Dirks Turnover Article

[jmfb]

Great detail

Factual

Really tough to refute

You WONT be at top 10 team or NC caliber team if you turn the ball over more than your opponent

 

http://dataomaha.com/documents/husker-turnovers-a-look-at-nebraskas-slippery-slope#chatelain-a-look-at-nu-s-slippery-slope

 

Our casualness with the football is keeping us from being relevant

[Enhance]

Very good article, and provides substance to what many of us have been saying for awhile - ball security is a major issue.

 

The interceptions I'm not overly worried about. Martinez had 23 TDs and 12 INTs - not great, not bad. They could be a lot worse and we should expect him to throw about 10 INTs a season given his abilities. And given he threw 13 TDs and 7 INTs in the 2011, I'll take 10 extra TDs with 5 extra INTs. He has room to improve, obviously.

 

The fumbles are huge though, and they were absolute killers on special teams with muffed punts.

 

Regardless of who committed the turnover or when, though, they clearly need to be addressed. For how potent the offense can be, imagine how much better we could be with limited turnovers.

[Count 'Bility]

Yeah. The fumbles get me. They just seem so preventable. When you throw the ball as often as we do, int's are bound to happen. The fumble thing is more of an issue in my eyes.

[True2tRA]

Is it just me or does it seem like our turnovers come in bunches though. Enhance I understand your point about Taylor's touchdown to interception ratio, and your right it's really not any worse than a lot of other QB's in the country. What worries me about his interceptions is that it doesn't seem he is just good for one a game or something like that. It always seems when he throws one you can guarantee there's one or two more coming. He's had a few 2-3 interception games in his career. I'd like to see Taylor bounce back a bit better after mistakes, both fumbling and picks. Bounce back, keep some focus and don't come back out there thinking, well Imhave to do something extra to make up for that last mistake. It usually results in further mistakes.

 

Fumbling seemed like it would rear its head in almost the same way. Some games not so much, then we would just meltdown. It's kind of been this teams MO. It's time to get past it next season.

[lo country]

That is some great detail right there.

 

Another statistic that I saw earlier in the season was that 45% of the points scored against us were from our fumbles. ALMOST have the points we gave up were a direct result of fumbling.

 

Bottom line, no way you beat quality opponents leading the nation in fumbles. No way we win any championships (conference or MNC) until we solve the issue.

 

A HUGE problem faced by this staff is how do you fix the problem, when the individual fumble leader on the team, and nation, for the past 3 years is our starting QB. If it was a WR, TE or RB, sit him for a series and tell them you fumble you sit. Unfortunately, we can't do that IMO with our starting QB. Really hard to try and "fix" the problem during a game. Has to be the #1 priority in the off season.

[Count 'Bility]

I'll agree with True. There was definitely-or at least it seemed-that there was a snowball effect with our turnovers.

[DJR313]

Cut that number in half and you are looking at a top 10 team.

[whateveritis1224]

A quick look at Martinez's lost fumbles, 3 of them were of the strip sack variety and 1 was on a broken play where the d lineman came in free and messed up the exchange between him and Heard. 2/3rds of his lost fumbles could also be partly attributed to the line. It looks like while Martinez fumbles a lot, he's also able to cover those fumbles up.

[lo country]

I'll agree with True. There was definitely-or at least it seemed-that there was a snowball effect with our turnovers.

I agree. Not only with the fumbles, but with that kick in the balls type play. ie the hail mary against USC, the roughing punter Michicken, Miller's run this year, the 1st Wisky TD in the B1G and the AA fumble against UGA. It just seems that when we get knocked down, we do not get up.

 

The come from behind losses are great, but it seems that we got behind from little plays, not big plays and we were able to recover and win.

 

Need to find a way to minimize TO's and then not go mental when we have one.

[Nobody]

"Over the past two years, only two Division I players have more than 20 fumbles. Army’s Trent Steelman has 23. Martinez has 29."

 

 

[Enhance]

Is it just me or does it seem like our turnovers come in bunches though. Enhance I understand your point about Taylor's touchdown to interception ratio, and your right it's really not any worse than a lot of other QB's in the country. What worries me about his interceptions is that it doesn't seem he is just good for one a game or something like that. It always seems when he throws one you can guarantee there's one or two more coming. He's had a few 2-3 interception games in his career. I'd like to see Taylor bounce back a bit better after mistakes, both fumbling and picks. Bounce back, keep some focus and don't come back out there thinking, well Imhave to do something extra to make up for that last mistake. It usually results in further mistakes.

 

Fumbling seemed like it would rear its head in almost the same way. Some games not so much, then we would just meltdown. It's kind of been this teams MO. It's time to get past it next season.

There were a couple of games where he had multiple interceptions (tOSU - three, Wisconsin 2.0 - two, and Georgia - two, for example). The multiple INT games generally came against good opponents, and given he isn't the world's greatest passer, I expect it. I've always felt Martinez shouldn't throw the ball more than 20-25 times a game, he should otherwise be running or handing the ball off. Of course, this is also nerve-wracking with his fumbilitis.

 

When it comes to fumbles, here's the breakdown (the stats may be a little off - I did this relatively quickly, but it should be close).

 

USM - 0

UCLA - 2

ASU - 5

ISU - 2

WIS - 6

tOSU - 2

NW - 3

MU - 1

MSU - 1

PSU - 2

Minn - 5

Iowa - 3

WIS - 0

GU - 1

 

As you can see, Nebraska had only two games with no fumbles, three games with one fumble, four games with at least two fumbles, two games with at least three fumbles, and then three games with 5-plus fumbles (which is just outrageous). So, our turnovers - be it fumbles or interceptions - do come in spurts. But, with fumbles especially, they're a consistent problem that can be significantly worse than usual depending on the game. And the quality of opponent doesn't necessarily matter. We fumbled six times against Wisconsin, five times against Minnesota, but only once against Michigan, for example. That's a pretty wide range of opponents.

[whateveritis1224]

Another thing I noticed to during a rewatch, the first INT against Michigan State, Taylor was hit in the arm (also the head in the same way that got a penalty later in the game) that altered the pass making it look like he threw it straight to the MSU defender.

[Enhance]

Another thing I noticed to during a rewatch, the first INT against Michigan State, Taylor was hit in the arm (also the head in the same way that got a penalty later in the game) that altered the pass making it look like he threw it straight to the MSU defender.

Freak turnovers are going to happen that aren't necessarily the fault of the player, especially when it comes to interceptions and fumbles while passing. If a QB gets blind-sided because his left tackle got beat, that's not really on the quarterback.

 

I would say those probably only account for a couple of overall turnovers though. Even if you take em away, we still have problems.

[tschu]

Time to start practicing with greased-up footballs.

 

And if you fumble the greased up football, Bo will break his foot off in your John Brown hind parts...and then, you will run a mile.

[True2tRA]

Is it just me or does it seem like our turnovers come in bunches though. Enhance I understand your point about Taylor's touchdown to interception ratio, and your right it's really not any worse than a lot of other QB's in the country. What worries me about his interceptions is that it doesn't seem he is just good for one a game or something like that. It always seems when he throws one you can guarantee there's one or two more coming. He's had a few 2-3 interception games in his career. I'd like to see Taylor bounce back a bit better after mistakes, both fumbling and picks. Bounce back, keep some focus and don't come back out there thinking, well Imhave to do something extra to make up for that last mistake. It usually results in further mistakes.

 

Fumbling seemed like it would rear its head in almost the same way. Some games not so much, then we would just meltdown. It's kind of been this teams MO. It's time to get past it next season.

There were a couple of games where he had multiple interceptions (tOSU - three, Wisconsin 2.0 - two, and Georgia - two, for example). The multiple INT games generally came against good opponents, and given he isn't the world's greatest passer, I expect it. I've always felt Martinez shouldn't throw the ball more than 20-25 times a game, he should otherwise be running or handing the ball off. Of course, this is also nerve-wracking with his fumbilitis.

 

When it comes to fumbles, here's the breakdown (the stats may be a little off - I did this relatively quickly, but it should be close).

 

USM - 0

UCLA - 2

ASU - 5

ISU - 2

WIS - 6

tOSU - 2

NW - 3

MU - 1

MSU - 1

PSU - 2

Minn - 5

Iowa - 3

WIS - 0

GU - 1

 

As you can see, Nebraska had only two games with no fumbles, three games with one fumble, four games with at least two fumbles, two games with at least three fumbles, and then three games with 5-plus fumbles (which is just outrageous). So, our turnovers - be it fumbles or interceptions - do come in spurts. But, with fumbles especially, they're a consistent problem that can be significantly worse than usual depending on the game. And the quality of opponent doesn't necessarily matter. We fumbled six times against Wisconsin, five times against Minnesota, but only once against Michigan, for example. That's a pretty wide range of opponents.

Those numbers are absolutely insane. Until you see them written down like in the article or like you have done here I don't think I've realized just how absolutely f'ing' careless we are with the football. You don't win games doing the things we are doing. It's amazing we won as many as we did.