**** What did we learn - Sparty edition ****

[BigWillie]

Mark Pelini. Go. Somewhere. Anywhere. Just not back to Lincoln.

 

Take Jake Cotton with you.

 

Stop allowing Barney Cotton to procreate.

 

It's fun what the offense can do when you adjust to LBs running downhill at every snap.

 

Tommy has heart. That's about it at this point.

 

I feel bad for Ameer. No kid puts it more on the line than he does every week. His line let him down horribly this week.

 

Demornay better get used to not being kicked to alot the rest of the year. Absolute stud.

 

Roach should start every game from here on.

 

Kalu is gonna be a stud. If he puts on weight, it wouldn't shock me if he's a high round pick. Kid is very, very good for a true freshman.

 

Our WRs besides Westerkamp - woof.

 

When Collins and Valentine play with a sense of urgency, they can be damn near unblockable. In the 4th, they were controlling the LOS.

 

No moral victories. Wins and losses are only on the scoreboard.

[The King]

We have the ability - but maybe not the schemes or the coaches - to get to Indianapolis.

 

We should be favored in every game from here on out.

 

We could lose every game from here on out.

 

Ameer's Heisman campaign is over. And that's sad, because he's worked his tail off to make himself into a great back.

 

Wow.

[irafreak]

That a lot of posters on here are living in la la land believing that we are a different team this year.

 

How quickly we forget about the cardiac cornhuskers of the past several years. This is Bo ball. We play ugly, win ugly, lose ugly. This team has the abilty but lacks the coaching to take that ability to a championship level.

 

My attitude has not changed. We are a decent football team. I refuse to get too high or too low for this season because this team is consistently alright. 9, 10, 11 wins sure but until we win that conference title we're just another Nebraska team living off it's history.

[Thanks_Tom RR]

nm

[NebraskaHarry]

I learned that Armstrong is a good QB who can be a bad QB at times. Also, since people still harp on Martinez even after his playing time is over, I'll give Martinez credit in this situation. He knew how to beat MSU.

 

O-line sucked. Absolutely awful. Terrible. An abomination.

 

Beck is exactly who I thought he was as an OC... mediocre. Nothing more... No misdirection. Defense could have 8 guys in box and play as close to the line as they wanted most all night.

 

Westerkamp. STUD! The ball should have been going to him at the end there.

 

Pierson El needs to be on the field a lot more.

 

Also, note to our coaching staff. When you're playing MSU and you get the ball on their 30 after a turnover. Go for it on 4th down if you can't kick the FG. Why would you punt? Makes no goddamn sense. Play to win the football game.

[ZRod]

Nobody is going to agree with this, but Tommy needs to sit at least a series a game. He needs to see the things that are going on. He's not seeing it clearly from the field. Even when he gets good protection there are issues that have been there all season and quiet a few of us have said would bite us, they were compounded this game when it counted.

 

Game's not all on him though. I may regret this in the morning but that's how I feel right niw.

[StPaulHusker]

This defense can keep us in games if the offense lets it.

 

Josh Kalu could lead the nation in interceptions if he turned to look for the ball once in a while.

 

No quit in this team. It's frustrating to watch sometimes. But I love how they compete.

 

Very proud they kept it together

[Blackshirt39]

Beck needs to go. Well this is nothing new. If he capitalizes on just one of Sparty's first half turnovers that's the game. They seriously did everything to give us the game in the first half. Horrible OC. Oh but Miami and Illinois. Pfft. He sucks. MSU's linebackers knew all of his audibles. I told you guys just relying on stretch plays and seam passes wouldn't work.

 

Tommy needs to grow up fast. He shouldn't be staring down receivers like that. He has to go through his progression. He is telegraphing the play to the secondary. And don't audible to a play 3 times and then blame your WR for running wrong routes, if they are even the wrong route. He is predetermining where to throw the ball every play. And how can you not hit swing and screen passes at all. He better work on timing in the next two weeks.

 

O-Line: Every position should be up for competition the next two weeks. Lewis unimpressive, Cotton doesn't play like a captain, and Sterup gets beat like he stole something every play. Unacceptable play. Fresno/McNeese game's chickens came home to roost.

 

Defense played great tonight. The only reason we were in it.

 

Pierson-El. Just wow. This kid is going to be a great one.

 

This team didn't quit when I was ready to. But that alone doesn't win games. Bo better get it figured out, because that was yet another one he should have had. They handed us 3 short fields in the first half, and we came away with 0 points. What the Hell? two field goals was the difference between winning and losing. Or one TD.

 

We missed a huge opportunity this week. We're better than this. That's a problem.

[HuskerCarter]

To all the Tommy haters out there. I saw a redshirt sophomore QB get rattled on the road against a defense that came prepared to stop the run and didn't have an OL that was blocking well to protect him.

 

Last I checked, we don't have a more veteran QB to take Tommy's place.

 

And I don't care if it's Tommy, Ryker, Stanton, or Eric freakin' Crouch. A QB CAN'T PLAY WELL IF YOUR OFFENSIVE LINE CAN'T WIN THE BATTLE IN TRENCHES!

 

Did Tommy play a good game, NO, but he sure as hell didn't get much help from his offensive line.

 

I put this loss, square on their heads.

[NebraskaHarry]

We have the ability - but maybe not the schemes or the coaches - to get to Indianapolis.

 

We should be favored in every game from here on out.

 

We could lose every game from here on out.

 

Ameer's Heisman campaign is over. And that's sad, because he's worked his tail off to make himself into a great back.

I may never take anything you say seriously ever again.

[beanman]

I learned that Armstrong is a good QB who can be a bad QB at times. Also, since people still harp on Martinez even after his playing time is over, I'll give Martinez credit in this situation. He knew how to beat MSU.

 

O-line sucked. Absolutely awful. Terrible. An abomination.

 

Beck is exactly who I thought he was as an OC... mediocre. Nothing more... No misdirection. Defense could have 8 guys in box and play as close to the line as they wanted most all night.

 

Westerkamp. STUD! The ball should have been going to him at the end there.

 

Pierson El needs to be on the field a lot more.

 

Also, note to our coaching staff. When you're playing MSU and you get the ball on their 30 after a turnover. Go for it on 4th down if you can't kick the FG. Why would you punt? Makes no goddamn sense. Play to win the football game.

I think it's moreso that we've been showing Sparty the same thing year after year and they'll eventually figure out how to stop it. With the blocking we had tonight I think TMart would have had a rough one. Even when we had the run going 2 years ago he still threw 3 picks. They're just better than us. I don't see that changing given our O-line play. We're not going to fix that this year.

[zoogs]

* Our offense's ability has to be called into serious question after tonight. OL has been a concern all year, but they were outclassed by a wide margin, and we got shut down utterly. Run blocking, pass blocking, inside, outside. Play design, too. We've seen what this offense can do, but most assuredly it's "back to the drawing board" heading into the bye.

 

* Tommy doubters can take a chill pill. I don't see how anyone doesn't love this guy to death. The fight that he shows, the toughness he has, his willingness to get into his teammates' faces when they mess up. Tommy doesn't back down for anything.

 

* He does have to clean up his short throws, though. They were and have been erratic.

 

* Let's be real, though, a lot of people were getting their butts kicked and playing poorly. They had every cause to fold. Never even crossed their minds.

 

* Those wanting Bo gone, Beck gone, etc, etc -- let's watch this team and see how they do over the course of the season. Maybe without becoming the mercurial dumpster fires that typify sports fandom. What are we, a Miami board?!

 

* The defense really did a good job in total, despite some early breakdowns. That's a high powered offense we faced today, and the Huskers brought it.

 

* Sparty's got a great punter, with a great sense of humor Jake Cotton's tumble was also one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a football game.

 

* That near comeback pumped me up. What a great finish. 'Zo nearly pulls down a beautiful pass into the endzone, and if not for two inexperienced receivers running into one another, we still might've scored. Ah. Alas. GG, Sparty.

 

* We nearly had to see The Dude running nekkid in the streets.

[knapplc]

To all the Tommy haters out there. I saw a redshirt sophomore QB get rattled on the road against a defense that came prepared to stop the run and didn't have an OL that was blocking well to protect him.

 

Last I checked, we don't have a more veteran QB to take Tommy's place.

 

And I don't care if it's Tommy, Ryker, Stanton, or Eric freakin' Crouch. A QB CAN'T PLAY WELL IF YOUR OFFENSIVE LINE CAN'T WIN THE BATTLE IN TRENCHES!

 

Did Tommy play a good game, NO, but he sure as hell didn't get much help from his offensive line.

 

I put this loss, square on their heads.

 

Peyton Manning at his best couldn't have done anything with the lack of blocking the line was giving Tommy for a while. The problem was 90/10 O-Line/Tommy.

[beanman]

Beck needs to go. Well this is nothing new. If he capitalizes on just one of Sparty's first half turnovers that's the game. They seriously did everything to give us the game in the first half. Horrible OC. Oh but Miami and Illinois. Pfft. He sucks. MSU's linebackers knew all of his audibles. I told you guys just relying on stretch plays and seam passes wouldn't work.

 

Tommy needs to grow up fast. He shouldn't be staring down receivers like that. He has to go through his progression. He is telegraphing the play to the secondary. And don't audible to a play 3 times and then blame your WR for running wrong routes, if they are even the wrong route. He is predetermining where to throw the ball every play. And how can you not hit swing and screen passes at all. He better work on timing in the next two weeks.

 

O-Line: Every position should be up for competition the next two weeks. Lewis unimpressive, Cotton doesn't play like a captain, and Sterup gets beat like he stole something every play. Unacceptable play. Fresno/McNeese game's chickens came home to roost.

 

Defense played great tonight. The only reason we were in it.

 

Pierson-El. Just wow. This kid is going to be a great one.

 

This team didn't quit when I was ready to. But that alone doesn't win games. Bo better get it figured out, because that was yet another one he should have had. They handed us 3 short fields in the first half, and we came away with 0 points. What the Hell? two field goals was the difference between winning and losing. Or one TD.

 

We missed a huge opportunity this week. We're better than this. That's a problem.

Hard to go through progressions when you have no time to do it. We don't have a Manning as our QB man. Our line needs to at least give him one more second to do something other than look at his primary route. Very few times did he have that chance until the 4th quarter.

[knapplc]

 

We have the ability - but maybe not the schemes or the coaches - to get to Indianapolis.

 

We should be favored in every game from here on out.

 

We could lose every game from here on out.

 

Ameer's Heisman campaign is over. And that's sad, because he's worked his tail off to make himself into a great back.

I may never take anything you say seriously ever again.

 

 

That's probably a pretty good idea.

 

But I think the "could" is a reality, whether we like it or not. I also think it's probably better to focus on the line immediately above the bolded line there, because while I think the bold is possible, the line above is far more probable.