A Promising Sign

[nhuskers5]

Not to be a smart ass but maybe that is why Beck thought we could move the ball by having Martinez drop back and throw from the pocket. Our secondary play has not been anything a person should use to judge their offensive prowess.

 

You're probably spot on with this observation JJHusker1. If Martinez was hitting open receivers against our 2nd string it possibly could have given Beck a false assessment at Taylor's progress in the passing game. I know we practiced a lot 1's vs. 1's during Fall Camp, so it kind of amazes me that they would go away from that once the season started. I understand you don't want to get your top players hurt in practice, but at the same time you also don't want your players to gain a false sense of themselves by how they perform in practice if they are going up against 2nd string talent.

 

When you practice for an opponent (and not just practice to install your offense/defense like you do in fall camp), you can't practice 1 on 1 for all that long because you have to simulate the other team's offense defense. If the 1 offense spent all their time trying to simulate Wisconsin's offense for the defense, when would they ever get to practice their actual plays? Same thing goes for the defense...

[HuskerGBR]

Maybe someone can help me out here, but what is the benefit of having a scout team? The people on the scout team aren't good enough yet to be second or third string correct? I have just never understood the reason for a scout team. You could try to simulate Wisconsin's offense all you want, but it will never be the Wisconsin offense. Wouldn't we benefit more from just running our offense or defense against the best competition we have...as in the 1's vs 1's? I am just trying to understand and see how other people feel about the practices. I have always felt something is wrong with the way they might practice.

[da skers]

Maybe someone can help me out here, but what is the benefit of having a scout team? The people on the scout team aren't good enough yet to be second or third string correct? I have just never understood the reason for a scout team. You could try to simulate Wisconsin's offense all you want, but it will never be the Wisconsin offense. Wouldn't we benefit more from just running our offense or defense against the best competition we have...as in the 1's vs 1's? I am just trying to understand and see how other people feel about the practices. I have always felt something is wrong with the way they might practice.

The scout team learns learns the offensive and defensive sets of the other team so we can practice against those "looks" during the week and see live how we'll need to scheme against them.

[VA Husker Fan]

Maybe someone can help me out here, but what is the benefit of having a scout team? The people on the scout team aren't good enough yet to be second or third string correct? I have just never understood the reason for a scout team. You could try to simulate Wisconsin's offense all you want, but it will never be the Wisconsin offense. Wouldn't we benefit more from just running our offense or defense against the best competition we have...as in the 1's vs 1's? I am just trying to understand and see how other people feel about the practices. I have always felt something is wrong with the way they might practice.

Bo said a lot of problems with the defense was with guys not reading their keys correctly. You want to run the other team's offense for them to learn this. An LB or safety may be able to recover from taking a false step or two from a misread vs. the scout team, but the coaches will see it and correct it for the game.

[da skers]

Its also promising that Whaley is seeing some additional time at Buck (as well as a few others). Unfortunately he's not the guy who needs to be there but its good to see they're looking at other possibilities.

[Husker Drake]

Another thing about scout team is that often times it consists of players who are redshirting, that may be talented enough to compete for a spot on the two deep.

[The Duke]

Not to be a smart ass but maybe that is why Beck thought we could move the ball by having Martinez drop back and throw from the pocket. Our secondary play has not been anything a person should use to judge their offensive prowess.

 

You're probably spot on with this observation JJHusker1. If Martinez was hitting open receivers against our 2nd string it possibly could have given Beck a false assessment at Taylor's progress in the passing game. I know we practiced a lot 1's vs. 1's during Fall Camp, so it kind of amazes me that they would go away from that once the season started. I understand you don't want to get your top players hurt in practice, but at the same time you also don't want your players to gain a false sense of themselves by how they perform in practice if they are going up against 2nd string talent.

Actually, my intention was to point out that going against our first string, the way they have been playing, probably isn't going change much. Trying to be humorous but unfortunately also realistic. I am currently much more down on our D than I am our QB play. I realize that 3 picks against a team the caliber of Wiscy will kill you but our highly touted D has not lived up to expectations. Based on their hype and last years performance they should have stopped 2 if not all 3 of the subsequent scoring drives. Then maybe Beck doesn't panic and go all Air Correlle(sp) on us. The D needs to start bringing the pain. The real solution in my eyes is to limit putting Taylor in the position where we HAVE to throw deep. I think we get there with much better D, and fewer O-line mistakes. Field position and manageable down and distance. I don't blame Taylor because he isn't that type of QB. Never will be. The people piling on him need to start accepting this fact and temper their criticism with this knowledge.

 

BTW- I enjoy your comments.

 

First of all thank you JJHusker1, I am flattered that you enjoy my comments. I just enjoy sharing in civil discussions with other Husker fans about the team that we support.

 

After the Wisconsin game I am like you in that I am concerned about our defense. I will admit I too was also frustrated with Taylor throwing those 3 interceptions.

 

On the interceptions, yes, Taylor needs to make better decisions, but Coach Beck also has to understand the positive skill sets of his starting quarterback, and drop back passing is not one of those skill sets. Beck has to help Taylor and the team as a whole by calling a more balanced game in order for Taylor to be comfortable and successful. Calling 13 passing plays out of a 15 play stretch is not balanced. I think everyone learned their lesson after the Wisconsin game, and I expect a more solid game plan this week for Ohio State.

 

On the defensive concerns, and I think I mentioned this in another post this week, so forgive me if any of you have read this already. But I think most of our defensive problems this year can be traced back to youth in the secondary and players who were recruited to defend the spread. Many of our defensive players were recruited by Bo & Carl as Safety/Linebacker hybrids to stop the spread offenses of the Big 12. Bo has admitted that they will recruit more true linebackers in the future. So, these defensive struggles, while frustrating, are not a sign of a lack of talent, rather it's just some growing pains the team will have to get through this season, and us fans will also.

 

Finally, about your comment on where people need to stop pilling on and criticizing Taylor, I couldn't agree with you more. At the end of the day we are all fans of the Nebraska football team. Taylor is the starting quarterback for that team, and we as fans MUST support the team win, lose, or draw. That is one of the reasons why Nebraska fans are so well respected around the country. Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't voice our opinions when things are not going well for our team or if the team is not playing the right way (i.e. Nebraska 2007), but we should leave the personal attacks of the players out of the conversation.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Why do people forget that we had Amukamara, Hagg, and Gomes in our secondary last year? When your last line of defense is that good, then your LBs and DEs can be put into riskier situations because your secondary will more times than not cover well.

[Cornicator]

Why do people forget that we had Amukamara, Hagg, and Gomes in our secondary last year? When your last line of defense is that good, then your LBs and DEs can be put into riskier situations because your secondary will more times than not cover well.

 

Yeah, we went from a secondary with 4 NFL players to a secondary with 1/2 an NFL player since Dennard still isn't 100% and four other guys with 6 starts combined.

 

The secondary still needs to develop and take some lumps. There is talent back there. Its a test for the coaching staff and the teams youth. Lets see where they are at the end of the year.

[NUpolo8]

Callahan did this in 07 after the USC game. Just sayin'

Are you referring to Callahan's contact-free practices?

 

I am referring to the fact that, after USC put it on NU, BC had 1's vs. 1's, with pads, to try and help.

 

But yes, you are right, it was a weak attempt to make up for his no-contact practices, something I'm sure Bo does not do. At least I hope he doesn't do.

[VA Husker Fan]

Callahan did this in 07 after the USC game. Just sayin'

Are you referring to Callahan's contact-free practices?

 

I am referring to the fact that, after USC put it on NU, BC had 1's vs. 1's, with pads, to try and help.

 

But yes, you are right, it was a weak attempt to make up for his no-contact practices, something I'm sure Bo does not do. At least I hope he doesn't do.

How did that work out? We bounced back with a huge 41-40 victory over Ball St, and after beating Iowa St, lost 6 of our final 7.

 

It's not magical.

[da skers]

Callahan did this in 07 after the USC game. Just sayin'

Are you referring to Callahan's contact-free practices?

 

I am referring to the fact that, after USC put it on NU, BC had 1's vs. 1's, with pads, to try and help.

 

But yes, you are right, it was a weak attempt to make up for his no-contact practices, something I'm sure Bo does not do. At least I hope he doesn't do.

How did that work out? We bounced back with a huge 41-40 victory over Ball St, and after beating Iowa St, lost 6 of our final 7.

 

It's not magical.

Apples and Oranges.

[VA Husker Fan]

Callahan did this in 07 after the USC game. Just sayin'

Are you referring to Callahan's contact-free practices?

 

I am referring to the fact that, after USC put it on NU, BC had 1's vs. 1's, with pads, to try and help.

 

But yes, you are right, it was a weak attempt to make up for his no-contact practices, something I'm sure Bo does not do. At least I hope he doesn't do.

How did that work out? We bounced back with a huge 41-40 victory over Ball St, and after beating Iowa St, lost 6 of our final 7.

 

It's not magical.

Apples and Oranges.

How so? I'm just pointing out that 1s vs. 1s isn't necessarily going to turn the team around.

[Danny Bateman]

Lol @ the concept of "no contact practices." I had forgotten Callaclown utilized those. No wonder that 07 team had no nuts... until Ganz inserted himself into the lineup, then was saw some fight.

 

Something I want to know is: How did our offense/defense actually look like this week while they were going 1s on 1s? Did our offense embarrass the D, or did they both look passable, or...? This is the point where anyone with any inside sources could step up. I, unfortunately, am not in the know.

[Igetbored216]

Taylor had open receivers.

 

Yeah, he did have alot of open receivers. Unfortunately, this is why he should not do a whole lot of passing: he just doesn't see the whole field. He sees one receiver and that's about it. Therefore, Beck needs to form a gameplan around this. If he's the QB this offense is going to use, feature his strengths; not his weaknesses.