Dear Shawn Watson,

[zoogs]

I know this has been the eternal debate, but I point most of the blame at the offensive line. Our blocking was horrific. Our blitz pickup was awful. I don't care what scheme you run. It won't work with the OL play we saw tonight.

Sorry but if our oline is pass blocking so pooly....RUN THE BALL!!!!!!!!!!!! The wildcat was picking up nice yards fairly regularly. Taylor can't throw the ball away. The oline can't pick up the blitz. RUN THE BALL!!!!!!! OU has been vulnerable all year to the run (if they play stanford this will be proven again). RUN THE BALL!!!!!!!

 

OL wasn't blocking that poorly either. When you have ALL FREAKING DAY back there and you STILL take an 8-yard sack, that is on the QB. And whoever is allowing him to play. The last drive that's on Watson for calling it. 100% agree.

 

It just baffles the mind. Why are we throwing on 3rd and goal? 3 points gone.

 

We threw several times on short yardage situations early in the game and it worked. At that point in time, that play and how it broke down was 100% on Taylor. The only reason 3 points are gone is because he decided to throw it into the field of play, across his body. That is really 150% Taylor's fault and also the complete subsequent evaporation of momentum. The whole game changed on that one incredibly awful play.

[ZRod]

The Line wasn't pass blocking well because they were bringing more than would could pick up most of the time. In that case you run a screen... which we did guess how many times... ONCE. For a pretty nice gain. Or you could try running shorter routs instead of the longer than 10 yard routs that seem to get coverd and lead to sacks. Or like was mentioned before use straight run plays instead of the zone read which Taylor wasn't making the right reads on.

[HUSKERCR]

A booger eating opposing QB once said our defensive coaching was high school level.

That's a fair description of our offense under Watson the last 2 years.

Stoops was playing chess, Watson was playing tiddly winks.

This was just another in a long line of embarassing offensive performances on national TV by Watson.

Watson's offense is starting to rival ol' Cosgrove's defenses for glaring, in-your-face ineptitude. Like Cosgrove, Watson simply doesn't know what he's doing. And it shows.

 

Callahan orchestrated a program disaster by focussing only on the offense,

letting Cosgrove run the defense into the ground. Coach Pelini, you are the HC,

not the DC.

 

Enough is enough. Watson needs to go and take Gilmore with him.

Let's trade-in our Game Management Specialists for a couple of real football coaches.

[REDSTEEL]

Someone please explain why we go away from the wildcat when we are in field goal range to tie the game and put Martinez in the shotgun? We were getting 5-6 yds a run with Rex and Taylor takes a sack and BOOM we're out of field goal range. Bo should of called time out and asked Watson WTF??Run one more wildcat to put the ball in the middle of the field and let Henery tie the game. Just effin un-believeable. This is on Bo!!!!!!!

 

They did the same thing last year in the Iowa State game.

 

Why they never tried to give the runner a fb blocker is beyond me. Is he afraid to lineup in the I because it might work?

[HANC]

Nothing new from me that hasn't been said, just needed to get it off my chest...

 

1. Starts and stops with O-Line..... Can't expect a freshman QB, who isn't a prolific

passer to automatically become great at checking

down WR, with defenders all over his a$$

 

2. Hold on to the f'n ball...... Do not deserve to win ANY GAME, when you put it on the

ground this many times, especially a championship

 

3. Yes, Taylor didn't play well.... I am NOT GOING to bury him. He made a ton of mistakes

but he has actually played about 9.5 games in college,

and HE WILL LEARN !!! Don't pile on this kid. He

has a chance to be special....if he stays

 

4. Watson if friggin idiot...... I thought he did ok in first half, with the exception

of calling a pass with T-mart on 3rd and goal, instead

of running, or running Wildcat. End of game, a cluster

of blunders...WIDLCAT-WILDCAT-WILDCAT

 

** As a coach, it is very hard for me to blame coaching, that is why is listed it last, but I am pi$$ed like everyone at how this one went down.

[Zaimejs]

I'm on the CAN WATSON bandwagon. I have never watched a game with such a limited grasp of any sort of a plan. You watch other teams play... you don't see this sandlot mentality. This complete ignorance of what is going on on the field. This inability to see what your players are and are not capable of. "Let's try this now!" NOOOO!!!!! Please.

[Morrison]

I am done with Watson as well. I have supported him in the past, as I think it is possible to rationalize away some of our struggles, but this is just too much.

 

We are a top 5 team, easy, if we had even a mediocre offense.

[irishhusker]

Heres my thought. Just now can log on. Havnt read your post or anyone else. Taylor lost us the game. He sucks, he downright sucks.When he cant break the game wide open hes a gimic. I have way more faith in Rex in the wildcat. Tmart is a joke and he lost us the game.

[Lincolnite]

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Goodbye, Shawn. It was nice knowing you.

 

Taylor played horrible football, but this loss is on the coaches, including Bo. You're the head coach; if the offensive coordinator suddenly becomes stupid, then do something, damnit.

[zoogs]

When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat.

 

You are confusing a motivational sports quote telling athletes how to play with a sports icon telling fans what kind of expectations they should have.

 

Are the players complacent? Doubt it. Not the way they show it on the field each week and pour their heart and soul into it. Are the staff complacent? Really doubt that (mayyybe Gilmore is an exception in more than recruiting, I don't know). They are tireless workers and get after it more than they will ever get credit for. So no, there's no complacency here and if that is supposed to be advice to Bo or anyone on the team it's misdirected badly.

 

Fans have a way of taking more ownership of teams than they are supposed to. It's why some people have an issue with fans using the royal "we" when talking about "our" team. I don't have a problem with that at all, but you get the point. OUR complacency as fans has nothing to do with how the team will perform. If you are happy with 20 points and 300 yards with a gimpy QB against a top 10 team, that's not settling for mediocrity so much as dealing in reality. It's nuts to try to apply that quote to how fans should regard their team.

 

We can expect all we want, be as "non-complacent" as we want. All that means is we are creating expectations that nobody is going to satisfy, so you're going to end up calling for a revolving door at OC/DC/HC. When we beat OU last year, their OC Kevin Wilson was not good enough and had to go. Yeah, right!

[bshirt]

Watson has two glaring deficiencies

 

1) Not knowing when something's working

2) Not changing something that isn't working

 

That's because SW is so "multiple"...it wouldn't show his awesome genius if he simply stayed with something that worked. Just another zero pts the 2nd half & loss.....ho hum.

[papersun87]

Consider the following:

 

With four minutes or so left in the game, we trail by three points.

 

We have a placekicker in Alex Henery who can make it 60 yards. 50-55 is no sweat.

 

We have the ball roughly around Oklahoma's 40 yard line.

 

It's 3rd and 4.

 

We got where we are on this drive by letting Burkhead keep it out of the Wildcat. He's been eating up yards. Particularly on this drive.

 

A run up the middle eats clock and probably gets us a first down. Even if it doesn't, it's a 55-or-so yard field goal. With Henery, that's a lock.

 

Almost every single time our quarterback has gone back to pass he's been sacked.

 

Why not let Burkhead carry it out of the Wildcat? I want to know what Coach Watson's line of thinking was with that play call. He needs to be held accountable for such a ridiculous play call at such a crucial point in the game. There are a lot of reasons we deserved to lose this game, but it came down to this one. The right play call on 3rd and 4 at least gives us overtime. Instead he hung his quarterback out to dry on a call that hadn't worked since the first quarter.

[Malth]

TMart is alright when he doesnt freak out and choke. Or try an be a hero. Which is exactly what he does when we're not winning by 40 points

[SECHusker]

I agree with you about the T-Mart hate. But I would respectfully say he is not a quarterback. To me he is a glorified wide receiver playing quarterback, and while that is not a bad thing its not a good thing either.

 

And you are right T-Mart was not ready to play today, and place that on the coaching staff.

 

I would disagree with the defense getting owned. This is one of the most talented offenses in the league and some mistakes are going to made. Roy Finch and Kenny Stills are going to be beast, and Murray is a damn good RB. I don't place blame on the D.

 

I disagree with you on whether we should have gone conservative, like last year. Our D is not the same as last year, we have a lot more youth then I think people want to believe. And unfortunately that youth makes mistakes. If we were to play conservative we would have gotten lit up.

 

As for why we didn't ride Rex, I have no effin clue. Which makes me even more pissed off at Wats.

 

In summation: Green is the more natural QB. Period. And should have started. T-Mart does not play the same when he is around athletes that can run with him. I don't blame him but the coaching for putting him in these positions. AND WATS NEEDS TO GO.

[lilred]

I think a change has to be in order. What can be said about the play calling tonight? How many times have we handed games away like this?