Official Why We Beat MSU Thread

[3rd and long]

If we can pick up their blitzes, we have a very good chance. MSU LOVES to blitzes and that could be a bad deal for us given that Martinez gets rattled and jumpy while in the pocket. If he can keep his composure and get the ball out fast, we could really do some damage.

 

If we have the screen pass in the playbook, this is the week. Get one of the RBs the ball in space with only four or five guys between him and the endzone, I like our chances. Tricky touch passes for TM though.

[BIG ERN]

1) Win the turnover battle

 

2) Dennard needs to contain Cunningham (almost 500 more yards than their next receiver)

 

I truly believe we win this football game. They are coming off two hard fought emotional wins and we come off two bye weeks (Minnesota).

[Blackshirt96]

I think to many people are putting to much weight on the Wisconsin win. Michgan St has Wisconsins number & has had it for a while. It really reminds me of us & Texas. No matter how good or bad they are we lay an egg. Don't get me wrong Michigan St is a good football team. I think we match up well against them. They blitz a lot & our speed could give them problems & their offense is only as good as Cousins is playing.

[ADS]

1. Limit mistakes.

2. Stick to our bread and butter, Burkhead.

3. Get some pressure on Cousins.

4. Contain Cunningham, Baker, and Bell (easier said than done).

5. Taylor needs to have an above average passing day.

[junior4949]

In order to win, we'll have to have a couple of big plays. I don't think our offense is good enough yet to grind out long sustained drives. It wouldn't hurt either to get a special teams score. For the most part, our ability to win might hang on the shoulders of Michigan State's coaching staff. If their OC calls a game similar to Wisconsin, I like our chances. I'm still scratching my head at his calls in the 4th quarter when they were up by a couple of scores especially after they'd just ran over seven minutes off the clock at the end of the third quarter. I haven' seen this pathetic of playcalling since Beck's against Wisconsin.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Their last three wins may have taken it out of them emotionally and physically. They beat OSU at home, beat Michigan at home, and then beat Wisconsin at MSU's house. That's alot of emotion and physicallity to deal with. This is a perfect set-up for them to screw the pooch..............................I hope I'm right.

[JJ Husker]

Things in our favor:

1- MSU may be spent mentally/emotionally.

2- Cousins is not extremely mobile and nowhere near a Wilson.

3- Refs may be keeping an extra close eye on MSU aggressiveness.

4- The game is in our house.

5- Our Defense is due for a breakout game.

6- Our offense has the potential to expose the MSU D.

 

Things not in our favor:

1- MSU may play with confidence and at a higher level than we have witnessed with anyone other than Wiscy.

2- Cousins could be in a wheelchair and still escape any pressure we have exhibited thus far this season.

3- Our defense may really be no better than they have shown through the first 7 games.

4- MSU defense could shutdown our offense if we don't play 4 quarters error free.

 

The matchups:

NU offense vs MSU defense- Push and probably the deciding factor.

NU defense vs MSU offense- advantage MSU

Special Teams- slight advantage NU

 

I hate to say it but my gut feeling is MSU by a couple touchdowns. I hope the Huskers prove me wrong but I haven't seen any signs yet this year that lead me to believe we will play the kind of game I think it will take to win this one.

[The Dude]

- Cousins makes Cody Green look like an Olympic sprinter.

 

-Their blitzing defense will be boned if Beck dials up a bunch of option plays.

[junior4949]

The biggest concern to me is MSU's front four. Even when they didn't blitz, MSU's front four was getting pressure on Wilson. MSU's DE's were able to contain Wilson for the most part taking correct angles to get to him. Martinez thus far in his career has not been the stingiest with the football. If their front four get to Martinez and he puts the ball on the turf, it's lights out for us. For us to win, we need good short passes to our speed. Then, we need to hit them up the middle hard with Burkhead and Legate. Everything needs to be quick where Martinez gets the ball out of his hand fast.

[Loaded For Bear]

A few more to add

 

-Take care of the football. Nothing would be worse in this game than to drive the length of the field and fumble in the red zone.

 

-No stupid penalties. We're in some sh#t if a few penalties extend a couple of MSU drives.

[Moiraine]

The way they beat Wisconsin is a big advantage for Nebraska. They're on top of the world and emotionally drained and Nebraska got destroyed by Wisconsin, so it will be hard for them to take the game seriously.

[Spartan Fan]

Lots of astute comments on here....I think you guys pretty much have it figured out. Our offensive line is vulnerable and our offense stalls a lot, especially if we can't get a running attack going. It'll look great one minute, and then go 3 and out for the next three possessions.

 

On a scale of 1 to 10, Cousins' escapability is a -3. If you can get into our backfield enough, you will probably win.

 

Cousins can look great at times, but then he'll just make bizarre decisions that affect the outcome of a game - like throwing red zone interceptions, or waiting too long in the pocket and getting sacked in critical situations, throwing off his back foot, fumbling the ball, etc. I love the kid, but he's gotta clean up some of that stuff in order to be considered a very good or great QB.

 

It just seems like MSU has a tendency to make stupid mistakes that end up hurting us a lot....In the Wisconsin game, we fumbled on the first play of our 1st possession, handing Wisky an invitation to our end zone for a quick 6 points. Thankfully, we were able to overcome that, but eventually mistakes like that will lose you games - especially on the road in a hostile environment, in the Big Ten.

[motorboatjonesNU]

I've watched MSU three times (Notre Dame, Ohio St, Wisconsin). Of course that doesn't make me any kind of expert at all but nevertheless I think this is why we'll win..... 1. Cousins is a good but not even remotely the great NFL qb that so many project here. He's also "very" mistake prone and almost single-handedly lost the Ohio St game for them by repeatably choking with bizarre turnovers, dropped balls, etc (similar to our Tmart). He redeemed himself greatly with the Wisconsin game to be sure but he was hardly awesome in that game except the game ending hail Mary (99% luck imo). Again he's good but not great. He also presents almost zero threat with his feet (the essential qb so many of my fellow NU fans desperately pine for). While obviously most NU fans strongly disagree, imo that's a HUGE asset for our defense. 2. Our defense has been a glaring failure this year but luckily the offense has picked up the pace and we're sitting at 6 - 1. There is a reasonably chance Bo gets them to playing to somewhere around the 2008 blackshirt standards now. Nothing great at all but approaching solid. A solid defense should be our goal for the game. It would be enough. 3. Our offense is a pleasant surprise this year and has totally bailed us out of three games so far. Even better, it appears to be on a somewhat linear line of improvement. SuperRex is super, Tmart is Tmart with all his liabilities and assets that we all know so well but three surprising things really are helping greatly.... a. The Oline, while nowhere near great is clearly improving. Especially it's run blocking. Still a project at work but the results are slowly getting better. I'm hoping they can come fairly close to playing MSU's Dline even. That's all we need. We could use more but that should suffice if they can hack it. I think they will. b. Our Wrs, even with the Minnesota drops is a marvelous improvement we haven't seen in years. Young kids with speed coming out of their ears. They can't be ignored or MSU will pay dearly even with Tmart's marginal passing skills. Fisher deserves an ice cold 12 pack and a big raise. c. Beck. Holy Moly.....1st year as OC here, never been an OC before, inexperienced to say the least......and a HUGE upgrade. No need to say more on a NU forum. Without doubt as we're in the Legends division this game is a critical "must" win. Beck will have our offense ready with every weapon we have ready to go. We've got offensive weapons everywhere at the skill positions with lots of speed to burn. We'll see some mis-direction runs, Super-Rex hammering the middle, the triplets hitting the edges and some specially designed Tmart 40+ yd burners. For icing on the cake we'll see some Turner, Bell, Reed, etc bombs for big gains. It's at Lincoln and as others say, it's "put up or shut-up" time. Bo & Beck won't back down and again the offense carries us. NU 31 MSU 28 GBR!!

 

All this, plus the fact MSU will be kind of gassed from the win over Wisc (see NU vs Mizzou 1978 after beating OU).

 

If we win (I think we do, but along the lines of the spread), we could be gassed ourselves as we go to Mich and PSU consecutive weeks.

[1_NUFAN]

When we line up in the Diamond formation, I don't think they'll want to blitz.

[True2tRA]

Time to dial up some safety blitzes and get some heat on Cousins. We can force this guy into some mistakes if we get in his face early. If the crowd is loud, and we can get in that young man's head early, we could have a seven to ten point win in the end. There's no reason I can see why either of these teams runs away with it though. Very evenly matched teams, but I do think we have an overall speed advantage at some key positions. You can see the youth on this team really starting to come into their own. I see some int's coming for Lavonte and for Dennard.