Heads held high-But questions remain

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Linky-Dinky-Doo

 

Of course you're sick this morning. Drained. Ticked off. Shaking your fist at the lords of football, who like to play Texas Lucy to Nebraska's Charlie Brown.

 

UT 13 NU 12. Feels like a thump to the gut, doesn't it? Stinkin' Texas.

 

Well, savor the punch. Enjoy the pain. It's been awhile since it's hurt this much. The loss Saturday night dampens spirits in the short-term - and robs NU of some extra BCS cash – but it'll sharpen the Cornhuskers in the offseason.

 

You might as well put the 00:01 on all the Memorial Stadium clocks.

 

The Huskers have their ax to grind for 2010. Nearly 16 years after the eerily-similar 1994 Orange Bowl – NU as the underdog, the controversial calls, the dominating defense, the boneheaded penalties – there is, once again, the very definition of unfinished business.

 

No matter what happens in the bowl game – think Holiday, think the younger Stoops' scrappy Arizona bunch – Nebraska defined its 2009 season with 60 minute of physical, emotional football inside Cowboys Stadium. It's one thing to preach “us against the world.” It's another to actually play like it, drawing admiration and respect, I'm sure, from a giant television audience who expected to watch two quarters of UT's coronation pageant to Pasadena and instead were treated to four hours gladiatorial defense.

 

The Brothers Pelini had Texas' offense – and its dazed, shattered quarterback, Colt McCoy – dead to rights. Schemed perfectly. The blitzes -except for one, on 3rd-and-16 in the fourth quarter - were smart. Dejon Gomes was spectacular. Barry Turner went into Beast Mode. Prince Amukamara and Eric Hagg mostly held up under withering pressure.

 

“They proved tonight: They can line up across from anyone in the country and whip their tails,” defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said. “That's what we did: 200 total yards.”

 

And Ndamukong Suh? Well – you saw him, didn't you? It's Heisman time.

 

“If Suh didn't win the Heisman tonight, it's a disgrace to college football,” Pelini said.

 

McCoy was reduced, mostly, to throwing jump balls to Jordan Shipley and Malcolm Williams. A few worked. A few drew costly NU penalties. Most of them were quails thrown into the bleachers. Nebraska beat up him up – physically and mentally. (If Texas doesn't luck out, and Hunter Lawrence doesn't nail that kick, McCoy maybe doesn't recover. For years. You saw it on his panic-stricken face. He needed that win like a liver transplant.)

 

NU's special teams, aside from one wayward kickoff from Adi Kunalic, were superb. Alex Henery pounded out four field goals – second team All Big 12, eh? - and punted so Shipley couldn't make a big return. Niles Paul had two clutch returns. Eric Martin blocked a punt.

 

In two phases of the game, the Huskers did practically everything right. And those are the two phases into which head coach Bo Pelini has poured the bulk of his authority and trust.

 

The utter failure of Nebraska's offense is why a loss, painful as it is now, is ultimately beneficial to Bo.

 

Saturday night, there was no “winning formula” to hide behind. Nebraska, after all, didn't win. Bo didn't make many excuses for his offense after the loss, and he shouldn't. The Huskers gained 106 total yards. They were awful.

 

The offensive line, slow and injured, had no answer for Texas' speed and blind commitment to the stop the run. Nebraska's receivers couldn't shake UT's cornerbacks downfield. Roy Helu ran without balance or ballast. Rex Burkhead did, but never had a decent hole in which to apply it.

 

Zac Lee ran the option like a high school freshman. He lacks a ounce of wiggle in his running style, and he is bound, in the bowl game or next year, to separate a shoulder or sustain a concussion if he keeps it up. Many of his passes were hopeful balloons tossed into coverage. Lee cannot throw a competent fade route near the end zone. His short passes are darts. Sometimes catchable, sometimes not.

 

Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson's playbook has been reduced to a shell of its former self. He didn't call a single trick play. Not a single toss play. Not a single option pass. No bubble or tunnel screens. No empty sets. No throws to Mike McNeill. No deep shots to anyone but Paul. It was a ridiculous plan relying on an otherworldly performance from the defense.

 

“We have to develop our quarterback and develop our receivers and keep working,” Watson said afterward. He then said, on four separate occasions in five minutes, that NU's offense had “a lot of growing up to do.” And not by getting taller.

 

Well, it shouldn't take two years for that to happen. Lee's been in Lincoln nearly three years. Aside from Brandon Kinnie and Khiry Cooper, all of Nebraska's receivers had spent ample time in the program. Why haven't they been developed already? How can Gomes step into a much more difficult role as a hybrid cornerback/linebacker and become a stud, while Lee and his receivers – aside from Paul – have regressed?

 

And what gave the coaches such jitters about Cody Green? What – he couldn't have thrown for 39 yards and three interceptions Saturday night?

 

Watson doesn't have to answer to the media. He does have to answer to Bo. And this pitiful showing allows Bo to open the door to change. Whatever it is – NU should take the bowl game, and all practices leading up to it, to start, to at least begin addressing what this offense became during the last half of the season, and whether Lee can be reasonably salvaged as a big-time college quarterback. If not – work like mad to get Green ready and rehab Kody Spano, whom, by the sound of it, was the most mature guy on the bunch before he twice tore up his knee.

 

Scheme, personnel, coaching staff – all of it should be up for grabs. Especially if Turner Gill goes to Kansas, and happens to be looking for some offensive help.

 

Bo has to be bold here. Nebraska showed Saturday – it's close. Actually, it's even closer than that. Add a heavy dose of angst, and NU is the Big 12 show pony in 2010.

[Husker_x]

I've gone back and forth on this quite a bit. Watson has problems. Both Cotton and Gilmore baffle me. Our receivers don't seem to get any better after a year's worth of coaching. This isn't September. You've had time to gain valuable experience, and you still produce a 106 yard effort on a national stage with a defense who through example and motivation alone should rocket you up to a slightly less pathetic 200 yards.