What did we learn

[billdozer15]

We need to start spending cash on the best coaches we can find. Even if that means raping other teams in the B1G to get them.

[strigori]

For all the sunshine pumpers, here's a tweet from Kevin Kugler that should clarify things: "Nebraska's 4 losses this year...opponents scored 53.5 ppg, and averaged 595 yards of total offense."

 

While the offense averaged 32.5 points a game in our losses. It's totally on Bo and his defenisve coaches. The only thing that needs to change on offense is the Barney needs to go, but that gets said after every year....hopefully this will be the year it acually happnes.

 

This is the worst defense in school history. Say what you will about that 2007 team, but they played a MUCH tougher schedule than this team did. Next year's schedule is so easy, that if Bo still finds a way to lose 4 games, then idk how even the strongest sunshine pumper can defend him anymore. We have a defensive coach and a horriable defense, that is pretty daming. Bo NEEDS to break that glass celing of 10-4 next year or he deservidly will be gone.

 

I have no arguments about Barney. He has never produced anything but mediocrity, yet there are some people who think the pipeline is going to magic itself back into existence. Reality knocks. Will anyone answer?

 

The 10-4 record is skewed by the ugliness of the losses. We play crap teams and squeak out last-second wins (with the help of a couple fortunate calls). We play real teams and get taken behind the woodshed. This isn't progress. It's not success. I actually get a laugh out of the "well we didn't lose 70-30 crowd." What do you even say to something like that? Is that now the definition of an accomplishment in year five of the Pelini era? I guess it'll have to do. Before anyone splits their lips grinning about how well we played today, recall that we lost by two scores and less than fifty points only because a Georgia wideout dropped an easy touchdown in the end zone.

 

"We played a NC contender hard and. . ." imploded. That's what the sunshine pumpers are trying to say. We played Georgia close, and then imploded. How? Why? No surprise there--the same crap we've done all season. The nation's best in fumbles; can't imagine we're too far behind in penalties or turnovers generally; we play dumb, stupid football and lose games. Year after year. Meanwhile our defense does what it does best--watch superior athletes streak into the endzone often untouched and uncontested.

 

This season was virtually identical to last season, arguably a step backwards in terms of defensive performance. There is no consolation prize for me, no moral victory. We we staring at a B1G Championship and instead crawl back to the excuse peddlers and sunshine pumpers for another long offseason of delusions. I look forward to the puff pieces about the improved offensive line play, team unity, etc. Meanwhile what is actually changing to bring about better results? I have no idea. I don't think anyone does.

 

Enjoy the offseason, friends.

Imploded? We lost by two touchdowns. I guess I don't consider that 'implosion'. Now if we would've gotten the crap beat out of us like we did when we played Wisconsin-THAT would be implosion. Do we have problems? Yeah, one of them being why we didn't stick with the run game when it was working. I still don't get that but considering who we played, I thought we played tough. If that's being a 'sunshine pumper' then count me in! No offense, I always enjoy your posts, but I just don't agree with this evaluation.

Up 8 to losing by 14 would qualify as as implosion. 22 unanswered points.

 

I don't know what has happened to people in the last ten years, but taking moral victories in multi-touchdown losses is not something that Husker fans should accept. We are not Iowa. We are not Northwestern. We are not a host of other schools who are just happy to be there.

 

On to what I learned..

 

Pelini the 'defensive mastermind' now has the worst defense in school history. Cosgrovian can now be replaced with Peliniesque

 

I expect the defense to be worse next year actually. We will be relying on too many guys with next to no playing experience. And if they had more talent, odds are we would have seen them this season.

 

Pelini is not capable of getting over the hump. There are a few types of coaches. And elite is not an adjective to use when talking about Pelini. And with the fact that we are not located in a recruiting hotbed, being an elite coach is required to get what we want as Husker fans.

 

There are too many husker fans accepting of blow out losses anymore. Its sickening quite honestly

[MichiganDad3]

There's no defense for a perfectly thrown ball. (see 3 Murray TDs)

 

Our offense is going to be absolutely deadly next year. The offense put up 24 points against a Georgia team that was 5 yards from the National Title and we lose absolutely only 1 significant contributor with no back up that didn't play a whole lot (Choi with Pensick moving to Center next year).

 

The defense needs to step up next year.

 

Martinez threw for over 2800 yards and rushed for over 1000, only QB in Nebraska history to do that.

 

Rex will be missed next year, for just his steadying hand on the whole offense. But we also played most of the season without him.

 

There is d for a perfect ball it's called a pass rush

 

Keep in mind how BAD Georgia's d was against the run this year!

 

Martinez and Abdullah are dynamic but if they don't fix the turnovers we should temper our expectations

It is hard to make a perfect throw when you are getting hammered; preferably before the receiver has time to get down field.

[MichiganDad3]

That this will be the norm as long as Pelini is head coach. 10 wins/year, terrible post-seasons. Never being able to take it to the next level.

I do not agree. We have a lot of young coaches... We will be better in time. AA's timely fumble as well as other things out of the coach's control occured. It was a frustrating game that Nebraska should have won. We had them wore out and driving and we fumble... Do you make this same post if we had not fumbled and won?

If we hadn't fumbled we'd have won? You're deluding yourself! We were gassed! Georgia had complete control from the end of the 3rd quarter on.

 

I think you have it backwards, before that Abdullah fumble we had the Georgia defense completely on their heels gashing big runs one after another. That fumble killed our momentum, but the most important thing to take away from that play is when Sirles got hurt and Andrew Rodriguez had to come in to play right tackle the next drive. He was beat every play he was out there (which was only for about 3 plays) which single handedly killed our next possession after our defense forced a 3 and out.

 

A few things I took away from this game:

1) Burkhead will be missed. I know we have 3 guys behind him right now who look really good, and besides the fumble Abdullah had a very solid game, and Heard may have only had one carry for 5 yards, but it was a tough run where he laid his helmet right into the defender for a first down. That said Burkhead is a very special player as we all know, and it's a shame we weren't able to get him a bowl win for his last game as a Husker. I wish him the best in his NFL career (please draft him San Diego!)

 

2) Our receivers had their worst game of the year. Started with Enunwa's drop on the 1st possession and on the second interception when Martinez launched it downfield, our receivers (I believe it was either Turner or Bell) have to become defenders on that play. Instead of running up to tackle Swann or at least make an attempt to knock the ball loose anything to stop the interception. They waited back and just let Swann have at it. Our receivers have been great all year, they struggled this game.

 

3) Georgia's receivers were unreal! This may be why I feel our receivers did so poorly is because of how the Georgia receivers played. Able to get separation and make great catches all game long.

 

4) I won't comment too much on the defense because I'm sure there will be plenty of new threads made about it. Same old same old, we looked slow out there, and couldn't contain Murray who would scramble out of the pocket which allowed him to launch it downfield for big plays. Missed a lot of sack opportunities today.

 

Overall let's face it most of us here thought the Huskers would get steamrolled today. And they didn't we hung in there for the most part, and just had a bad 4th quarter. Some may not agree but I thought this was a very good season, and we are closer to being back than people think. We didn't have a Lavonte David, Amukamara, Suh, Hagg, or Dennard on our defense this year. This is Bo's first real senior class, and let's face it since his first year he's recruited much better. Our offense is explosive and has potential to be even better next year with all the playmakers we have coming back. This team was gritty, and never gave up, and I look forward to another season of Husker football next year. Go Big Red!

 

I don't buy it. If Bo's 1st senior class was weak and there are playmakers waiting, then why weren't they playing? NU had 8 seniors starting on D. That tells me that Bo's 2nd, 3rd, 4th recruiting classes were bad. Why else would so many seniors be starting?

[MichiganDad3]

I think it's clear that the coaching is good, but we need better recruiting.

Pollack and Palmer were right all day long - Nebraska hung in there with slower, smaller and less talented players. Yes, there are a few playmakers on this team, but Georgia simply had more talent.

 

NU wasn't slower today. On offense we had several players running away from defenders. On D NU was catching people from behind. The super fast Georgia back could not break away. This defensive scheme makes people play slow.

[MichiganDad3]

I think it's clear that the coaching is good, but we need better recruiting.

Pollack and Palmer were right all day long - Nebraska hung in there with slower, smaller and less talented players. Yes, there are a few playmakers on this team, but Georgia simply had more talent.

where is it clear that the coaching is good......if you had said mediocre ok but good?

 

Running backs & receivers

[MichiganDad3]

I think it's clear that the coaching is good, but we need better recruiting.

Pollack and Palmer were right all day long - Nebraska hung in there with slower, smaller and less talented players. Yes, there are a few playmakers on this team, but Georgia simply had more talent.

where is it clear that the coaching is good......if you had said mediocre ok but good?

Because the talent is clearly a step (or two) below Georgia, and, offensively at least, that lack of talent matched up very well for 3 quarters.

 

Isn't talent the responsibility of the coaching staff?

[MichiganDad3]

I thought Turner played a complete game today...he was a legit weapon out there today.

Thank you, Rex!

TMart played good enough to win...he had some balls dropped on him today that could have been big plays.

I thought Meredith did much better than how he played vs. Wisky.

Randle was decent on DL but I don't think Rome is giving us anything.

What has happened to our CB's? Green and Evans were awful. Evans needs to get more strength...abused by bigger players now 2 games in a row. Mitchell was also a disappointment today. Priest Willis...come on down!

UGA 3rd down conversions killed us and suspect tackling cost us some stops.

We desperately need a return to a Blackshirts attack the QB, force turnovers, play downhill defense.

 

C Jackson made a great hit. Hope to see more of him.

[irafreak]

That Huskerboard shouldn't surprise me.

 

They're going to blow us out...Georgia is so damn good, we stand no chance. We'll probably lose by 30. If Wisconsin put up 70 against us, what will Georgia do? I don't know if I'm going to watch this game, might be ugly.

 

Then they are surprised when we do lose.

 

 

Aaron Murray played the game of his career, and really proved that he is going to be a great NFL talent.

I could end up being even more upset about this game IF Murray declares (he's a junior right?) and based on his performance against the #1 pass D my chiefs will probably draft him first and IF he is a big bust then years down the road I will look back on this game and curse it.

[MichiganDad3]

Only new thing that I learned today is that our d-backs aren't quite fast enough to cover top SEC receivers. They're good enough for 90% of our games but get beat by elite talent.

 

I think they are fast enough if the QB has less than 15 seconds to throw.

[Foppa]

1) It was never 'if' NU would lose...it was 'when'.

2) Murray looked like a chump in the 1st quarter. Good coaching prevailed, and 5 TD passes later Husker coaches proved yet again they cannot adjust.

3) Ciante Evans is ridiculously bad at doing anything important.

4) Burkhead must be sailivating at playing behind an O-line that isn't coached by a moron.

[zoogs]

Isn't talent the responsibility of the coaching staff?

 

Yeah, but it is hard to maintain talent level high all the time. Even the top programs experience drop-offs every now and then as these things, just naturally go in cycles. I think Bo can get some more time to right the recruiting ship, but understandably the patience will be getting fairly thin. Thing is the early recruiting class slumps already happened, so there's little way to prevent some hard times as those classes become our Jr/Sr backbones.

[MichiganDad3]

1) It was never 'if' NU would lose...it was 'when'.

2) Murray looked like a chump in the 1st quarter. Good coaching prevailed, and 5 TD passes later Husker coaches proved yet again they cannot adjust.

3) Ciante Evans is ridiculously bad at doing anything important.

4) Burkhead must be sailivating at playing behind an O-line that isn't coached by a moron.

 

Wouldn't it be sad if Rex gets drafted by the Lions.

[Amac3309]

I don't get all the talk about feeling better because Aaron Murray is gonna be a top pick, everything I have read said he would be a second or third round pick this year and ranked the 10th best QB in this yrs draft

[Big Red 40]

1.Giving up 87 yds on 3rd and long was a much bigger momentum changer than the fumble to me .We allowed way too many plays like that all year..

2.Im glad Abdullah and Martinez will be back next year. Tough, scrappy, guys with tons of heart.Their good plays FAR outweigh their bad.

3.Gonna miss Rex for the same reasons.

4 There's plenty of talent on this team, to go toe to toe with a team that was a few seconds from the NC game, If we find a way to keep from getting gashed on big plays,no reason to believe we cant start winning these games.

5.We scored plenty of points to win in all of our losses this year.