Dear Shawn Watson,

[hack]

My views, feel free to disagree...

 

1) The vitriol directed at Taylor is over the top. Cut his scholarship fund? Taylor sucks? Freshman had a rough game, but that's unmerited IMO. Another example of hype becoming a player's downfall. More moderate voices since the beginning of the year nailed the situation for what it is: Taylor is an athlete at QB, who brings explosion and the big play to the offense while being completely raw as a passer, and prone to cold spells, and extreme cases of nerves. I felt Taylor should not have started, and that's why. But Taylor doesn't suck either...and attitude or not, shouldn't deserve the kind of hate he is all of a sudden getting. I guess I did become a fan of the guy over the games, even while acknowledging that he's a potential bomb waiting to explode and implode the team. Which is a separate issue. I thought Taylor battled quite well tonight and made it obvious he is here to stay. He was hurting quite badly by the end, physically and emotionally. The fact is that he has significantly degressed since the Ok St. game. I see it as a result of posiion coaching (Watson ) in what has turned a mobile and very athletic qb who can throw quite well when he's feeling it into a statue pocket passer. Even against ok st. when he threw for over 300 yards, he also ran for over 100 by making plays with his feet when the pressure came. He didnt even attempt that tonight and it was sickening. Freshman or not, hurt or not, it's poor coaching b/c he has considerably digressed.

 

2) Defense: you got owned. 17 of Oklahoma's 23 points at least were directly caused by three huge plays given up by the secondary. Cassidy, Hagg, and pretty much everyone (I guess it was Dennard's man). These are good players in a very good defensive system. But these three plays are more costly than I could even begin talking about. There was a lot of good defense today, and a lot of sharpness from Jones with his pinpoint passes. But there was also some giving up big runs up the middle (DL?...) and those three ugly, inexcusable plays. You cannot expect to go against a quality offensive team and make THREE miscues like that, and still expect to win. FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY FIVE YARDS today by the Sooners. I will not call for anyone's heads though. But just think about that. 4-5-5. Strong disagreement here. Defense gave up two drive with no excuse but the rest of the game, 455 yards and 23 points i thought was very impressive considereing how many plays they ran. Just like last year when they had 380 yards with 85 plays. Defense did what they had to do and they just simply got tired into the 4th with our incompetent o constantly turning it over and going 3 and out time and again in the 3rd. Fact is, the D made two huge 3 and out stands despite the exhaustion late in the 4th deep in ou territory to give us good field position twice.

 

3) Starting Taylor. Watson called a great game early. The fourth down playaction was ballsy and masterful. Then Taylor loses his cool and doesn't regain it for the rest of the game. Taylor was not prepared to play today IMO. I don't know what to say since we are so thin at QB and Green was even more scary of an option. But this decision to start Taylor, which is Bo's as well as Watson's, should be something to be talked about.

I'll agree with this but it is hindsight. tounge in cheek. These coaches are with the team in practice all week, they know more than we do.

 

4) Watson and the Last Drive. We scored 20 points in the first half and looked on track to do more than our fair share against the Sooners. Indeed, probably most felt if we could put this number up on Oklahoma, we'd win (but see #2: defense). At some point you got to commit to Burkhead/grinding it out. Why am I so defensive of Watson in spite of 2009? Because I loved and embrace the 2009 philosophy, which Bo directed. Shut it down on offense, grab a lead and hang the heck onto it. Keep it out of the realm of killer mistakes, and I don't care if we average 3 yards a carry as long as we are chewing clock and getting a field goal here or there. you already answered it, i remember the turning point last year after the Prince pick against OU and the insertion of Lee. Tonight however, things were working well until Taylor threw the pick in the endzone.

 

 

So WHY, when the game is on the line, we have the ball thanks to Rex on our own 40, with just 20 yards at minimum to go, and nearly 2 minutes on the clock to get there, do we not run it? Rex had success in the Wildcat and we have enough time to average 3 yards a clip and still get to field goal range with a break or two. So we throw a quickslant on first down, fine. But on 2nd and medium, after seeing how Taylor has reacted to pressure ALL DAY, and really, Taylor's dancing around into linemen in the pocket has been a chronic occurence all freaking year. When we can rely on any of our multiple ways to attack the defense on the ground to put us in third and short, why do we call something that has ANY chance at all of putting us into 3rd and 16? There's no criticism on the two plays after that because we were desperate anyways. It's these first two plays that killed us.

no disagreement on this

 

 

There, now I know what it's like to play armchair OC. I don't think Watson should be fired, for the usual reasons. Just like I don't think the defensive coaches should be fired. But I think this is fair criticism of a couple of very costly decisions.

Watson's time to go is now. Last year i was the first to say he had reasons/excuses. But this year he has the players. But a physical offensive line that is not a pass pro line. A mobile running type qb with ok throwing ability is not Tom Brady. Rex Burkead and Roy Helu need to get the ball straight ahead a heck of a lot more than they did. Wats just simply does not have the ability to identify the strengths and weaknesses of his players, and too many times over the last two years he has gone away from strengths the to the weaknesses.

 

5) Bo. This goes right with the above. I loved 2009 because of the conservative approach. Why did Bo go away from that today? It was especially evident on the last game, unless Watson went rogue on Bo, which I doubt, because it was evident on Bo's approach through the day. He did go balls out on this one, which is to his credit, but honestly there were some very dangerous decisions there that could have cost us the game at multiple times. The 4th and 1 was surprising, but it worked. That doesn't mean it wasn't hella dangerous. The fake punt - also surprising, and I'm sad I didn't get to see it. But also EXTREMELY dangerous. We are talking Les Miles dangerous or CU 2008 dangerous if we don't make those 4 yards, late in the game and down 3 in our own territory. And of course the end of the game.

 

Since when did Bo have little faith in our defense? I suppose this game gave him no reason to have faith. Still, I really believe going away from the 2009 approach when the chips were down was a questionable decision. Using it opened up Watson to a ton of unfair criticism, but using it the way it was used in the 2nd half of this game opens up Watson to a lot of valid criticism.

I dont think it was lack of faith in the d, but rather it was obvious that the d was not quite what it was a year ago. BUT they did make some big stands late deep in ou territory to give us 2 more chances. The gutsy playcalling i thought was good, and i do agree with your assessment of the conservativeness of a year ago, but this team may have a different attitude when it comes to playing to win as opposed to playing not to lose. That fake punt? Was going to be a beauty i bet, it was set up pretty nice, but that again is good coaching on the part of ou.

 

6) Misc things on playcalling...the zone read was fine IMO. Not with Taylor, though, after the first few drives. But with Rex out of the Wildcat. All those Wildcat plays were pretty good. Although I would say the throws were very dangerous. Rex should have thrown the second one away (or sooner), and the first one was off target. Good to give them something to think about though. The one that failed was Mike Caputo's bad snap that resulted in a fumble. Throwing the ball with Taylor quickly became a completely untenable option, and yet we stuck with it. I like showing faith to your players, I think it enables them to succeed. But this is a situation where no faith was deserved.

I retract previous statements in other threads on the zone read in order to agree with you that it was good with rex and roy. They seem to be alot more decisive and with taylor it seemed to take forever to develope. the first 3 possessions of the 3rd qtr were the poorest excuse of playcalling ever. Never even attempted to seize what worked in the first half. As far as Caputo's bad snap, this puts Watson's incompetence into full view, we pick up great runs from Rex 3 plays prior to the bad snap, then after we put Taylor back in the pocket for a quick 3 and out.

I answered my thoughts in the large bold above.

 

thank you we understand.

[zoogs]

The entire staff thought the SDSU game was a scrimmage. That's not an excuse, that's a knock on the staff, the entire staff. There is no excuse. But we all looked ahead to KSU. The defense really could just show up and SDSU couldn't do much against it. But the offense, and Taylor, could not. There's no excuse for Taylor as raw as he was, to go 6/14 with 2 picks in that game either. But that is a lot more on Taylor than it is on Watson.

 

SDSU was a garbage performance, on offense in particular. I am not disagreeing with that.

 

Most strikingly, you explained why a 454-yard performance with 31 points against Missouri, a quality defense and a top 10 team, should be discounted or devalued. If "We are playing our third string QB, and our starter's one skill is negated" is an excuse, then anything you said about that game is an excuse, too.

 

I guess it would take a higher ranked offense for you to consider it quality. Fair enough. You're asking for an elite offense rather than just a quality one, but it's OK. I would want that, too, but I'm not about to call for any firings when we throw out a freshman receiver to play QB for us, and average in the 30s, counting the injuries and all. Again, your expectations may differ.

[Husker_x]

You should not be calling those fumbles in our own territory, if you would, wait till we are on the 40. For example, when Rex fumbled, that was a good time to call that fumble. The INT that TMart threw was at a perfect time as well. Impecable. That WildCat with Rex, HORRIBLE. We don't need to be creative at all. Simplify the offense. And zone read after zone read? Open the playbook up.

 

I hope everybody that reads this understands what I am saying. Watson called a good game last night. The wildcat package with Rex was very innovative and well timed. This game WAS NOT Watson's fault. Our players did not execute the game plan. Make no mistake about it, the game plan that Watson constructed would have won us the game had it been executed properly. This one is on the players for not executing what was put in. If you turn the ball over four times against an OU team you will not win it.

 

I think I understand the grammar of your post, but I also think even after the 2007 season I could have managed something like this about Cosgrove.

 

"The game plan would have worked if..."

 

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd be back to back Big XII champs. Save for an unholy tendency to fumble, and a persistent inability to execute a game plan. Linemen who don't pass block, receivers who don't catch, QBs who are inaccurate and have a 50/50 shot of losing 3-5 yards every play.

 

This is reality calling. It's only going to get better next year when our schedule resembles that march to Mordor from the Lord of the Rings movies.

[T_O_Bull]

Halfway through the 3rd quarter I came to peace that we were going to lose. Hurts though, I wanted to leave the Big XII right and flip Beebe off.

 

We can still flip him off, BRI. It just won't feel as good.

 

T_O_B

 

[TheCheshireCat]

When you lead the nation in fumbles and haven't corrected it all year, that's due to coaching. Maybe it's Watson, maybe it's Beck, but someone is not teaching them proper technique.

[huskerscott]

You can put RB execution on Beck, OL execution on Cotton, TE execution on Brown, and WR execution on Gilmore. Two or three of them have been pretty solid this year. QB is what comes down to Watson, and...

 

When Taylor doesn't execute: It's okay, he's a freshman, this is expected.

 

When Taylor doesn't execute: Fire Wats! Taylor isn't executing, that's outrageous.

 

I'm surprised how continually people forget what we are working with at QB right now. And who was responsible for that choice last night.

 

If you actually believe any of what you just wrote, then we could get rid of the Pelini brothers, keep the defensive assistants, and the defense would continue to dominate. I doubt seriously you believe that's true.

 

You're missing the point of what the OC does.

 

The OC is responsible for taking the guys at TE, WR, RB, OL, and QB, and designing an offense. He calls the plays during the game and gameplans against opponents. He isn't responsible for coaching up the WRs, we have a WRs coach for that. Does Watson teach them to run the offense? Yes. But when the players can't do their jobs, you got to start looking at the position coaches, unless you just want a scapegoat and point fingers meaninglessly.

Yes and he is failing at that to no end.

[roundegotrip]

"Those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it,

the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."

-G. Santayana

 

"The common man learns from his own mistakes.

The superior man learns from the mistakes of others.

The fool never learns."

-Otto von Bismarck

 

 

Should we swap Herbie Husker for Mr. Magoo?

 

Oh, the guilt, the guilt, the guilt.....

 

I could just as easily apply those quotes and those sentiments to fans who go on an emotional bender whenever their team loses a hard fought game.

[The Dude]

The entire staff thought the SDSU game was a scrimmage. That's not an excuse, that's a knock on the staff, the entire staff. There is no excuse. But we all looked ahead to KSU. The defense really could just show up and SDSU couldn't do much against it. But the offense, and Taylor, could not. There's no excuse for Taylor as raw as he was, to go 6/14 with 2 picks in that game either. But that is a lot more on Taylor than it is on Watson.

 

SDSU was a garbage performance, on offense in particular. I am not disagreeing with that.

 

Most strikingly, you explained why a 454-yard performance with 31 points against Missouri, a quality defense and a top 10 team, should be discounted or devalued. If "We are playing our third string QB, and our starter's one skill is negated" is an excuse, then anything you said about that game is an excuse, too.

 

I guess it would take a higher ranked offense for you to consider it quality. Fair enough. You're asking for an elite offense rather than just a quality one, but it's OK. I would want that, too, but I'm not about to call for any firings when we throw out a freshman receiver to play QB for us, and average in the 30s, counting the injuries and all. Again, your expectations may differ.

I'll give you Mizzouri.

 

I really don't care what the rankings are. I'll take an offense ranked in the 60's as long as they don't keep commiting turnovers, penalties, or generally just keep shooting this team in the foot, which has sadly become the norm around here. Sooner or later Watson has to be held accountable on how his squad is performing, I defended him through all last season but I just can't bring myself to do it anymore. It's a shame we've had two championship level defenses wasted because of shoddy offensive play.

 

Something has got to give eventually.

[zoogs]

Accountability, I feel pretty confident that Taylor's injury is turning him into a statue right now and not anything else.

 

I guess this is as under wraps as the Lee injury now. So we're clear, Taylor has not had his explosive running ability since Missouri. Wasn't himself against Kansas and really killed it against A&M. Lee is really just out for the year.

 

I feel like we kept going back to Taylor again and again and it's really puzzling why. I don't have any answers here as it seems Bo and Shawn both may have really wanted to put the game in Taylor's hands. In either case Taylor ran out of rope looooong before the end of the game. But there wasn't really a backup plan, either.

[Enhance]

The entire staff thought the SDSU game was a scrimmage. That's not an excuse, that's a knock on the staff, the entire staff. There is no excuse. But we all looked ahead to KSU. The defense really could just show up and SDSU couldn't do much against it. But the offense, and Taylor, could not. There's no excuse for Taylor as raw as he was, to go 6/14 with 2 picks in that game either. But that is a lot more on Taylor than it is on Watson.

 

SDSU was a garbage performance, on offense in particular. I am not disagreeing with that.

 

Most strikingly, you explained why a 454-yard performance with 31 points against Missouri, a quality defense and a top 10 team, should be discounted or devalued. If "We are playing our third string QB, and our starter's one skill is negated" is an excuse, then anything you said about that game is an excuse, too.

 

I guess it would take a higher ranked offense for you to consider it quality. Fair enough. You're asking for an elite offense rather than just a quality one, but it's OK. I would want that, too, but I'm not about to call for any firings when we throw out a freshman receiver to play QB for us, and average in the 30s, counting the injuries and all. Again, your expectations may differ.

I can't support the offense's production this year because they had equally as many pathetic offensive games that they did good offensive games. They have been a model of inconsistency against good teams and bad teams alike.

 

Myself nor anyone else is saying we need to score 40 points a game at least with no excuses. But, there are obvious consistency issues on this football team. I think a lot of it can be attributed to a young inexperienced quarterback, but a quarterback can't control an inconsistent offensive line and average WR's. We could have done more around him this year to make him more successful and we didn't. That falls on everybody's shoulders, but it ultimately rests on Watson for preparing his team and I have thought (for the last two years now) that Watson does not prepare his offense well.

[The Dude]

Pelini should be held responsible too. It's his job to either fire Wats or scale back how much control he has over the offense. Pelini is also largely to blame for the lack of discipline on his team.

[zoogs]

I think a lot of it can be attributed to a young inexperienced quarterback, but a quarterback can't control an inconsistent offensive line and average WR's.

 

I think a lot of it can be attributed to Taylor.

 

A good QB will for instance, recognize blitzes and adjust his troops against them. Taylor doesn't see them and fails to adjust. He takes a lot of sacks that really aren't the OL's fault, which should have been extremely evident today.

 

As far as inconsistency among the OL and WR, I would have to agree with you, but Watson can't control that either, if the WR/OL coaches are not pulling weight - which has been said for years now, that they are not. I feel the games before Taylor was hurt, we maximized out of him pretty well, while taking the lumps we were bound to take.

 

Pelini should be held responsible too. It's his job to either fire Wats or scale back how much control he has over the offense. Pelini is also largely to blame for the lack of discipline on his team.

 

Hard to argue with this, but I don't see either situation as coming to a head at this point, Pelini or Watson.

[huskerscott]

Pelini should be held responsible too. It's his job to either fire Wats or scale back how much control he has over the offense. Pelini is also largely to blame for the lack of discipline on his team.

there was discussion on the radio this week on whether Pelini is too loyal to his staff particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Personally when this staff was put together I really wasnt buying into bringing Cotton in. I thought Watson and Gilmore(considering our offense was doing alright) where good enough stay around to smooth the transition and that being Pelini was a defensive guy it just made sense. Now I believe that its time to cut ties with them we have conitunously regressed as offense and became more undisciplined as far as penalties and lack of production.

[HUSKERCR]

"Those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it,

the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."

-G. Santayana

 

"The common man learns from his own mistakes.

The superior man learns from the mistakes of others.

The fool never learns."

-Otto von Bismarck

 

 

Should we swap Herbie Husker for Mr. Magoo?

 

Oh, the guilt, the guilt, the guilt.....

 

 

 

I could just as easily apply those quotes and those sentiments to fans who go on an emotional bender whenever their team loses a hard fought game.

 

 

What a devastatingly witty retort! I'm cut to the bone.

Thank God we, The Great Unwashed of this Board, have you as a Moral Beacon to guide us Egotrip.

[Enhance]

I think a lot of it can be attributed to a young inexperienced quarterback, but a quarterback can't control an inconsistent offensive line and average WR's.

 

I think a lot of it can be attributed to Taylor.

 

A good QB will for instance, recognize blitzes and adjust his troops against them. Taylor doesn't see them and fails to adjust. He takes a lot of sacks that really aren't the OL's fault, which should have been extremely evident today.

 

As far as inconsistency among the OL and WR, I would have to agree with you, but Watson can't control that either, if the WR/OL coaches are not pulling weight - which has been said for years now, that they are not. I feel the games before Taylor was hurt, we maximized out of him pretty well, while taking the lumps we were bound to take.

To me, though, Watson is ultimately responsible for the way the entire unit plays and for preparing them. He needs to be sure his coaches are putting players in a position to win. I remember watching Bo get in Mike Ekeler's face all the time in 2008 because of shoddy play at the linebacker position. I know Watson isn't as vocal at Pelini is, but does he hold his assistants accountable in the same manner?

 

Watson is a smarter offensive coach than most likely any of us here are, so I'm positive the man knows what is wrong. If we can see it, he can probably see it.

 

Martinez is young, inexperienced, and definitely not a seasoned player yet. He could be with time and practice, of course. So, there really is only so much you can do with a kid that is so young. All that said, we need (at the very least) to seriously evaluate the offensive staff and figure what needs to be changed. Maybe nothing needs to be changed, maybe it does. But we're going into Bo's fourth year and the defense has been restored to it's former glory. There is one side of the ball that, for the last two years, has been keeping the entire team down, even with talent and depth at key positions.

 

I didn't expect Martinez to play as stoic as he did early on for the entire season, but I do expect a fairly touted offense to at least score one touchdown against A&M and Texas.