What is most to blame for Nebraska's two losses?

[dwightschrute]

i have always stated it is going to take longer than some husker fans want to believe---at least a couple of recruiting classes. plus, won't be shocked if there is some more attrition after the season. would love to be proven wrong, but...GBR!

[StPaulHusker]

2 minutes ago, BIGREDIOWAN said:

To me it comes down to two things: 1. Turnovers and 2. Penalties. These two things have been a problem at Nebraska for YEARS now and always seem to hang around and won't go away no matter who the coach has been recently. I can't remember if those were issues with Callahan when he was here, but they've been issues since the Pelini regime. I was expecting those to be cleared up more than they are at this point, but it seems like the team resorts back to what it's done in the past during stressful situations. It's going to take ALOT of reps to break this muscle memory fixation the Huskers seem to have for penalties and turnovers. 

 

Sports-reference.com has season stats for comparison on the penalties and TO's.  Only goes as far back as 2000:

 

UCF had 94 and 109 penalties in the 2 years that Frost coached there. We are on pace for 115 this year.  Obviously still early. 

Riley's 3 year average:  81 per season.  Highest was 94

Pelini's 7 year average:  90 per season.  Highest was 109.  Had 100+ penalties in a season 2 times

Callahans 4 year average:  79 per season.  Highest was 89

Solich 00-03 average:  79 per season.  Highest was 89

 

UCF had 25 and 15 TO's in Frost's 2 years.  We have 6 so far in 2 games this year

Riley 3 year average:  20.  High was 27

Pelini 7 year average:  26.  High was 35

Callahan 4 year average:  28.  High was 33

Solich 4 year:  23.  High was 25

[TGHusker]

Regardless of all of the issues sited above - poor time mgmt, preparedness, weather, etc - we are basically 2 plays from being 2-0.  Proper execution (stop dropping TD passes and stop the penalties) keeps us from talking boastfully on how we will march into Michigan and beat them.  Now coach Frost has to convince his team that they are a  2-0 team outside of the score clock and not a 0-2 looking desperately for a win.

[StPaulHusker]

6 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

Regardless of all of the issues sited above - poor time mgmt, preparedness, weather, etc - we are basically 2 plays from being 2-0.  Proper execution (stop dropping TD passes and stop the penalties) keeps us from talking boastfully on how we will march into Michigan and beat them.  Now coach Frost has to convince his team that they are a  2-0 team outside of the score clock and not a 0-2 looking desperately for a win.

Colorado marched down the field in the 4th quarter on a 7 play 77 yard drive for a TD.  We aren't 2 plays from being 2-0

[everybody knows my name]

Everybody is overanalyzing the issue.  The reason Nebraska has two losses is because they scored fewer points than their opponents twice.

[Danny Bateman]

Ultimately I think it's just growing pains in a new system, so my ultimate answer is just going to be inexperience. Two QBs who'd never played a down in college started our first two games. I'm not surprised to see sloppy and/or outright poor play from them at times. Martinez in particular flashed some really good moments. Bunch played about as good as I'd expect him to given the circumstances. 

 

I think there's probably some in the program who expected Frost to show up and fix everything. That with his awesome track record, we'd steamroll through our noncon schedule undefeated. If players were expecting that, I hope two games have gotten their heads screwed on straight about how much work needs to happen. 

 

I was super disappointed in the play of the OL in game #2. I expect better than that especially with 3 RS seniors on the interior. On BRO, they suggested switching Farmer to center. I'm intrigued if that would actually help - I'd have to go back and watch tape to see if Conrad has been ineffective.

 

And yes, the unforced errors are so frustrating. I was hoping you'd see better ball security from someone like Stoll who's been here 3 years already. I hate the turnovers from A-Mart and Washington, but they're true freshman, so again I kind of expected them. The late hit ejection on Barry was an atrociously stupid decision on his part. No reason to give that guy a shot when he's already down. To me, arguing shoulder vs. helmet doesn't really matter because he should've known better anyway. A RS junior shouldn't be making that mistake. But hell, Gerry made those same dumb mistakes as a Senior. I hated the call on Reed in the first game, but that's the rule, and it likely cost us the game.

 

Things will get better. This is just a mostly young team making dumb mistakes. Frost will clean them up because if he doesn't we won't win. Simple as that. 

 

[secretasianman]

Turnovers, penalties, coaching strategy and the quality of depth at QB. 

 

Flip those three things and this team is undefeated at this point. 

 

Also- I’m tired of reading about the Akron excuse and not having a chance to fine tune things — you gotta be ready to play anytime, any opponent.  

[Undone]

Super abbreviated version:

 

-I think we lost to Colorado mainly because of turnovers.

 

-I think we lost to Troy mainly because of terrible special teams.

[MichiganDad3]

It is the Solich curse. Lightening eliminated our tune up game. Our best receiver drops in East TD that would have sealed the win. Then we lose our starting QB after the backup quit. We need a committee to create ba plan to end the curse.

[4skers89]

29 minutes ago, everybody knows my name said:

Everybody is overanalyzing the issue.  The reason Nebraska has two losses is because they scored fewer points than their opponents twice.

Did the gopher tell you this?

[Mavric]

7 minutes ago, secretasianman said:

Also- I’m tired of reading about the Akron excuse and not having a chance to fine tune things — you gotta be ready to play anytime, any opponent.  

 

Generally I agree.

 

But I do think a little latitude can be given in this case because a lot of the big mistakes are being made by guys who are seeing their first game action.  I think it's possible that with a bit more experience they cut back on those big mistakes.

 

Off the top of my head:

Colorado - Bell fumbles on our first possession - he obviously has JUCO experience but it was still his first time on the big stage

Colorado - Martinez fumbles - pretty unlucky more than anything for us but it was still early in his career

Colorado - Martinez interception

Colorado - Reed personal foul - Reed has played a decent amount but hasn't been a regular at safety and probably doesn't play as much if AWilliams is healthy

Colorado - Bunch doesn't even give Morgan a chance on two throws to the end zone at the end of the game

 

Troy - Bunch two interceptions

Troy - Bunch takes sacks instead of throwing the ball away

Troy - Stoll fumbles 

Troy - Cam Taylor misses the first tackle on the punt return TD and a couple other guys who don't play a lot have a chance as well (#30 I think was one)

 

Mike Williams has also had some bad plays with missing blocks and holding penalties in both games.

We haven't tried to push the ball down the field much in the passing game.  Given how many deep shots they took at UCF last year I would think that has to be due to the inexperience of our QBs, especially not really trusting Bunch.

[teachercd]

The more I think about it...the more I think that this team is 3-0 (assuming the Akron game got played) just if Amart didn't get hurt.

 

Now...they would be 3-0 but Amart would be covering up a lot of problems just because of his talent, that is not a bad thing, we see that all the time.  

 

Crazy how one injury can change things so quickly.

[Saunders]

50 minutes ago, StPaulHusker said:

Colorado marched down the field in the 4th quarter on a 7 play 77 yard drive for a TD.  We aren't 2 plays from being 2-0

Colorado needed 2 fumbles (anywhere from a 14-28 point swing), a bad pick, a drop by Stanley in the endzone, a drop by JD on 3rd down, a penalty by Reed on 3rd down, our starting QB getting injured, and an overthrow by Bunch in the end to win the game. If any single one of those plays goes differently, Nebraska almost assuredly wins.

[StPaulHusker]

3 minutes ago, Saunders said:

Colorado needed 2 fumbles (anywhere from a 14-28 point swing), a bad pick, a drop by Stanley in the endzone, a drop by JD on 3rd down, a penalty by Reed on 3rd down, our starting QB getting injured, and an overthrow by Bunch in the end to win the game. If any single one of those plays goes differently, Nebraska almost assuredly wins.

 

But they didn't.  

[ladyhawke]

I said other because......

Our players are learning a completely new scheme. 

Many of our players are young and have never played st this level before

Many of the veteran players were totally out of shape when Scott & Co. got here. 

These are not excuses-this us the reality of what is goIng on with this team and their coaches. 

At the end of the day our team is simply not ready for a Prime Time yet.  But there is amazing potential here and they WILL get there.  GBR!