Chatelain: Offensive Clunker Dooms NU Again

[Hercules]

This pretty much sums up my thoughts at the moment.

ARLINGTON, Texas — This time, it ended not with shouts and expletives and suggestions of conspiracy. Bo Pelini didn’t go hunting for Dan Beebe.

 

This time, it ended with Pelini walking down the same tunnel where he exploded 364 days earlier, boarding a golf cart and burying his face in his hands.

 

Losing to Texas last year was the officials’ fault — or so Pelini thought.

 

Losing to Oklahoma this year was his fault.

 

Pelini’s offense didn’t score a point in the second half and — poof! — just like that there disappears another Big 12 title. The story is getting old.

 

Time and again, I’ve called Bo Pelini the best defensive mind in college football. What his Blackshirts do on a weekly basis is inspiring to anyone who loves this game. Saturday’s defensive performance, especially in the second half, was no exception.

 

But Pelini needs to start building an entire team. If that means changes to his offensive staff, so be it. If that means that he polishes his own offensive skills and takes a bigger role in teaching and game-planning, so be it.

 

But I’m tired of seeing a defense try to win championships while an offense tries to stay out of the way.

 

After the game, Pelini rode the golf cart to his press conference, where he answered questions.

 

Here was the first and most important one: Bo, did you make the right decision starting Taylor? I asked.

 

“Yes.”

 

Why did he go with Taylor? Because Martinez is the starting quarterback, Bo said.

 

“There was no question on his health.”

 

If that’s what Bo thinks, then I’m not sure he’s watching the same No. 3 who everyone else saw.

 

Remember that 80-yard run against Kansas State when the only thing that might’ve caught Martinez was a DC-10? Remember how Martinez dodged Oklahoma State pass rushers and picked apart the Cowboys defense?

 

Barely looked like the same kid Saturday in Dallas.

 

You can blame the 20-year old quarterback. He did some inexcusable things. Taking sacks when he could’ve thrown the ball away. Throwing an interception into the end zone when he should’ve thrown the ball into the eighth row.

 

But Martinez didn’t decide to start Martinez. His 42-year-old head coach and his 51-year-old offensive coordinator did.

 

Pelini and Watson could’ve put this game on the running backs and the offensive line. Instead, they put it on a freshman running quarterback who, if you haven’t noticed, can’t run.

 

In the third quarter, it became obvious that Martinez was only going to hurt Nebraska’s chance to win. Yet Pelini and Watson hung with him. Watson kept calling for Martinez to be Peyton Manning.

 

It was Russian roulette. Every time Taylor dropped back, a negative play seemed a 50-50 proposition.

 

Watson got smart in the fourth quarter and leaned on the Wildcat, which Nebraska had executed brilliantly in the red zone in the first half.

 

Nebraska finally got a little momentum when Burkhead cut through the OU defense for 19 yards, then 5 yards.

 

At that point on the field — the Oklahoma 33 — three quarterback sneaks would’ve given Alex Henery a great shot at breaking a 20-20 tie.

 

But center Mike Caputo made a wild snap to Burkhead in shotgun, who couldn’t handle it. OU recovered the fumble and converted it into a field goal.

 

So what does Nebraska do, down 23-20 with 8:24 to play? The Huskers could’ve gone back to Burkhead.

 

“But you get a little one-dimensional in that (Wildcat),” Watson said.

 

So instead of turning to the most trustworthy player on this offense, Watson turned to Martinez. Three and out.

 

The Blackshirts came up big again. Nebraska got it back with 6:39 left. This was crunch time.

 

During a long TV timeout, the offense huddled on the sideline.

 

Not far away, Pelini was pacing back and forth. He should’ve been in the middle of that huddle. He should’ve been the one talking, not Ted Gilmore or Barney Cotton or Taylor Martinez.

 

But he wasn’t.

 

The offense took the field and Burkhead picked up 17 on three Wildcat runs.

 

Then Watson called for Burkhead to throw. Incomplete.

Then, on third-and-8 from the 38, when a mere quarterback sneak would’ve given Henery a great shot to tie, Watson went back to Martinez in shotgun. He dropped back and took a sack he easily could’ve avoided.

 

“We thought we were in range,” Pelini said. “That’s the shame of it. Can’t take a sack in that situation.”

 

Oklahoma jumped offside, giving Nebraska five yards and a shot at a 62-yard field goal.

 

Way out of Henery’s range, right? Not if you saw his 53-yarder in the first quarter, which would’ve been good from at least 65.

 

Pelini had a choice at that moment. He could count on Alex Henery to kick a 62-yard field goal or Taylor Martinez to lead another drive.

 

Which would you have chosen?

 

Pelini punted. The defense came up big again. And Martinez got another shot.

 

Four plays and out.

 

Minutes after Bo explained that he started Taylor Martinez because Taylor Martinez is the starting quarterback, I asked Watson why Taylor got the nod.

 

Because he looked good enough in practice, Watson said.

 

Why did Watson stay with Martinez when he was clearly struggling?

 

“We just felt like it was the right thing to do at the time,” Watson said. “He’s a young quarterback and we wanted to make sure we showed our confidence in him.”

 

Watson said he considered taking Martinez out for a series to let him “take a breath.”

 

“But he’s better when he’s just fighting his way through it.”

 

Sorry, Coach. You can’t afford growing pains in your last Big 12 championship game. You’re not playing for 2012 here. You’re playing for now.

 

You don’t owe Martinez anything. If he wasn’t good enough Saturday night, then Pelini and Watson owed it to everyone on the sideline to try Cody Green.

 

Nebraska had a wonderful chance Saturday night. To win its first conference championship since 1999. To leave the Big 12 on high ground. To be great.

 

Here’s what a great team looks like.

 

Needing a touchdown to win in a hostile environment, Nebraska took over on its 26-yard line with 7:10 to go.

 

Over the next five minutes, the Huskers punched Oklahoma in the chinstrap, running the same play over and over again. On the 12th play, Jeff Kinney crossed the goal line.

 

That was 1971, the Game of the Century.

 

Until this offense locates the leadership and the guts to execute a similar drive, Bo Pelini is going to be the greatest defensive mind in college football.

 

But never a great head coach.

[IAhusker]

[huskernumerouno]

Did not pull any punches there and I cant really argue with him.

[EbylHusker]

Yeah, there's really nothing there I disagree with.

[Malth]

+1

[bshirt]

It's 100% on the money!!

[irafreak]

Wow. I feel better after reading that. Someone in the media actually put down onto printed paper what we all feel. I think I may actually be calm enough to go to sleep now...

[zoogs]

At that point on the field — the Oklahoma 33 — three quarterback sneaks would’ve given Alex Henery a great shot at breaking a 20-20 tie.

 

But center Mike Caputo made a wild snap to Burkhead in shotgun, who couldn’t handle it. OU recovered the fumble and converted it into a field goal.

 

So what does Nebraska do, down 23-20 with 8:24 to play? The Huskers could’ve gone back to Burkhead.

 

“But you get a little one-dimensional in that (Wildcat),” Watson said.

 

It's interesting that he criticizes continuing the Wildcat not being safe enough and causing the turnover, and on the very next drive calls us to go back to it.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think the Wildcat was our most effective package tonight. But it's a very small package of plays. Out of that we can run: direct snap draws to Rex, zone reads of various kinds, and throws (extremely rarely - the second throw was a bad call, IMO, a bad, bad call).

 

I said this in another thread, but I completely agree with Watson's quote here that Dirk is taking issue with. You are talking about a very limited package of plays that we milked as much as we probably could out of it. It's diminishing returns: some things are effective when they are used 20-30% of the time, but grind to a half if you try to do that 60-70% of the time. I wonder if that's true about the Wildcat. I don't think it could possibly have been worse in those situations where SW called passes that resulted in sacks, though. So I disagree with those calls, but in general I think the wildcat/zone-read were neither under nor over used.

 

I like Dirk, but unfortunately it's picking on some quotes that were thrown out there to protect Taylor. You think a coach is going to come out and say "Taylor didn't perform, we should have sat him", you're dreaming. That will never happen and shouldn't.

 

--

 

Looking back, I feel Taylor should have gotten the hook for good earlier. The trouble with that though: there was no backup plan. I can see why you don't go with Cody when he's not being prepared during the week. Bloody brilliant idea, eh? There's no Bo vs Watson here, that's on Bo and Watson both, in the most charitable scenario for Pelini where Bo gets to share the blame for making the call. Reading between the lines this year, it sounds like Watson is an enormous fan/has a lot of confidence in Cody, where Bo has little. So that's my thought on whose call it really was, but I don't know. I think we should have rode Green as the starter or regardless had him ready. Bo should know his starting QB has cold streaks and that explosiveness is not there right now.

 

I think that's about what it boiled down to. We were going to sink or swim with Taylor because of the lack of backup plan (don't ask me about this, I'm quoting jliehr and others who have said this), and that led to disaster today. Would have been fine if he didn't shut down and become ineffective. When he did, we were screwed. All the playcalling nitpicks and the couple of defensive breakdowns, IMO, are really nothing compared to the approach which is what should be questioned. This game is one game and it's over. We can't approach another game with this philosophy. It's nuts! What happened to Watson's supposedly standard practice of rotating QBs with the 1st team in practices? Or am I wrong about this. Would love to get enlightened here.

 

--

 

“We thought we were in range,” Pelini said. “That’s the shame of it. Can’t take a sack in that situation.”

 

Oklahoma jumped offside, giving Nebraska five yards and a shot at a 62-yard field goal.

 

Way out of Henery’s range, right? Not if you saw his 53-yarder in the first quarter, which would’ve been good from at least 65.

 

Pelini had a choice at that moment. He could count on Alex Henery to kick a 62-yard field goal or Taylor Martinez to lead another drive.

 

Which would you have chosen?

 

Very interesting calls here

[Hercules]

At that point on the field — the Oklahoma 33 — three quarterback sneaks would’ve given Alex Henery a great shot at breaking a 20-20 tie.

 

But center Mike Caputo made a wild snap to Burkhead in shotgun, who couldn’t handle it. OU recovered the fumble and converted it into a field goal.

 

So what does Nebraska do, down 23-20 with 8:24 to play? The Huskers could’ve gone back to Burkhead.

 

“But you get a little one-dimensional in that (Wildcat),” Watson said.

 

It's interesting that he criticizes continuing the Wildcat not being safe enough and causing the turnover, and on the very next drive calls us to go back to it.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think the Wildcat was our most effective package tonight. But it's a very small package of plays. Out of that we can run: direct snap draws to Rex, zone reads of various kinds, and throws (extremely rarely - the second throw was a bad call, IMO, a bad, bad call).

 

I said this in another thread, but I completely agree with Watson's quote here that Dirk is taking issue with. You are talking about a very limited package of plays that we milked as much as we probably could out of it. It's diminishing returns: some things are effective when they are used 20-30% of the time, but grind to a half if you try to do that 60-70% of the time. I wonder if that's true about the Wildcat. I don't think it could possibly have been worse in those situations where SW called passes that resulted in sacks, though. So I disagree with those calls, but in general I think the wildcat/zone-read were neither under nor over used.

 

I like Dirk, but unfortunately it's picking on some quotes that were thrown out there to protect Taylor. You think a coach is going to come out and say "Taylor didn't perform, we should have sat him", you're dreaming. That will never happen and shouldn't.

 

--

 

Looking back, I feel Taylor should have gotten the hook for good earlier. The trouble with that though: there was no backup plan. I can see why you don't go with Cody when he's not being prepared during the week. Bloody brilliant idea, eh? There's no Bo vs Watson here, that's on Bo and Watson both, in the most charitable scenario for Pelini where Bo gets to share the blame for making the call. Reading between the lines this year, it sounds like Watson is an enormous fan/has a lot of confidence in Cody, where Bo has little. So that's my thought on whose call it really was, but I don't know. I think we should have rode Green as the starter or regardless had him ready. Bo should know his starting QB has cold streaks and that explosiveness is not there right now.

 

I think that's about what it boiled down to. We were going to sink or swim with Taylor because of the lack of backup plan (don't ask me about this, I'm quoting jliehr and others who have said this), and that led to disaster today. Would have been fine if he didn't shut down and become ineffective. When he did, we were screwed. All the playcalling nitpicks and the couple of defensive breakdowns, IMO, are really nothing compared to the approach which is what should be questioned. This game is one game and it's over. We can't approach another game with this philosophy. It's nuts! What happened to Watson's supposedly standard practice of rotating QBs with the 1st team in practices? Or am I wrong about this. Would love to get enlightened here.

 

I don't know about practice routines, and I don't know about backup plans or anything like that. I think people want to dilly-dally about a QB controversy that ended in August, and I'm kind of tired of that. I thought Martinez looked about 80-85%, and anybody who thinks Green was the answer is just going off of last week's Colorado game which is NOT a measuring stick to be used before Oklahoma. Either you trust the coaches or you don't but there's really nothing for us to actually discuss with the QB's. The coaches watch practice, we do not. We watch the game, that's all we can evaluate, and since Cody didn't play in the game, there's nothing to talk about there.

 

The playcalling, I'm completely happy to be talking about, since we actually watched that. I think Dirk's point about Watson saying, "But you get a little one-dimensional in that Wildcat," is the point he made at the end of the article. Sometimes, you be one-dimensional. Sometimes, you have to gut out a drive where it comes down to who wants it more, to who the better man is, to heart. We were moving the ball with the Wildcat, and I was screaming at the TV, "Just keep it up, just let Rex run!!!" and then Watson would pull up his anchor and try something else like a scientist with no purpose but curiosity.

 

Of course we're second-guessing and maybe the Wildcat wouldn't have worked, and we'll now never know. But I do know that Nebraska will never be Nebraska again until we can churn out that kind of drive when we need it against a top notch opponent. I don't know that Oklahoma was truely stronger than we were, or had more heart, but I don't think we got the chance to show it - instead, we dilly-dallied.

[irafreak]

Zoogies I don't think he was criticizing the wildcat. I think he was saying we were in field goal range and even 3 qb sneaks would've gotten three points. Just emphasizing what a shame it was to have the opportunities...

[Elf]

It's interesting that he criticizes continuing the Wildcat not being safe enough and causing the turnover

 

The writer did not criticize continuing in the Wildcat, nor did he allude to it not being safe enough. The center made a mistake on the snap, that's it, nothing more and that's all the writer said.

[zoogs]

Fair enough, ira. I think it was a shame too. So many opportunities at the end, all of them lost. I pin responsibility on that on the offense, but in the same sense I would pin O'Hanlon's big play given up against Virginia Tech on the defense in that game. Yes, in crunch time, one unit messed up: but taken as a whole, both sides did things that contributed to the loss and it was just a game where we will want a lot of things reversed.

 

Hercules if you don't want to try to get into the coaches heads regarding QB decisions, why get into their heads regarding playcalling? By the same measure, we saw Cody not go in and should be able to question that when Taylor was clearly not hacking it. Or we have heard that there wasn't a backup plan for Taylor for this game which is why Cody was not ready, which you can disregard, but it comes from usually reliable sources. I think this should all be fair game to be discussed and questioned, and we can wonder what coaches are thinking here; at least, if we are going to start characterizing Watson as seeming to calling random plays to satisfy his own curiosity now.

 

But I agree with you, sometimes, you just got to want it more, or give it to someone who will (Burkhead all year) and get 1-2 yards. Nothing much to be said about the fumble on the OU 33; as ira pointed out, it was just unfortunate. The wild shot with Taylor on the route was really odd to me. I have been very critical of Wats on that but Bo's quote here was interesting to me: "We thought we had the distance." IOW, he figured he could afford to take two shots through the air and let Alex kick the long field goal. Just wasn't counting on the sack. I think that's a risk that should not have been taken, and it's hard now to say whose call it was.

[np_husker]

Excellent column by Chatelain. I especially agree with the part about Bo not being a great head coach. This great defense, crummy offense thing is getting old.

[teachercd]

Ummm, they were up 17-0 right? The defense got them that huge lead, everything was fine. Then Caliwats became all caliwatsy, like usual.

 

What didnt we see, we didnt see QB draws, we didnt see easy fade routes where T-mart isnt forced to hold the ball and then try to creat a play but end up with a pick in the endzone, we still never saw a screen pass against a super fast attacking defense that was teeing off on a dropback passes.

 

Its always the same. The other team can make adjustments on defense but caliwats cant make adjustments on offense.

[zoogs]

If I'm not mistaken, teacher, the offense played a pretty big role in getting us the 17-0 lead, too.

 

Taylor is credited with 7 sacks and 48 yards lost, as well as (I'm not sure if this overlaps...) 14 carries for -32 yards. QB draws? I don't think we had an easy fade route today but we can disagree on that. Screens wouldn't have hurt. Take some of the 'read' out of Taylor, too. Unfortunately I think our best days of running screens are behind us with Callahan gone. You can name other plays all you want, but all I can say is I guess we couldn't work them into the gameday package. There's only so much that is available to us with Taylor/Rex as QB. Maybe they could have done better, I don't know.