Damon Benning @damonbenning 47m47 minutes ago
What does Nebraska fans think about 51 rushing attempts vs 21 passing attempts? That was Saturday.
Damon Benning @damonbenning 38m38 minutes ago
@HotHuskers I only ask because I'm trying to illustrate that sometimes" it's outside of a coaches hands. Players play, coaches coach.
Throwing the ball 29% of the time is clearly "airing it out". It's like Beck things we have Peyton Manning back there. Beck has to learn to keep it simple and run the darn ball.
/I will say though, that last pass attempt with the game decided and a 3rd and 23, was a little perplexing. Sometimes you gotta call it a day.
It's not always about how much you pass, I think this game illustrated the problem of when we were throwing it and how quickly we were off the field.
We had I believe 5 total possessions in the fourth quarter. On the first possession we threw the ball one time on third down, Armstrong could have thrown it like he was playing catch in the back yard to Reilly, but instead he rockets it into the dirt. We ran 1:13 seconds off the clock on that drive.
2nd drive we threw again I believe on second down. We go 20 yards down the field to Westerkamp who was clearly not on the same page with Tommy. We snapped the ball on second down with 19 seconds still to burn off the play clock. Purdue intercepted this pass and I believe scored on their drive. Our 2 play drive took 31 seconds off the board. Cunningham goes out of his way the first of a few times asking "why are they throwing the ball downfield like this?"
3rd drive we don't throw at all, using the old noggin', I like it. We run three times, go three and out, but we take 2:05 seconds of the clock and the long snapper snaps the punt with 9 seconds still remaining on the play clock, so it could have been a bit more.
4th drive was where we got really dumb again. We go I formation first down, and fumble the snap. After some confusion on who recovered it is rules Nebraska ball, but Bo Pelini gets the team a 15 yard penalty tacked on. 2nd down, we once again go I formation, this time the snap is handled, but we go nowhere. Here's the most troublesome of all plays though. 3rd and 23 we come out and throw. Instead of running the clock, going with a draw or some sort of simple run gaining a few yards and punting, we actually throw the ball, unbelievable really. The pass is nearly intercepted and probably should have been. We stop the clock with the in-completion and ran 1:20 off the clock with that drive.
5th drive we took over on downs in their territory and scored on a first down run with Newby to seal the game for sure.
Thankfully, the defense played lights out except for one break down which Purdue scored upon in this quarter. Lord knows we tried to keep them in it with one interception and what easily could have been another to set Purdue up in scoring range. We went into the quarter with a 28-7 lead and only ran a total of 5:09 seconds off the game clock on five drives. Purdue possessed the ball for nearly ten minutes of that quarter and the defense stood tall. Foltz also had a few really nice punts.
