49

[huskerfan92]

Screw creativity in the run game. To hell with that. We move the goal posts every week around here.

 

We should be able to line up and move the ball more than two yards. Period.

 

38 times is more than ample opporuntiy for the guys to find a rhythym and establish some dominance.

 

That's never going to happen with this team. We've shown all season we can't run the ball up the gut.....at least not with Newby. Jano can run up the middle, but of course the coaches only ran it with him twice.

[lo country]

 

We ran the ball 38 times.

 

Why don't we just admit that the problem is not how much we passed or how much we ran, but more so how ineffective we seem to be at both. We seem to fail at the worst times.

 

We also throw the ball in some baffling spots. I don't like the pass on first down, and I don't like the pass on anything 3rd and 3 or less. Flip side of the coin is, Nebraska can only average 2 yards a carry, so Langs is in a tough spot.

 

Tommy had 291 yards passing but still looks very poor at times. Numbers don't tell the whole story there, he made some good choices and some bad ones. That pick six was ridiculously stupid. Still, if Tommy's receivers catch a few more passes the game probably goes the other way. 9 drops by seven receivers is the stat I heard. That's just plain bad.

 

The numbers don't lie in the run game. 38 rushes for 82 yards. This game was lost in that stat right there. More than anywhere else. This team will either decide to get a little more aggresive in the trenches, or they won't. Plain and simple. The coaches gave them more than enough opportunities to establish something on the ground.

Good post. It would be nice if it was just as simple as "run the ball more", but that just isn't the case. We all forget how many times we were just stuffed on the run.

 

Is Newby really the best RB we have? What about a reverse. 2 back sets Power, true bubble screens with trips on one side. We did nothing, but send Newby into the line time and time again to be tackled by the first person he hit. Even if it was our OL.

 

Watching more games, starting FBS backs hit the hole with authority. The get YAC. Newly probably has gotten none. He isn't Rex or AA or Jano or Oz.

 

You can't run one time and then pass Why can't we run several times in a row. Lok at the runs that worked for good yards. TA on the option. TA on the PA pass that he pulled down and ran. Cross with Jano leading. The play calling sucks. I give two sh!ts about we "ran it 38 times". 30 of those are about as successful as the crappy pass statistics.

 

Frustration not aimed at the posters, but the play calling is even more baffling than Beck. Langs has no idea what to or how to call a run first game.

 

IMO, with a QB like TA, if the run game gets going, safeties have to come into the box. This leaves no safety help over the top, receivers in on on one battles, allows the screens better results as the safties are in the box not over the top to help come up on the screen etc.... Langs just doesn't get it.

[Enhance]

It seemed like whenever we did get a nice 4-6 yards on the ground there was no attempt to build on it. We just started singing it around for no good reason.

 

Anything more than 25 pass attempts is usually too many pass attempts. Counting the 2 sacks, Langsderp dialed up 51 pass plays. That's filthy.

This is pretty critical. I know some people are saying that the numbers don't tell the whole story and they're right, they don't.

 

But, Tommy Armstrong is NOT a 49 pass-attempts-per-game quarterback. He's just not.

 

We left 25 plays on the field today that amounted to nothing. 25 incomplete passes. 27 if you count the sacks. That's 1/3 of our opportunities that could've been used elsewhere.

 

In this case, the numbers do tell most of the story. This is who Armstrong is. If he is going to be our quarterback then we are using the wrong philosophy.

[True2tRA]

I'd like to see Tommy throw less as well, but if the running game isn't working I'm not sure what these coaches are supposed to do.

 

I don't understand the fascination with Newby. He's not the best back on this team in my uninformed opinion. I'd like to see some other backs getting more opportunities.

[lo country]

I'd like to see Tommy throw less as well, but if the running game isn't working I'm not sure what these coaches are supposed to do.

 

I don't understand the fascination with Newby. He's not the best back on this team in my uninformed opinion. I'd like to see some other backs getting more opportunities.

A to the men.

[gobiggergoredder]

 

2.16

 

Nebraska's yards per carry.

 

Wisconsin was struggling to run the ball against us, then was able to wear us out in the 4th quarter. All it takes is a couple of big runs to boost that average. Also we kept calling runs up the middle, when our strength is the outside run. I don't believe I saw a single stretch play all game

 

You have to score points when your defense gives them up. Your plan works great when you play shut down D.

[pigskin barnyard mcgiggles]

"The reamergance of Imani cross". What !!! 7 carries for 14 yards and 6 came on one play. At one point he had 4 carries for -2 yards. He may have played but there was no reamergance from Imani

[Enhance]

I'd like to see Tommy throw less as well, but if the running game isn't working I'm not sure what these coaches are supposed to do.

 

I don't understand the fascination with Newby. He's not the best back on this team in my uninformed opinion. I'd like to see some other backs getting more opportunities.

This is kind of where I'm at, as well. 38 attempts for 2.2 YPC is not ever going to cut it here. But, it's hard for me to say the running game isn't working when I believe our approach to running is more of the issue. As I've stated previously, when you give a guy like Jano only 2 carries, Imani 7 carries (when he's been virtually non-existent this season), and completely ignore Ozigbo, what's the philosophy? What are you trying to accomplish? Why is Imani in the game running zone plays (which he hasn't been brilliant at)?

 

And then to piggy back off your comment about Newby, I'm with you and it's confusing. They clearly felt at times in the past it was necessary to give other opportunities (see Ozigbo at Illinois). In fairness, I do believe our o-line struggled today, and Newby had a great game last week, but he once again was not a playmaker on Saturday.

 

I would gladly exchange 10-15 of the pass plays that fell incomplete today for some runs that maybe only net 2-3 yards. Anywhere from 20 all the way up to 45 extra yards that could've made a difference or at least put us in better positions on some 3rd down plays.

[Savage Husker]

i wonder what could've happened if we pounded with Jano, Cross and Ozigbo to wear down the NW LBs and DL, then slash them with Tommy and Newby,

[lo country]

i wonder what could've happened if we pounded with Jano, Cross and Ozigbo to wear down the NW LBs and DL, then slash them with Tommy and Newby,

We'd have won. Had over 200 yards on the ground and be .500 instead of 3-5....... There is absolutely no method to the way the running game is called or used. Boggling to say the least.

[Saunders]

Have we run a toss play this year?

[pigskin barnyard mcgiggles]

Have we run a toss play this year?

This would require "out of the box thinking". I think that's a little to much for the coaches to Handle. Then again that play might be in the "other 50% of plays" they have not used yet. Cause the 50% they are using now work extremely good.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

In the first half:

 

Nebraska's starting field position was their own 35 yard line. Exclude the boneheaded decision by Stevenson to run backwards on a kickoff return which started them at their own 9, and their average starting field position in the first half was their own 39 yard line. They had to go about 31 yards, just 3 first downs, in order to get into field goal range for Drew Brown.

 

Instead, we did this:

 

NEB 48: 9 plays, 26 yards: 4 runs, 10 yards, 4 passes, 2 completions, 16 yards--Field Goal

NEB 24: 8 plays, 38 yards: 2 runs, 5 yards, 6 passes, 4 completions, 40 yards--Punt

NEB 45: 3 plays, 7 yards: 1 run, 7 yards, 2 passes, 0 completions, 0 yards--Punt

NEB 37: 3 plays, 8 yards: 2 runs, 8 yards, 1 pass, 0 completions, 0 yards--Punt (This was the drive where Newby got 9 yards on 1st down and then we didn't run it up the middle like any other f'ing team would do on either 2nd or 3rd down)

NW 47: 6 plays, 18 yards: 3 runs, 13 yards, 3 passes, 1 completion, 5 yards--NW Pick Six

NEB 25: 13 plays, 75 yards: 6 runs, 2 yards, 7 passes, 3 completions, 38 yards--Touchdown (This is the drive where we though running outside with Cross was good--it wasn't, we lost 6 yards)

 

Thanks to that wonderful interception, Nebraska gained just 3 points on NW. Northwestern, on the other hand, started their drives on their own 20, which meant that they had to go about 50 yards (5 first downs) in order to get into field goal range. They got ONE FIRST DOWN in those 7 drives. The Huskers allowed Thorsen to scramble on a broken play for 68 yards (pretty much all of NW's first half offense) en route to a TD, but the Huskers got two points back on a safety before allowing Thorsen to again scramble for a big play setting up a FG right before halftime.

 

Northwestern with far worse field position, netted 8 points on Nebraska. That's where the game was lost, because the field position battle was more even in the second half.

 

You simply cannot do f#*k all with such an advantage in field position.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Have we run a toss play this year?

 

If we did we probably ran it with Imani Cross because that makes sense.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

i wonder what could've happened if we pounded with Jano, Cross and Ozigbo to wear down the NW LBs and DL, then slash them with Tommy and Newby,

 

You mean do exactly what Michigan and Iowa did? Why would we do that?!

 

Against Northwestern, Michigan threw it 23 times and ran it 46 times. NINE PLAYERS ran the ball for Michigan. Wolverines won 38-0.

Against Northwestern, Iowa threw it 27 times and ran it 51 times. FIVE PLAYERS ran the ball for Iowa. Iowa won 40-10.

 

Something else I'd also be curious to see is how many times Michigan and Iowa had their FB on the field and used him as a run blocker.