The Players Get It

[bournehusker]

I was at game and thought we were awful on oline. When I watched it back it was just blocking mistakes and mis reads etc. Fixable freshman/sophomore mistakes. I'm more relaxed about where we are. I think we will improve dramatically. I'm excited.

[Hercules]

I hope it carries over as well, however we have seen that desire isn't always everything (Texas game 2010). Furthermore, this team was supposed to be angry about losing three of four to end the season and losing two consecutive Big 12 title games. I don't think this team really needs more motivation.

 

I don't think Nebraska was angry enough going into the Texas game last year. The fans were, but the team had just come off of a nationally televised beatdown of Kansas State, people were talking Martinez for Heisman and Nebraska for National Champs, while Texas had just lost to Oklahoma and got creamed by UCLA.

 

The situation we're in right now is more like after SDSU last year, where we won a little ugly, and everybody got ticked off and then went and took it out on poor K-State. Hopefully, that's what happens to Fresno St. this Saturday.

 

After this Saturday though, they need to show they can maintain intensity on a weekly basis. There have been letdowns the past couple years (SDSU, Texas, Iowa State etc), both wins and losses, and then the players bounce back the following week after "learning a lesson," (Kansas State, Oklahoma State etc). Hopefully they've learned their lesson and don't need somebody handing us a loss to learn it again.

[AFhusker]

I hope it carries over as well, however we have seen that desire isn't always everything (Texas game 2010). Furthermore, this team was supposed to be angry about losing three of four to end the season and losing two consecutive Big 12 title games. I don't think this team really needs more motivation.

 

I don't think Nebraska was angry enough going into the Texas game last year. The fans were, but the team had just come off of a nationally televised beatdown of Kansas State, people were talking Martinez for Heisman and Nebraska for National Champs, while Texas had just lost to Oklahoma and got creamed by UCLA.

 

The situation we're in right now is more like after SDSU last year, where we won a little ugly, and everybody got ticked off and then went and took it out on poor K-State. Hopefully, that's what happens to Fresno St. this Saturday.

 

After this Saturday though, they need to show they can maintain intensity on a weekly basis. There have been letdowns the past couple years (SDSU, Texas, Iowa State etc), both wins and losses, and then the players bounce back the following week after "learning a lesson," (Kansas State, Oklahoma State etc). Hopefully they've learned their lesson and don't need somebody handing us a loss to learn it again.

 

The key is being good enough even on your off days to win games since it's hard to keep these kids attention throughout the season. Every team has a few games a season when they just don't have it and to be truthful, we haven't been that good of a team since the last of of TO's recruits graduated.

 

Once we get to that point again, we will truly know that NU is back.

[zoogs]

I hope it carries over as well, however we have seen that desire isn't always everything (Texas game 2010). Furthermore, this team was supposed to be angry about losing three of four to end the season and losing two consecutive Big 12 title games. I don't think this team really needs more motivation.

 

I don't think Nebraska was angry enough going into the Texas game last year. The fans were, but the team had just come off of a nationally televised beatdown of Kansas State, people were talking Martinez for Heisman and Nebraska for National Champs, while Texas had just lost to Oklahoma and got creamed by UCLA.

 

I think the opposite. I thought we were too angry going into the Texas game last year. The team was on a fritz, a little too geeked up and stiff instead of just settling down and playing our game. It was like such a big deal was made for the game that it got to be a bit of a demon, and hurt us. The pressure was on, confidence was high, desire was great, and we wanted to dominate. Sometimes, that hurts us. Can't always play for vengeance.

 

Now here's what I don't get. A lot of fans had some criticisms to take away from the UTC game and called it a sloppy performance. Now the players and coaches are coming out and saying the same thing.

 

What's the issue? Why are others up in arms over fans criticizing the performance of the team against UTC, when it appears by and large to be an accurate breakdown?

[In the Deed the Glory]

I hope it carries over as well, however we have seen that desire isn't always everything (Texas game 2010). Furthermore, this team was supposed to be angry about losing three of four to end the season and losing two consecutive Big 12 title games. I don't think this team really needs more motivation.

 

I don't think Nebraska was angry enough going into the Texas game last year. The fans were, but the team had just come off of a nationally televised beatdown of Kansas State, people were talking Martinez for Heisman and Nebraska for National Champs, while Texas had just lost to Oklahoma and got creamed by UCLA.

 

I think the opposite. I thought we were too angry going into the Texas game last year. The team was on a fritz, a little too geeked up and stiff instead of just settling down and playing our game. It was like such a big deal was made for the game that it got to be a bit of a demon, and hurt us. The pressure was on, confidence was high, desire was great, and we wanted to dominate. Sometimes, that hurts us. Can't always play for vengeance.

 

Now here's what I don't get. A lot of fans had some criticisms to take away from the UTC game and called it a sloppy performance. Now the players and coaches are coming out and saying the same thing.

 

What's the issue? Why are others up in arms over fans criticizing the performance of the team against UTC, when it appears by and large to be an accurate breakdown?

 

Possibly the single most I have ever agreed with one of your posts. Nice job.

 

Those of you freaking out about a few people noticing some problems, newsflash.....we want the Huskers to win too. We aren't going to freak out, call for Bo's head, and stop watching. We are all fans. Stop preaching to us, we've probably been around much longer than you and remember what this program is supposed to be and want it back to that and we all feel like we are close enough to expect that again.

 

We all love Dear Old Nebraska U and support them through and through.

[sd'sker]

people are throwing out the phrase "snake bit" a lot. how have we been snake bit? we've known what to expect. and the game was as promising as it was underwhelming. it wasn't a thursday night game broadcast on espn. it was one of many on a saturday used as a glorified scrimmage. sloppy can be fixed. otherwise, it was a good game that demonstrated a team with a lot of potential. a team that will, no doubt, struggle against the better teams on their schedule (wiscy), but should be able to compete with everyone and put to, what i like to call, gether a pretty good season. we'll wallop the bad teams and compete with the good teams. the team will iron out the wrinkles and hopefully get better every week. it was a good place to start, and lets hope the team does progress every week. day by day.

[Vizsla1]

[whateveritis1224]

It's the way they were going at it. Immediately announcing our offense wasn't better than last year and wouldn't be any better, specifically the O-Line. Felt like they were giving up on the season after 1 game and preparing for next season. Too much pessimism for a game that a number of people could see was being used as a practice, which was immediately confirmed in the after game presser.

[sd'sker]

is anyone worried that t-mart lost some speed, quickness over the past year?

 

steven m. sipple tweeted

 

Nebraska goes up 20-0 on Martinez's 43-yard run on a 4th-and-2. Turned on jets. He looks as fast and explosive as last year, right? Right?

 

i thought he looked fast enough. they weren't running the zone where he just would sprint out of the pocket. what does everyone else think?

[Marf]

I'm still a little awestruck at how badly and how fast people are piling on like we just witnessed the entire 2007 season in one game.

 

Amen! This is weird. We won the game. We won by 4.5 touchdowns. There was never a single moment in that game where the outcome was in doubt. We clearly and obviously played a very vanilla game on both sides of the ball (with a couple of blitzes and a Burkhead pass attempt thrown in). Yet despite this, people are almost in mourning.

 

It makes no sense.

 

How do you score .5 touchdowns???

 

 

 

I believe they call that a field goal...

 

6/2=3

[It'sNotAFakeID]

I have no problem with why people are criticizing the team. Just because we won doesn't mean that people aren't allowed to criticize. I have a problem with those who have judged this whole season based upon the performance of 3/4ths of the team in the FIRST game. Certainly there were breakdowns on the offensive front, and the WRs didn't catch the balls, and some of Taylor's throws/decisions weren't the best. That doesn't mean that the season is going to be automatically worse than last year.

 

You don't see Bo freaking out about how the offense is going to fall flat on its face; sure he said it was pretty sloppy, and I'll agree with his assessment, but there were a lot of goods to come out of the game to that i think a lot of people are ignorant of. It wasn't ALL bad.

 

Adapting a new offensive scheme is a process, it's going to take some time and won't be in place by the first game of the season, which is why thank God they scheduled a team where they could fail to execute against and still win.

 

People want to see perfection and they want to see it right away, because that's the best Nebraska that most of the fans know. Me, a fan that is relatively new (as of 2003-ish) know that Nebraska is capable of being National Champions, but I take it week by week.

 

They're going to improve, just give it time.

[okaive]

Funny that people are saying that if we barely won, then they would be more upset. But 3 out of the 4.5 touchdowns that we had were from Taylor, just like last year. If he was stopped, we would have won only by 10 points Are we going to have to depend on him again thru this entire season? Taylor needs to be a QB and we need the rest of the team to do their jobs.

[Enhance]

Now here's what I don't get. A lot of fans had some criticisms to take away from the UTC game and called it a sloppy performance. Now the players and coaches are coming out and saying the same thing.

 

What's the issue? Why are others up in arms over fans criticizing the performance of the team against UTC, when it appears by and large to be an accurate breakdown?

This is a very good point.

 

I think we all have different opinions on the game, but I think some people don't agree with the criticism because it's becoming over-dramatic in some cases. I see this two ways - yes, we shouldn't get too crazy with the criticism. It's game one of a new year, with a new OC and several young starters on the offense. I have no statistical proof to back this up, but I would think collectively that we started one of the youngest offenses in the nation on Saturday.

 

On the flip side, and as you pointed out, the coaches/players themselves have said what many of the fans are saying - Saturday was not a good performance. And it's not that people on this board want to criticize the players because I think we'd all prefer that the team was so good we could just heap them with praise. But I believe there are several reasons and several past experiences that have led people to question first and believe second when it comes to the offense.

[Hercules]

I hope it carries over as well, however we have seen that desire isn't always everything (Texas game 2010). Furthermore, this team was supposed to be angry about losing three of four to end the season and losing two consecutive Big 12 title games. I don't think this team really needs more motivation.

 

I don't think Nebraska was angry enough going into the Texas game last year. The fans were, but the team had just come off of a nationally televised beatdown of Kansas State, people were talking Martinez for Heisman and Nebraska for National Champs, while Texas had just lost to Oklahoma and got creamed by UCLA.

 

I think the opposite. I thought we were too angry going into the Texas game last year. The team was on a fritz, a little too geeked up and stiff instead of just settling down and playing our game. It was like such a big deal was made for the game that it got to be a bit of a demon, and hurt us. The pressure was on, confidence was high, desire was great, and we wanted to dominate. Sometimes, that hurts us. Can't always play for vengeance.

 

Now here's what I don't get. A lot of fans had some criticisms to take away from the UTC game and called it a sloppy performance. Now the players and coaches are coming out and saying the same thing.

 

What's the issue? Why are others up in arms over fans criticizing the performance of the team against UTC, when it appears by and large to be an accurate breakdown?

 

You could be right about the Texas game... Whatever it was, some of the guys didn't have their heads on straight.

 

As far as the criticism goes, nobody here has a problem with people saying, "Taylor Martinez was inaccurate on a few of his throws," or, "The offensive line didn't get the kind of push we expect them to," or whatever. Everybody I've seen comment on the game is critical of the team's performance, myself included.

 

The disagreement is between the people who think that the problems of the first game are indicative of what's going to happen this year, and the people who think the problems of the first game might actually be fixed. The disagreement I've seen on this board generally seems to be between the people who expect the team to play at a championship level right now, and those who think it will take some time for the team and the offense especially to progress in a new system.

 

Nobody has a problem with pointing out that so and so missed a block or so and so dropped a pass. But some people are so upset about it, and really what were they expecting? A 77-0 final score, with 600 total yards and an offense that is clicking on all cylinders in its first game with a new coordinator and a new scheme, and like 8 freshmen expected to be big contributors? It was just the first game, some people need to chill out and allow the team to progress.

[Foppa]

The one thing I absolutely hate about the Pelini administration is how he publicly states the teams' goals. Why? For a coach who keeps everything close to the vest, do we really need to know this? And it's a pretty s*** mentality to have. Look at last year...when the wheels fell off, they fell off HARD. And yes, injuries blah blah blah. But what did the team have to play for? The Championship belief got rammed down their throat so hard that they didn't think they needed to keep playing once they lost. But here we are again. Yes, every player on the team should feel like the talent and coaching is good enough to win championships. But when it is 'Championship or bust', then you are setting things up for disaster.