*** 2019 Game 2 "Expert" Picks: Nebraska at Colorado ***

[DefenderAO]

Just now, Nebfanatic said:

Ehhhh, not really that true. Especially the closer you get to where the play is going. If you run a zone read and both tackles think its going their way and leave both ends unblocked, only 1 person messed up and that destroys the whole play.

Absolutely; there are key components for each play. Walters erroneously mentioned 11 needing to be in concert. 

 

You can count dozens of plays plays in a game where a key block is missed, wrong route run...great teams make a play. 

 

UCF did it in their undefeated season. Missed weakside block but athletes prevailed. 

 

To state an offense won’t work if all 11 are not in complete concert is lazy. If he meant that as a solidarity challenge to the team, I get it. But it is not true. 

 

[RedDenver]

I said this in the prediction contest thread, but I'll say it again here.

 

Huskers are going to exorcise the demons of 2001.

Huskers 63

Buffs 35

[Nebfanatic]

1 minute ago, DefenderAO said:

Absolutely; there are key components for each play. Walters erroneously mentioned 11 needing to be in concert. 

 

You can count dozens of plays plays in a game where a key block is missed, wrong route run...great teams make a play. 

 

UCF did it in their undefeated season. Missed weakside block but athletes prevailed. 

 

To state an offense won’t work if all 11 are not in complete concert is lazy. If he meant that as a solidarity challenge to the team, I get it. But it is not true. 

 

It won't work how they want it to thats for sure. Walters knows more about football than you do I'm sure, I'll listen to him.

[ZRod]

26 minutes ago, DefenderAO said:

You’re kidding, right?  You must be. Because absolutely untrue that offensive success (as a trend, not even per play) is dependent upon a mistake-free, confluence of eleven people making the right or perfect play.  

 

 

 

Dude, what are you talking about??? You miss a block or don't hold it long enough at any point, anywhere in the play and a good defensive athlete is going to stuff it. Granted the severity of the mistake reduces the farther you get from the ball/playside, but the fact remains that if you don't drive a guy off the ball or even block him the play is dead. If you're lucky Rex or Ameer is bailing you out through sheer will, but you have to do your job!

 

Plays are designed to account for every man on the defense, everybody has to do their job for a play to work as designed.

[knapplc]

Here's Big Ten writer for the Chicago Tribune, Teddy Greenstein's prediction:

 

 

Quote

 

Nebraska (minus 3½) at Colorado

2:30 p.m., FOX-32

For what it’s worth, The Gold Sheet handicappers love Nebraska and forecast a 16-point revenge win. My first instinct was to take the home ‘dog, but I’ll put some faith in Adrian Martinez & Co. and look for a breakout performance from the Huskers.

 

 

[CapoValley]

22 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

I said this in the prediction contest thread, but I'll say it again here.

 

Huskers are going to exorcise the demons of 2001.

Huskers 63

Buffs 35

One more point to truly kill the curse. I like it. 

[brophog]

1 hour ago, teachercd said:

Line is back to -4.5 now...

 

I will bet the game but this is just a "toss money on it since I love the Huskers" bet,

 

For the non rooting general public it’s a tough game to bet. All 6 units (o/d/st) are very explosive, for good and bad. The kind of game that can go from 3 points to 3 TDs instantly. Has bad beat written all over it.

[Undone]

Started watching back through the 40 minute version of the game on YouTube (the people that put those out there are saints). People have already mentioned this several times but Adrian was hopping up for snaps that he didn't need to actually jump for, but they were still too high much of the time. 

 

It did seem to measurably hurt the rhythm of so many plays because that split second where he leaves his feet are crucial. However I've also noticed that he seems to like to do it anyway, kind of as a way to plant his feet, sometimes for the purpose of shoulder motion to make a fake. I noticed that last year a bit also. 

 

If I had to choose, I'd rather the snaps be on the lower side than the higher side. Hopefully this gets sorted out in Boulder and Adrian can find a first half rhythm. There were a lot of third quarters where our offense went on a tear, but there were a lot of second quarters that were really bad on offense. 

 

I look at it this way: I think we have the pieces on offense to average 10 points per quarter. Hope to see that on Saturday.

 

[GSG]

@Saunders I dunno if you have any interest in posting these picks

 

 

[ZRod]

9 minutes ago, Undone said:

Started watching back through the 40 minute version of the game on YouTube (the people that put those out there are saints). People have already mentioned this several times but Adrian was hopping up for snaps that he didn't need to actually jump for, but they were still too high much of the time. 

 

It did seem to measurably hurt the rhythm of so many plays because that split second where he leaves his feet are crucial. However I've also noticed that he seems to like to do it anyway, kind of as a way to plant his feet, sometimes for the purpose of shoulder motion to make a fake. I noticed that last year a bit also. 

 

If I had to choose, I'd rather the snaps be on the lower side than the higher side. Hopefully this gets sorted out in Boulder and Adrian can find a first half rhythm. There were a lot of third quarters where our offense went on a tear, but there were a lot of second quarters that were really bad on offense. 

 

I look at it this way: I think we have the pieces on offense to average 10 points per quarter. Hope to see that on Saturday.

After I rewatched it seems like the major issue on offense throughout the game  (high snaps aside) was OL technique. Jurgens especially was firing off the ball too high and slow on run plays, and he was catching guys instead of driving them with his feet. Also there was some miscommunication early on about blocking assignments that let defenders get free. All very correctable.

 

In the backfield Mills misread a few blocks, and Adrian made a few bad reads too. All in all everything is fixable, but every time we struggled it was an us thing.

 

I'm a little relieved that we weren't getting out muscled on the line, but it's concerning that basic OL technique is so rusty.

[WyoHusker56]

20 minutes ago, Undone said:

Started watching back through the 40 minute version of the game on YouTube (the people that put those out there are saints). People have already mentioned this several times but Adrian was hopping up for snaps that he didn't need to actually jump for, but they were still too high much of the time. 

 

It did seem to measurably hurt the rhythm of so many plays because that split second where he leaves his feet are crucial. However I've also noticed that he seems to like to do it anyway, kind of as a way to plant his feet, sometimes for the purpose of shoulder motion to make a fake. I noticed that last year a bit also. 

 

If I had to choose, I'd rather the snaps be on the lower side than the higher side. Hopefully this gets sorted out in Boulder and Adrian can find a first half rhythm. There were a lot of third quarters where our offense went on a tear, but there were a lot of second quarters that were really bad on offense. 

 

I look at it this way: I think we have the pieces on offense to average 10 points per quarter. Hope to see that on Saturday.

 

 

Ya I went back and watched a few games from last year just to see what was normal for him. He does have a small hop often to set his feet, but it was a lot more exaggerated on Saturday because of the bad snaps. There was several run plays I noticed where he was landing back on his feet as he was reaching the ball out to the RB. Even in the second half with Farniok in there you can tell his hop is less pronounced.

 

I played center for 2 years in high school and we switched to shotgun snaps my second season. My first game was awful because suddenly I had to snap well and then make a block/play and I focused on the block not the snap. Once I settled in it got better and became more automatic. I think Cam will settle in well and the offense will improve significantly from that alone.

[Undone]

16 minutes ago, ZRod said:

In the backfield Mills misread a few blocks, and Adrian made a few bad reads too. All in all everything is fixable, but every time we struggled it was an us thing.

 

Yeah I pretty much said over and over while I watched the first half handoff plays, "Mo would have made a much bigger gain than that."

 

No matter what anybody says, we're kind of missing Ziggy right now. I do have faith that Held can get Mills right, though. I like the combo of the bigger, stronger back along with having Mo in there and we have that with Mills...but he's got to read his blocks on those zone plays.

[ZRod]

I think Mills will be just fine. It's his first game. Like Held said he needs to learn to play within himself and not try to do too much. He's got to know that he can't bounce a read play to the outside where the read man is unblocked. Just put your shoulder down and truck it up the middle to get what you can, and tell the OL to do their job.

[brophog]

3 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

Yeah I pretty much said over and over while I watched the first half handoff plays, "Mo would have made a much bigger gain than that."

 

No matter what anybody says, we're kind of missing Ziggy right now. I do have faith that Held can get Mills right, though. I like the combo of the bigger, stronger back along with having Mo in there and we have that with Mills...but he's got to read his blocks on those zone plays.

 

Held did a good job Wednesday saying what needs to be said, but not directly calling guys out. We can do the math ourselves, if Adrian gets carries and Robinson gets some carries it’s hard to support 3 RBs....and he’s really high on Rahmir. 

[brophog]

17 hours ago, brophog said:

I dont think there is a ton to take away from last week’s game, but I was impressed with how well organized Colorado was in game 1 with a new coach.

 

This was Frost’s first takeaway, too. Practically verbatim.