At This Point Why Continue To....

[GSG]

Did we muff punts today? Did I miss that part?

 

[Hilltop]

I won't say CTB was blameless in the muffed punt today. He is the one who is supposed to know where that ball is going to land, and he needs to take charge out there to tell everyone to get the eff out of the way. The universal call for short punt is PETER!!!! Of course we can't hear what's being said/yelled on the field, but CTB needs to ensure that nobody is near the ball when it's about to land. He didn't do what he was supposed to, and instead tried to come up in a crowd to catch the ball. 

CTB was yelling and waved his arms.  Buffalo blocked a guy into him.  He did his job.

Special teams looked a lot better today in person but when your place kicker sucks, it really drags the perception of the unit down.  No clue what is going on with him.  In warmups, he was basically perfect pregame and at half time.  I think the kids just chokes.  Really weird considering he won big 10 kicker off the year last year.

Kickoffs were flawless.  Punt game was good to great.  Punt returns were vanilla but I'm general good decisions were made that made the most of each other than the one discussed above.  

Progress is being made.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

CTB was yelling and waved his arms.  Buffalo blocked a guy into him.  He did his job.

Special teams looked a lot better today in person but when your place kicker sucks, it really drags the perception of the unit down.  No clue what is going on with him.  In warmups, he was basically perfect pregame and at half time.  I think the kids just chokes.  Really weird considering he won big 10 kicker off the year last year.

Kickoffs were flawless.  Punt game was good to great.  Punt returns were vanilla but I'm general good decisions were made that made the most of each other than the one discussed above.  

Progress is being made.

I just went back to the punt in question. Buffalo is punting from their 23 and it's going to land at NU's 43. That's a 40 yard punt in the air, which is 5-10 yards short r than average punts. CTB is running up from where he originally was and calling a fair catch, and he runs into his blockers. There is no waving away of his teammates.  In that situation, CTB shouldn't be trying to catch it. Let it bounce, and NU retains possession with just a few minutes left in the game. The lack of situational awareness is what upsets me. 
 

Sam McKewon was saying what made Pierson-El such a great punt returner, and it was that he was able to track the ball so well, and get in a position to make a move once he caught the ball. CTB can barely track the ball, given the mistakes he has made in the punt return game since last year's Iowa game. He should not be back there returning punts.

Other than that, I agree with you in that special teams aren't as bad as it seems, from a coaching standpoint. Coaches can't do anything about a kicker missing FG's, other than opening up the competition next practice. The kickoffs have gotten way better this season, and Cerni is getting better in his punts each game.

 

[Hilltop]

I just went back to the punt in question. Buffalo is punting from their 23 and it's going to land at NU's 43. That's a 40 yard punt in the air, which is 5-10 yards short r than average punts. CTB is running up from where he originally was and calling a fair catch, and he runs into his blockers. There is no waving away of his teammates.  In that situation, CTB shouldn't be trying to catch it. Let it bounce, and NU retains possession with just a few minutes left in the game. The lack of situational awareness is what upsets me. 
 

Sam McKewon was saying what made Pierson-El such a great punt returner, and it was that he was able to track the ball so well, and get in a position to make a move once he caught the ball. CTB can barely track the ball, given the mistakes he has made in the punt return game since last year's Iowa game. He should not be back there returning punts.

Other than that, I agree with you in that special teams aren't as bad as it seems, from a coaching standpoint. Coaches can't do anything about a kicker missing FG's, other than opening up the competition next practice. The kickoffs have gotten way better this season, and Cerni is getting better in his punts each game.

I haven't gone back to watch video.  In person you could hear him (I was close) and it appeared his blockers were pushed into him... but I'll watch tonight.  

I am not aware of any coach who would prefer their returner to allow a high 40 yard punt to bounce.  Fair catch makes complete sense in that scenario.  As to the distance, it was against a fairly strong wind.  40 didn't seem irregular from that part of the field.  I know we had several punting that direction that were well under 40.  

Again, perspective can be different in person so I'll watch it all later.

My main point was people are just b!^@hing to b!^@h instead of seeing the progress.  It is getting better.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I haven't gone back to watch video.  In person you could hear him (I was close) and it appeared his blockers were pushed into him... but I'll watch tonight.  

I am not aware of any coach who would prefer their returner to allow a high 40 yard punt to bounce.  Fair catch makes complete sense in that scenario.  As to the distance, it was against a fairly strong wind.  40 didn't seem irregular from that part of the field.  I know we had several punting that direction that were well under 40.  

Again, perspective can be different in person so I'll watch it all later.

My main point was people are just b!^@hing to b!^@h instead of seeing the progress.  It is getting better.

Agree that it's getting better, and not as bad as most people think.

 My point is that there is less than half the quarter in the game, and NU is up 18 points. Why is CTB even risking to run up and catch the ball?  He needs to know situational football there. CTB had another bad play, given the situation, when he went for a pick 6 on a 3rd and 12, instead of letting the receiver catch it and making the tackle short of the first down. This is a captain, and he doesn't seem to have any concept of situational football. That's what I get annoyed with.

Either way, it's better to live with mistakes in wins vs. losses. 

 

[Hilltop]

Agree that it's getting better, and not as bad as most people think.

 My point is that there is less than half the quarter in the game, and NU is up 18 points. Why is CTB even risking to run up and catch the ball?  He needs to know situational football there. CTB had another bad play, given the situation, when he went for a pick 6 on a 3rd and 12, instead of letting the receiver catch it and making the tackle short of the first down. This is a captain, and he doesn't seem to have any concept of situational football. That's what I get annoyed with.

Either way, it's better to live with mistakes in wins vs. losses. 

Agree completely on the 3rd and 12.  A lot of fans were ticked on that play.  He also did a few things that were probably off camera that the crowd in general didn't care for.  Worst was approaching the Buffalo sideline taunting their coaches.  I honestly don't care for him after watching today but he definitely can compete at the highest levels if he can clean up the silly stuff.

 

[Born N Bled Red]

Agree that it's getting better, and not as bad as most people think.

 My point is that there is less than half the quarter in the game, and NU is up 18 points. Why is CTB even risking to run up and catch the ball?  He needs to know situational football there. CTB had another bad play, given the situation, when he went for a pick 6 on a 3rd and 12, instead of letting the receiver catch it and making the tackle short of the first down. This is a captain, and he doesn't seem to have any concept of situational football. That's what I get annoyed with.

Either way, it's better to live with mistakes in wins vs. losses. 

And if he had gotten the pick six you would have critiqued the play the same... come on... really?

 

[admo]

I won't say CTB was blameless in the muffed punt today. He is the one who is supposed to know where that ball is going to land, and he needs to take charge out there to tell everyone to get the eff out of the way. The universal call for short punt is PETER!!!! Of course we can't hear what's being said/yelled on the field, but CTB needs to ensure that nobody is near the ball when it's about to land. He didn't do what he was supposed to, and instead tried to come up in a crowd to catch the ball. 

He said PETER!!!!

And then he said PARKER!!!!

Probably just another drill

 

[Nebraska55fan]

  The immediate drunken knee jerk reaction when things don't go perfectly is annoying. Same group was booing when CTB was sent out to field a punt.  The muff was not his fault in any way but people were screaming at him and Frost for it. 

The muff WAS CTBs fault all the way. Frost said so in the radio interview after the game. When the ball is kicked short like that and there are return players that could come in contact with the ball- they use a code word PETER that is supposed to be yelled out by the return man- to make sure they stay away from the ball on a short kick.  Frost said that they trained CTB to do this but obviously "we need to get better coaching that". 

Frost said he was perplexed at the mental errors Culp and CTB have made on special teams. 

The special teams continues to be a total cluster. Frost needs to fire Opera man Verduzco and hire a legit special teams coach. 

Most Special teams coaches would be screaming out the code word from the sidelines in an instance like this one. But we dont have one- so maybe not so much. 

 

[Nebraska55fan]

My point is that there is less than half the quarter in the game, and NU is up 18 points. Why is CTB even risking to run up and catch the ball?  He needs to know situational football there. CTB had another bad play, given the situation, when he went for a pick 6 on a 3rd and 12, instead of letting the receiver catch it and making the tackle short of the first down. This is a captain, and he doesn't seem to have any concept of situational football. That's what I get annoyed with.

Either way, it's better to live with mistakes in wins vs. losses. 

CTB is a crazy great athlete and team player/citizen is what Ive heard. 

However he seems to have lost his mind this season. Started out at Big Ten Media days- he completely stumbled, bumbled and mumbled his way through the interviews. He was awful, totally embarrassed for him. They should have brought someone else- it was a Jill Biden like abuse situation. 

On top of what you pointed out, late in the game- he was jawing to the Buffalo sideline after a play. When you're not playing well, its not a good look to be jawing. I'm a fan of NEVER jawing at a sideline. Hes a mentally weak player. 

 

[Nebraska55fan]

People need to be realistic and enjoy a great win.  If you just want to be mad to be mad, stay home.    

 "Great win" by what standard? Sure it was a nice point score win and the Defense did plenty to be pleased with.

Great means we played well in all 3 phases of the game- that we didn't do.  In order to compete in the BIG- we have to have a consistent solid running game- we DONT have that, not even close. One long Martinez scramble doesnt make for a solid running game. The base runs simply arent working- against Illinois, Fordham and Buffalo.  In order to compete in the BIG we have to have a consistent Special teams game- we DONT have that either. Not even close. 

This kind of talk reminds me of back in the Callahan days when we almost lost to Illinois state and they put up a bunch of points on our defense. LOTS of people said, what are you worried about, we won! Well those of us that know football could see that the defense was really struggling- not making progress and while it was early in the season if we didn't get a lot better on D it was going to be a long season. It was. 

 "

 

[Nebraska55fan]

People need to be realistic and enjoy a great win.  If you just want to be mad to be mad, stay home.    

 "Great win" by what standard? Sure it was a nice point score win and the Defense did plenty to be pleased with.

Great means we played well in all 3 phases of the game- that we didn't do.  In order to compete in the BIG- we have to have a consistent solid running game- we DONT have that, not even close. One long Martinez scramble doesnt make for a solid running game. The base runs simply arent working- against Illinois, Fordham and Buffalo.  In order to compete in the BIG we have to have a consistent Special teams game- we DONT have that either. Not even close. 

This kind of talk reminds me of back in the Callahan days when we almost lost to Illinois state and they put up a bunch of points on our defense. LOTS of people said, what are you worried about, we won! Well those of us that know football could see that the defense was really struggling- not making progress and while it was early in the season if we didn't get a lot better on D it was going to be a long season. It was. 

 

[Nebraska55fan]

This is a very smart, cool and mature player- who should be returning punts. Just so smart and situationally aware. But I guess he's not as good as CTB??  I REALLY like this player. Have since he dominated in Spring game. 

 

[twofittyonred]

Even field a **** punt???? 

Just play a base punt protect to avoid a fake and literally don't even have anyone run back to attempt to field it or block.... don't attempt to field another one for the rest of the season until you hire a special teams dedicated coach. 

its not even that deep....  just keep CTB off the field....

 

[Savage Husker]

This kind of talk reminds me of back in the Callahan days when we almost lost to Illinois state and they put up a bunch of points on our defense. LOTS of people said, what are you worried about, we won! Well those of us that know football could see that the defense was really struggling- not making progress and while it was early in the season if we didn't get a lot better on D it was going to be a long season. It was.

Except Buffalo put up just 3 points, the game was never in question except to the Debbie downers, and we are a team coming off 5 losing seasons, as compared to sleeping through 9-win seasons with recruiting classes in the top 10. 
 

It was Ball State and it was Callahans 4th season, that you finally realized Cosgrove was a terrible DC? Most could tell year one that it was dogs#!t.