Martinez the scapegoat?

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The turnovers were just awful. But you cannot expect our defense to stop them with that short of a field, especially when they have been on the field probably the entire second quarter. Beck needs to help the defense out and stick to what our offense does best. Run the damn ball.

[VectorVictor]

Why try to be something we aren't (an air attack team) and focus on what we are best at (rushing the ball)?

 

Because Wisconsin's defense realized that our QB couldn't throw and put 7-8 in the box to force the issue.

 

Because our O-Line is a year away from being able to handle a run-dominated load. Cases-in-point--ARod couldn't get blocks off all night long when he was in. Our holding bugaboos were back when we were successful. We ran the ball better when we had three non-scholarship walk-on players starting.

 

Because aside from our running backs, our Wide Receiving corps, though young like all of the RBs behind Burkhead, are good, and we need to get them the ball. The only group of players I was more impressed with at a position level than the RBs were the WRs--they were fighting and scrapping, and God *****t, we need to get them involved--it's utterly asinine to let their talents go to waste.

 

Martinez isn't *just* a scapegoat--he's had enough game experience that he should know that it would be better to scramble than to force a throw into double coverage. For every brilliant pass or run play he creates, there seems to be an equally opposite bone-headed run or pass that shows up to balance things out.

 

It's as if Martinez doesn't really remember to think about the situation he's in, or to checkdown on coverage (the second INT, IIRC, was Martinez telegraphing that pass to that particular receiver, when a check down to his second receiver would had netted him a wide-open first down). It's almost like we have a fast Tony Romo under center--while Romo doesn't have leg speed or can scramble like Martinez, Romo tends to forget what's going on, checks out on plays, doesn't bother to check down on receivers while games are going on.

 

Did Beck get greedy--yes, but then again, he was thinking what most Nebraska fans were thinking at that point--we can go into halftime with momentum if we grab a TD. I don't fault Beck for the passing plays--I fault Martinez for forcing the issue and gambling the ball away, as I sincerely doubt Beck was telling Martinez to not check off on his WRs, don't bother reading the defense, and just chuck the ball downfield into double coverage.

 

Frankly, I'd rather we go with someone more fundamentally sound, like Carnes, who may be a tad slower but can utilize our WRs effectively, than Martinez, who can't accurately hit a moving target beyond 10 yards from the LOS, if that, let alone hit said target in stride.

 

I'm done with Martinez--sure, let's start him for Ohio State, but when we get a decent lead on them, we put Carnes in for at least 15 min of play, and we start working our way up from that with the next games (Minnesota, Michigan State).

 

While I would love to be wrong in all of this (I really, really would, as I love the thought of a return to our 80s/90s option attack as a primary focus), it's just not the reality of the situation. The reality is that we're not using our talent effectively on offense, and we have a crap secondary (save for Fonz) that is impacting our defense as whole. With Martinez, we're ultimately going to drop another game to someone we shouldn't (likely Iowa, Michigan, and/or Michigan State), and I think we've already seen the ceiling for what Martinez can bring to our team.

 

So why not run out Carnes for part of tOSU and Minnesota?