being the sunshine pumper that I am

[True2tRA]

I don't know when the last time was. The last few year's with no offense seemed so long. I really think we are doing some great things this year offensively. People have to remember, this is Beck's first year, but like you said, Ohio State was a top defense and we looked excellent against them. I am blown away that the offense is coming together and now the defense decides to have a down year. Still, I trust in the Pelini's and believe the Defense will improve quickly. With the improvements we've seen on offense, things can only get better from here. In my humble opinion.

 

[Hercules]

Excuses, excuses...it was a good showing against a defense that thought they could stop us. They looked at us and saw a simple offense. We showed 'em wrong. I think you're stretching with the motivation angle. If we had come out flat that game anyone might've said the same thing about us: 'Huskers thought they deserved to be in the BCS after the screwjob against Texas in the CCG, Arizona could have sleep-walked to victory.'

Ah I forgot one...Missouri 2010. Missouri '09 maybe? (I have no idea how good their defense was in '09)

These types of games have been few and far between in recent years, but those two stand out to me. The fact that they do exist doesn't take away from Taylor's progression as a QB or happy we should be that Beck is here, by the way.

The Holiday Bowl against Arizona was solid, but their defense wasn't as good as Ohio State's is, and we shut them out. I think the offense performing the way they did from 21 points down is much more impressive.

Missouri's defense in 2010 wasn't nearly as fundamentally sound as Ohio State's defense this year either. We got a lot of big plays on Missouri that were a result of good execution combined with their safties making stupid mistakes.

This year's offense is going to be cookin as the year progresses - they're just gonna keep getting better. If the Pelinis can figure out the defense soon enough to win the division, Wisconsin may be in for a dogfight.

What's REALLY scary is how good this offense is going to be the next couple years. More time in the system + more experience everywhere + better chemistry between Taylor and his WRs? Yikes.

 

[zoogs]

Oh don't get me wrong, I am not comparing those two. OSU 2011 is definitely a cut above the rest! It's just I was thinking of some post-Zac Taylor examples and those games came to mind.

I don't know about your breakdown of Missouri 2010. Seems like you could say the same thing about a lot of the big plays that brought us back against OSU. Anyways, isn't much to compare about. Those games being bright offensive performances doesn't in any way take away from the OSU performance. I agree with you that it is scary how good this offense could become, next year and down the line.

 

[Hercules]

Oh don't get me wrong, I am not comparing those two. OSU 2011 is definitely a cut above the rest! It's just I was thinking of some post-Zac Taylor examples and those games came to mind.

I don't know about your breakdown of Missouri 2010. Seems like you could say the same thing about a lot of the big plays that brought us back against OSU. Anyways, isn't much to compare about. Those games being bright offensive performances doesn't in any way take away from the OSU performance. I agree with you that it is scary how good this offense could become, next year and down the line.

The reason I say that about the Missouri game is because when I watched the replay of that game on the BTN earlier this year, I started noticing just how out of position Missouri's safeties were on those long TDs by Helu. I think the Kyler Reed TD pass was just a great playcall, like Beck's playcall that led to a TD by Enunwa. Other times in that Missouri game, defenders were just so far out of position that Helu went untouched. Ohio State at least made us work for it, and both of Burkhead's touchdowns required great playmaking from him and pretty darn good execution from our offense. The best drive in that Missouri game was the last one, where Helu and the O-Line just powered their way down the field and burnt about 7 minutes of clock when Missouri knew we were going to run the ball. Amazingly though, we looked even more dominant late in the game against Ohio State. Very encouraging.