Do we have a prayer?

[agibson95]

I believe that if we score more points than them we will win the game. I think they know that too.

[mnhusker]

It will be a good game, assuing this weekend goes as expected both teams will be undefeated. We will be by far the best most talented team they have palyed and the same can be said for them as our opponet. I expect a slugfest I would not put my money on either team.

[Blackshirt316]

A prayer to beat Wisconsin?

 

More than that, at this point I'd be shocked if we lose that game. I'm actually more worried we don't beat Ohio State.

 

Seems strange but by watching these teams and watching us, OSU is actually the tougher match up right now.

[Cdog923]

As someone else has stated.....I feel a lot better about beating them in December in Indy (Lord willing, we both make it) than in Madison in 2 weeks.

[huskernumerouno]

I personally think we will play better than we have all year, will it be enough I have no idea. Wi. is a very good team and ready for smash mouth football. They will not be intimidated by anything we throw or run at them. Their O line is a lot like what we used to put out there. They have the home field which means we are limited to what we can put on the sidelines due to travel restrictions. If we can survive the initial surge they will have form the anticipated hype we have a chance. The Blackshirts need to step up and play lights out, and our O line will need to play agressive. We will need to have long drives that result in scores and consuming time to keep their offense off the field. If they have the long sustained drives and say we match them with quick 3 play scores we will wear down on D and be unable to keep them in check.

 

This will be a great win if we can pull it off,

 

GBR GBR GBR that is Husker RED

[Bromontana]

We're gonna KICK BUTT! And then STACK 'EM TEN HIGH!

 

 

 

Edit: Alright. Apparently somebody needs to re-teach me how to put a youtube video up in this piece.

 

Double Edit: Never mind

 

Hey long time listener, first time caller. Actually I'm just a Badger fan who couldn't pass up the chance to point out the hilarious irony here. Chris Farley was actually born and raised in Madison, WI, and though he attended Marquette University was a big Badger fan.

 

He performed at championship banquets and stopped by the press box to do some celebrity play-by-play occasionally, and he even gave a pep talk before the 94 Rose Bowl as "Matt Foley." AKA the "Down by the river!" guy.

 

I know Wyoming and South Dakota have got us all pretty pumped up for some quality football this week, but I have this funny feeling we should keep an eye out for this game next week in Madison. It might be a fun one.

[bshirt]

Wilson brings their O to another level. He's a good and mobile qb to accompany their nasty powergame. They'll put-up considerable points. We will probably need a cheap score or two off turnovers or ST's to keep-up. We have firepower on O, if we can get clicking and avoid turnovers anything could happen.

 

You might be right but when I've seen him playing the creampuffs so far he's sitting back there with a beer & pizza until he sees an wide open wr. Wilson was no Dan Fouts at NCS and very well might not be when playing us.

 

We'll see....

 

GBR!!

[Blackshirt316]

I guess I would ask this question. Which team is playing the best football in the big 10 right now? According to scoreboard it's wisconsin. We can talk about lack of competition all we want but let's face it. You can't do more than what they've done which is handily beat their opponents. I think Nebraska does have an important advantage of being battle tested. We had to gut it out for 4 quarters and we'll see if wisconsin can do the same because even if they jump us early I think we fight all game long.

 

I can absolutely argue that Nebraska has played better even though it doesn't look like it.

 

 

Offensively the difference between Wisconsin and Nebraska is only 1.6 points per game and Nebraska has faced SIGNIFICANTLY tougher defenses.

 

Defensively Nebraska needs some work but I have a feeling that once Dennard gets in there things will take a good turn. Many issues in the secondary are present right now due to horrible communication. Dennard will shore that up. It also can't be stressed how imactful a DB that shuts down 1/3 of the field can be on not just the rest of the secondary but the pass rush and run stoppage as well.

 

Strengh of schedule and not having Dennard matters, but is only a part of it though.

 

You have to take team goals and coach philosophy into consideration as well.

 

Belima always does his best to run up the score on everyone. He goes for style points more than almost any other coach. I mean this is the guy who was going for 2 point conversions up by multiple touchdowns last year trying to inflate his team's national percepton. It's just what he does. Bo could care less about that stuff, he basically treats the first couple cupcake games as scrimmages to work on things that they aren't comfortable with using multiple combinations of personnel (ie playing guys like Blatchford and Mendoza in meaningful snaps when they likely won't see anything other than special teams time once conference play starts or playing guys out of position on the O-line against guys they'll probably never line up next to again this season) and not caring a lot about yards given up. - though admittedly he doesn't like giving up a lot of extra points but his ultimate goal is to get the team to be as good as they possibly can when they play teams that can match them talent wise not worry about style points against the ones that can't.

 

 

Wisconsin also has a significantly more veteran team than Nebraska so they way they approach cupcake games this year are vastly different in that reard as well.

 

On defense the D-Lines are comparable and both teams return one starting linebacker, but 3 of 4 in the secondary for Wisconsin are Seniors and returning starters while Nebraska has been breaking in multiple new young players and it's best DB has been out all year.

 

Wisconsin's entire Defense are all playing the same scheme they played last year too. Nebraska's in many cases are not as there are many differences for multiple players when we are running the 3-4 as opposed to running the Peso.

 

 

On offense Wisconsin has a veteran O-Line (3 seniors, 2 juniors and a sophmore, 3 of them returning starters) and mostly veteran WR's/TE's and HB's. (White and Ball are both returning backs and Nick Toon and Jake Byrne are seniors). Nebraska has multiple new offensive linemen, 3 new halfbacks, multiple new young WR's and multiple freshman playing all over the place.

 

Nebraska is breaking in a TON of new players on both sides of the ball and trying to get a lot of pieces acclimated to different roles and finding where they fit. Wisconsin is basically getting 3-4 players on Defense used to being starters (2 of the new starters are seniors and none are freshman) and acclimating their new QB to a veteran laden team on offense. What they are doing isn't that impressive... especially considering they put up big offensive numbers against junk teams last year too (remember the 70-3 score they put up on Austin Peay the week before they lost to Michigan State?) but weren't really all that great and Wilson has a knack for going bad teams at NCState too but then going in the tank every few weeks. (Like last year when he went 21-31 for 306 yards and 4 TD's and a 67.7 completion percentage against Western Carolina and then the next week going 10-30 for 105 yards and 1 TD with a 33.3% completion percentage against UCF.... or when when he went 38-51 for 328 and 3 TD's with a 74.5 completion percentage against Boston College and the next week going 26-52 and throwing 3 picks while losing in overtime to East Carolina.)

 

In my honest opinion Nebraska looks just as good as Wisconsin in many areas and will get significant help to the areas where Nebraska looks weaker. Wisconsin at it's core is an above average Big Ten team that is a bit of a paper tiger right now. Nebraska is an upper tier team that looks weaker because of non-conference philosiphy differences, personel management and Wisconsin's garbage schedule but has a LOT more potential, is more talented and should be the superior (and massively faster and speed is the one thing you can't teach.) team when the two teams actually play.

[Hunter94]

competition not withstanding, Wisconsin is playing a much better game right now, while our offense improves, our defense continues to struggle.

[bshirt]

I guess I would ask this question. Which team is playing the best football in the big 10 right now? According to scoreboard it's wisconsin. We can talk about lack of competition all we want but let's face it. You can't do more than what they've done which is handily beat their opponents. I think Nebraska does have an important advantage of being battle tested. We had to gut it out for 4 quarters and we'll see if wisconsin can do the same because even if they jump us early I think we fight all game long.

 

I can absolutely argue that Nebraska has played better even though it doesn't look like it.

 

 

Offensively the difference between Wisconsin and Nebraska is only 1.6 points per game and Nebraska has faced SIGNIFICANTLY tougher defenses.

 

Defensively Nebraska needs some work but I have a feeling that once Dennard gets in there things will take a good turn. Many issues in the secondary are present right now due to horrible communication. Dennard will shore that up. It also can't be stressed how imactful a DB that shuts down 1/3 of the field can be on not just the rest of the secondary but the pass rush and run stoppage as well.

 

Strengh of schedule and not having Dennard matters, but is only a part of it though.

 

You have to take team goals and coach philosophy into consideration as well.

 

Belima always does his best to run up the score on everyone. He goes for style points more than almost any other coach. I mean this is the guy who was going for 2 point conversions up by multiple touchdowns last year trying to inflate his team's national percepton. It's just what he does. Bo could care less about that stuff, he basically treats the first couple cupcake games as scrimmages to work on things that they aren't comfortable with using multiple combinations of personnel (ie playing guys like Blatchford and Mendoza in meaningful snaps when they likely won't see anything other than special teams time once conference play starts or playing guys out of position on the O-line against guys they'll probably never line up next to again this season) and not caring a lot about yards given up. - though admittedly he doesn't like giving up a lot of extra points but his ultimate goal is to get the team to be as good as they possibly can when they play teams that can match them talent wise not worry about style points against the ones that can't.

 

 

Wisconsin also has a significantly more veteran team than Nebraska so they way they approach cupcake games this year are vastly different in that reard as well.

 

On defense the D-Lines are comparable and both teams return one starting linebacker, but 3 of 4 in the secondary for Wisconsin are Seniors and returning starters while Nebraska has been breaking in multiple new young players and it's best DB has been out all year.

 

Wisconsin's entire Defense are all playing the same scheme they played last year too. Nebraska's in many cases are not as there are many differences for multiple players when we are running the 3-4 as opposed to running the Peso.

 

 

On offense Wisconsin has a veteran O-Line (3 seniors, 2 juniors and a sophmore, 3 of them returning starters) and mostly veteran WR's/TE's and HB's. (White and Ball are both returning backs and Nick Toon and Jake Byrne are seniors). Nebraska has multiple new offensive linemen, 3 new halfbacks, multiple new young WR's and multiple freshman playing all over the place.

 

Nebraska is breaking in a TON of new players on both sides of the ball and trying to get a lot of pieces acclimated to different roles and finding where they fit. Wisconsin is basically getting 3-4 players on Defense used to being starters (2 of the new starters are seniors and none are freshman) and acclimating their new QB to a veteran laden team on offense. What they are doing isn't that impressive... especially considering they put up big offensive numbers against junk teams last year too (remember the 70-3 score they put up on Austin Peay the week before they lost to Michigan State?) but weren't really all that great and Wilson has a knack for going bad teams at NCState too but then going in the tank every few weeks. (Like last year when he went 21-31 for 306 yards and 4 TD's and a 67.7 completion percentage against Western Carolina and then the next week going 10-30 for 105 yards and 1 TD with a 33.3% completion percentage against UCF.... or when when he went 38-51 for 328 and 3 TD's with a 74.5 completion percentage against Boston College and the next week going 26-52 and throwing 3 picks while losing in overtime to East Carolina.)

 

In my honest opinion Nebraska looks just as good as Wisconsin in many areas and will get significant help to the areas where Nebraska looks weaker. Wisconsin at it's core is an above average Big Ten team that is a bit of a paper tiger right now. Nebraska is an upper tier team that looks weaker because of non-conference philosiphy differences, personel management and Wisconsin's garbage schedule but has a LOT more potential, is more talented and should be the superior (and massively faster and speed is the one thing you can't teach.) team when the two teams actually play.

 

Love this post!!

 

Totally agree that the speed we have offensively is going to shock a lot of Big10 teams. Wisconsin's defense had better take their vitamins because they've going to have big fun dealing with Tmart's acceleration, Rex's savvy, the triplet's raw talent and Turner/Bell wr's electricity. Reed at TE could very well be a nightmare for them too.

 

Geesh.....this offense could get scary in a BIG way when the Oline comes around a little more. I think it will. Just loved those toss sweeps and bet we'll see more of them soon.

 

Lastly, the last two games NU took several hard right hooks to the mouth (behind at half & only up 3 pts in the other) yet shook it off and offensively stormed back in the 2nd half. I seriously, seriously doubt they'll be intimidated. At Camp Randle or not.

 

It's gonna be freakin great.

 

GBR!!

[HuskerFowler]

Everyone said the same thing about TCU in the Rose Bowl last year. If fact 98% of the country picked Wisconsin because of their big bad offensive line and their smash mouth running game. I dont understand how anyone can sit there and say we get blown out, like we are playing Alabama in 09 or something. Has Bo not shown you the ability to scheme in big games? I mean come on, when have we ever been blown out? I dont understand how some dont see how basic we have been on defense, and how little we have been able to do scheme wise with some young guys getting reps. We have done nothing complicated on defense, at all...a few basic blitzes that high schools use.

 

I wonder how many years its going to take some of you to trust Bo, and trust that he will have the Defense ready. They will get their points, but their slow defense will not be able to stop us, unless we stop ourselves. They have no defensive talent, watch one of their games.

[Treand3]

You guys seem to be on the same thought process as I have been. Many seem to overlook Wisky's D and notice that there is a lack of team speed. Their O seems potent but they have to play defense too. Like I've said before our issues on D stem from discipline and blown assignments, their issues, which haven't been showcased due to who they have played, that can also be said about their O as well.

[Paul in WI]

Lmao at this thread. People here have Wisconsin painted up to be some sort of unstoppable, killing machine. I swear that if we were playing Oklahoma, there would be a lot more optimism on this forum for an NU win. I fully expect us to do our typical thriving in a hostile environment and punch the Badgers squarely in the mouth on Oct 1. Then we're going to do our usual lame performance in front of the home fans and promptly lose the following week to OSU after many on this forum begin braying about a possible national championship. The Huskers are talented, but they are also far too young to turn in reliable weekly performances. Bo needs to get some advice from Tom regarding the psychological aspect of getting his young team ready for each game.

[JJ Husker]

Based on Tenn Chat & Fresno games- Wiscy wins fairly easily.

Based on Washington game-Wiscy still probably out scores us.

Based on the improvements shown in our offensive unit, Wisconsins schedule thus far, the fact they have not had to deal with team speed like we have, and my eternal optimism that our defense has not yet shown many blitz packages and that they will finally perform up to their potential- NU has every chance in the world of beating Wiscy and playing a complete game at Camp Randall.

 

Not giving the Skers a chance after 3 weeks of non-conf games seems very pessimistic to me. You have to make allowances for the potential that you know exists and weekly improvement trends. There that settles- I guess I'll watch the game after all.

[Hunter94]

Based on Tenn Chat & Fresno games- Wiscy wins fairly easily.

Based on Washington game-Wiscy still probably out scores us.

Based on the improvements shown in our offensive unit, Wisconsins schedule thus far, the fact they have not had to deal with team speed like we have, and my eternal optimism that our defense has not yet shown many blitz packages and that they will finally perform up to their potential- NU has every chance in the world of beating Wiscy and playing a complete game at Camp Randall.

 

Not giving the Skers a chance after 3 weeks of non-conf games seems very pessimistic to me. You have to make allowances for the potential that you know exists and weekly improvement trends. There that settles- I guess I'll watch the game after all.

 

 

 

"You have to make allowances for the potential that you know exists and weekly improvement trends."

 

 

that's what has me worried!