Was the offense exposed tonight?

[Husker Z]

Don't get too high and don't get too low after a win/loss.

 

This^^

 

You could see this game coming from a mile away, not necessarily THIS close but... After last weeks pasting of Washington, these kids came back to a LOT of fan fare and headlines and ESPN stories and National Title talk and heisman talk, etc, etc. Then they see SDSU on the schedule with an off week coming after that and you just KNOW they thought they could roll their helmets out there and win by 60. It also sounds like the coaches had a similar mindset and didn't take them seriously and I would bet almost anything they spent quite a bit of time on KSU last week as well. Then, by the time TM fumbled the first snap and SDSU smacked them in the face a couple of times, it's too late by then, you are in scramble mode and trying to get everyone on the team back on the same page and it just doesn't happen. They didn't beat SDSU, they simply out talented them. This was a classic "look ahead" game in every sense. Even Gilmore said in his Big Red Breakfast that it was a "trap" game and everyone laughed. Just a lose-lose situation, no matter what.

 

I don't know where the team will go from here, but from what we've seen from Bo since he's been here, he'll use this game to motivate the team and get them ready for conference play. Nothing like scare from a D-II team to get your guys focused and convince them that if they don't play 100% every week, they WILL lose, no if ands or buts about it.

 

I'm glad we have a week off and I fully expect to see a TOTALLY different team hit the field next Thursday. One that will be breathing fire and flying all over the field and an offense that will impose its will on a smaller, less talented ksu team and punch them in the face from whistle to whistle.

 

It's gut check time now fellas, no way around it, I hope they are up to it. Knowing what we know about Bo and his guys, I'm still pretty optimistic.

 

GO BIG RED!

[Jeremy]

We utilized maybe 1/12th of the playbook, and ran the same play over and over. Watson is definitely keeping his cards covered until conference play. That said, there were several plays where linemen missed assignments, and Helu/Burkhead were running into unblocked defenders at the point of attack.

[Ponderosa]

Guess I am part of the "koolaid gang".

 

Yeah sure I'd prefer a 70-3 blow-out. But I see this as "progress" for Coach Pelini and staff.

 

It could have be the Iowa State game again (but even worse).

The stats are similar - so was the nature of the opponent (hungry, local, overlooked)

 

But this time the game was won and with a rookie QB.

This only the beginning of his third season. Back to one game at a time.

 

It is a very positive sign. Hell it is a great sign.

KSU will have a long day.

 

[epocSoN]

Any offense that gets shut down by South Dakota State is not *great*. I think we have the potential to be good, but for some reason the coaches didn't feel like only being up a touchdown or two was enough reason to expand the playbook, and play them like any other D1 team. We played obvious and predictable, and an obvious team should never come out with a W. I don't think we will see that team that took the field against SDSU for the rest of the year though.

 

BTW Worse call of the game.... putting Green in at QB on the 1 yd line.... seriously? After what happened in Washington?

[holvy83]

This was the "trap" game for the year, I hope... What I saw was more mental than anything and one fired up SDSU team that were not just going to lay down for NU. There did not look like anyone had any fire in them in this game, lackluster at best.

[funhusker]

BTW Worse call of the game.... putting Green in at QB on the 1 yd line.... seriously? After what happened in Washington?

 

I disagree. Cody is a man at running the sneak. That's why he went into the Texas game the way he did. He can get you 2-3 yards of breathing room easily. Green is 6-4, 230lbs; Martinez is 6-1, 195lbs and not as strong.

 

Green's fumble was a week ago, Martinez' fumbles were in the same game.

 

IMHO

[Joe_5700]

You guys keep mentioning the ISU game in relation to the SDSU game. I am guessing you are referring to the 2009 game where our offense was actually productive. I would compare this game more to the 1992 ISU game which had similar piss poor play against an inferior team. What is shocking is Minett was the entire offense for SDSU and he was never fully stopped.

 

I fear if our offense gets shut down again (and it will), and we put in Green we will have the same results. Martinez has shown he can make some throws, but he has missed some throws so badly that you can only scratch your head. Green also looked horrible throwing the ball on Saturday too.

 

Against K-State we have to find a way to stop the run. Thomas>Minnet. K-State O-line>SDSU O-line. I really hope the last game was an issue with focus and not respecting SDSU.

[epocSoN]

It just seemed obvious that our team didn't care about the game much more than they just wanted a W. I'm guess I'm glad they got their wake up call now, rather than the 3rd quarter against Texas.

[Husker Z]

I really hope the last game was an issue with focus and not respecting SDSU.

 

From the comments I've read from both players and coaches, I put 99% of Saturday's effort on this. Nobody wanted to play this game, they just wanted to get to the bye week. Then, by the time they got punched in the mouth, it was too late, just thank our lucky stars our loss column still reads 0. Sure, we'll take some beating in the press and there will be non-husker co-workers bagging on them and other big 12 teams just let out a sigh of relief thinking that we aren't NEAR as good as people thought, but, in the end, we are at 4-0 with ALL of our goals still ahead of us, every single one of them.

 

On to the next one fellas!

[Blackshirt39]

You guys keep mentioning the ISU game in relation to the SDSU game. I am guessing you are referring to the 2009 game where our offense was actually productive. I would compare this game more to the 1992 ISU game which had similar piss poor play against an inferior team. What is shocking is Minett was the entire offense for SDSU and he was never fully stopped.

 

I fear if our offense gets shut down again (and it will), and we put in Green we will have the same results. Martinez has shown he can make some throws, but he has missed some throws so badly that you can only scratch your head. Green also looked horrible throwing the ball on Saturday too.

 

Against K-State we have to find a way to stop the run. Thomas>Minnet. K-State O-line>SDSU O-line. I really hope the last game was an issue with focus and not respecting SDSU.

 

The hard reality is that Martinez is only a freshmen and Green is only a Sophomore. Up until now Taylor has played like a veteran but we had to know that a game like this was coming, and I agree that it will happen again. But the bright side is that with his struggles he managed 215 yds and still scored enough points to win. The down side is Watson really doesn't allow Taylor to develop a rhythm, so far its has been predictable and situational passing attack. Green just doesn't seem to get playing time in a manageable situation. He is always backed up in our own territory.

 

Don't sell Minnet too short also. I agree that Thomas is a better back on a better team but Minnet is a beast of a back. My brother played against Minnet in high school and this dude tore up teams for 200-350 yds a game(and I'm not exaggerating the stats are there). Minnet holds about every high school rushing record in Minnesota.

[74Hunter]

No not really. The plan was to win this game without revealing anything we haven't already done.. they did that. The only problem tonight is that the offense was extremely lazy and uninterested and that killed their execution of a simple but what should have been effective gameplan against a team they just had to get off the bus to beat.

 

Sure they could have opened the playbook up a bit but why do that when you simply don't need to? Going forward we're not going to be anywhere close to as simple as they were tonight (I'd hope not anyway) and wrinkles and other formations will open up the plays we did tonight as well as the ones we've used over the past couple weeks. If execution tonight was more about being lazy and uninterested in a team that would maybe give the scout team a good scrimmage...then we'll be fine. If they continue to play down to the opponents level and make boneheaded mental errors then we could be in trouble...

 

but that isn't something that was or was not exposed tonight.

Good Answer

I disagree. This game was in question all night. We were a play or two away from allowing SDSt. to tie the game, they needed to do enough to at least win convincingly.

[EZ-E]

If you watch the replay they didn't really stack the box on us at all. We lacked complete focus. We had guys running different plays than the ones that were called.

 

The only thing that I think was exposed was that we were looking past this one.

[JOEY]

If you watch the replay they didn't really stack the box on us at all. We lacked complete focus. We had guys running different plays than the ones that were called.

 

The only thing that I think was exposed was that we were looking past this one.

I noticed that after Taylor kept the ball on the zone read keeps that there was 2-3 guys in his lane everytime.

[EZ-E]

If you watch the replay they didn't really stack the box on us at all. We lacked complete focus. We had guys running different plays than the ones that were called.

 

The only thing that I think was exposed was that we were looking past this one.

I noticed that after Taylor kept the ball on the zone read keeps that there was 2-3 guys in his lane everytime.

 

That, and there is a play that I remember specifically when Roy got tackled for something like a 7 yard loss after he was handed the ball on the zone read, McNeil was running the opposite way when you would imagine he is supposed to run and block for Roy Parallel to the LOS with him, then our RT was actually in pass protection. That made me

 

We played poorly, we were not focused, and we flat out were not prepared. But we were by no means "exposed."

[JOEY]

EZ-E What do you think we are going to do to gameplan against K-State on offense? What do you think is the most vulnerable part of there defense? It seem like UCF had a pretty easy time running the ball with there QB, he just kept dropping back in the pocket and kept taking off in the middle of the field and the left side of the O-Line.