ANOTHER Uninspiring Win

[Schu]

Good grief...we won. Yeah there's a lot of room for improvement, but it's a W!!!

 

[Zerotide]

What makes me jealous is seeing other teams from much smaller, less funded schools, that somehow are able to recruit good talent on offense and the QB's put up 200+ passing yards with ease. We have absolutely NO talent at QB... and at a school as big and well funded as Nebraska I don't see how this could happen. It baffles me. No leaders on offense.

 

[wilber24]

I'm not the only one who thinks so.

“We played sloppy football,” Pelini said of his team’s 28-20 win against Colorado on Friday. “We didn’t play to our standards in what we showed out there for four quarters today.”

What is frustrating here is that this team can't put together a consistent, 60-minute effort.

I got crap for complaining about this team's effort after the K-State win, but this was no different.

Underacheivement? Or a lack of talent? Or poor coaching?

who cares, we won, and i am willing to take a sloppy effort next week if we win

 

[Captain Hook]

I get this feeling like all we ask of our offense is to put up SOME points and to not turn the ball over. Our defense is way too good. Ball control is what it's all about right now. And it's boring...but it works.

 

[Paul in WI]

What makes me jealous is seeing other teams from much smaller, less funded schools, that somehow are able to recruit good talent on offense and the QB's put up 200+ passing yards with ease. We have absolutely NO talent at QB... and at a school as big and well funded as Nebraska I don't see how this could happen. It baffles me. No leaders on offense.

That's the thing that has baffled me as well. Take KSU for example: You can't tell me that our athletes on offense aren't better than their athletes. Our coaches should know the level of talent that they have and their strengths and weaknesses. We haven't had any key injuries or transfers that should have made any significant impact on their play--unless you can make an argument that Spano might have been the key to it all. Castille would have helped a little, but not in the passing game where we've struggled. It just doesn't add up and has me at a total loss. Going back to the Devaney years, I've never seen a Nebraska offense as anemic as this one. Thank GOD Pelini got the defense turned around or we'd have a state-wide Jonestown on our hands.

I look forward to a lot of discussion on the offense in the off-season. It will be interesting to see how the staff tries to fix things, but at this point of the season we sort of have to dance with the toothless old broad we brought. I don't think there are any silver bullets that we're going to find between now and December.

 

[Blackdeuce]

We had 217 total yards to Colorado's 403.

We don't seem to have a passing game with the exception of short throws. To me, Lee doesn't look good when throwing down the field.

 

[Tacky]

I'm not the only one who thinks so.

“We played sloppy football,” Pelini said of his team’s 28-20 win against Colorado on Friday. “We didn’t play to our standards in what we showed out there for four quarters today.”

What is frustrating here is that this team can't put together a consistent, 60-minute effort.

I got crap for complaining about this team's effort after the K-State win, but this was no different.

Underacheivement? Or a lack of talent? Or poor coaching?

Our game plan is what make it seem this way - and our game plan is adjusted around the fact that we have lack of talent.

We want to win field position by great punting and great defense. When we finally have them pinned deep, we force them to make a mistake and get a turnover with field position enough that even our offense can get a TD.

After we get a TD our offense's job is to burn time - run run run run until the clock runs out. This is how we have won virtually every game this year (and we lose only the games where we have fallen behind early).

Then if not executed to perfection (offense can't burn time, or D lets them get a few first downs) it seems like our team is completely lackluster.

This style of football depends HEAVILY on Alex and the entire defense - and really offers no room for error

 

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

9 wins. Good milestone. Did they get there in dominating, steamroller fashion? No. But right now you just gotta be thankful to be getting the wins and see how far the team has come in the past two seasons.

No one said winning had to be pretty. I can remember Ohio State and Alabama having plenty of ugly wins over the last few years but all that matters is they are racking up the wins.

Sure some fans got spoiled in the 90's. But the math shows its 12 years since the 97 championship. Teams go through growing pains after they lose an iconic coach. Alabama and Oklahoma are examples there. I think we are also on the right path to getting things fixed.

 

[huskerstuckinmichigan]

i do not know why everyone is so down on our offense, the team has gotten the job done for 5 consecutive games. the offense has seemed to have found an identity. the o-line is getting better. lee made some pretty good passes today. and the rex/helu combo is pretty stout.

I don't consider myself to be down on the offense. They're doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. In many ways they've had the deck stacked against them this season. And they are definitely showing improvement from the middle of the season since we changed our style around to something we could more easily execute. But the fact remains they are still pretty inconsistent and they are definitely the weaker half of the team right now. I think what you see as being "down" on the offense is more people feeling frustrated because the offense was pretty good last year combined with the disparity between our defense this year and the offense. People are also looking ahead to Texas and knowing they are going to have to play better than they have been for us to put enough points up on Texas to win.

We, as a fan base, have really gotten into a rut of demanding improvement every single season in all aspects. Sorry to say that just isn't going to happen with any team, including ours.

Edit - I suppose I should say weakest third of the team, since special teams definitely plays a big part in football.

I completely disagree.

I think the vast majority of NU fans are extremely satisfied with the improvement of the blackshirts these last two years under Carl/Bo and hardly demand even more improvement from them next year (they're #8 in the nation "now").

But no matter how deep you bury your head in the sand there simply is no excuse for our offense falling completely off the cliff this year. It's not like we lost 5 or 6 high NFL draft choices last year from the offense. Sure, we lost some good seniors but who doesn't every year?? I'm sure most fans would have been just fine with a drop off from the nation's #12 to #25 through #40 or something. But #82???

Tell me in 25 years when TO had an offense that bad. Go ahead......

Bo/Carl took over the #112th defense last year and pulled them to #55 in "one" year.

This is bigtime cfb, not the post office or public schools where failure is accepted and ignored. These coaches are paid the big money to "produce", not just hang around.

Well, you asked for it . Yes Osbourne's teams usually scored a lot of points against nobody's or against the little 6 of the old Big Eight. There are also many times that his offenses got schooled by better teams, (and it happened a lot) hense why for many years before the 93-97 run, it was said that Tom couldn't win the big game or that Nebraska was a paper tiger.

84 season, 9-17 loss to Syracuse and a 7-17 loss to OU

85 season 13-17 loss to Florida St. 7-27 loss to OU and a 23-27 loss to Michigan

86 season, 10-20 loss to CU and a 17-20 loss to OU

87 season, 7-17 loss to OU and a 28-31 loss to Florida St.

88 season, 28-41 loss to UCLA and a 3-23 loss to Miami. Had two other very close games this year against OU, won 7-3 and against CU, won 7-0.

89 season, 21-27 loss to CU and a 17-41 loss to Florida St.

90 season, won a close one over Baylor 13-0, 12-27 loss to CU, 10-45 loss to OU, 21-45 loss to Georgia Tech.

91 season, 21-36 loss to Washington, 19-19 tie with CU and 0-22 loss against Miami.

92 season, 14-29 loss to Washington, 10-19 loss to Iowa St. and a 14-27 loss to Florida St.

93 season, the "we refuse to lose" quote started because they won some very close games that year, 14-13 win over UCLA, 21-17 win over CU, 21-20 win over KU, 21-7 win over OU and a 16-18 loss to Florida St. Some games were close and the O didn't always look great, but a win is a win.

94 season, even during this National title run they had some very close games against better competition. 17-6 win against Kansas St. 13-3 win OU and of course the 24-17 win against Miami.

Now, I am a huge Husker fan, but Osbourne teams were known for years to be able to beat up on patsies but choke big time when they played anyone of significance. It was very frustrating to watch as well, again, not every TO team was like the 95 one, some just seem to think that was so. When you look at all these seasons, rarely did the Huskers beat a decent team, most, if not all of there wins came against horrible teams and more often than not they lost to the good ones. It was only when you get into the 93-97 yrs that the Huskers really got crazy good.

I'll ask you a question, what does it matter that you can score 50-70 points against nobody teams, but can rarely ever beat a team with a heartbeat? Granted, this is all old news, my point is, even through all this the Huskers still had 9+ wins a season and Husker nation was usually very happy. We got VERY spoiled by the 93-97 run and now it seems like we will never be happy unless we do that every freakin year.

 

[strigori]

9 wins in back to back seasons. And there is complaining? Did the last 7 years just slip peoples' minds? Sure we all wish every year could be '95 but that just is not the case. In this day of college football take wins anyway you get them. Does Ohio State complain about winning a national championship ugly? Does OU? Hell no, they brag about being tough and being able to win the close game, or just finding a way to win. 9 wins. Chance for 11. No complains from me. Do I wish the offense was better this year? Sure, but that is just not this team's identity, I'll deal with the Holiday Bowl, and hope for the Fiesta.

 

[Big Red Machine]

As bad as this may sound....this years team reminds me of Ohio State. Our defense is strong but our offense and special teams helps us enough to keep points on the board to get wins.

 

[KansasHusker]

As bad as this may sound....this years team reminds me of Ohio State. Our defense is strong but our offense and special teams helps us enough to keep points on the board to get wins.

It's not necessarely a bad thing considering OSU is usually a BCS team every season.

 

[Nexus]

They're saving their "inspirational win" for next weekend. :w00t

 

[REDSTEEL]

i do not know why everyone is so down on our offense, the team has gotten the job done for 5 consecutive games. the offense has seemed to have found an identity. the o-line is getting better. lee made some pretty good passes today. and the rex/helu combo is pretty stout.

I don't consider myself to be down on the offense. They're doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. In many ways they've had the deck stacked against them this season. And they are definitely showing improvement from the middle of the season since we changed our style around to something we could more easily execute. But the fact remains they are still pretty inconsistent and they are definitely the weaker half of the team right now. I think what you see as being "down" on the offense is more people feeling frustrated because the offense was pretty good last year combined with the disparity between our defense this year and the offense. People are also looking ahead to Texas and knowing they are going to have to play better than they have been for us to put enough points up on Texas to win.

We, as a fan base, have really gotten into a rut of demanding improvement every single season in all aspects. Sorry to say that just isn't going to happen with any team, including ours.

Edit - I suppose I should say weakest third of the team, since special teams definitely plays a big part in football.

I completely disagree.

I think the vast majority of NU fans are extremely satisfied with the improvement of the blackshirts these last two years under Carl/Bo and hardly demand even more improvement from them next year (they're #8 in the nation "now").

But no matter how deep you bury your head in the sand there simply is no excuse for our offense falling completely off the cliff this year. It's not like we lost 5 or 6 high NFL draft choices last year from the offense. Sure, we lost some good seniors but who doesn't every year?? I'm sure most fans would have been just fine with a drop off from the nation's #12 to #25 through #40 or something. But #82???

Tell me in 25 years when TO had an offense that bad. Go ahead......

Bo/Carl took over the #112th defense last year and pulled them to #55 in "one" year.

This is bigtime cfb, not the post office or public schools where failure is accepted and ignored. These coaches are paid the big money to "produce", not just hang around.

Well, you asked for it . Yes Osbourne's teams usually scored a lot of points against nobody's or against the little 6 of the old Big Eight. There are also many times that his offenses got schooled by better teams, (and it happened a lot) hense why for many years before the 93-97 run, it was said that Tom couldn't win the big game or that Nebraska was a paper tiger.

84 season, 9-17 loss to Syracuse and a 7-17 loss to OU

85 season 13-17 loss to Florida St. 7-27 loss to OU and a 23-27 loss to Michigan

86 season, 10-20 loss to CU and a 17-20 loss to OU

87 season, 7-17 loss to OU and a 28-31 loss to Florida St.

88 season, 28-41 loss to UCLA and a 3-23 loss to Miami. Had two other very close games this year against OU, won 7-3 and against CU, won 7-0.

89 season, 21-27 loss to CU and a 17-41 loss to Florida St.

90 season, won a close one over Baylor 13-0, 12-27 loss to CU, 10-45 loss to OU, 21-45 loss to Georgia Tech.

91 season, 21-36 loss to Washington, 19-19 tie with CU and 0-22 loss against Miami.

92 season, 14-29 loss to Washington, 10-19 loss to Iowa St. and a 14-27 loss to Florida St.

93 season, the "we refuse to lose" quote started because they won some very close games that year, 14-13 win over UCLA, 21-17 win over CU, 21-20 win over KU, 21-7 win over OU and a 16-18 loss to Florida St. Some games were close and the O didn't always look great, but a win is a win.

94 season, even during this National title run they had some very close games against better competition. 17-6 win against Kansas St. 13-3 win OU and of course the 24-17 win against Miami.

Now, I am a huge Husker fan, but Osbourne teams were known for years to be able to beat up on patsies but choke big time when they played anyone of significance. It was very frustrating to watch as well, again, not every TO team was like the 95 one, some just seem to think that was so. When you look at all these seasons, rarely did the Huskers beat a decent team, most, if not all of there wins came against horrible teams and more often than not they lost to the good ones. It was only when you get into the 93-97 yrs that the Huskers really got crazy good.

I'll ask you a question, what does it matter that you can score 50-70 points against nobody teams, but can rarely ever beat a team with a heartbeat? Granted, this is all old news, my point is, even through all this the Huskers still had 9+ wins a season and Husker nation was usually very happy. We got VERY spoiled by the 93-97 run and now it seems like we will never be happy unless we do that every freakin year.

Thos were a few games a year not the whole year like this year. By the way how many of the those teams were ranked at the end of the year in that list other then Iowa State and probably CU most were probably in the top 25.

1984 WINS

Wyoming 42 - 7

Minnesota 38- 7

UCLA 42- 3

LSU 28- 10 BOWL

1985 WINS

iLLINOIS 52- 25

Oregon 63- 0

Okie state ranked number 5 while nebraska was 9 34- 24

Michigan 23 -27 loss BoWL game Mich ranked 5 while Nu was 7

1986 wins

FSU 34-17 ranked 11 Nebraska 8

Ill 59 - 14

Oregon 48-14

south Carolina 27-24

LSU 30 - 15 BOWL WIN

Utah State 2 - Memorial Stadium 56 - 12 (W)

UCLA 2 3 Memorial Stadium 42 - 33 (W)

Arizona State 2 12 at Tempe, Ariz. 35 - 28 (W)

Oklahoma State 2 12 at Stillwater, Okla. 35 - 0 (W) Ranked 12

Florida State 5 3 at Tempe, Ariz. 28 - 31 (L) tough loss rb fumbled at the goal line and FSU took it all the way for a td.

Didn't look like his teams that you highlighted as struggling those years had problems all year. Sound like the same people who were complaining that OSBORNE couldnt beat the number 3,2,5,2,1,3,1 ranked teams in the 7 consecutive bowls he lost. By the way he was'nt ranked higher then any of his bowl oppnents in that strech. Most of the time he was playing Florida State or Miami in their own home state.

Doesn't look like asking for Nebraska offense to play anyway near the 80's would be asking to much. No ones saying go undefeated every year, but at least have a pulse and this offense has been on life support all year.

I always thought it was Osborne.

 

[huskerstuckinmichigan]

i do not know why everyone is so down on our offense, the team has gotten the job done for 5 consecutive games. the offense has seemed to have found an identity. the o-line is getting better. lee made some pretty good passes today. and the rex/helu combo is pretty stout.

I don't consider myself to be down on the offense. They're doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. In many ways they've had the deck stacked against them this season. And they are definitely showing improvement from the middle of the season since we changed our style around to something we could more easily execute. But the fact remains they are still pretty inconsistent and they are definitely the weaker half of the team right now. I think what you see as being "down" on the offense is more people feeling frustrated because the offense was pretty good last year combined with the disparity between our defense this year and the offense. People are also looking ahead to Texas and knowing they are going to have to play better than they have been for us to put enough points up on Texas to win.

We, as a fan base, have really gotten into a rut of demanding improvement every single season in all aspects. Sorry to say that just isn't going to happen with any team, including ours.

Edit - I suppose I should say weakest third of the team, since special teams definitely plays a big part in football.

I completely disagree.

I think the vast majority of NU fans are extremely satisfied with the improvement of the blackshirts these last two years under Carl/Bo and hardly demand even more improvement from them next year (they're #8 in the nation "now").

But no matter how deep you bury your head in the sand there simply is no excuse for our offense falling completely off the cliff this year. It's not like we lost 5 or 6 high NFL draft choices last year from the offense. Sure, we lost some good seniors but who doesn't every year?? I'm sure most fans would have been just fine with a drop off from the nation's #12 to #25 through #40 or something. But #82???

Tell me in 25 years when TO had an offense that bad. Go ahead......

Bo/Carl took over the #112th defense last year and pulled them to #55 in "one" year.

This is bigtime cfb, not the post office or public schools where failure is accepted and ignored. These coaches are paid the big money to "produce", not just hang around.

Well, you asked for it . Yes Osbourne's teams usually scored a lot of points against nobody's or against the little 6 of the old Big Eight. There are also many times that his offenses got schooled by better teams, (and it happened a lot) hense why for many years before the 93-97 run, it was said that Tom couldn't win the big game or that Nebraska was a paper tiger.

84 season, 9-17 loss to Syracuse and a 7-17 loss to OU

85 season 13-17 loss to Florida St. 7-27 loss to OU and a 23-27 loss to Michigan

86 season, 10-20 loss to CU and a 17-20 loss to OU

87 season, 7-17 loss to OU and a 28-31 loss to Florida St.

88 season, 28-41 loss to UCLA and a 3-23 loss to Miami. Had two other very close games this year against OU, won 7-3 and against CU, won 7-0.

89 season, 21-27 loss to CU and a 17-41 loss to Florida St.

90 season, won a close one over Baylor 13-0, 12-27 loss to CU, 10-45 loss to OU, 21-45 loss to Georgia Tech.

91 season, 21-36 loss to Washington, 19-19 tie with CU and 0-22 loss against Miami.

92 season, 14-29 loss to Washington, 10-19 loss to Iowa St. and a 14-27 loss to Florida St.

93 season, the "we refuse to lose" quote started because they won some very close games that year, 14-13 win over UCLA, 21-17 win over CU, 21-20 win over KU, 21-7 win over OU and a 16-18 loss to Florida St. Some games were close and the O didn't always look great, but a win is a win.

94 season, even during this National title run they had some very close games against better competition. 17-6 win against Kansas St. 13-3 win OU and of course the 24-17 win against Miami.

Now, I am a huge Husker fan, but Osbourne teams were known for years to be able to beat up on patsies but choke big time when they played anyone of significance. It was very frustrating to watch as well, again, not every TO team was like the 95 one, some just seem to think that was so. When you look at all these seasons, rarely did the Huskers beat a decent team, most, if not all of there wins came against horrible teams and more often than not they lost to the good ones. It was only when you get into the 93-97 yrs that the Huskers really got crazy good.

I'll ask you a question, what does it matter that you can score 50-70 points against nobody teams, but can rarely ever beat a team with a heartbeat? Granted, this is all old news, my point is, even through all this the Huskers still had 9+ wins a season and Husker nation was usually very happy. We got VERY spoiled by the 93-97 run and now it seems like we will never be happy unless we do that every freakin year.

Thos were a few games a year not the whole year like this year. By the way how many of the those teams were ranked at the end of the year in that list other then Iowa State and probably CU most were probably in the top 25.

1984 WINS

Wyoming 42 - 7

Minnesota 38- 7

UCLA 42- 3

LSU 28- 10 BOWL

1985 WINS

iLLINOIS 52- 25

Oregon 63- 0

Okie state ranked number 5 while nebraska was 9 34- 24

Michigan 23 -27 loss BoWL game Mich ranked 5 while Nu was 7

1986 wins

FSU 34-17 ranked 11 Nebraska 8

Ill 59 - 14

Oregon 48-14

south Carolina 27-24

LSU 30 - 15 BOWL WIN

Utah State 2 - Memorial Stadium 56 - 12 (W)

UCLA 2 3 Memorial Stadium 42 - 33 (W)

Arizona State 2 12 at Tempe, Ariz. 35 - 28 (W)

Oklahoma State 2 12 at Stillwater, Okla. 35 - 0 (W) Ranked 12

Florida State 5 3 at Tempe, Ariz. 28 - 31 (L) tough loss rb fumbled at the goal line and FSU took it all the way for a td.

Didn't look like his teams that you highlighted as struggling those years had problems all year. Sound like the same people who were complaining that OSBORNE couldnt beat the number 3,2,5,2,1,3,1 ranked teams in the 7 consecutive bowls he lost. By the way he was'nt ranked higher then any of his bowl oppnents in that strech. Most of the time he was playing Florida State or Miami in their own home state.

Doesn't look like asking for Nebraska offense to play anyway near the 80's would be asking to much. No ones saying go undefeated every year, but at least have a pulse and this offense has been on life support all year.

I always thought it was Osborne.

I think you missed my point . Which was that even most of Osborne's teams were human and not always the same as the 95 one. And, no I wasn't saying they had problems all year, but they did struggle most of the time against teams with a heartbeat. It seems that now every Husker team has to live up to that one ( don't even tell me that isn't so, all you have to do is read this board to get that feeling). And yes, During the mid 80's to the early 90's the Huskers did go through a stretch that they lost more to good teams than they won, sorry. I am a huge fan, but the truth is the truth. Personally, I am excited about what Bo and Co. are doing and the future of the Huskers. I have just been following the Huskers for decades and have enough sense to realize that Dr. Tom had his share of low points as well and people need to relax about the offense. We have nine wins and a shot at the Big 12 title!!!