors like the Buffs and Bears. Colt McCoy's 44 wins is more than than the five opposing quarterbacks had combined during NU's five-game winning streak. McCoy's averaging almost 400 yards of total offense per game in the last month. He won't react to pressure like OU's Landry Jones did a month ago. UT's kicker, Hunter Lawrence, is among the best in the league. He's not likely to shank a 30-yarder.

 

As good as Nebraska's defense has become – 3rd nationally in points per game and 11th nationally in total yards – Texas' offense is, stunningly, a mirror image: 3rd and 11th. The very definition of a stalemate.

 

It's just wishful thinking to presume NU can average seven punts per game – as it has for the last month – and expect the Blackshirts to produce the same results on a neutral-to-hostile field against arguably the nation's best quarterback in a game the Longhorns want just as badly as the Huskers.

 

And equally wishful to think that Texas A&M's successful running game on Thanksgiving paved the way for Nebraska to do the same. If anything, Texas learned its lesson last week. Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp hasn't spent the last seven years manning the sour cream gun at a Taco Bell. He'll fix it.

 

Cue Plan B. Cue the kid at midfield, with the ball, trying to hit a goalpost.

 

Lee didn't, by the way. He threw too long once. Then too short. It's like the longest, toughest game of horseshoes, and Pelini hit the ringer on the first try. That wasn't the point, I suspect. Rather, Pelini's trying to loosen up his QB, who may be faced with a touchdown-or-more deficit right away, in the first quarter.

 

“We have to be ready to respond no matter what happens,” Pelini said. “If that means managing the game, great. If that means we need him to throw four touchdown passes, let's go.”

 

When Lee was challenged at KU, he rose to it, playing his best game. Earlier in the year vs. Texas Tech, he gave in to the pressure.

 

On Saturday, Texas will force Lee to find out how far he's really come. Instead of wasting it on a after-practice game with Bo, maybe he kept that ringer up his sleeve for Dallas.

 

[hskrfan4life]

 

 

When Lee was challenged at KU, he rose to it, playing his best game. Earlier in the year vs. Texas Tech, he gave in to the pressure.

 

On Saturday, Texas will force Lee to find out how far he's really come. Instead of wasting it on a after-practice game with Bo, maybe he kept that ringer up his sleeve for Dallas.

 

We will see if he will give into the pressure or not come saturday.

[RockyMountainOySker]

Good article....well written.

 

Thanks for posting!

[Guy Chamberlin]

 

 

When Lee was challenged at KU, he rose to it, playing his best game. Earlier in the year vs. Texas Tech, he gave in to the pressure.

 

On Saturday, Texas will force Lee to find out how far he's really come. Instead of wasting it on a after-practice game with Bo, maybe he kept that ringer up his sleeve for Dallas.

 

We will see if he will give into the pressure or not come saturday.

 

 

Are you suggesting that the game will determine the outcome?

[Vince from ShamWOW]

The playing "not to lose" mentality has got to go. I thought it went when Callafraud was shown the door. I see his leftover still has it.

[HuckFoley]

The playing "not to lose" mentality has got to go.

 

 

so true Vince, so so true

[JTrain]

"...manning the sour cream gun..."

 

[SOCALHUSKER]

The playing "not to lose" mentality has got to go. I thought it went when Callafraud was shown the door. I see his leftover still has it.

Couldn't have said it better myself!!

[Huskerballz]

I hope Lee walks onto the field on Saturday wearing a husker tie.

[SOCALHUSKER]

I hope Lee walks onto the field on Saturday wearing a husker tie.

 

That would be funny!!

[dubsker]

The playing "not to lose" mentality has got to go. I thought it went when Callafraud was shown the door. I see his leftover still has it.

 

I don't care how they win as long as they win. Hey guy it's not 1997 anymore. And whats more, this is totally Bo's doing. Do you honestly think that Watson would be calling games like this if it were up to him? "Leftover..." lol.

[BeachBuffs]

Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp hasn't spent the last seven years manning the sour cream gun at a Taco Bell. He'll fix it.

 

Epic....lol

[Husker_x]

I don't care who we're playing, right now the offense's first job is to not do anything stupid. Call it conservatism, but winning the kicking battles and taking our shots when we're there is how Texas is going to be won or lost. You can NOT get into a shootout with Colt McCoy. Frankly I don't think our offense is even packing against that defense.

 

Should Lee go deep? Of course, as often as a receiver is wide open. Is he the key to the game? He'd better not be. Helu/Burkhead are going to run to victory or limp to defeat. We're in a position again where no matter how good our defense is, you simply can't let McCoy out TOP you in this game. He's too good. You have to win this won like the others. Pound your way into the fourth quarter, then seal it away at the last minute.

[Husker_x]

Double

[Husker_x]

Triple post. Holy hell. Mods, there's a leak in the board pipes.