I hope Turner or another QB gets a long hard look this offseason.

[Hercules]

Everyone on here has lowered thier standard for what we think was a good or decent game for Taylor. He was pretty accurate and didn't have a lot of time in the pocket and only the 1 int. Apparently that's what we hope for from him... I'm sorry but when the chips are down you have to have that feeling your QB is gonna bring you back by making great plays even when other things break down. It's what great players and great leaders do.... See: lavonte in the Ohio state game / 4th quarter play needs to be made or Iowa. That's what I don't see or feel Taylor can do for us! Maybe I'm wrong but I just don have a sense he has that Scott frost vs. Mizzou type of late game(albeit a little lucky) take us down the field and keep championship hopes alive.

 

I think you always hope that your QB can pull a miracle and bring you back - I just don't think you blame the loss on him if that doesn't happen.

[The Dude]

If we have a better QB than Martinez, put him on the field. I don't think anyone is such a Martinez fan boy that they would be upset with this. But to focus on Martinez' limitations and ignore those of our WRs (dropped passes, bad routes), OL (missed blocks, blown assignments) RBs (more missed blocks and dropped passes) is to fail to see the whole picture.

 

It's easy to focus on the QB and say we need to make a switch. But we could pull in a JUCO stud to take over and run this thing, and with our other errors in other areas, nothing gets fixed.

 

Great post. +1. Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, pick your favorite Pro Bowl QB...it doesn't really matter because even the best QB can't block for himself, can't catch balls from himself.

Aaron Rodgers. His back up looked better than he because of the people around him.

[Redtillimdead]

That and NU can score 40 on Detroit!

[ZRod]

Furthermore, I don't think Martinez is the problem or that a new quarterback is the answer. Our team needs to have better player leadership, be able to deal with adversity better and we need to have better offensive playcalling.

I can't believe this hasn't been a thread topic yet, those two things go hand in hand in my opinion. There hasn't been a noticeable leader here since Suh left, and he wasn't on offense.

 

I think Taylor is growing as a leader, but he isn't a vocal guy as far as I can tell so you won't see him chewing somebody's butt when they mess up. And the same goes for Rex, he does a hell of a job leading by example but he's just too nice to push guys when they need to be pushed. We really need a player out there who is vocal and will hold himself (before anyone else) and others accountable for what they put out there on the field. I know it sounds idealistic but I think that is a big piece of the puzzle that is missing.

[HuskerExpat]

Martinez was not the QB he was last year. His passing was marginally better this year, but his running was way, way off the mark from last year. Last year I thought he might score a TD every time he ran the ball. This year he lacked the vision and breakaway speed we saw last year. I think his running game started to change when they got worried about him getting injured and after several fumbles. His zone read this year were horrible. I'm not sure what he was reading, but it was not the defensive player he is supposed to be reading. The bowl game showed plenty of examples where the read was the defensive end and the DE clearly keyed on Martinez and he kept the ball anyway. Horrible.

 

 

Because I am not going to re-type the long rant.....please see post #83

 

Yeah, I read that. The stats you cite are valid, but also somewhat misleading. On pace to become the career leader in various stats is impressive, but you have to consider that a lot of that is attributable to his having the potential to be a four year starter from start to finish. Not many QBs in that category in Nebraska history.

[Enhance]

You don't have to like the answer, but Martinez was crucial in every one of our nine wins. He didn't cost us any of our four losses. You want to gripe about a player who's losing us games, it isn't Martinez. You want to find players who are winning us games, his name is on that list.

So what you're saying is the guy who touches the ball on EVERY play isn't somewhat responsible for the losses? Give it a rest. You can't have it both ways. I thought Martinez played a pretty good game vs SC. You can't lean to which ever side of the fence validates your point.

That's not what he said at all. He didn't say Martinez was void of any blame - in fact, this is exactly what he said "He didn't cost us any of our four losses." Which, by all accounts, is accurate. His point is Martinez should not be a focal point for analyzing Nebraska's losses, because Martinez was not wholly responsible for them.

 

knapplc can correct me if I'm wrong, but my guess is he thinks along the same lines I do - Martinez played pretty well this year. Didn't do anything great, but outside of the Wisconsin game had a pretty solid year. He can't and shouldn't be blamed for the losses this year. If we're going to point anywhere, we should be pointing out the lack of depth we were told was there defensively this year. We should also point a lot of fingers at a consistently inconsistent offensive line.

[bshirt]

You don't have to like the answer, but Martinez was crucial in every one of our nine wins. He didn't cost us any of our four losses. You want to gripe about a player who's losing us games, it isn't Martinez. You want to find players who are winning us games, his name is on that list.

So what you're saying is the guy who touches the ball on EVERY play isn't somewhat responsible for the losses? Give it a rest. You can't have it both ways. I thought Martinez played a pretty good game vs SC. You can't lean to which ever side of the fence validates your point.

That's not what he said at all. He didn't say Martinez was void of any blame - in fact, this is exactly what he said "He didn't cost us any of our four losses." Which, by all accounts, is accurate. His point is Martinez should not be a focal point for analyzing Nebraska's losses, because Martinez was not wholly responsible for them.

 

knapplc can correct me if I'm wrong, but my guess is he thinks along the same lines I do - Martinez played pretty well this year. Didn't do anything great, but outside of the Wisconsin game had a pretty solid year. He can't and shouldn't be blamed for the losses this year. If we're going to point anywhere, we should be pointing out the lack of depth we were told was there defensively this year. We should also point a lot of fingers at a consistently inconsistent offensive line.

 

And our supremely efficient ball dropping wrs. Three years ago we were dropping Z. Lee's passes everywhere and now we're dropping Tmart's.

 

Swift, Davison, Peterson, etc.....where are you??

[zoogs]

I think this is a question worth chewing on:

 

Why, in a game in which we were blown out, are we only able to attempt 16 passes?

 

Stagnant is a good way of describing the offense. Despite the wealth of gamebreaking playmakers and a really fast runner at QB, we can't sustain. We can't take advantage of a defense on any given play. Instead, we are counting on those token opportunities during a game when we'll be able to catch them sleeping and get a long run or a long pass from Taylor. The rest of the time, we rely on Rex heroically running into defenses loaded up to stop him.

 

Sure, we produce some cool highlights like Taylor's big run or two towards the end of the game. But we need to be better at keeping defenses constantly on their heels. Taylor will need to really step up his passing. It has to be more than a changeup, the use of which we limit severely so as not to allow for mistakes.

 

Taylor finished the season with 837 yards rushing, averaging 4.9 ypc, which was slightly more efficient than Rex Burkhead's 4.8 ypc. What exactly are you seeing in his statistics that merits questioning his production?

 

You really have to look at Taylor's numbers past the first few games. In the final nine games of the year beginning with the start of conference play, Taylor had 125 carries for 453 yards. Heck, after his first three games he really tailed it off, 137 carries for 490 yards over the final ten games. Taylor had one run over 20 yards (it came vs South Carolina) in this stretch.

 

That is not good mileage out of a guy whose biggest asset is his homerun threat on the ground.

[Enhance]

Even though Taylor completed only 10 of 16 passes, at least three of those were drops. And on that interception, as I've said before, I think that was a communication error. Martinez threw outside, Abdullah stayed at home and it was an easy pick. Not all interceptions are bad throws. The fact that we only threw 16 times is about the amount I always thought Taylor should be throwing in the first place.

 

In hindsight, I also feel that retaining of Watson is really what has set this offense back. A new OC and new receivers coach dictates that there will be issues, especially when we're not loaded with talent like other teams in the nation.

[Hunter94]

I think this is a question worth chewing on:

 

Why, in a game in which we were blown out, are we only able to attempt 16 passes?

 

Stagnant is a good way of describing the offense. Despite the wealth of gamebreaking playmakers and a really fast runner at QB, we can't sustain. We can't take advantage of a defense on any given play. Instead, we are counting on those token opportunities during a game when we'll be able to catch them sleeping and get a long run or a long pass from Taylor. The rest of the time, we rely on Rex heroically running into defenses loaded up to stop him.

 

Sure, we produce some cool highlights like Taylor's big run or two towards the end of the game. But we need to be better at keeping defenses constantly on their heels. Taylor will need to really step up his passing. It has to be more than a changeup, the use of which we limit severely so as not to allow for mistakes.

 

Taylor finished the season with 837 yards rushing, averaging 4.9 ypc, which was slightly more efficient than Rex Burkhead's 4.8 ypc. What exactly are you seeing in his statistics that merits questioning his production?

 

You really have to look at Taylor's numbers past the first few games. In the final nine games of the year beginning with the start of conference play, Taylor had 125 carries for 453 yards. Heck, after his first three games he really tailed it off, 137 carries for 490 yards over the final ten games. Taylor had one run over 20 yards (it came vs South Carolina) in this stretch.

 

That is not good mileage out of a guy whose biggest asset is his homerun threat on the ground.

 

 

the defense loads the box and make him throw.......good strategy against a run first qb.......pretty much a no brainer......how does Beck counter that?.......he's still wokring on it and unfortunately he will have all season this year to figure it out.

[Hercules]

I think this is a question worth chewing on:

 

Why, in a game in which we were blown out, are we only able to attempt 16 passes?

 

Stagnant is a good way of describing the offense. Despite the wealth of gamebreaking playmakers and a really fast runner at QB, we can't sustain. We can't take advantage of a defense on any given play. Instead, we are counting on those token opportunities during a game when we'll be able to catch them sleeping and get a long run or a long pass from Taylor. The rest of the time, we rely on Rex heroically running into defenses loaded up to stop him.

 

Sure, we produce some cool highlights like Taylor's big run or two towards the end of the game. But we need to be better at keeping defenses constantly on their heels. Taylor will need to really step up his passing. It has to be more than a changeup, the use of which we limit severely so as not to allow for mistakes.

 

I think that even in the SC game, it was clear that our offense was more than capable of keeping the defense on their heels (and this is the 4th ranked defense in the country). We moved the ball basically at will during the first half, but two turnovers in SC territory and a botched field goal in the second half and we're down about 13-17 points we should have had.

 

In the second half, I think our offense was just as capable of moving the ball, but they have to stay on schedule. Nobody can take advantage of a defense on any given play, unless that defense is subpar (and SC's is not). You can't commit penalties to put yourself in 3rd and long situations every single drive, and with SC's DE's, you can't put yourself in situations where you HAVE to pass. We could have had Andrew Luck in the pocket in the second half, I simply think we hurt ourselves in way too many different ways to be at all successful.

 

In other words, our inability to pass didn't make us one-dimensional. It was our inability to run a play without shooting ourselves in the foot which put us behind schedule and made us one dimensional by putting us in situations where we have no choice but to pass.

 

 

Taylor finished the season with 837 yards rushing, averaging 4.9 ypc, which was slightly more efficient than Rex Burkhead's 4.8 ypc. What exactly are you seeing in his statistics that merits questioning his production?

 

You really have to look at Taylor's numbers past the first few games. In the final nine games of the year beginning with the start of conference play, Taylor had 125 carries for 453 yards. Heck, after his first three games he really tailed it off, 137 carries for 490 yards over the final ten games. Taylor had one run over 20 yards (it came vs South Carolina) in this stretch.

 

That is not good mileage out of a guy whose biggest asset is his homerun threat on the ground.

 

Here's what I got, using ESPN and cfbstats.com:

 

First 4 games (non conference), 63 carries for 421 yards. 6.68 ypc

 

Last 10 games (conference/bowl), 125 carries for 453 yards. 3.6 ypc

 

Now, to compare that to Rex Burkhead...

 

First 4 games (non conference) 63 carries for 420 yards. 6.67 ypc

 

Last 10 games (conference/bowl), 221 carries for 937 yards. 4.2 ypc

 

Now, it's also important to remember that Taylor's rush numbers are hurt by sacks. It looks like Nebraska gave up 21 sacks this year, for 99 yards.

 

First 4 games (non conference) there were 5 sacks for 21 yards. That would take Taylor's rushing total to 58 carries for 442 yards. 7.6 ypc

 

Last 10 games (conference /bowl) there were 16 sacks for 78 yards. That would take Taylor's rushing total to 109 carries for 531 yards. 4.9 ypc

 

So... When you take sacks out of the equation (which I prefer to do, since I believe sacks are an indictment of the passing game, not the running game), Taylor had a more efficient year running the football than Rex Burkhead did, both in conference play/bowl game and non-conference play.

[knapplc]

That was a very good post, Herc.

[Malth]

Martinez was not the QB he was last year. His passing was marginally better this year, but his running was way, way off the mark from last year. Last year I thought he might score a TD every time he ran the ball. This year he lacked the vision and breakaway speed we saw last year. I think his running game started to change when they got worried about him getting injured and after several fumbles. His zone read this year were horrible. I'm not sure what he was reading, but it was not the defensive player he is supposed to be reading. The bowl game showed plenty of examples where the read was the defensive end and the DE clearly keyed on Martinez and he kept the ball anyway. Horrible.

 

Running was way, way off mark?

2010: 965- 12 TD's

2011: 874- 9 TD's

And to be noted we played statistically tougher defenses this year, and the coaches have admitted they limited his running. If you are going to say something make sure you are at least right.

 

 

He was also hurt last year, and missed what, 2 games? But stats aside, just watch him play. He really doesn't seem to be the runner that he was last year.

 

So... When you take sacks out of the equation (which I prefer to do, since I believe sacks are an indictment of the passing game, not the running game), Taylor had a more efficient year running the football than Rex Burkhead did, both in conference play/bowl game and non-conference play.

 

I think this is a little dodgy. I'm not going to argue that sacks can be indicitive of the passing game, but you can't chalk every sack up to a loss on a pass play. You're kind of taking away any negative yardage TMart had on running plays, while including all negative yardage for Burkhead.

[Hercules]

So... When you take sacks out of the equation (which I prefer to do, since I believe sacks are an indictment of the passing game, not the running game), Taylor had a more efficient year running the football than Rex Burkhead did, both in conference play/bowl game and non-conference play.

 

I think this is a little dodgy. I'm not going to argue that sacks can be indicitive of the passing game, but you can't chalk every sack up to a loss on a pass play. You're kind of taking away any negative yardage TMart had on running plays, while including all negative yardage for Burkhead.

 

I'm trusting the statisticians at ESPN and cfbstats.com to know the difference between a running play and a passing play. Sacks are recorded only on pass plays, not just any time the QB is tackled behind the line of scrimmage. You can take the sacks out of Martinez's stat line without removing every loss of yardage he had on the ground this year - any loss of yardage TMart had on a designed run (like a zone read option) would still be included in his total.

 

It's the most fair way to compare his rushing statistics to Burkhead, since Burkhead's stat line isn't affected by sacks. When you take sacks out of the equation, you're truly measuring how effective each of them were when we asked them to run the football.

[bshirt]

I think this is a question worth chewing on:

 

Why, in a game in which we were blown out, are we only able to attempt 16 passes?

 

Stagnant is a good way of describing the offense. Despite the wealth of gamebreaking playmakers and a really fast runner at QB, we can't sustain. We can't take advantage of a defense on any given play. Instead, we are counting on those token opportunities during a game when we'll be able to catch them sleeping and get a long run or a long pass from Taylor. The rest of the time, we rely on Rex heroically running into defenses loaded up to stop him.

 

Sure, we produce some cool highlights like Taylor's big run or two towards the end of the game. But we need to be better at keeping defenses constantly on their heels. Taylor will need to really step up his passing. It has to be more than a changeup, the use of which we limit severely so as not to allow for mistakes.

 

I think that even in the SC game, it was clear that our offense was more than capable of keeping the defense on their heels (and this is the 4th ranked defense in the country). We moved the ball basically at will during the first half, but two turnovers in SC territory and a botched field goal in the second half and we're down about 13-17 points we should have had.

 

In the second half, I think our offense was just as capable of moving the ball, but they have to stay on schedule. Nobody can take advantage of a defense on any given play, unless that defense is subpar (and SC's is not). You can't commit penalties to put yourself in 3rd and long situations every single drive, and with SC's DE's, you can't put yourself in situations where you HAVE to pass. We could have had Andrew Luck in the pocket in the second half, I simply think we hurt ourselves in way too many different ways to be at all successful.

 

In other words, our inability to pass didn't make us one-dimensional. It was our inability to run a play without shooting ourselves in the foot which put us behind schedule and made us one dimensional by putting us in situations where we have no choice but to pass.

 

 

Taylor finished the season with 837 yards rushing, averaging 4.9 ypc, which was slightly more efficient than Rex Burkhead's 4.8 ypc. What exactly are you seeing in his statistics that merits questioning his production?

 

You really have to look at Taylor's numbers past the first few games. In the final nine games of the year beginning with the start of conference play, Taylor had 125 carries for 453 yards. Heck, after his first three games he really tailed it off, 137 carries for 490 yards over the final ten games. Taylor had one run over 20 yards (it came vs South Carolina) in this stretch.

 

That is not good mileage out of a guy whose biggest asset is his homerun threat on the ground.

 

Here's what I got, using ESPN and cfbstats.com:

 

First 4 games (non conference), 63 carries for 421 yards. 6.68 ypc

 

Last 10 games (conference/bowl), 125 carries for 453 yards. 3.6 ypc

 

Now, to compare that to Rex Burkhead...

 

First 4 games (non conference) 63 carries for 420 yards. 6.67 ypc

 

Last 10 games (conference/bowl), 221 carries for 937 yards. 4.2 ypc

 

Now, it's also important to remember that Taylor's rush numbers are hurt by sacks. It looks like Nebraska gave up 21 sacks this year, for 99 yards.

 

First 4 games (non conference) there were 5 sacks for 21 yards. That would take Taylor's rushing total to 58 carries for 442 yards. 7.6 ypc

 

Last 10 games (conference /bowl) there were 16 sacks for 78 yards. That would take Taylor's rushing total to 109 carries for 531 yards. 4.9 ypc

 

So... When you take sacks out of the equation (which I prefer to do, since I believe sacks are an indictment of the passing game, not the running game), Taylor had a more efficient year running the football than Rex Burkhead did, both in conference play/bowl game and non-conference play.

 

 

Excellent post and well said sir.