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Your 2021 Nebraska Cornhuskers


Mavric

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I think last year's numbers look worse than they are. Fewer games, and most of the differnce was OSU (-25 in the second half) and Penn State (-14). OSU is just what happens when you're trying to stick with a far superior team - eventually it breaks and they run away. 2019 we were only -3 against OSU in the 2nd half, which is what happens when you're getting blown out 38-0 at the half. We definitely need to improve in the second half, especially based on the claims from the weight room we should be wearing teams out. But I don't think it's gotten much worse despite the number. 

 

Game by game:

OSU 17-52, -25 2nd half differential - again, stuck close at half to a team way better than us. It was going to break at some point

NW 13-21, -14 2nd half. Fits the narrative, but we moved the ball and stopped them at similar rates - 3 2nd half drives made it to scoring range, 0 points

PSU 30-23, -14 2nd half. We switched to grind it out/prevent mode which almost lost us the game. IMO that decision had a lot to do with not trusting LMC to throw.

Illinois 23-41, even 2nd half. Game was a disaster, not much to see.

Iowa 20-26, -6 2nd half. This one was tough. We struggled moving the ball but that was a great defense - a (BS) holding call and a sack fumble ruined our best offensive chances. On D, the field goals we gave up were after a short punt and a fumbled punt return. 

Purdue 37-27, -4 second half. Gave up a somewhat fluky 89 yard TD, otherwise pretty much the same as the first half

Minnesota 17-24, -4 2nd half. Martinez couldn't throw with his shoulder and LMC wasted his chance. We were still in a good spot until we fumbled and they turned it into a TD

Rutgers, 28-21, +14 2nd half. We stopped turning it over and started winning.

 

So I guess I'm jumping to the assumption that the concern is specifically poor 2nd half coaching adjustments, and I don't buy that really. I am way too optimistic in general, but I don't have to squint to see reasons other than coaching that we faltered. Bad matchup (OSU), Turnovers (NW, Iowa, Minnesota), Penalties (Iowa) are all much bigger concerns to me than 2nd half gameplans. The one I do put squarely on the coaching adjustments is Penn State, and I don't think they'll make the call to try and sit on a lead again.

 

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@Husker in WI - good post, +1.

 

I can't necessarily sit here and say that "we shoulda beat Iowa" just in general because they're actually a good team. But CTB let a punt bounce off his pads in the second half that they recovered, and we had a linemen run free to force a fumble on Martinez. These are things we should stop doing, and we probably really should have won that one.

 

Minnesota: We absolutely should have won that game. Not even really worth listing all of the reasons why.

 

If that had brought us to 5 conference wins instead of 3, and COVID hadn't happened and we would have played Central Michigan & South Dakota State it would have been a 7-5 season.

 

We are extremely close to not being a dumpster fire team. If we didn't have fumbling problems & special teams problems I would believe we are actually better than every team in the West not named Wisconsin. But I don't really have a good feeling about those two issues being significantly resolved this year. I think we'll be pretty lucky to get to 7-5.

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6 hours ago, Undone said:

@Husker in WI - good post, +1.

 

I can't necessarily sit here and say that "we shoulda beat Iowa" just in general because they're actually a good team. But CTB let a punt bounce off his pads in the second half that they recovered, and we had a linemen run free to force a fumble on Martinez. These are things we should stop doing, and we probably really should have won that one.

 

Minnesota: We absolutely should have won that game. Not even really worth listing all of the reasons why.

 

If that had brought us to 5 conference wins instead of 3, and COVID hadn't happened and we would have played Central Michigan & South Dakota State it would have been a 7-5 season.

 

We are extremely close to not being a dumpster fire team. If we didn't have fumbling problems & special teams problems I would believe we are actually better than every team in the West not named Wisconsin. But I don't really have a good feeling about those two issues being significantly resolved this year. I think we'll be pretty lucky to get to 7-5.

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On 8/24/2021 at 10:57 PM, ColoradoHusk said:

And they won't be penalized one bit by the CFP committee, even with 1 loss. 

Disagree. If we lose to UGA, then it won't matter in their eyes, but any other loss (other than a potential ACC Champ loss to UNC or Miami if they're ranked high) will penalize us. We've been fortunate in the past to have other teams losing when we did.

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2 minutes ago, Mavric said:

Word is Prochazka continues to progress quickly.  So much so that they are considering starting him and moving Benhart inside.

Wow that is awesome, he sure looks the part and Benhart would be a behemoth inside.  This is such a promising group of young lineman if we can develop them.  

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