What we learned today...

[krc1995]

Papuchis needs go. He should have never been promoted.

[Comish]

I learned that (aside from the obvious defensive issues), Tim Beck can immediately transform himself from a gambling wide open play caller into a sit-on -the ball -lets eat -the - clock turtle way too early rather than continue to try and score. And that playing not to lose can come back to bite you both attitudinally and on the scoreboard.

[jmfb]

More of the same. Third and a foot, we jump offsides, now it's 3rd and 6. We start slow. Oline cant move guys off the ball when it really counts. Defense is atrocious, no pressure. Backs and skill positions are great, punter excellent. Disappointing

[Danny Bateman]

Listen guys... Overreaction runs rampant around here. Things are usually neither as good nor as bad as they seem.

 

For a first game, that was a net positive. Sure, Wyoming gave us all we could handle and 600 yards is embarassing. But they've got a QB that is definitely the real deal and a ton of mistakes and sloppy play was expected, at least to any sane fan, when you're breaking in this many new faces in the front 7 of your defense.

 

Look at it this way. I'd much rather go down to the wire now so there is no sense of complacency and laziness than coast to an easy win and let our young defense get their egos inflated and start to have a sense of entitlement. That is the LAST thing you want with a bunch of freshman who are still so green behind the ears and learning.

 

I fully anticipate every single one of them is going to get back to work this week and will take So. Miss very seriously. Hell, I bet the upperclassmen are as embarassed as the rest of us. But I'm of the mind that this defense can still improve and be a heck of a defense this year. I think last year's D had athletically reached their ceiling. This year's edition has nowhere to go but up. Great potential.

 

Bo didn't forget defense. He's just got a lot to work on. Especially that damn spread clearout stuff. If they sent a RB in motion, our one backer went with him and left Smith ALONE (?!?!) to gash our D. At that point there's not a whole lot the DL can do. We need to have someone closer than 15 yards downfield watching Smith.

 

Once the DL learn to use their hands and work OL better, they could be SOOOOO much better than we had last year.

 

McMullen went largely unhearalded. I think I'm the first one to mention him. He got some good pressure on the QB last night. Loved seeing him peel off the OT and almost immediately put Smith on the turf and force a bad throw. That doesn't happen with Meredith last year. He was just TOO SLOW.

[huskerbronco1997]

In all honesty i think this game might have been one of the best things that could happen to us and the young defense. Memorial Staduim and the N on the side of your helment and number of stars some neat website gave you doesnt mean crap. We were not only out played but 100% out coached, the sad part about that is that in the Pelini Era this has happened quite frequently. I understand the defense is young but there was still bad tackling and terrible ball skills in the secondary. Bo said after the game that there were several times players were in the right spots to make plays but just didnt, i wish the reported had asked one simple question WHEN? The defense was put in horrible position, we gave them underneath routes and played 10yd off the outside recievers and let them run the secondary deep and leaving the middle open for the slot to run free. The man to man seemed to hurt, i would have liked to see maybe some zone underneath and more creative blitzing from corners and safeties.

 

the offense seems to struggle adjusting from spread fast pace and slow power football, this is no surprise because even the great Oregon offensives had this issue. The difference is Oregon knew it and didnt change what worked and played fast and put 70 on anyone they could, Beck go too conservative and didnt "play to win the game, hello!" - Herm Edwards

 

Dline- looked good, sometimes the edge rushers got too much pentration by using their speed and going out too wide to get around the tack and opened up throwing lanes (not too woried this will get fixed). Terrible call on the roughing the passer on the sack, this is were we seemed to loose the momentum and WY got it back, to me that was the turning point and instead of maning up we got sad and took after our coach and complained about the call versus sucking it up and getting mad and tearing WY to hell.

 

LB- where were they??? Seriously anyone, i saw them maybe a handfull of time. Zarie Anderson, Santos, Afalava, these guys CAN play so geth them out there and let them make plays.

 

SS- played below average for the most part, great tackle Green (hope that got him some time on the pine, this guy is a senoir and we can put the waterboy out there and see a better attempt to tackle). Also on the deeper passes they seemed to struggle finding the ball, should have had another pick on one of those flaoting passes

 

CB- SJB (he can play and we are FINALLY using him!). Everyone else is ummmm maybe ok, its hard to tell when they were forced to cover for at least 7 second, for all the talk this unit got they played pretty poor but they were put in terrible positions by the coaching. I dont care what you say Pelini, they were NOT in good position SEVERAL times!

 

Offense

 

QB- nothing needs said, minus the pick and fumble (which didnt matter) Taylor played good. Bad play calling by not taking more shots down field to keep the safeties honest

 

RB- WOW! Ameer, Imani, Newby, good luck B1G

 

WR/TE- good as i figured, Turner, Bell, Enuwa beasts. TEs dont care because we dont use them anyways (see Reed and McNiel).

 

OL- best under Pelini hmmm well probably because we have always had a bad line in the Bo era and this line isnt terrible more like mediocre to above average, so I guess this is correct. They did look like they were in great shape for how early and hot it was out, they wore down the Dline of WY

 

ST- outside of the odd missed extra point, check

 

Penalties- Alot and not a big surpise, see the last 5 years under Bo. Not trying to bash Bo just being honest.

 

Coaches need to hold themselves accountable for getting these guys in positions to make the plays, the defensive play calling was flat out bad. We have a short peroid of time before UCLA but we will see. They say you make the biggest jump from week 1 to 2, so here is hoping we hold 0-12 (from last year) to under 500 yards.

[HUSKER FREAK]

A) Beck trying to run a "sped" up offense needs to slow down.

B) Apparently it's almost physically impossible for Pap to send more than 4 guys

C) For the first two quarters, it was almost physically impossible for Beck to run guys up the gut

D) We are continuing the trend of not being a "1st Half" team

E) Whenever Smith handed the ball off, our LB's disappeared

F) The RB's were the best performers for the game

G) Beck needs to realize that throwing the ball is not wise when trying to kill the clock and preserve the lead

I think this was the problem with O last night. He did slow down and it killed us. He should have put the pedal to the metal and not backed off the way he did. E, this was very concerning to me as well. I know they ran Santos out of position but they have to learn from mistakes and not keep making them.

[tschu]

basically this!

 

9-4 here we come. if not worse

[robsker]

we should not be worse than 9-4. Our schedule is so easy that a record worse than 9-4 would be actually hard to accomplish. The NU record will be pretty good... but it will be deceptively good. Were NU to play a really good team, NU would get annihilated. Kind of like the past several years... the overall record was pretty solid... but the reality was NU was not as good as the record would indicate.

 

I'd expect that again this year. More than 4 losses is really unlikely against this schedule. NU will look (record wise) pretty good... but actually be a fairly average team.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

That Pap can't seem to get the defense squared away and doesn't have the guts to stand up to Pelini and tell him it "ain't working!" If I see the same defensive play this year that I saw last year, which it seems that way, there should be no reason why Pap is still here at the end of the season. The kids are just that.............kids...............you are a coach and get paid to have these players prepared, quit pointing the finger and point the thumb.

 

Having said that about the defense you can tell they have more athletic ability to get the job done than last seasons defense, but the schemes are the same and it needs to change.

 

Between Imani, Ameer, and Newby the B1G is gonna have its hands full................and nevermind our offensive line did a great job last night and is the most experienced it's been in a long time. Good luck with Enunwa, Bell, Turner, and Long also. Our offense needs to learn to keep their foot on the gas and keep scoring points because with this defense they'll need it.......................looking at you Beck.

[Stumpy1]

People really have blinders on if they are thinking our team is going to be horrible this year, especially the defense. For most of the 2nd half, 6 of the front 7 were Freshman and were playing in their very first game. I know some guys on here are coaches, as I am one also, and they can relate with what went on with the young ones playing. I really think this defense will improve by conference and will be one of the top units. We still will probably take our lumps against S. Miss and UCLA but we will get better from it.

[MichiganDad3]

Things I learned after reading this thread:

1. We have too many armchair QB's that think they know what is best for Husker football when they're not directly involved with it
   
2. Our defense is young...but when you have a humbling experience like this, you learn
   
3. Imani Cross averaged 8.1 yards per carry and everyone thought I was crazy for saying he deserved the #2 spot touting the freshmen instead. Eat crow you bizzles.
   
4. Bo Pelini isn't stupid...he knows what needs to be fixed...he's known for 3 years now. The kids aren't getting it. He has to figure out why they're not.
   
5. Tim Beck is still learning because some of his play calling was atrocious
   
6. Our pass defense SUCKED but had a few good plays.
   
7. Our linebackers sucked and are the reason we got torched on the ground...the line only had 4 people on it with our best guys getting double teamed...backers need to plug those holes and they were nonexistent.
   
8. We need to teach people to FINISH...on both sides of the ball. I saw people loafing on plays left and right both on offense and defense. That crap is unacceptable in high school football let alone college.
   
9. I know Bo Pelini gets it because he's coached defenses that have ranked in the top 5 in the nation numerous times (including here)...He needs to find out how to get his kids to execute on the field.
   
10. Those refs sucked bigtime
    
11. There's not much difference between a 250 lb lineman and a 300 lb one...Wyoming's offense proved that
    
12. The defense can be fixed...but it will take a team effort and a major effort on the coaches
    

 

If a leader knows what needs to be done and can't communicate this to his team and execute in 3 years, then it is time for a new leader.

[MichiganDad3]

Things I learned after reading this thread:

1. We have too many armchair QB's that think they know what is best for Husker football when they're not directly involved with it
   
2. Our defense is young...but when you have a humbling experience like this, you learn
   
3. Imani Cross averaged 8.1 yards per carry and everyone thought I was crazy for saying he deserved the #2 spot touting the freshmen instead. Eat crow you bizzles.
   
4. Bo Pelini isn't stupid...he knows what needs to be fixed...he's known for 3 years now. The kids aren't getting it. He has to figure out why they're not.
   
5. Tim Beck is still learning because some of his play calling was atrocious
   
6. Our pass defense SUCKED but had a few good plays.
   
7. Our linebackers sucked and are the reason we got torched on the ground...the line only had 4 people on it with our best guys getting double teamed...backers need to plug those holes and they were nonexistent.
   
8. We need to teach people to FINISH...on both sides of the ball. I saw people loafing on plays left and right both on offense and defense. That crap is unacceptable in high school football let alone college.
   
9. I know Bo Pelini gets it because he's coached defenses that have ranked in the top 5 in the nation numerous times (including here)...He needs to find out how to get his kids to execute on the field.
   
10. Those refs sucked bigtime
    
11. There's not much difference between a 250 lb lineman and a 300 lb one...Wyoming's offense proved that
    
12. The defense can be fixed...but it will take a team effort and a major effort on the coaches
    

 

 

#7 is wrong. How can 1 LB fill all the holes? Four linemen, 1 backer, and 6 db's for almost the entire game. If you are gonna armchair QB, at least get your facts straight. Sheesh....

Completely agree. Watch the LBs in Bo scheme. They vacate the center of the field anytime there is motion. There is no LB left to fill the gap.

[The Tall Texan]

There's an old adage, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

NU football is what it is.

[DrunkOffPunch]

People really have blinders on if they are thinking our team is going to be horrible this year, especially the defense. For most of the 2nd half, 6 of the front 7 were Freshman and were playing in their very first game. I know some guys on here are coaches, as I am one also, and they can relate with what went on with the young ones playing. I really think this defense will improve by conference and will be one of the top units. We still will probably take our lumps against S. Miss and UCLA but we will get better from it.

Good to see somebody with some optimism this morning:). I personally, am not a coach, but I'd like to think when you have such a young D the times where their inexperience and adjustments from high school to college are more likely to be prevalent are in the 1st and 4th quarter. Those two quarters IMO were our worst defensively.

[MichiganDad3]

If they are so talented, that shouldnt have happened, regardless of experience.

You are implying talent is more important than experience? Did you see the Ohio State or Alabama game? Ohio State replaced one offensive lineman and Buffalo bullied him. Khalil Mack and co. were all over Miller at one point and would've been down a field goal if not for a penalty called on a turnover. Alabama won 35-10 but if you watched it it was not a decisive win. They replaced most of they defense and their offensive line and from a team in VT where most picked them to get blown out in a rebuilding year they actually out gained 'Bama. Not to mentioned Vt had 153 rushing yards while 'Bama had a measly 2.5 yard rushing average. This coming from a team that consistently gets a top 5 recruiting class from a Saban coached team that always comes to play. While I respect talent, you can't overlook experience. First game jitters, the anxiety of a new football season, whatever it may be, this isn't an isolated only 'Nebraska' thing. Dear Husker Nation- It gets better.

What is the excuse for last year? A very experienced defense with the majority of starters being seniors?