Would you have benched Martinez for a series?

[zoogs]

I think I'm starting to turn a critical eye towards Beck in this game. The strength of our offense and the delicate way we get mileage out of our passing game is incumbent on having WRs running deep into single coverage, and tossing it up to them. We rarely set this up against UCLA. What we saw was an offense that has a plan of attack, if you will, that could really hurt defenses, but whether for lack of success or want of trying, that plan never seemed to materialize.

 

It's not like Taylor did a really bad job for what he was asked to do either. So benching him would not have made any sense, and as someone said, it'd have been a very, very strange message to send to the team.

[TheSker]

I'm not sure where to find them but I'm really interested in Taylor's 1st half stats vs. 2nd half stats.

 

All that really mattered was the 3rd quarter. Martinez was 5/6 for 15 yards passing on our first drive. From there he went 1/6 for the rest of the quarter for 3 yards. He threw 5 straight incompletions over the course of our first 3 drives, and rushed 3 times for -5 yards. His inability to complete a single pass downfield and avoid catastrophic negative yardage plays doomed us.

 

His numbers for the 4th quarter were 4/7 for 56 yards and 1 rush for -6 yards. That was where he hit Abdullah on a short pass that went for 40 yards, we had nothing going downfield all second half.

 

So the final 2nd half tally is 10/19 for 74 yards. 4 rushed for -11 yards. Keep in mind this guy only plays because he was thought at one time to be of of the best running QBs in college football. We don't play him for his passing ability. Now that the running game has bottomed out, there is no to reason to stay married to him as the only QB worth playing when the game is still in doubt. Yet the game will almost always be in doubt with him at QB. Rather ironic, but to say Armstrong would just come in and be a turnover machine is silly. As long as Armstrong was capable of leading us to 3 and outs we'd be breaking even.

 

On a couple of drives in the middle of the 3rd and 4th quarter when we could have made this respectable,TM went 1/6 for 1 yard passing and those were 3 and outs. We had three 3 and outs in the 2nd half, and the two in the 3rd quarter were back breakers.

Very very good and insightful post.

[The Dude]

I don't really see the upside of having Martinez in there if he's not a threat to break the long run. If we're going to use our QB as a bus driver, I'm sure Kellogg or Armstrong can do that, probably with less risk to fumble.

[Creighton Duke]

I didn't get a chance to watch the first two games so I don't know how TM has looked for the entire season, but it appeared to me that after he got slammed on the perfect form tackle by the UCLA defender, he was running scared (literally and figuratively) for the rest of the game. Has he looked this way the entire time?

[Zaimejs]

That's his MO. He gets hit and just kind of gets jittery like a beaten puppy or something. I love that post by Knoxville that breaks the performance down. Well done.

 

Armstrong looked terrific against SMU. He ran the option. He ran the fricking option. Martinez one attempt to pitch yesterday resulted in a 25 yard loss.

 

Yes, coaches suck too... and one of those sucky decisions is to stick with Martinez under every circumstance.

[zoogs]

Armstrong looked terrific against SMU. He ran the option. He ran the fricking option. Martinez one attempt to pitch yesterday resulted in a 25 yard loss.

 

This is incorrect. The first option we had, Martinez made a very early pitch because a defender got in his face, and Abdullah got something like a nice six yard gain out of it.

 

Brion ran the option very well, too, but it didn't get him anywhere. We've seen very little from Tommy so far. Haven't seen him throw. I'm very impressed with what we did see, but it is so, so early to be calling for his anointment.

 

[Knoxville Husker]

Armstrong looked terrific against SMU. He ran the option. He ran the fricking option. Martinez one attempt to pitch yesterday resulted in a 25 yard loss.

 

This is incorrect. The first option we had, Martinez made a very early pitch because a defender got in his face, and Abdullah got something like a nice six yard gain out of it.

 

Brion ran the option very well, too, but it didn't get him anywhere. We've seen very little from Tommy so far. Haven't seen him throw. I'm very impressed with what we did see, but it is so, so early to be calling for his anointment.

 

We're not calling for his annointment, but next year will be here soon enough and we all know any QB on the roster can probably get us 9 wins. This is as good a tmie as any to start figuring out what we have in Tommy, as he is expected to be "the guy" next year. If he fares poorly, that only strengthens the Qb competion with Stanton next year. And Stanton is not a viable option coming off that serious knee injury while being a true freshman.

 

RK III is our emergency backup option should both TM and TA get hurt, just like Matt Turman years ago.

[Whistlebritches]

I'm not sure where to find them but I'm really interested in Taylor's 1st half stats vs. 2nd half stats.

 

All that really mattered was the 3rd quarter. Martinez was 5/6 for 15 yards passing on our first drive. From there he went 1/6 for the rest of the quarter for 3 yards. He threw 5 straight incompletions over the course of our first 3 drives, and rushed 3 times for -5 yards. His inability to complete a single pass downfield and avoid catastrophic negative yardage plays doomed us.

 

His numbers for the 4th quarter were 4/7 for 56 yards and 1 rush for -6 yards. That was where he hit Abdullah on a short pass that went for 40 yards, we had nothing going downfield all second half.

 

So the final 2nd half tally is 10/19 for 74 yards. 4 rushed for -11 yards. Keep in mind this guy only plays because he was thought at one time to be of of the best running QBs in college football. We don't play him for his passing ability. Now that the running game has bottomed out, there is no to reason to stay married to him as the only QB worth playing when the game is still in doubt. Yet the game will almost always be in doubt with him at QB. Rather ironic, but to say Armstrong would just come in and be a turnover machine is silly. As long as Armstrong was capable of leading us to 3 and outs we'd be breaking even.

 

On a couple of drives in the middle of the 3rd and 4th quarter when we could have made this respectable,TM went 1/6 for 1 yard passing and those were 3 and outs. We had three 3 and outs in the 2nd half, and the two in the 3rd quarter were back breakers.

 

That's about how I remembered the second half but couldn't be sure because I was so disgusted while watching that trainwreck unfold. The TM defenders are touting his 21/35 for 200 yards and 3 tds as not a bad day. I don't see how anyone could watch the final 30 minutes of the UCLA game and feel like Taylor is the best quarterback on this team. If that's truly the case then we're in serious trouble for the future.

 

Someone else has already said it but if were trying to be a pocket passing team then TM should be third or fourth on the depth chart.

[zoogs]

If we're trying to be a pocket passing team we're going to be in trouble this year.

[Hercules]

The only reason to bench Taylor is if he's hurt. I'm tired of the staff playing guys who aren't 100%.

[killer cacti]

T-Magic & Co. led 21-3 late in the half, but were not able to hang on in this loss to UCLA. He is kind of like former Clemson QB Charlie Whitehurst. Both Martinez and Whitehurst are pretty good quarterbacks that never could reach the level of the big stage while starting almost their entire careers at their respective schools. Whitehurst, though, had a positive ending to his 9-4 senior campaign by knocking off Tennessee in the Peach Bowl some 9, 10 seasons ago. Maybe Martinez can have a solid finish for NU. He faced a tough-nonconference opponent. Hopefully, the defense can improve. They are talented, and I was very impressed with them even though the box score won't reflect them as having a good performance versus UCLA.

Not to call you out or fact check you, but that was Whitehurst's sophomore year, he went downhill from there...

[HuskerJax]

It's time to bench Martinez and see exactly what we got in Armstrong. Right now Bo's judgement of who is good is questionable at best. If they aren't going to run the offense in what Martinez can do either they need to change the offense which they won't or find a qb who can run your system. I don't care if Martinez is a senior that is no excuse to keep starting him.

 

I agree here. Time to see what tommy has. TM is a failed experiment. I would get as much of the young blood on the field now to see if Bo's diamonds in the rough are for real. If they are, give him more time. If they are more of the same with different numbers, time to go, move on to a new future. If tmart isn't running there is no point to have him on the field. Between turnovers and no ability to lead his team I just don't see the point.

[HUSKER FREAK]

The problem is this staff won't let us know or see for ourselves what these other young QB's, because they absolutely do not want this type of debate all year long. I personally believe that this debate will either make the QB's fold or play harder and thrive. Time to see what happens!!

[walksalone]

I think the OC needs to be "benched" first...

[HUSKER FREAK]

I think the OC needs to be "benched" first...

 

lol very true