Chatelain: Mere tweaks won't fix what ails NU's offense

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Enhance

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Sorry if already posted. I did a quick run through and didn't see anything.

I think Chatelain really hits the nail on the head with this article.

He doesn't directly call anybody out, but it's obvious he thinks something isn't meshing well here.

I don't think Watson is necessarily a bad coach, but he is the last remaining coordinator from the Callahan era, and surprisingly enough his unit is the most susceptible to mistakes, errors, and costing the team games.

The defense plays physical, to the whistle, and executes almost every game. In all the games we gave up 21+ points this year with the exception of OSU I think, the offense turned the ball over and set up the opposing offense for easy touchdowns. Most of the reason we lose football games is because of our offense not executing.

Why?

We have good players, as Chatelain points out, and we have experience. The preparation and the execution on this team is just far too fickle for this team to try and be a consistent national title contender week in and week out. We never lose games any more purely because another team is better. We lose games because our offense doesn't play consistent and execute well.

Furthermore, how many times do we play well but make mistakes to keep other teams in the game? It seems we very rarely if ever get beat just because the other team has really good players.

It's a bad habit that we need to break, and I'm beginning to seriously question whether or not this offensive staff can do it.

 
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I wrote about this on another thread. First we have to make sure that the offensive staff is accountable to Wats. Then we have to make Wats accountable for the offense.

 
I was thinking about this as well. Something is off with our offense. There should be no reason why we cant atleast score 20-24 pts without Martinez. It shouldn't take a Heisman hopefully at QB to make an offense go. With the Defense we put on the field all we need to do is score 20-24 and we will win 90% of our games, but we cant even muster that unless we have one of the most dynamic players in the nation behind center.

Its really sad, the last two years have been a waste of championship caliber defenses. Something needs to be done about it. Fire Watson? I dont know if he truly is the problem. I do know that the fire and intensity that is on the defensive side of the ball is not there for the offense. I think we may need to look at shaking up some of the position coaches first. Namely Barney Cotton and Gilmore. Both of these guys' groups of players are the most inconsistent week-in and week-out.

 
I have to say that I really agreed with the article, and I thought the observations were made in a respectful manner. The fact of the matter is that our offense, barring the ridiculous big plays, is not even mediocre, but apparently quite bad. True we're going it without T-Mart and that's definitely going to hurt us or any other team. If we have the raw skills to break out those *ridiculous* big plays that we saw for the first half of the season, how can we be so bad without them? Shouldn't we at least be ok at picking up yards in groups of 5's instead of 50's?

Something is seriously off about the situation. It seems like mental toughness and discipline. We're getting pwned by defenses that really shouldn't have any ability to do this to us. Once or twice, I'd say fine or whatever, stuff happens. Over and over and there's a real problem that needs to be addressed. We're definitely into the latter category at this point.

 
He mentions the issue that irks me six words in: Missed blocks.

Whether its Cotton, Watson or both it needs to be fixed or someone needs to hit the bricks.

 
billdozer15 said:
I was thinking about this as well. Something is off with our offense. There should be no reason why we cant atleast score 20-24 pts without Martinez. It shouldn't take a Heisman hopefully at QB to make an offense go. With the Defense we put on the field all we need to do is score 20-24 and we will win 90% of our games, but we cant even muster that unless we have one of the most dynamic players in the nation behind center.

Its really sad, the last two years have been a waste of championship caliber defenses. Something needs to be done about it. Fire Watson? I dont know if he truly is the problem. I do know that the fire and intensity that is on the defensive side of the ball is not there for the offense. I think we may need to look at shaking up some of the position coaches first. Namely Barney Cotton and Gilmore. Both of these guys' groups of players are the most inconsistent week-in and week-out.
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I couldn't agree more with this statement.

 
Fantastic article that gets to the heart of the matter. Best statement in my mind is...

The problem here is big. Systematic. So ingrained in this offense that mere tweaks won't fix it.
You will not find the name of a Husker player or coach in this critique. One man is not at fault. Everyone shares blame. But it's time for accountability.
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When a problem is systematic, something must be done.

Entering the season, Pelini mentioned his excitement in this being his 3rd year, the year when we see what this program is all about and will be about in the years to come. Well, the evidence is becoming quite clear. The defense is tremendous by all accounts, so that system is well in place for a great run now and the years to come. The offense on the other hand is becoming quite the opposite. So, the accountability to which Chatelain refers in this article and Bo reinforced in his presser today must be withheld when grading how the offense has progressed in these 3 years.

 
clean house, fire Watson, bring in an O coordinator and let him pick his staff......it will be the same or worse next year with Watson calling the shots, only the Big 10 schedule we drew will leave us lucky to play .500 ball....time to clean house!

 
Bo/Carl have proved without a doubt what good coaching can do for one side of the ball.

The other side is frequently inept or worse for almost two years. Time for a change.

 
Great article indeed. If OSU can have a 1-2 year OC and avg 45 or so pts a game, we should be actively looking. Watson has had a chance to right the ship and has only put band-aids on the "systematic" issues. I doubt it would be a hard sell. Control the Offense for NU? There would be plenty of takers I would assume. The hard part would be choosing!

 
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