UCLA Game worries

[Hooked on Huskers]

I think the bye week actually puts them at a disadvantage - they only get one week of game speed experience against some scrubs and then a week off. Bye weeks are beneficial later in the season because you need the rest from season-long fatigue and because other teams have put a lot more on film - we'll hide our hand enough in our cakewalks against So. Miss and Wyoming that it won't be of much benefit to them.

 

 

Just my opinion.

Exactly. Unfortunately........

 

November 9th: Huskers vs. Wolverines @ Big House.....perhaps fatigue and/or let down after 11/9 game? Spartans got a bye week

November 16th: Spartans vs. Huskers

 

Also:

 

October 5th: Illini vs. Huskers; Boilermakers got a bye week

October 12th: Huskers vs. Boilermakers @ West Lafayette

[The King]

All you guys expecting to win this game easily, I hope you're right. We surrendered over 600 yards in offense to this team last year and we're replacing seven starters on defense. I get the "addition by subtraction" idea about our defense but the guys we're counting on to stop this team are completely unproven commodities.

 

I could easily see us lose this game by two scores. If the offense isn't clicking like a fine-tuned machine we could get blown out.

 

Loving the confidence, but I'm not seeing where it's coming from.

 

 

I have a feeling we'll win confidently, but I'm not sure. Anyways, these are the key things I'm seeing:

 

1. Jonathan Franklin was by far the majority of their offense and is gone with unknown and unproven talent coming in.

2. As many yards as we surrendered, our defense shut them down in the second half.

3. We have a year's worth of film on them this time around - were left woefully unprepared with their shifts and motions and misdirection into space so early last season.

4. Our offense and defense will both take marginal steps up at least (imo) - my uneducated perception of theirs is that they could both take steps back.

5. Memorial Stadium.

 

Pretty much exactly what this guy said is what I was going to say word for word. UCLA played one of its best games of the season against us as well - they were unusually hyped up for that game.

 

They easily lost more than us on offense and with the loss of Owa, they aren't looking like they have a whole lot of room on defense to improve as well. Not to mention they are fairly young along the D-Line and going from some chump team to our O-Line ... is going to be an eye opener.

 

52 - 24

[Hooked on Huskers]

All you guys expecting to win this game easily, I hope you're right. We surrendered over 600 yards in offense to this team last year and we're replacing seven starters on defense. I get the "addition by subtraction" idea about our defense but the guys we're counting on to stop this team are completely unproven commodities.

 

I could easily see us lose this game by two scores. If the offense isn't clicking like a fine-tuned machine we could get blown out.

 

Loving the confidence, but I'm not seeing where it's coming from.

Also my nightmare flashback time to time......Southern Mississippi 21, Huskers 17 in 2004 at Lincoln. 2004 S.Miss. was much better than 2013 S.Miss. ??

[RedDenver]

All you guys expecting to win this game easily, I hope you're right. We surrendered over 600 yards in offense to this team last year and we're replacing seven starters on defense. I get the "addition by subtraction" idea about our defense but the guys we're counting on to stop this team are completely unproven commodities.

 

I could easily see us lose this game by two scores. If the offense isn't clicking like a fine-tuned machine we could get blown out.

 

Loving the confidence, but I'm not seeing where it's coming from.

Also my nightmare flashback time to time......Southern Mississippi 21, Huskers 17 in 2004 at Lincoln. 2004 S.Miss. was much better than 2013 S.Miss. ??

2004 S. Miss. was WAY, WAY better than 2012 S. Miss and probably far better than 2013 S. Miss.

[chamrocck]

Spoke to a life-long die hard UCLA fan who I know from the in-laws. He says this 2013 team and especially the 2014 team are the best UCLA teams they have had in a long, long time. This is anyone's game to win. This is a pick 'em in my opinion. These guys already beat us last year so we should not be taking them lightly. This is a big game.

[Blackshirts007]

Mix what's been said along with the fact that Bo has an incredible record In revenge games. Our guys very well could have took them lightly last year and it bit them in the ass. They will not take them lightly and come out with fire. Especially with those black uniforms. They are going to be pumped and the adrenaline will be flowing. We may not blow them out, but we should have control of the game from the beginning

[caveman99]

All you guys expecting to win this game easily, I hope you're right. We surrendered over 600 yards in offense to this team last year and we're replacing seven starters on defense. I get the "addition by subtraction" idea about our defense but the guys we're counting on to stop this team are completely unproven commodities.

 

I could easily see us lose this game by two scores. If the offense isn't clicking like a fine-tuned machine we could get blown out.

 

Loving the confidence, but I'm not seeing where it's coming from.

 

 

I have a feeling we'll win confidently, but I'm not sure. Anyways, these are the key things I'm seeing:

 

1. Jonathan Franklin was by far the majority of their offense and is gone with unknown and unproven talent coming in.

2. As many yards as we surrendered, our defense shut them down in the second half.

3. We have a year's worth of film on them this time around - were left woefully unprepared with their shifts and motions and misdirection into space so early last season.

4. Our offense and defense will both take marginal steps up at least (imo) - my uneducated perception of theirs is that they could both take steps back.

5. Memorial Stadium.

Not to mention that stud TE is gone also, he was an impossible match up for every team not just NU.

[caveman99]

Spoke to a life-long die hard UCLA fan who I know from the in-laws. He says this 2013 team and especially the 2014 team are the best UCLA teams they have had in a long, long time. This is anyone's game to win. This is a pick 'em in my opinion. These guys already beat us last year so we should not be taking them lightly. This is a big game.

Not sure how they can say that with confidence. Franklin and that TE were very key pieces to that offense. I didn't see anything near as explosive out of their back ups. Heck Hundley would often just loft it up to his security blanket TE and Franklin was a stud.

[iowahuskers]

I think them having a bye week before us is a disadvantage for them because it only give them one game at full speed, and if I'm not mistaken they have some younger players that would certainly benefit from more game time. My prediction is 49-35, us. I think it will be close at halftime but ultimately our offense will be too good and too fast paced for them to handle and our D will get a couple stops and/or a turnover or two.

[Treand3]

Spoke to a life-long die hard UCLA fan who I know from the in-laws. He says this 2013 team and especially the 2014 team are the best UCLA teams they have had in a long, long time. This is anyone's game to win. This is a pick 'em in my opinion. These guys already beat us last year so we should not be taking them lightly. This is a big game.

Not sure how they can say that with confidence. Franklin and that TE were very key pieces to that offense. I didn't see anything near as explosive out of their back ups. Heck Hundley would often just loft it up to his security blanket TE and Franklin was a stud.

 

Their Offense is going to be outstanding in '14, but we don't play them then. Likely the best WR unit we'll see all year.

 

This quote tells me that they put all of their eggs into us last year, Both Barr and Su'a-Filo said the Nebraska game last year was really when the team started buying in to what Mora was selling: "I think the first victory, we were like, OK, we can do this, and when we beat Nebraska, we were like, OK, we can really do that and we're actually a good football team," Barr said.

 

That said, their LB unit should be the strongest on the defense, one that will be ultra aggressive. As far as pass rushing, this may be one of the best we'll see. Many feel their OL will be better, and it may, but there are a lot more questions there than we have. Not only do they have to replace the leading rusher in school history(over half of their rushing attempts and yards), they have to replace 12/13 TD receptions in Fauria(possibly with a frosh) which Hundley loved lofting redzone passes to, a 2nd team all conference Guard that had a monster game last year, and an all conference punter.

 

I am in no way saying they won't beat us but they are replacing a lot. Our boys need to come ready.

[Count 'Bility]

2 games of game speed against spread teams for our young D? Two games of game speed for Taylor and co. to shake off the rust? Kool-aid's flowin now.

 

49-24 good guys, Knapp. heh heh.

[teachercd]

Anyone seen a line yet?

[skersfan]

I might remind most that last year at this time, the majority of posters were calling it a rout and we would win by two touchdowns. Never ever underestimate an opponent. I am sure Bo isn't, nor are the players. Any team on our schedule can beat us, we should beat everyone on our schedule. Hope faith are great, but we do not do the hard work to win the games. Only the kids do and I sure they are very concerned about the Bruins.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Quick preview before I give a more detailed analysis as the game approaches.

 

NU Offense versus UCLA Defense: Our offensive line has improved steadily over Bo's tenure, and I think this offensive line isn't going to buck that trend. I think they'll be better than last year, and I don't think Vanderdoes is going to pose any threat at all. He'll have one game under his belt and will be going against our best offensive linemen. So this brings a tough decision for the defensive coordinator and Jim Mora--Nebraska runs the ball really well, but they also have a capable QB and one of the B1G's best group of wide outs--they're going to have to use their linebackers to stop the run game, but if they blitz 6 or 7, that's going to leave some openings that their young secondary might have trouble covering. Tim Beck is starting or has become a great play caller, and I think he will have the Bruin defense on their heels for most of the game.

 

Nebraska puts up at least 34 on the Bruin D. Now the question becomes: will that be enough?

 

NU Defense vs UCLA Offense: I think EZ-E said it earlier in this thread: our linebackers are better athletically than the linebackers we had in our previous match up. Santos, Anderson, and whomever takes that third slot will all be much more athletic. UCLA is going to through motion at us like they did last year--and I think the smartest thing we could do to adjust to that, is to not adjust a whole lot. I think we need to let our LBs play more to their talents while still being within the system. The Bruins had a weapon last year in Jonathan Franklin, but he is no longer in the backfield. Their offensive line will be solid, and they should give our front four/seven a bit of a hard time during the game. But in the end, I don't think they have enough firepower to get the job done. Hundley is a little too young, and our defense is going to be much more athletic.

 

UCLA puts at least 24 points on our defense.

 

Special Factors: Of course, this game is going to hinge on things which many of the Husker games have hinged on these past few years: can we limit the turnovers? More importantly, can we limit the turnovers in our territory? It's one thing to turn the ball over on your opponent's side of the field. It's another thing entirely to turn it over on your own side. With a defense that will be learning, the last thing they need is for their back's to be up against the wall early. Along the line of turnovers, is time of possession. It stands that, if Nebraska doesn't turn the ball over, they should have the ball longer. The longer we have the ball, especially early on in the game, the more their defense is going to wear down in the second half. Much the same can be said about our defense. The longer the Bruins have the ball in the first half, the more wore down our defense will be in the second half, and the more likely they are to score.

 

I think Nebraska manages the turnovers well. I think we see one from us on the Bruin side of the field, which doesn't end up hurting us. I think our defense forces a turnover as well. Finally, I think we'll win that ToP battle in the first half and wear the Bruin defense down in the second half to seal the game.

 

 

Final Score: Nebraska 38 UCLA 27

[True2tRA]

Like I said a month ago BBB12, the FG kickers could play a big role in this one. Could possibly decide this game. I truly believe it will come down to that.