When 4-8 isn't the same thing as 4-8

[RedDenver]

10 hours ago, The Dude said:

I'm not sure that's exactly true.  Ozigbo averaged 4.1 yards per carry and Washington averaged 6.3.

 

4.1 rushing may not be great, but it's certainly decent against that defense.

 

3.9 yards per pass is awful, and we still tried it nearly 40 times.

 

Can't complain too much since we won, but I don't think it's suddenly controversial to suggest trying to air it out that much in those conditions is kind of silly.

The Huskers ran 30 times for 103 yards, which is 3.43 ypc, and threw 37 times for 145 yards, which is 3.92 ypa. link

 

Neither running nor passing were working particularly well with the final stats showing passing to have a slight edge. Breakdown by quarter to tell you what the stats were telling our coaches as the game went on:

1st Quarter: 7 rushes for 40 yards (5.71 ypc) and 11 passes for 37 yards (3.36 ypa)

2nd Quarter: 7 rushes for 18 yards (2.57 ypc) and 11 passes for 37 yards (3.36 ypa)

3rd Quarter: 5 rushes for 13 yards (2.6 ypc) and 4 passes for 27 (6.75 ypa)

4th Quarter: 11 rushes for 32 yards (2.91 ypc) and 11 passes for 44 yards (4 ypa)

 

There's not much there to say we should have been running the ball more.

 

Also of note is that Washington only had 3 carries for 19 yards so his ypc is a small sample size. (Did he get hurt in that game? I can't remember.)

[hskrfan4life]

On 12/31/2018 at 12:37 PM, Landlord said:

 

 

sure, defense against a completely inept offense.

The way the defense looked that isn't an excuse, we have made bad teams look good historically.

[Undone]

On 12/31/2018 at 5:06 AM, The Dude said:

 

I think if both playcallers would have adjusted to the weather both teams would have put up more points.  Truly maddening game to watch.

 

Ha, you know what's so funny about both of our comments here, The Dude? Since then, Oregon & Michigan State played their bowl game in warm weather and the score wound up being 7-6.

LOL.

[Saunders]

Huskers finished 103rd in the final 2017 S&P+ ratings.

 

Huskers finished 56th in the final* 2018 S&P+ ratings.

 

It's not great, but it's better.

[Enhance]

The MSU game is difficult to digest and it's one of those games where you just have to find a way to win. I don't think we can take a lot away from it, especially in terms of what we could've done to perform better offensively. It was frigid, snowy and gusty. Anybody who plays football will tell you that has a way of impacting so many different facets of the game.

 

The matchups were also difficult. Stout defense against explosive offense. Bad offense against bad defense. Better weather likely means both teams find more success offensively, though I would've given Nebraska the edge just because of how bad MSU's offense was.

 

Here's a shocking stat - over the last seven games of the season, MSU averaged 12.3 PPG. For comparison, Nebraska's '09 offense in their last seven games averaged 21.6 PPG. And we thought our '09 offense was bad...

[ColoradoHusk]

10 minutes ago, Enhance said:

The MSU game is difficult to digest and it's one of those games where you just have to find a way to win. I don't think we can take a lot away from it, especially in terms of what we could've done to perform better offensively. It was frigid, snowy and gusty. Anybody who plays football will tell you that has a way of impacting so many different facets of the game.

 

The matchups were also difficult. Stout defense against explosive offense. Bad offense against bad defense. Better weather likely means both teams find more success offensively, though I would've given Nebraska the edge just because of how bad MSU's offense was.

 

Here's a shocking stat - over the last seven games of the season, MSU averaged 12.3 PPG. For comparison, Nebraska's '09 offense in their last seven games averaged 21.6 PPG. And we thought our '09 offense was bad...

And many NU fans wanted past coaches to be modeled after Dantonio and Michigan State.

[Enhance]

1 hour ago, ColoradoHusk said:

And many NU fans wanted past coaches to be modeled after Dantonio and Michigan State. 

At the time, you might've seen me make that argument. I thought their brand of offense when we joined the B1G was well suited for our needs, our recruiting capabilities and our tradition. Frost helped convince me otherwise this year.

 

But, truth be told, I still have minor concerns about Frost's offense and how consistently it will perform in the cold/dreary months in the midwest vs. B1G competition. If anybody can operate a spread here, it's Frost, but I still have questions.

 

MSU's offensive talent has dropped dramatically in the last several years (especially at QB) and I don't know what has happened with their coaching. It's not good.

[TheSker]

3 minutes ago, Enhance said:

At the time, you might've seen me make that argument. I thought their brand of offense when we joined the B1G was well suited for our needs, our recruiting capabilities and our tradition. Frost helped convince me otherwise this year.

 

But, truth be told, I still have minor concerns about Frost's offense and how consistently it will perform in the cold/dreary months in the midwest vs. B1G competition. If anybody can operate a spread here, it's Frost, but I still have questions.

 

MSU's problem is their offensive talent has dropped dramatically in the last several years (especially at QB) and I don't know what's happened with their coaching. It's not good.

The B1G games were among our better performances under Frost.

 

Iowa dominated the LOS and it still came down to a FG.

[Enhance]

Just now, TheSker said:

The B1G games were among our better performances under Frost.

True, and things should only improve as overall depth gets better and AM develops.

 

Iowa dominated the LOS and it still came down to a FG.

This is what it boils down to for me. Nebraska's trench play still isn't good enough on both sides of the ball. I'm going to be somewhat skeptical and pessimistic until that improves. To reiterate, I have more confidence than I do skepticism, but the doubt lingers.

[Husker in WI]

Better in the trenches would help for sure. Right now I think we have to run the full offense to be a good offense, and against Michigan and MSU (and to some degree Troy and Iowa) we couldn't throw like we wanted. I'm still not sure how much of the struggles against MSU should be attributed to their defense or the weather, but if our line play improves enough I think we can adjust and be successful pounding the ball. Those probably won't be games where we put up 50 points, but we won't have to gamble on passes as much.

[Saunders]

3 hours ago, Enhance said:

True, and things should only improve as overall depth gets better and AM develops.

 

 

 

This is what it boils down to for me. Nebraska's trench play still isn't good enough on both sides of the ball. I'm going to be somewhat skeptical and pessimistic until that improves. To reiterate, I have more confidence than I do skepticism, but the doubt lingers.

I'm kinda in the same boat just, well, because I'm used to getting burned.

[Mavric]

But Riley really wanted to run the ball.  He was just using the pass to set up the run.

 

 

[ColoradoHusk]

13 minutes ago, Mavric said:

But Riley really wanted to run the ball.  He was just using the pass to set up the run.

 

 

The lack of creativity in Riley’s run game was mind-numbing. 

[brophog]

I would have honestly been fine with his terrible run game if he’d just come in, got a QB, and built the program around that QB . Using the run game as more or less a constraint play isn’t such a bad thing.

 

But that would have meant there was some kind of plan, and that just wasn’t something we ever saw.

[brophog]

On 1/3/2019 at 1:33 PM, Enhance said:

But, truth be told, I still have minor concerns about Frost's offense and how consistently it will perform in the cold/dreary months in the midwest vs. B1G competition. If anybody can operate a spread here, it's Frost, but I still have questions.

 

We got the trailer for Frost’s offense, not the full motion picture. Frosh QB, frosh RB who came in late, really only 2 receivers (one of which missed a key stretch), no R receiver, no vertical threat at TE. The line is a work in progress.

 

Down the stretch we began limiting our playbook to quick reads, relying heavily on Martinez’s legs, and pounding with Ozigbo. There’s a reason it wasn’t very good his first year at UCF but phenomenal the second. We will see very little offensive roster turnover the next two years, and these roster issues highlighted have all been addressed, so it’s expected we see the kind of production this offense has historically shown.