Time to own up : Expectations

[Hercules]

You're right, Hercules. I realized at some point last night that I had the order of that wrong, but didn't remember where I first said it. Now I get to have some egg on my face

 

I suppose what changes there: instead of Taylor being responsible for the change in momentum, the D got things in motion with the huge allowed pass play that was a score. Which was still just one mistake, and I recognize that these things happen. I guess it was the combination of that, and Taylor's goal-line pick on the next drive, that really was a killer blow in terms of momentum. By the way, I think I said that the pick came on the back end of a fumble or something our D got, but I don't think that's right either. OU might have only had one turnover (the one that landed us deep in their territory and resulted in Burkhead's touchdown), or if they had another one I guess we didn't put it to use.

 

Fair enough on all of those turnovers. I do think a few of them are pure player error though. I didn't see Taylor's third quarter fumble, but his pick and the bad snap were not something you can really hang anyone's head on, in my more forgiving mood today anyways, even the players. It's a big game, everyone's excited, things like that will happen. Actually, I take that back. Taylor's interception was inexcusable. The bad snap was unfortunate. Roy's fumble was a great play by OU.

 

Thing is, I thought Cody Green was going to start, and I also thought our offensive line wouldn't be able to run the ball between the tackles very effectively. I thought we'd have to get a turnover or two and we'd have to capitalize on that when it happened, unlike we did in last year's CCG.

 

The funny thing is I wonder if the news that Taylor was starting should have lowered expectations further. It raised them for me, slightly, but obviously some feel a lot better about Green, and I agree with that, in retrospect.

 

Taylor's pick was bad. But to me, that's on Taylor and on Wats. When Landry Jones threw the ball away, it was 20 yards out of bounds. That's coaching, that's Kevin Wilson getting in his ear saying, "This is a huge game, we can't have mistakes, if you don't have a sure completion throw that ball up here to me." Same thing with Taylor's sacks. Once is Taylor's fault, five times is on the coaches.

 

I don't buy into the Cody stuff. He had a nice game against Colorado, and that's all it was, a nice game. People are pretending that we had Berringer on the bench ready to spell a rusty Frazier against Miami. Just wasn't the case.

 

Again, for me, where the coaches didn't meet my expectations were in their adjustments. We came out in the Wildcat, looked great, and then all of a sudden no more Wildcat. Why?!!! It's one thing to after a game, but when we came out after Rex's unfortunate fumbled snap and were no longer in the Wildcat, I was in front of my TV.

[Igetbored216]

This is what I thought people realized before the game: that NOTHING is scary about an offense where we are not running on full cylinders, with Taylor literally not at full speed and Paul out, and Green, the supposed starter, being a very shaky prospect. I *thought* people were predicting we were likely to really struggle in this game given these circumstances, where OU can pretty much load up on our only 2 threats, the RBs.

 

The defense hardly bequeathed the other TD, Burkhead made a tough 5-yard throw. I get that we had 10 yards to go and it was a really short field, but this offense punched it in and didn't settle for the FG that time, which is significant, especially if you look at the concern about TDs vs FGs in the comments.

 

I don't know when in the world a big play like Roy's is not a credit to the whole offense. We must have not done anything against Washington or Kansas State, or other games early in the year where pretty much all we had were big plays.

 

8 plays - 62 yards - INT (100% Taylor)

10 plays - 56 yards - FG

8 plays - 43 yards - PUNT

3 plays - 22 yards - Fumble (100% Caputo)

 

I think some of the other drives actually have more yardage up to the point Taylor sat back for 5 seconds and took a 10-yard sack. So we had some promising times in the game where we moved the ball, only to come up empty due to some bonehead error by Taylor or in that one case, Caputo.

 

Yeah, the offense did some good things. But once again, the defense kept us in the game by a reasonable amount (holding OU to 23 points...and that's a good OU offense) and Watson's offense, no matter the reason, failed to get it done. And a good chunk of that was some idiotic play calls which are solely his responsibility.

 

I could say the same thing about VT '09, where the defense did some good things, but the offense kept us in the game reasonably (had us leading at the end of the 4th with them pinned real deep), and Pelini's defense failed to get it done. It's the truth, but it just means that was a team loss, not either side of the ball. Same case here.

 

I wonder about the playcalls because I hated some of them, but it seems like Bo wanted more attacking and less conservatism this game. His comment that we thought we had the range and so took the shots with Burkhead to Taylor thinking the FG would be reasonably safe from the 39, resonates with me here.

 

I don't deny that a lot of things went wrong with this game, I just don't agree with the fence sitter-swung-over premise. A bigger chunk of not getting it done was certainly Taylor tonight, and at least half that responsibility lies with Bo. Was ANYONE going to get consistency out of Taylor tonight, or this entire year for that matter? Just call him "Mr. Explosive But Inconsistent." People don't like that the offense has been inconsistent this year, but again, if you ask for Taylor, just what is expected?

 

Just stop it man. You're ridiculous. The excuses make me want to vomit. I'm done with him and I'm done with this offense. Bo needs to step up and cut off the cancer of this team. Enough is enough. Let's not go through more losses due to our horribly inconsistent, undisciplined offense.

 

2009 VT loss was due to our defense? Yeah, O'Hanlon blew the one play, but when you're first and goal and end up punting, that doesn't help either. And maybe I'm wrong, but usually if you hold a team to 16 points, it should be enough to win. But I guess it's not when you have to settle for five field goals because the offense is too inept to do anything else.

[zoogs]

Please read. For goodness sake. Re: 2009 VT... "It just means it was a team loss, not either side of the ball." When all the defense has to do is make a freaking stop with 90 yards for the other team's offense to go, and they allow a touchdown at the very end of the game, that is a team loss. When all the offense has to do is make 20 yards and a field goal to send us into overtime, and they muck that up, that is a team loss. That's just my opinion. If you want to call the latter the offense losing the game, then you got to call the former the defense losing the game. But I don't think that's a fair way of looking at things.

 

I'm not making excuses for the offense, as I have a problem with the call made to start Taylor, but that is on Bo and Shawn equally. Fans sitting here thinking Shawn made some unilateral decision and was responsible for all the disaster that followed while Pelini shook his head are deluding themselves, IMO. Bo chose to ride Taylor this game, and that screwed us. It's something I will criticize without pointing fingers at Bo.

 

Taylor's pick was bad. But to me, that's on Taylor and on Wats. When Landry Jones threw the ball away, it was 20 yards out of bounds. That's coaching, that's Kevin Wilson getting in his ear saying, "This is a huge game, we can't have mistakes, if you don't have a sure completion throw that ball up here to me." Same thing with Taylor's sacks. Once is Taylor's fault, five times is on the coaches.

 

I don't buy into the Cody stuff. He had a nice game against Colorado, and that's all it was, a nice game. People are pretending that we had Berringer on the bench ready to spell a rusty Frazier against Miami. Just wasn't the case.

 

When Landry Jones threw five largely picks last year, was that Kevin Wilson failing to coach him properly? Or a redshirt freshman making a lot of redshirt freshman mistakes? As you said, five times is on the coaches. And there was no shortage of Kevin Wilson hate from OU fans after last year, despite him actually being one of the top OCs in the nation. You can decide who to pin this on but IMO, a lot of it is on Taylor.

 

I don't buy into the Cody stuff a lot either as I would be very worried with him at the helm. But in retrospect I think he could have given us more options, and failing that, if he were ready to go into the game, could have given us a chance to pull Taylor. That's mostly what I am steamed about, unless we are still supposing we have no idea whether Cody took first team reps this week or not, in which case that's a moot point.

[Hercules]

Please read. For goodness sake. Re: 2009 VT... "It just means it was a team loss, not either side of the ball." When all the defense has to do is make a freaking stop with 90 yards for the other team's offense to go, and they allow a touchdown at the very end of the game, that is a team loss. When all the offense has to do is make 20 yards and a field goal to send us into overtime, and they muck that up, that is a team loss. That's just my opinion. If you want to call the latter the offense losing the game, then you got to call the former the defense losing the game. But I don't think that's a fair way of looking at things.

 

I'm not making excuses for the offense, as I have a problem with the call made to start Taylor, but that is on Bo and Shawn equally. Fans sitting here thinking Shawn made some unilateral decision and was responsible for all the disaster that followed while Pelini shook his head are deluding themselves, IMO. Bo chose to ride Taylor this game, and that screwed us. It's something I will criticize without pointing fingers at Bo.

 

Taylor's pick was bad. But to me, that's on Taylor and on Wats. When Landry Jones threw the ball away, it was 20 yards out of bounds. That's coaching, that's Kevin Wilson getting in his ear saying, "This is a huge game, we can't have mistakes, if you don't have a sure completion throw that ball up here to me." Same thing with Taylor's sacks. Once is Taylor's fault, five times is on the coaches.

 

I don't buy into the Cody stuff. He had a nice game against Colorado, and that's all it was, a nice game. People are pretending that we had Berringer on the bench ready to spell a rusty Frazier against Miami. Just wasn't the case.

 

When Landry Jones threw five largely picks last year, was that Kevin Wilson failing to coach him properly? Or a redshirt freshman making a lot of redshirt freshman mistakes? As you said, five times is on the coaches. And there was no shortage of Kevin Wilson hate from OU fans after last year, despite him actually being one of the top OCs in the nation. You can decide who to pin this on but IMO, a lot of it is on Taylor.

 

I don't buy into the Cody stuff a lot either as I would be very worried with him at the helm. But in retrospect I think he could have given us more options, and failing that, if he were ready to go into the game, could have given us a chance to pull Taylor. That's mostly what I am steamed about, unless we are still supposing we have no idea whether Cody took first team reps this week or not, in which case that's a moot point.

 

Kevin Wilson HAD to be aggressive with his offense last year. We had a 10-3 lead, and they didn't have a kicker who could make a field goal. They had to a touchdown to get back into it, and Landry wasn't ready for our defense - he was a redshirt freshman, making freshman mistakes.

 

We on the other hand, had a 17-0 lead last night and the best kicker of all time. And then we make turnovers by playing aggressively when we just didn't need to. That's on players AND coaches. We have a kicker that could make it from 60, and our offense couldn't get him on the field ONCE during the second half. Again, that's on players AND coaches.

 

Also, the fact that we were in our 13th game of the year, with a relatively healthy offense, and most of us reverted to last year's philosophy of "Ok, it's 3rd down, but you're in field goal range, just kick it before you screw it up," - that is all on the coaches.

[zoogs]

We called a pass play on 3rd and goal after driving for 60 yards. I really don't think that's very aggressive, that's betting we have a better chance of getting 3 or 4 yards through the air than on the ground at the goalline, when they were probably looking to stop it. And our redshirt freshman made freshman mistakes.

 

The rest of the turnovers were hardly from playing aggressively. A run by Helu, a zone read by Burkhead. A pointless sack I guess it was, by Taylor.

 

Also, the fact that we were in our 13th game of the year, with a relatively healthy offense, and most of us reverted to last year's philosophy of "Ok, it's 3rd down, but you're in field goal range, just kick it before you screw it up," - that is all on the coaches.

 

We are not relatively healthy! Our QB has one strength, and that is running explosively. He did not have any of that last night. We have one legit threat at receiver, mistakes though he has made. He was out last night. If our freshman QB were to have another meltdown like Texas, we had a battle-tested senior that would have been ready to take the reigns and carry the team home. Except his season is effectively over too.

 

More specifically, we should have had to revert to that 3rd and 8 philosophy for one reason only: Taylor was that out of his game at that time. The fact that we didn't have a replacement in the game to allow for a different 'best philosophy': yes, that is on the coaches. But that is on Bo. Deciding to be more aggressive than usual, all game, when we didn't need to and could have turtled down to last year more: that is on Bo.

[Hercules]

We called a pass play on 3rd and goal after driving for 60 yards. I really don't think that's very aggressive, that's betting we have a better chance of getting 3 or 4 yards through the air than on the ground at the goalline, when they were probably looking to stop it. And our redshirt freshman made freshman mistakes.

 

The rest of the turnovers were hardly from playing aggressively. A run by Helu, a zone read by Burkhead. A pointless sack I guess it was, by Taylor.

 

Also, the fact that we were in our 13th game of the year, with a relatively healthy offense, and most of us reverted to last year's philosophy of "Ok, it's 3rd down, but you're in field goal range, just kick it before you screw it up," - that is all on the coaches.

 

We are not relatively healthy! Our QB has one strength, and that is running explosively. He did not have any of that last night. We have one legit threat at receiver, mistakes though he has made. He was out last night. If our freshman QB were to have another meltdown like Texas, we had a battle-tested senior that would have been ready to take the reigns and carry the team home. Except his season is effectively over too.

 

More specifically, we should have had to revert to that 3rd and 8 philosophy for one reason only: Taylor was that out of his game at that time. The fact that we didn't have a replacement in the game to allow for a different 'best philosophy': yes, that is on the coaches. But that is on Bo. Deciding to be more aggressive than usual, all game, when we didn't need to and could have turtled down to last year more: that is on Bo.

 

We are far healthier than we were at this time last year. Every team has injuries they have to overcome. DeMarco Murrary wasn't 100% for the Sooners either.

 

As far as which coaches are responsible for some of those mistakes, I don't know if it's Bo or Wats. Bo is definitely responsible for calls like the fake punt or the playaction on 4th and 1, with the help of Wats. But at 17-7, when we throw on third down looking for a TD, I'm guessing that's all Wats. But on that call, you've got to make sure your QB knows to throw the ball away or to play it safe. If he doesn't know or doesn't understand, that comes back to coaching.

[I am I]

zoogies, you look at things way too analytical. as though 3 million Husker fans who watched the game are supposed to be convinced by your analysis rather than what thier own eyes tell them.

 

you take quotes from people during the week and analyze them after the fact, like what? it still didn't answer any of the questions as to why Watson had Martin-ez throwing the ball so much from the pocket when he was having ZERO effect doing so. that's why people question Wats: we don't know what he's going to do!

 

you take stats of drives and put together an analysis that we were somehow moving the ball? it was plain as day to anyone watching the game that we were having success moving the ball up the middle and with our Rexcat formation. Lo and behold, Wats goes into passing mode with an obviously rattled freshman QB. We were up 17-0 and he had some VERY questionable play calls that inhibited us from keeping momentum or upping our lead.

 

you constantly bring up games from the past like VT 09' and how terrible our defense was in 08'. You analyze Ganz and Taylor and compare them to Martin-ez. Like anyone can't see he's hobbled and learning on the fly. But this is THIS year, and we aren't arguing about the past. If anything, bringing all those items up defeats your arguement on Wats because it shows that we are STILL having issues about what we see as problems that he can't fix.

 

I commend your tireless effort to defend him, but the fact remains Wats is now 1-6 in b12 CCG and his offenses have largely struggled at every important turn for him.

 

If he stays, I actually, literally pray he gets our offense figured out. But I cannot argue about his ineffectiveness anymore with you or Kansas Husker because it just seems like you don't trust what you're own eyes are showing you with the WHOLE package Wats is putting out there.

[Enhance]

Using the same stats zoogies, here is what I see..

 

Scoring drive 1 - 1 play, 66 yards, touchdown

Scording drive 2 - 4 plays, 6 yards, field goal

Scoring drive 3 - 2 plays, 12 yards, touchdown (set up by interception)

Scoring drive 4 - 10 plays, 56 yards, field goal

 

Our longest drive of the night? 8 plays, 62 yards, ending in an interception

 

To me, there really isn't any way of debating the fact that we had a tough night offensively that looked good because of two plays, an interception and some dazzle from Helu. OU is good but definitely not great on defense. And turnovers killed us, but I still believe whole-heartedly that the way the defense and offense prepare, focus, and execute are completely different from one another.

[zoogs]

I am I, apologies if I'm trying to make sense of this. I have no idea what you mean by 'analysis after the fact.'

 

I looked at what people's expectations were for our offense going up against OU, in the week leading up to the game, which I generally agreed with: we were in real trouble, and would struggle quite a bit to get anything done.

 

What happened? Yeah, we struggled to get anything done for the most part. But we had several *breakthroughs*, and if not for Taylor having the single-handed worst game I've ever seen a quarterback have (OK, well, there was the Beau Davis game) - we might have done better. The offense exceeded expectation. They weren't able to move the ball with consistency, but they did some damn impressive things. We had a running back break one loose on the Sooners D and score. We drove down to the OU goalline after they scored to take it right back to them, before Taylor lost everything and threw a cavalier interception that would make Brett Favre feel better. When OU pulled back to tie it up, we took over and ran a two-minute drill to perfection, getting into field goal range and having Alex bang it in there. All of those things were extremely impressive. It's disappointing that we struggled for the rest of the game, but I want to keep in perspective that we were expected to play like we did in the 2nd half, the ENTIRE game.

 

Then: what are people's reactions? Watson didn't do nearly enough. Yeah, I get that the offense stunk it up for a good part of the game. The chips were way down, on us. Hercules said we were more injured last year, and that's true, but at least we 1) didn't have a liability at quarterback, and 2) didn't have to have the offense do anything because of the D. This year, the offense had to pull a bit more weight for the D, and everyone saw that the odds of the offense pulling enough weight, given the situation, was not good.

 

Somehow, with our crapawful personnell situation we are in, with Taylor hurt but starting, and Niles out, we are able to do more than expected against the OU D. We showed life and sparks at times, and we came close to sending that game into overtime. It wasn't the same limp, dead, lifeless offense we saw against A&M and were expecting.

 

Enhance, there is no question at all that we struggled on offense. But here's the main thing. We had to make do with an injured Taylor, and were we lifeless, as expected? No. Did we fail to punch it in, as expected? Also no. Could we have done better, yea, always. What bugs me is when the general sentiment before is "I'd be happy just to come out of there with 17 points and a chance to win in the 4th" and the sentiment after, when that's exactly what happened, is "Watson sucks for not putting more points and yards on the board." I agree with you, though, that the vibe of the D is different from the O. We are simply better on D, and the O reflects Taylor right now.

 

Lo and behold, Wats goes into passing mode with an obviously rattled freshman QB. We were up 17-0 and he had some VERY questionable play calls that inhibited us from keeping momentum or upping our lead.

 

Watson never called a single play while we were up 17-0. OU scored following the kickoff. The string of plays he called while we were up 17-7 led us to the OU goalline where Taylor messed up an easy field goal situation. The next time we called an offensive play, it was 17-10. We called a straight up simple run play that drive, and Helu fumbled. I think there were questionable calls, but not like you describe.

 

you constantly bring up games from the past like VT 09' and how terrible our defense was in 08'. You analyze Ganz and Taylor and compare them to Martin-ez. Like anyone can't see he's hobbled and learning on the fly. But this is THIS year, and we aren't arguing about the past. If anything, bringing all those items up defeats your arguement on Wats because it shows that we are STILL having issues about what we see as problems that he can't fix.

 

You are taking this way too personally against the defense. I love our defense. I'm a fan of Taylor and am very encouraged by a lot of his play this year. He's learning on the fly, which is why he is struggling to progress. He's hobbled, which is why the whole offense struggles under him. These are problems Watson cannot fix unless he is Jesus and has the power to heal Taylor. We can do well with a healthy Taylor, unless Taylor stops himself. But Taylor being a newbie quarterback is not something that has the potential of changing except over an offseason.

[Enhance]

Good post, zoogies.

 

I think one thing you've probably come to realize is those people who wanted '17 points and a chance to win it in the fourth', really wanted 17 points and a victory in the fourth..

 

My biggest gripe, more or less, is that the consistency aspect really kills me. I love when our offense clicks for big plays, but we had to rely on them far too much this season. At crucial times this year, we needed an offense that could chunk down a field and get points without turning the ball over or committing drive-ending penalties. We were unfortunate in the sense that we weren't able to do that in many games this year, which is why I usually harp on the preparation and focus of this offense that I indirectly attribute to Watson.

[Hercules]

Hercules said we were more injured last year, and that's true, but at least we 1) didn't have a liability at quarterback,

 

IIRC, Zac Lee threw 3 interceptions in the Texas game last year. And IIRC, one or two of those could have been field goals. So let's not revise history...

 

Joe Ganz threw the dumbest interception you'll ever see in overtime against Texas Tech, on second down.

 

Still think Taylor's interception was just a bad play by Taylor? Because I'm seeing a pattern bigger than Taylor...

[zoogs]

Thanks, Enhance. Me...I hated the idea of relying heavily on big plays when the cost of that was inconsistency. To me this was the choice we saw back in August. You can either go with Zac and play safe ball that will get field goals or just punt at times, but won't be liable to consistently screw up good situations either. Sprinkle in a little Wildcat package for T-Magic and maybe harness some big play as well.

 

Instead Taylor's big play potential was so exciting to the coaches (and fans alike) that the decision was made to build the offense around him. The protesting cry "But.....consistency!...." was drowned out as we were reminded of how much faster Taylor is than Zac Lee. Well, OK. I loved the option days here and I wouldn't mind seeing some Crouch like highlights again. We did a lot of good things with it this year and I've come to accept Bo's call on this at the beginning of the year for the most part. I just wish that people would realize what the consequences of that call were.

 

I made a thread after the SDSU game, I think, asking for tempered expectations, because we had this exciting, but young and mistake-prone offense that we had hitched the wagon of the offense to. For better or for worse, sink-or-swim, sickness-or-health, we were going to ride that wagon. Since that's the choice Bo made, consequences like cold spells and inconsistency were just always going to be part of the package. It kind of chaffs me to see Watson criticized for inconsistency, now that we do have a lot of explosion and big plays and points out of the offense.

 

It'd be very interesting to start up the argument again of explosion/youthful mistakes vs dull/veteran reliability again. I think 3 losses in the end would have been fair for either. Just wanted to point out that if consistency is the gripe, this is the discussion to be having, as I believe we made a choice when we could have had either. Not sure where I fall on this argument now; hindsight is 20/20 but I'd say it's a push. Specific to the OU game yesterday, I feel an analogous discussion could be had regarding Taylor/Cody. Hindsight being 20/20 again, I'd say "not Taylor" should have been the answer there.

[zoogs]

Hercules said we were more injured last year, and that's true, but at least we 1) didn't have a liability at quarterback,

 

IIRC, Zac Lee threw 3 interceptions in the Texas game last year. And IIRC, one or two of those could have been field goals. So let's not revise history...

 

Joe Ganz threw the dumbest interception you'll ever see in overtime against Texas Tech, on second down.

 

Still think Taylor's interception was just a bad play by Taylor? Because I'm seeing a pattern bigger than Taylor...

 

There's a very obvious pattern. I think every year, just about every starting quarterback on every team will throw an interception. It's an epidemic, really, and obviously there is a lack of quality coaching in the profession right now

 

Each interception has to be looked at on its own merits. Zac did have a terrible interception against Texas, that cost us. He had a few others that were basically punts. But he didn't take completely unforced drive-killing sacks with the frequency that Taylor did. Against a much better defense, with a more injury riddled-offense, he was given a chance to drive for a potentially game-winning field goal as the 4th winded down. He did it. From there, the game was taken out of his hands. Taylor had those same opportunities twice at the end of the game. Twice, he took a nearly 10-yard sack. It was bad enough to the point that I think we would be better off not playing with a quarterback out there.

 

If you want to look at Taylor's interception and somehow decide that was on anybody other than Taylor, I would just strongly disagree. He scrambled and was well out of the pocket and kept the play alive. It wasn't the play call anymore; it was improvisation. He had to throw it away there and knew it. I'm not sure that is convincing enough, but that's the best I can do for now. There is no way you will ever prevent interceptions as an OC or as a QB, but this one by Taylor was so awful and preventable it's beyond words.

[Hercules]

Hercules said we were more injured last year, and that's true, but at least we 1) didn't have a liability at quarterback,

 

IIRC, Zac Lee threw 3 interceptions in the Texas game last year. And IIRC, one or two of those could have been field goals. So let's not revise history...

 

Joe Ganz threw the dumbest interception you'll ever see in overtime against Texas Tech, on second down.

 

Still think Taylor's interception was just a bad play by Taylor? Because I'm seeing a pattern bigger than Taylor...

 

There's a very obvious pattern. I think every year, just about every starting quarterback on every team will throw an interception. It's an epidemic, really, and obviously there is a lack of quality coaching in the profession right now

 

Each interception has to be looked at on its own merits. Zac did have a terrible interception against Texas, that cost us. He had a few others that were basically punts. But he didn't take completely unforced drive-killing sacks with the frequency that Taylor did. Against a much better defense, with a more injury riddled-offense, he was given a chance to drive for a potentially game-winning field goal as the 4th winded down. He did it. From there, the game was taken out of his hands. Taylor had those same opportunities twice at the end of the game. Twice, he took a nearly 10-yard sack. It was bad enough to the point that I think we would be better off not playing with a quarterback out there.

 

If you want to look at Taylor's interception and somehow decide that was on anybody other than Taylor, I would just strongly disagree. He scrambled and was well out of the pocket and kept the play alive. It wasn't the play call anymore; it was improvisation. He had to throw it away there and knew it. I'm not sure that is convincing enough, but that's the best I can do for now. There is no way you will ever prevent interceptions as an OC or as a QB, but this one by Taylor was so awful and preventable it's beyond words.

 

I agree that it was a stupid interception... What I'm saying was that Ganz threw inexplicably bad interceptions too. So did Zac Lee. And in critical game situations where a mistake couldn't be made. I'm saying it's a larger problem than Taylor. And when that kind of mistake gets made over and over again, by different players, sometimes the teacher isn't doing their job.

 

And saying that stupid mistakes are only the fault of players and not coaches... Your job as a coach is to teach your kids not to make mistakes. It's not your only job, but it's a pretty big part of it. If your student makes a mistake, then you haven't taught them well enough. If coaching had nothing to do with dumb mistakes and busts, than our defense last year still would have been as bad as 2007. But Bo Pelini is a good teacher, and the players learned how to minimize their mistakes.

[zoogs]

Are you saying we have had an interceptions problem? I would say that we really don't.

 

Taylor has an interceptions problem. Ganz, we all thought he would, but he cut it down really impressively. 2008 saw him put up arcade style numbers. Lee was OK for the most part. He had a tough game against one of the best secondaries in the nation, and two fluky-as-heck picks against Iowa State. His problem was not enough production in terms of yards/touchdowns, not being particularly pick-prone.

 

The rub is this. I could go on a rant on Taylor's lack of abilities in various departments, but you will respond, quite accurately, that he's just a freshman and he shouldn't be expected to be a mistake-free model of consistency. It's not the coaches' fault that he is a freshman on the bottom side of a steep learning curve, and can be more hot and cold than Katy Perry. That's just how Taylor is at this stage of his development and it will take a long time to work it out of him. You could say it's the coaches' fault for choosing Taylor as the best option though.