**** What Did We Learn ****

[sd'sker]

But rather than look at that, people feel it's more important (cooler? more "realistic?") to point out the flaws. Our championship defenses had flaws. The 2009 defense had flaws.

when i am critical of the defense it is because i see that it can be better, it still has a lot of upside. not because i want them to fail or think they are terrible as a unit. i am critical because i am an optimist and see that they can be better if they fix these fixable issues (which are worth discussing, imo).

 

i think a lot of us "complaining" about the defense feel that way.

[louisianared]

I learned that when Husker fans say its not losing that bothers me, its the way we lose, its a big crock of sh#t. Unless this team plays an absolutely perfect game, no turnovers, no penalties, less than 200 yards of total offense given up and offense scoring at least 50 points, a lot of people will never be happy. And when we do play well, its because the other team sucks...

 

Good game defense. You're going to give up points, its football. But when we needed big stops you provided them.

 

My thoughts exactly. This team could have folded and had every excuse to. Instead everyone from Bo down to the players have improved and grown. It's sad to see some still not giving this team credit. Good win today, we have a long way to go but a solid win.

[HUSKER FREAK]

I learned from reading this thread that we have a lot of fans who are utterly determined to look at the defense as a glass-half-empty unit.  This was an OBVIOUS step forward for the defense, and while it was not yet a complete game, they held a pretty potent Illinois offense to half their typical production.

 

But rather than look at that, people feel it's more important (cooler?  more "realistic?") to point out the flaws.  Our championship defenses had flaws.  The 2009 defense had flaws.

 

Celebrate the successes when you have them, even the minor ones.  This is a fickle game and success can be quite fleeting.

You are right and I should not be as critical as I am during the game, but I have always been this way. And...I am getting kind of old

[robsker]

seems like forward progress to me. The defense was much, much better than at any other time this season. That is a step in the right direction... especially since that team had some offensive success this season against others.

 

In particular, Bell, Enunwa, Abdullah, Armstrong, Mike Rose, SJB and DB Green all had good games. So did Gregory and Evans. Now... people might disagree here --- because he had a couple of bad plays --- but I still hold out hope for Imani Cross. He showed some vision and balance... but yes two bad plays. Still... he is young and I think will be really good.

 

So... again... seems like some progress. next week we play a fish and can hopefully have that as a time to get people some low pressure minutes and develop further. This easy schedule is really nice. Time to develop.

[Polarhusker]

I learned from reading this thread that we have a lot of fans who are utterly determined to look at the defense as a glass-half-empty unit. This was an OBVIOUS step forward for the defense, and while it was not yet a complete game, they held a pretty potent Illinois offense to half their typical production.

 

But rather than look at that, people feel it's more important (cooler? more "realistic?") to point out the flaws. Our championship defenses had flaws. The 2009 defense had flaws.

 

Celebrate the successes when you have them, even the minor ones. This is a fickle game and success can be quite fleeting.

This is so f'ing true.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

I learned from reading this thread that we have a lot of fans who are utterly determined to look at the defense as a glass-half-empty unit. This was an OBVIOUS step forward for the defense, and while it was not yet a complete game, they held a pretty potent Illinois offense to half their typical production.

 

But rather than look at that, people feel it's more important (cooler? more "realistic?") to point out the flaws. Our championship defenses had flaws. The 2009 defense had flaws.

 

Celebrate the successes when you have them, even the minor ones. This is a fickle game and success can be quite fleeting.

 

All people talk about eliminating the mental errors. Guys, it won't happen. Mental errors are part of the game. Even Alabama does it. But the thing is to minimize them and I think we saw that happen today.

[HUSKER FREAK]

I guess the reason why I would bitch even though we DID MAKE IMPROVEMENTS is because when we play a really good team we will get blasted if we make bone headed mistakes

[sd'sker]

All people talk about eliminating the mental errors. Guys, it won't happen. Mental errors are part of the game. Even Alabama does it. But the thing is to minimize them and I think we saw that happen today.

it is the mental errors of the coaches that worry me. these mental errors and repeated errors fall on the coaches.

[True2tRA]

I learned from reading this thread that we have a lot of fans who are utterly determined to look at the defense as a glass-half-empty unit. This was an OBVIOUS step forward for the defense, and while it was not yet a complete game, they held a pretty potent Illinois offense to half their typical production.

 

But rather than look at that, people feel it's more important (cooler? more "realistic?") to point out the flaws. Our championship defenses had flaws. The 2009 defense had flaws.

 

Celebrate the successes when you have them, even the minor ones. This is a fickle game and success can be quite fleeting.

 

A - f'ing MEN! Christ almighty, even me, who bitches constantly about this defense was impressed with the change in approach today. For fux sake people. PROGRESS is all we can ask for right now and we got it today.

[knapplc]

Exactly, True. Baby steps. That's what we should realistically expect out of these guys.

 

They may be talented, but they're not going to go from raw to great in a few games. We have to praise the improvements we see.

[HUSKER FREAK]

WTF was J Rose doing when he ran away from the player who caught the damn ball right in front of him??? And, then the next play they ran right at him and couldn't shake a block that he never should have gotten attached to.

[Redmusky]

The defense still does not contain the edge .

We make contract at the line of scrimmage but the ball carrier pushes on for 5 yards { weight room problem}

We missed 2 points after TD's but he has a good leg going into the wind.

TA is going to be a great QB still needs work but the team looks good when he is on the field. They played better with him then Kellog

Hits out of bounds the big ten has to look into the way they call the late hits. I think that is what BO may have been talking about at the end of the game.

DC he is bad and it showed to day, mixed up signal calls, poor substitution calls

I enjoyed watching the game, there's a lot to be happy with.

[True2tRA]

I learned that when Husker fans say its not losing that bothers me, its the way we lose, its a big crock of sh#t. Unless this team plays an absolutely perfect game, no turnovers, no penalties, less than 200 yards of total offense given up and offense scoring at least 50 points, a lot of people will never be happy. And when we do play well, its because the other team sucks...

Good game defense. You're going to give up points, its football. But when we needed big stops you provided them.

+1. This. As fans, we should love today's win, a win from start to finish. The team will hopefully keep growing, but they got it done in all aspects today.

 

Absolutely guys. Although in my case, I can still handle a loss if we look like we fought our butts off. For the life of me though, it looked like this team fought hard, really improved and got the W and we still have people whining like little bitches. I don't get it?

[sd'sker]

watching this game, i could not help but think if the defense keeps improving we could end up seeing a really good to great unit by the end of the year and we could have a really good season. but i do not think it is unreasonable to discuss, along with the improved areas, some of the issues we saw.

[True2tRA]

Exactly, True. Baby steps. That's what we should realistically expect out of these guys.

 

They may be talented, but they're not going to go from raw to great in a few games. We have to praise the improvements we see.

 

If we take the steps we saw today on defense, and keep building on that. Then combine that with what I think is now a very potent offense....then wow. I feel like we are right there. Very close. I know they say winning cures all, and in a way it does. It's the people who look deeper that get it. Look at some of the things we were doing out there. There was a lot more we did that could have worked even better. But the guys progressed. It was impressive. Let's keep it going.