Couple other things I noticed

[Danimal]

1. Legate needs to work on his blocking before getting too many more carries.

 

2. Seriously, I can not for the life of me understand people's fascination with the Rexcat. Why in the world would we use that when we already have a QB who can run the ball? No kidding, if someone could answer this for me, I'd appreciate it, because I see it brought up all the time on this board and just don't understand it.

 

 

Because Rex is much, much better at making reads out of the Read Option than Taylor is. That, and he's a much better runner inbetween the tackles.

 

I don't really buy this. The part about making better reads, that is. Burkhead didn't have to deal with defenses keying on him like Martinez did. After Kansas State, every defense we played last year set out to stop Martinez, at the risk of leaving other parts of our offense undefended. No defense gave Rex Burkhead that much respect.

 

If you want to run Rex between the tackles, then just hand the ball off. With Martinez on the field, you've got a QB who can run, and the defense has to worry about defending his legs and his arm. Even when he hands the ball off, Martinez can create problems for the defense because they're so worried about him keeping it. You take him off the field, and you remove the most dynamic player from our offense, the guy that keeps defensive coordinators up at night, and you're only doing it so you can run the same plays with Rex Burkhead and one of the other running backs. It doesn't make any sense, it makes the offense less threatening, and easier to defend.

 

 

For the record, I think the coaches might agree with me, since at least according to Rex Burkhead they haven't worked on the Rexcat at all this year. Maybe he's just lying, that wouldn't surprise me, but for now I'm going with "the coaches agree with me."

 

That's the very essence of a Read Option, though. If the defense is keying on the QB, hand the ball off to the RB. How many times last year did we see Taylor make the incorrect read, and get stuffed behind the line?

 

This was covered ad-nauseum in another thread. Many of those mis-reads weren't even reads. Wats would call gives and keeps, particularly after TM lost the ability to cut well. Not saying he didn't make some bad reads, he did, but on some of those stuffs he was just running the play as called.

[Hammerhead]

1. Legate needs to work on his blocking before getting too many more carries.

 

2. Seriously, I can not for the life of me understand people's fascination with the Rexcat. Why in the world would we use that when we already have a QB who can run the ball? No kidding, if someone could answer this for me, I'd appreciate it, because I see it brought up all the time on this board and just don't understand it.

 

Seriously, I can not for the life of me understand people's fascination with T-Mart's running ability. Why in the world would anyone think that his skills are comparable to Rex. One makes plays and the other makes big runs when no one is around.

Don't kid yourself, Taylor is the biggest playmaker on this offense. And it isn't even close.

 

I'd hold off on that statement until we see more of Turner, Abdullah, Green, Heard, etc. We didn't see much from the last two, but both Turner and Abdullah looked VERY impressive on Saturday, and that was their first start for the Huskers.

[irafreak]

So much worry. We have a sophomore qb. A new OC. A young Oline. One experienced RB. Two good proven recievers. We played an FCS school and it was apparent we weren't trying to pile up yards and points as much as we were trying to execute new plays in an actual game situation. Bo even said as much. They stacked the box and we continued to run. We scored 40 points with a very vanilla offense. Quick off the top of your head...the last time we scored 40? It was what Okst? Then Washington? (Kstate?)

[huskerfan92]

So much worry. We have a sophomore qb. A new OC. A young Oline. One experienced RB. Two good proven recievers. We played an FCS school and it was apparent we weren't trying to pile up yards and points as much as we were trying to execute new plays in an actual game situation. Bo even said as much. They stacked the box and we continued to run. We scored 40 points with a very vanilla offense. Quick off the top of your head...the last time we scored 40? It was what Okst? Then Washington? (Kstate?)

actually against Colorado

[The Dude]

1. Legate needs to work on his blocking before getting too many more carries.

 

2. Seriously, I can not for the life of me understand people's fascination with the Rexcat. Why in the world would we use that when we already have a QB who can run the ball? No kidding, if someone could answer this for me, I'd appreciate it, because I see it brought up all the time on this board and just don't understand it.

 

Seriously, I can not for the life of me understand people's fascination with T-Mart's running ability. Why in the world would anyone think that his skills are comparable to Rex. One makes plays and the other makes big runs when no one is around.

Don't kid yourself, Taylor is the biggest playmaker on this offense. And it isn't even close.

 

I'd hold off on that statement until we see more of Turner, Abdullah, Green, Heard, etc. We didn't see much from the last two, but both Turner and Abdullah looked VERY impressive on Saturday, and that was their first start for the Huskers.

Why? The fact that it may or may not change in the future doesn't change the fact that it's true at this moment in time. If those guys can be the kind of explosive playmaker Taylor is, and we can get them the ball consistantly, this offense is going to be hard to defend.

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

Burkhead's mistakes should have him running steps. He missed blocking assignments, he failed to keep proper separation on the Option, he flat-out went the wrong way on Taylor's second TD run, and overall it looked like his head wasn't in the game. I don't know if he was thinking too much, just going through the motions or what it was. We know he's a hell of a good RB, so chalk it up to first-game jitters I guess, but after watching the game again, I just have to laugh at those folks thinking we need to feature him more than Martinez. Based on what we saw Saturday, we would need less of Rex.

 

Of course, Saturday was a meaningless game, and it's not indicative of anything, but if we're using that game to bemoan the horrible fate of our offense under Martinez, we cannot ignore the mistakes Burkhead made. Of the two, Martinez had by far the better game.

Thank you. Rex ran the wrong way on the 2nd TM option, he ran into Taylor's back on a screen pass, he also ran a route to the wrong side at least twice, and he ran to the wrong side on a PA that resulted in the only sack. I love Rex, but people who are trying to blame all the offense problems on TM are complete retards. It was sloppy all around. Only Enunwa seemed ready to go. Reed missed some blocks, as did Cotton. Kinnie couldn't catch a cold. TM did an OK job in the pass game, going through his first 2 options before bolting, which he didn't do last year. He just needs to learn to slide.

Turns out that the play was supposed to go to Rex's side but TM saw the position of one of the defenders and called his own number.

 

The option requires timing and much more practice than they've had so far. An option drill here and there isn't gonna cut it. Even during the broadcast Ahman Green said that he had to work hard to get in synch with each of his QBs whether it was Frazier, Berringer or Frost.

[Saunders]

Burkhead's mistakes should have him running steps. He missed blocking assignments, he failed to keep proper separation on the Option, he flat-out went the wrong way on Taylor's second TD run, and overall it looked like his head wasn't in the game. I don't know if he was thinking too much, just going through the motions or what it was. We know he's a hell of a good RB, so chalk it up to first-game jitters I guess, but after watching the game again, I just have to laugh at those folks thinking we need to feature him more than Martinez. Based on what we saw Saturday, we would need less of Rex.

 

Of course, Saturday was a meaningless game, and it's not indicative of anything, but if we're using that game to bemoan the horrible fate of our offense under Martinez, we cannot ignore the mistakes Burkhead made. Of the two, Martinez had by far the better game.

Thank you. Rex ran the wrong way on the 2nd TM option, he ran into Taylor's back on a screen pass, he also ran a route to the wrong side at least twice, and he ran to the wrong side on a PA that resulted in the only sack. I love Rex, but people who are trying to blame all the offense problems on TM are complete retards. It was sloppy all around. Only Enunwa seemed ready to go. Reed missed some blocks, as did Cotton. Kinnie couldn't catch a cold. TM did an OK job in the pass game, going through his first 2 options before bolting, which he didn't do last year. He just needs to learn to slide.

Turns out that the play was supposed to go to Rex's side but TM saw the position of one of the defenders and called his own number.

 

The option requires timing and much more practice than they've had so far. An option drill here and there isn't gonna cut it. Even during the broadcast Ahman Green said that he had to work hard to get in synch with each of his QBs whether it was Frazier, Berringer or Frost.

You mean when he audibled with :08 on the play clock, and Rex ran the wrong way? Legate and the line got it. He's supposed to audible when he's at the line.

[jsneb83]

Burkhead's mistakes should have him running steps. He missed blocking assignments, he failed to keep proper separation on the Option, he flat-out went the wrong way on Taylor's second TD run, and overall it looked like his head wasn't in the game. I don't know if he was thinking too much, just going through the motions or what it was. We know he's a hell of a good RB, so chalk it up to first-game jitters I guess, but after watching the game again, I just have to laugh at those folks thinking we need to feature him more than Martinez. Based on what we saw Saturday, we would need less of Rex.

 

Of course, Saturday was a meaningless game, and it's not indicative of anything, but if we're using that game to bemoan the horrible fate of our offense under Martinez, we cannot ignore the mistakes Burkhead made. Of the two, Martinez had by far the better game.

Thank you. Rex ran the wrong way on the 2nd TM option, he ran into Taylor's back on a screen pass, he also ran a route to the wrong side at least twice, and he ran to the wrong side on a PA that resulted in the only sack. I love Rex, but people who are trying to blame all the offense problems on TM are complete retards. It was sloppy all around. Only Enunwa seemed ready to go. Reed missed some blocks, as did Cotton. Kinnie couldn't catch a cold. TM did an OK job in the pass game, going through his first 2 options before bolting, which he didn't do last year. He just needs to learn to slide.

Turns out that the play was supposed to go to Rex's side but TM saw the position of one of the defenders and called his own number.

 

The option requires timing and much more practice than they've had so far. An option drill here and there isn't gonna cut it. Even during the broadcast Ahman Green said that he had to work hard to get in synch with each of his QBs whether it was Frazier, Berringer or Frost.

You mean when he audibled with :08 on the play clock, and Rex ran the wrong way? Legate and the line got it. He's supposed to do that.

Maybe him doing that froze one of the safeties and prevented him from getting over and making the play on time. So maybe it was a good thing he went the wrong way lol.