Defending the coaches/players

[Big Red 40]

The QB is the most important player on the team, and Watson has had to adapt to 5 different ones in 4 years as an OC.(Sam Keller,Joe Ganz,Zac Lee, Cody Green, and T.M.) 6 if you count Healthy Taylor M., and Injured Taylor M. as 2 different players, which they are.

Theres much more to the QB position than physical ability as T.M and Joe Ganz showed us.

Joe wasnt as physically gifted as Taylor, but he set many records as a QB (With Watson as OC by the way!)by knowing how to read defenses,when to run, when to throw it away, etc. and helped the team with his veteran leadership.

Taylor is more physically gifted, but hes not seasoned enough to lead the team yet IMO. If he stays til his Senior year i think he will learn these things and become a truly great QB, and whoever the OC is will look like a hero.

Does anyone know ,or care who Auburns OC is? Probably not, because when you have a player like Cam Newton out there, it matters a whole lot less.

Thats why i have a hard time blaming Watson for all of the offense problems given the circumstances.

[HskerFever73]

 

 

Now when you say he goes into a shell, do you mean running routes and formations that Texas had never seen, do you mean the fake punt against okie stat (although that may be Bo's call), or is this shell include the play action on 4th and1 in the big 12 championship with a qb that gad been cold all game, maybe you're reffering to the pass from Burkhead to Martinez (which was wide open) So I guess the USC guys are right with going into a shell. When you look at all the chances he took to win those games I see exactly the shell that they were talking about.

 

When I went back and watched it again it was crazy how open TMart was on that play. The reason it failed was because Rex had pressure and had to create time to get the pass off. If he didnt that was 6 pts all the way.

[huskers1]

No I'm not talking about the play action or fake punt, which I believe is Bo's call. I actually think he called a very good first half. But then why go away from it in the second half when they hadn't really stopped it consistently to that point? because he didn't want to get too predictable? He always tries to out think his opponent even before they have proven they can stop his O. He basically out thinks himself. I'm referring to running zone read after zone read in the second half when it hadn't worked for more than a handful of yards on any play. I'm talking about running slant after slant after slant. Towards the end of the game the OU defense had at least two players in the passing lane on slants bc everyone, including everyone in the room I was watching the game, knew it was coming. Ok so lets call timeout for the last play because they more than likely know a slant is coming. What's his call out of a TO? A SLANT PATTERN TO THE OTHER SIDE! That's a brain-buster! I've said time and time again that I don't think Wats is a bad OC he just doesn't perform in big games.

 

Also, what formations or plays had the OU defense not seen? A play-action? A power play? Wildcat? Slant? The pass to T Mart was balsy and I thought it was a perfect time to call it. But then the next play he make a QB had proven all game that his pocket presence was poor at best, who had run 45 yards downfiled, 45 yards back, try to do something he hadn't done well in the first place. Things like that are just mind-blowing and is essentially what drives me nuts about wats.

[kansas husker]

I dont have the game to go rewatch, but from what I remember the last zone read of the first half went for 22 yards. Then to start the 2nd the first two plays were zone reads. The next series we ran a trap, a zone read, and an imcoplete pass. Then Rex very successfully ran the zone read after that. Our Offensive scheme is based on the read option so yes you will see a lot of it. One of my biggest issues is Wats can't win, no matter what he does its his fault.

[kansas husker]

It's not hard to have good offensive numbers when you've played against some of the defenses we've played against. Remember how Zac Lee looked before Nebraska started conference play last year?

 

I agree with that. Numbers are often inflated. So, let's compare the Big 12 numbers, this year and last year. I think it has really been an improvement in leaps and bounds.

 

What I want to know is, how would we rank nationally if our offensive numbers against Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma were average for Nebraska this year?

 

This is an interesting question, but if you are taking only offensive numbers against high-ranked defenses for Nebraska, you have to put that up against only offensive numbers against high-ranked defenses for every other team. Hard for me to say exactly where in the rankings we'll fall there. I suspect more teams than not have had pretty low outputs against the higher-ranked defenses.

 

 

I may be willing to take this on today as I'm very board and there is no football on today.

[huskers1]

The zone read at the end of the half was a decent call bc more than likely they just didn't think we would run the ball with the amount of time that was left.

2nd Half:

1st Play-zone read, four yard loss

2nd Play-slant, 15 yard gain-first down

3rd play-zone read, no gain

4th play-zone read, 1 yard loss

5th play-drop back pocket pass, fumble OU ball

6th play-zone read, 1 yard loss

7th play-slant, 6 yard gain

8th play-drop back pass, incomplete-punt

9th play-drop back pass, T Mart fumbles recovers his own

10th play-zone read, four yard gain

11th play-slant, incomplete-punt

12th play-play action, sack-five yard loss

13th play-play action pass to burkhead, 14 yard gain

14th play-slant, 9 yard gain, first down

15th play-zone read, five yard gain

16th play-zone read, burkhead breaks 3 tackles to gain 10 yards

17th play-play action, T Mart has 10 second to throw the ball, takes a sack-loses 10 yards

 

Those are the plays in order that we ran in the third quarter. I've said many times I liked how he called the first half but then came out in the second half and went into his typical predictable self. 7 zone reads for a total of 13 yards and that was bolstered by Burkheads run where he broke three tackles and hurdled a guy to get it. We ran 4 slant patterns-which worked in the third quarter going for a total of 30 yards. The D caught on in the fourth quarter but no slant and go? So out of the 17 plays we ran in the third quarter 11 of them were either a zone read or slant and they went for a total of of 43 yards. That's just me watching the game so the stats maybe give or take a yard or two. Doesn't seem very productive to me....

[zoogs]

IIRC the zone read only really started getting shut down in the 3rd. More accurately, it seems like it was just that first drive in the 3rd where Taylor made some disastrous reads.

 

The zone read at the end of the half was a decent call bc more than likely they just didn't think we would run the ball with the amount of time that was left.

 

Aha! Unpredictable = good result I suspect if the OU defense knows completely what is coming, it will decline a lot in usefulness. I don't think Watson actually went away from anything in the 2nd half; more like, Taylor fumbled in the first drive and shut down. I mean, similarly, we ran 4 slants for 36 yards in those plays you listed, so why would we go away from it?

[huskers1]

First drive in the second half? I listed the zone reads in the third quarter and it by far wasn't just the first drive.

4th Quarter:

1st play: 4 yard dig route/comeback to Broekemeier.

2nd play: drop back pass, incomplete pass on a crossing patter ten yards short of the 1st-punt

3rd play: wildcat, burkhead for about 16 yards

4th play: wildcat, burkhead for about 6 yards

5th play: wildcat burkhead fumbles

6th play: drop back pass, slant or stop route over the middle to mcneil for five yards

7th play: slant, almost picked off by travis lewis, incomplete pass

8th play: drop back pass, taylor scambles for 3 yards, comes back due to holding-punt

9th play: wilcat, burkhead run for 9 yards

10th play: wilcat, burkhead runs for about 5 yards and a first down at the 41 yard line.

11th play: wildcat, burkhead runs for 3 yards, now at the 39 yard line.

12th play: wilcat, burkhead passes to t mart incomplete 45 yards downfield (didn't mind the call at all)

13th play: drop back pass by taylor sacked fumbled for a loss of about 10 yards-mind blowing call!

14th play: 1:46 left with the ball the 46 yard line, needing about 15 yards to have a shot to tie. Slant to Broekemeier, 3 yard gain.

15th play: drop back pass taylor is sacked for a 8 yard loss.

16th play: Drop back pass, out route complete to Kinnie for about 13 yards.

17th play: we call TO after an apparent slant called to the right side. Out of the timeout we run a slant to the left side incomplete, we lose.

 

So in the 4th quarter we passed the ball 10 times w/ Taylor completing 4 of them for a total of 25, that of which was bolstered by Kinnies catch. Without that we have 3 completions for an average of 4 yards per completion. To compare that we ran the wilcat 7 times 6 of which were runs which included a fumble in the 4th quarter for a total of 39 yards rushing for an average of 6.5 yards per rush. What I am saying about Watson driving me crazy with how he chokes and goes into a shell is why when it's 3 and 5 and you are already in fg range and you are averaging close to 7 yards with burkhead running the wildcat do you drop taylor back to pass when he's completing less than 50% of his passes? What's the worst that happens if he doesn't get it? We send out possibly the best, most accurate kicker in college football history to tie the game. On top of that, on our last possession why when there is 1:46 left, do we run 4 pocket passes with Taylor?! Even if we get 5 yards a pop with Burkhead we still have more than enough time to get into fg position-then take a few shots at the win if you want to.

 

Watson, whether you or anyone wants to admit it or not does not put players in the best position when it comes to crunch time.

[zoogs]

The single biggest problem, that affected everything else and hamstrung the team because it was not putting the best players in a position to win, was the call to keep Taylor in the game. That is not a strike against Taylor, who, when healthy, has been great.

 

You listed the zone reads in the third quarter, but as I recall Taylor fumbled on the first drive...or maybe it was the first play of the second drive. Either way, after that the zone read was called 3 times and gained 19 yards. That's what I mean by it was shut down on one series. It was called four times in the first series of 7 plays, and went for negative 6 yards. Surprisingly, it made a comeback after that.

 

I don't recall a single 3rd and 5 in field goal range. 3rd and 5 is a passing down to begin with, but it was actually 3rd and 8. Which is definitely a passing down. If we run, we are just inching closer for the field goal. I disagree pretty strong with this call as I thought we should have played it safe and settled for the field goal. Evidently, we tried to win the game. Not sure who is responsible for wanting to still go for a touchdown in that drive but I think it could be Bo, who said afterwards 'we thought we had the distance' - so that if a pass play failed, we could get Alex in there, and if it succeeded, the drive would keep going. Either way, with that logic, it's hard to beat up on the decision too much, except that Taylor was in there. I would have gone the safe route anyway but can you imagine the outrage if we did that, OU drove back down the field and got another FG before OT, how that would still be pinned on the offense that couldn't do anything and went into a shell?

 

My thought on the last drive was pretty similar. My memory could be bad but I thought we needed more like 25 yards to really get into FG range (I wasn't considering 57 to be exactly safe), I suppose 20 could have given us a really long attempt. Either way, I thought we should have run that drive with Burkhead runs, 4 downs to pick up a first, and if we can just do that twice we have a pretty good chance of being in striking distance. Instead we came out putting it on Taylor's arm, once again. I said this many times about the end of the game, as much as I hate these non-conservative calls, *someone* had a ridiculous amount of faith in Taylor and it sure wasn't (just) Watson. I can't argue with the final two playcalls there as it was really the sack that killed that drive. It put us into 3rd and about 17, which means the next two plays were going to be sure passing scenarios, and given our QB that was out there, I don't know what you do.

 

If you get down to it there are a lot of festering problems here, and it is pretty simplistic to just declare that you've proved everything on Watson. Even Dirk, who wrote that scathing article with the Wildcat usage stats in this game, wrote that article to pin the blame on Bo.

[huskers1]

Yes you're right, it was third and 8. I really don't think Bo's on the headset telling Watson what to run or go for the TD or whatever. He may say something like "don't lay off the gas" or something like that. That's just my opinion though. What I'm saying is even if it's 3rd and 8 in field goal range, why even put taylor in the position that he's proven in that game he can't succeed at consistently? Again, I don' think that he's a terrible OC, just that he has a handful of times in every big game where it's like "what the hell are you doing?!" In most cases it ends up costing us the game or at least puts our D in very stressful situations.

[Hercules]

I was on the fence with Watson until the 4th quarter of the Big 12 championship, when instead of sticking with the Wildcat (which was working) he went back to having Taylor in the shotgun trying to throw the ball. It was stupid, and indefensible.

 

No article that anybody writes talking about injuries or anything is going to change that sequence of events. It was vintage Watson, and it cost us the CCG as much as anything. He didn't help put his team in a position to win the game. He put them in a position to lose it.

 

After that, nothing any Watson defender can come up with is going to win me over. If Watson and his offense show up big in a key game next year against a good defense, then I'll rethink my position. But you only get a couple of those games each year. Blowing those opportunities and then touting your wild success against doormats like Colorado isn't going to get you anywhere.

[kansas husker]

Yes you're right, it was third and 8. I really don't think Bo's on the headset telling Watson what to run or go for the TD or whatever. He may say something like "don't lay off the gas" or something like that. That's just my opinion though. What I'm saying is even if it's 3rd and 8 in field goal range, why even put taylor in the position that he's proven in that game he can't succeed at consistently? Again, I don' think that he's a terrible OC, just that he has a handful of times in every big game where it's like "what the hell are you doing?!" In most cases it ends up costing us the game or at least puts our D in very stressful situations.

 

The funny thing is last year everyone wanted him fired for not taking chances, like the one you mentioned. Now we should fire hum for not laying down and setteling for a fg on third and eight. While we're at it why dont we just kick a field goal on first down as soon as we are in rang. I mean this team has consistantly shown that it fumbles a lot. We wouldnt want to risk that.

[bshirt]

It's not hard to have good offensive numbers when you've played against some of the defenses we've played against. Remember how Zac Lee looked before Nebraska started conference play last year? What I want to know is, how would we rank nationally if our offensive numbers against Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma were average for Nebraska this year?

 

I am fine with the defense of Taylor Martinez, because if you look at last year then look at this year, it's clear that Taylor was the biggest reason why we thought we saw a better offense this year.

 

Exactly.

 

Heck, even Z. Lee looked good vs the Sun Belt teams last year. Then we started to play BCS teams and "poof".....Lee and the offense got stuffed like sardines. We had the best defense in the nation but we still lost four games due to our pathetic offense. This year, same deal and even with Tmart's outrageous performaces we've already lost three games.

 

Tmart is the sole reason for the stats improving. But without a healthy Tmart we're Z. Lee's 20009 "3 & out" machine again.

 

Bo just "has" to upgrade the coaching of SW/Gilmore. Excuses are getting old....

[zoogs]

This year, same deal and even with Tmart's outrageous performaces we've already lost three games.

 

What world are you living in, where our offense disappeared after the non conference schedule, or where Taylor had an outrageously (good) performance and we still lost a game? Heh.

[bshirt]

This year, same deal and even with Tmart's outrageous performaces we've already lost three games.

 

What world are you living in, where our offense disappeared after the non conference schedule, or where Taylor had an outrageously (good) performance and we still lost a game? Heh.

 

I'm not in the SW/Gilmore apologist world you're living in, I can say that with certainty.