Assessment

[bbeerma2]

We appear to be heads and tails above OU and UT based on their performances today. Really the only conference that looked solid all day was the Big Ten. The future is bright boys!

[bshirt]

The issue with Taylor you will never get from the stats is the degree to which he limits how we can attack defenses through the air. We're not going to do very well running simple reads against top tier opponents. I don't know if you can really say he looked good in his passing today. There was no way he was going to be put in a position to not build confidence from his passing stats.

 

Of course that's true that he'll probably never be a J. Namath, D. Marino, etc passing threat but with his explosive running he doesn't need to be.

 

I know I sound like a broken record but one last time......Gill, Frost, Frazier, Crouch, etc were not (or even close to) D. Marino's either. So yeah...the old,tired excuse "we don't run the option anymore". While true, it's surely obvious to me we're getting closer to that every year.

 

Ah zoogies.....my good friend. You'll adapt just fine.

 

I'm sure I will. You couldn't have found a guy that hated going to the WCO from the option more than me.

 

Nonetheless...what I'm getting at is, people look at Taylor and say "Wow, he's a dual threat, he opens things up on the offense." I say, not really. He gives you a new threat in some area, but then he takes away threats that you had before in other areas. By the same measure, Zac Lee is no Eric Crouch, but with his passing, he doesn't need to be. Me, I would still take someone who can be the best threat in the passing game, while only adequate as a runner, to someone who is electric as a runner but has a ways to go as a passer. Coach Bo, obviously, feels differently.

 

 

Oh, I get it. I see your point and it's a good one. Sadly though, I'm afraid Bo's going the opposite direction you want.

 

But with enough "wins" you'll hack it.

[typ3kal]

The issue with Taylor you will never get from the stats is the degree to which he limits how we can attack defenses through the air. We're not going to do very well running simple reads against top tier opponents. I don't know if you can really say he looked good in his passing today. There was no way he was going to be put in a position to not build confidence from his passing stats.

 

Of course that's true that he'll probably never be a J. Namath, D. Marino, etc passing threat but with his explosive running he doesn't need to be.

 

I know I sound like a broken record but one last time......Gill, Frost, Frazier, Crouch, etc were not (or even close to) D. Marino's either. So yeah...the old,tired excuse "we don't run the option anymore". While true, it's surely obvious to me we're getting closer to that every year.

 

Ah zoogies.....my good friend. You'll adapt just fine.

 

I'm sure I will. You couldn't have found a guy that hated going to the WCO from the option more than me.

 

Nonetheless...what I'm getting at is, people look at Taylor and say "Wow, he's a dual threat, he opens things up on the offense." I say, not really. He gives you a new threat in some area, but then he takes away threats that you had before in other areas. By the same measure, Zac Lee is no Eric Crouch, but with his passing, he doesn't need to be. Me, I would still take someone who can be the best threat in the passing game, while only adequate as a runner, to someone who is electric as a runner but has a ways to go as a passer. Coach Bo, obviously, feels differently.

 

Totally agree with your assessment. It's nearly the same as mine. I felt that the play calling for Martinez was nearly training wheel like. When Cody was in he seemed to stretch the field and throw a few good deep balls. Tmart's deep throw were inaccurate and a little under thrown. When we start Big12 play I think it's pretty safe to assume we won't be seeing too much of Zac Lee. My only concern with Tmart is if our Oline isn't blocking the run well up front, how well will he work behind center if he isn't able to stretch the field. The difference between Tmart and Cody is that Tmart tries to break ankles and Cody tries to bull defenders over.

[Blackshirt316]

People ragging on the D need to remember 2 things.

 

1. Statistically this game was FAR better than last years opening game.

 

2. We had ZERO clue what this team was going to do offensively. The team basically spent film sessions watching Stanford offensive footage and Kansas defensive footage because thats really all we had to go on for these guys.

 

Had to figure they'd start putting some yards up in the 2nd half after seeing a ton of film of our defense as well as a full half of our that defense against their personel and we really had a small picture of what their offensive playbook was like.

 

 

Most of our issues are mental, those are issues that can be cleaned up... at least this game we didn't have a half dozen false start penalties.

[NUpolo8]

Bo's assessment of the defense.

 

"We were an absolute embarassment on defense"

 

Might be a little strong, but then again, might not be.

 

I don't think so. There was talk about WKU being the worst team to ever come through Memorial Stadium, and definitely did not look quite that way tonight. But it's the first game of the season.

 

 

The 1997 Akron Zips demand your attention.

[blackshirts5115]

the defense last year gave up 350 yards in game one to FAU. anyone thinking the defense will suck this year is wrong. we're gonna do more blitzing than last year, and we're obviously not going to show Washington our blitzes against a cupcake opponent. the defense will give up some more yards and maybe some more points than last year, but we will create more turnovers with a combination of tricky blitzes and sticky cornerbacks.

 

as for the offense, here's how i think of it. yes, Martinez will be shaky throwing the ball. but was that not the case for Lee all of last year? clearly t-marts running abilities will make the offense WAY better than it was last year. if teams blitz and Martinez escapes out of the pocket, watch out. automatic 15 yards. if teams don't blitz, he'll have plenty of time to find a receiver from our MUCH improved receiving corps.

 

Defense = some drop off from last year, but more turnovers which will lead to more points. dont forget how crazy-dominant our defense was last year. destroying Colt McCoy? basically holding Arizona to under 100 yards of offense? it was unreal. a slight drop off and we still have a top 5 defense.

 

Offense = maybe still just an average CFB offense, but after last year.. i'd die for an average offense.

 

Combine these factors with a decently-favorable schedule, and going undefeated is VERY possible.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Oh one other comment....

 

The wave attempt in the stands....fail

[Fuzzy]

I thought the Offensive Line was suppose to be better this year, and as far as i could tell, it didn't really improve at all. They had their moments, but too many times did i see the OL break down around T-Mart, he had great pocket presense, but its only going to get harder if the OL continues to look as bad as they did.

 

Defense was a little bit rusty, im sure they will shake it off and come out strong over the next coming weeks.

 

Player of the game: Lavonte David, the position struggles, and the fact they needed someone to step up and take charge, the timing. It couldn't be better. I'm glad to see Lavonte David out there playing and showing he has what it takes to be out there on the field.

 

Dofus of the Game: Ricky Henry. The holding calls, false starts and the missed blocking assignments that i saw. In case no one told you Ricky, its the beginning of the football season, get the lead out buddy.

[Blackshirtsguru]

After watching this game I think the Huskers have a lot of things to work on, on both sides of the ball. Against a team who has a 20 game losing streak, I thought we would throw up 70 points on them. Yes our Offense did well but to be honest, this was against a 119th ranked Defense last year. I thought our middle OL didn't do all that well. Paul did his usual dropping passes and fumbling that he has known to do every game. Our DL looked very soft at times. Especially up the middle. I did notice that out DT's were slanting and were getting pushed around. Lee showed why he wasn't the starter. The kid was on and off, like he was all of last year. I think these things that I mentioned are minor, and Bo and his staff will have them ironed out before we take on Washington.

[Enhance]

Oh one other comment....

 

The wave attempt in the stands....fail

Every time it got started by the students the rest of the stadium would fail it up at some point. I also noticed it kept getting started and then something really interesting would happen on the field and people would pay attention again.

[bbeerma2]

Bo Pelini knows defense. He is about as good as they come as far as defensive minds. It seems to me that Bo Pelini, the Head Coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, would use this knowledge to his advantage. Do you think he sits idly by and asks Shawn Watson who is the starter at each position. I'd imagine he would give some advice along the lines of "This individual would be hardest for me to prepare for." In this respects, all this concern over position battles is probably more meaningless than we are making it out to be. Bo Pelini would like the players we use on offense to be hardest for one of his elite defenses to stop, therefore improving the offense. Maybe we can think of this more often rather than adding one more ridiculous thread on top of the pile that I am now adding one to.

[Toejam&Earl]

Looked up some stats from last year's opener vs. FAU and compared them to this

year's opener. The stats were so similar that I had to go back and watch the

game to see what took place. Here are some stats pulled from huskers.com

 

Vs. WKU

 

Vs. FAU

 

 

I thought these were pretty interesting, and watching the NU/FAU

game again made me realize how much more potential there really

was in this year's game than last year's. Pelini did more

than shore up the defense last year, and I have absolutely no

reason to expect anything different this year. The big difference

is that this year we have multiple legitimate threats on offense.

[hskerprid]

The issue with Taylor you will never get from the stats is the degree to which he limits how we can attack defenses through the air. We're not going to do very well running simple reads against top tier opponents. I don't know if you can really say he looked good in his passing today. There was no way he was going to be put in a position to not build confidence from his passing stats.

 

Of course that's true that he'll probably never be a J. Namath, D. Marino, etc passing threat but with his explosive running he doesn't need to be.

 

I know I sound like a broken record but one last time......Gill, Frost, Frazier, Crouch, etc were not (or even close to) D. Marino's either. So yeah...the old,tired excuse "we don't run the option anymore". While true, it's surely obvious to me we're getting closer to that every year.

 

Ah zoogies.....my good friend. You'll adapt just fine.

But let's not forget that Martinez doesn't have the line that the above QB's did.

[Enhance]

People ragging on the D need to remember 2 things.

 

1. Statistically this game was FAR better than last years opening game.

 

2. We had ZERO clue what this team was going to do offensively. The team basically spent film sessions watching Stanford offensive footage and Kansas defensive footage because thats really all we had to go on for these guys.

 

Had to figure they'd start putting some yards up in the 2nd half after seeing a ton of film of our defense as well as a full half of our that defense against their personel and we really had a small picture of what their offensive playbook was like.

 

 

Most of our issues are mental, those are issues that can be cleaned up... at least this game we didn't have a half dozen false start penalties.

I agree with Bo when he sees the week one game is always the most exciting game but also the one that makes you the most nervous, because you really have no idea what to expect.

 

I look at what you are saying two ways though. We didn't know what they were going to do, but they also didn't know exactly what we were going to do. They might have spent a significant time defending the Wildcat yet we didn't run it once last night.

 

To me, week one is a game you get under your belt and move on from. Don't take a lot from it.

[jsneb83]

People ragging on the D need to remember 2 things.

 

1. Statistically this game was FAR better than last years opening game.

 

2. We had ZERO clue what this team was going to do offensively. The team basically spent film sessions watching Stanford offensive footage and Kansas defensive footage because thats really all we had to go on for these guys.

 

Had to figure they'd start putting some yards up in the 2nd half after seeing a ton of film of our defense as well as a full half of our that defense against their personel and we really had a small picture of what their offensive playbook was like.

 

 

Most of our issues are mental, those are issues that can be cleaned up... at least this game we didn't have a half dozen false start penalties.

I agree with Bo when he sees the week one game is always the most exciting game but also the one that makes you the most nervous, because you really have no idea what to expect.

 

I look at what you are saying two ways though. We didn't know what they were going to do, but they also didn't know exactly what we were going to do. They might have spent a significant time defending the Wildcat yet we didn't run it once last night.

 

To me, week one is a game you get under your belt and move on from. Don't take a lot from it.

I think they were actually preparing for us thinking Zac was starting and were preparing for more of he offense we ran last year, the the power running game or the spread zone read w/ a slower qb and aerial attack. They probably weren't preparing Martinez to start let alone not having anybody on their team as fast as him.