Chips are down for Bo, Martinez

[Jason Sitoke]

Gee, I seem to remember Bo getting on Taylor's a$$ for screwing up last year, and then being publicly reprimanded by Harvey Perlman.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

You don't see the difference here?

Admitting your quarterback has some issues without spewing venom at the fans and media would be the right way to behave.

Screaming like a lunatic at your freshman QB on the sidelines while the nation watches is in a different ballpark.

 

[zoogs]

There is really nothing to get upset over in this article, knapplc. Dirk was very measured and fair in what he posted. Of course there are points I think anyone can disagree with - in particular, the notion that Bo owes it to the fanbase or anyone to try out a different QB because of public perception or whatever. But really, Bo did take a jab at the fans, and snap at reporters. Dirk isn't crying about it. Goodness knows those reporters deserved Bo snapping at them; I think Bo could've snapped a lot harder, too. Dirk's commenting on the fact that it has become a circus. And that is frankly undeniable. Not pointing fingers ora nything, just describing what the situation is. Taylor is in the middle of a lot of fire right now, and that's the reality of it.

Dirk's points that he made in here are pretty good, in terms of analyzing the circus that currently exists, and making points without calling for Taylor's head. Also offers a way for Pelini to quiet down this circus...by being more honest when he messes up. 'Yeah, he had a rough week, but we totally believe in him and he'll bounce back.' Pelini only tries to defend his QB by what he says and it's admirable, but when he talks about Taylor's good stats, he is inviting even more of this craziness.

And he's absolutely right about Taylor needing to stop feeling like everyone is out there just to trash him. Can't blame him - he is only human - but I want him to succeed and he has to internalize and get rid of those distractions if he wants to do so. One thing for a QB to be pissed after a loss. Another to just have an attitude of "you guys are just gonna slam me, anyway." Just go out there and do what you do, Taylor. Forget the articles and the fans.

Here's Bo's jab at the fans, by the way. You can say if it's fair or not, but it was a job, in the end.

The same people who sit out in our stadium on their hands and don't cheer are the same people who sit back and criticize our quarterback -- a kid who's out there busting his butt and putting up good numbers...

 

[knapplc]

You are welcome to a different opinion, zoogs. The fact of the matter is, Dirk was not objective and dispassionate in this article. He violated Rule 1 in Journalism, plain as day.

You can support that if you like. It doesn't make it correct, it just means you're OK with journalists putting themselves in the story. I'm not OK.

Just a point on which we differ.

 

[zoogs]

What's journalism rule #1? Being objective and dispassionate? Isn't he writing an opinion column?

 

[bshirt]

I'm thinking as we go forward, the passing game will be an important aspect of this offense. Every game this season, we have thrown at least 20 times a game. I see this continuing. Maybe not 14 passes in a row, but a significant amount of passing. Martinez needs to be more accurate with his passing and cut down interceptions. Hell, I'd be happy with a 60% completion rate. Just get our receivers the ball and let them work. We CANNOT just let their talent go to waste. We have great RBs and WRs and we need to get them all the ball.

I respect your opinion bshirt, but I don't think we will ever agree on the direction of the offense. Your more of a old-school smashmouth/option guy and I want a little more balance in the offense. Personally, I think the most exciting play in football is a 50 yard bomb. I stand up everytime I see that ball sailing down the field and go nuts if we catch it.

Lol!

Yeah, I think you nailed it. Just watching the BigRedMachine run over somebody gets me so fired up I have to slam down a 12 pack just to keep myself on earth. But sure, if we're gonna pass 20+ times a game we better get Carnes ready to roll as that's just not Tmart's forte.

Maybe I was just taking Beck to literally with his "hang our hat on running the ball" stuff. As you say, that's really not what we're seeing so far. Good chance you're right that Beck has a good dosage of SW in him. If so, tighten your chin strap Brion.....

I just hate to see us waste a talent like Tmart. Hate him all ya want but the dude is a real-deal weapon with his feet that opens things up for everyone else. It's a tough call but if we're gonna sling the ball around it's not a tough call at all.

Good point, compadre'...we'll see what the real Beck is soon.

GBR!!

 

[zoogs]

Sure we average in the low/mid 20s throwing per game; we also average in the mid 40s in passing. We have about a 65/35 ratio, in a day and age where even 50/50 is considered pretty run heavy (see those pass-happy offenses that Callahan and Mangino had). How much more run-heavy you want to be?

 

[bshirt]

Depends on what offense you're running. A "good" qb is totally dependent on just that. Dan Marino/T. Brady/etc would be sh*t on TO's offense. Or Georgia Tech's offense. Frost, Crouch or Frazier would be sh*t for Texas Tech's offense and so on.....

That's the problem. Taylor doesn't really fit any particular system, because his skillset isn't ideally suited for being a quarterback. That's why I think the comparisons to Frazier, Crouch, et al. are so off-base.

Really? I see extremely close comparisons. Frazier & Crouch were superb weapons with their feet and "very" marginal passers. What else could describe Tmart more accurately? I think the two main differences are....

1. With SW (especially) & even Beck so far we're not a "run first" offense (at all). TO's & Frank's offense fitted their qbs talents perfectly. Not even close so far with Tmart.

2. The difference in functional talent between Frazier's Oline and Tmart's Oline is so big I don't even have words for it. Maybe, a "different galaxy" would be appropriate? I don't know.....but you understand. Crouch's Oline wasn't 30% as good as Frazier's but was still vastly better than what Tmart has had. It's not easy to create a real-deal pipeline but I keep hoping we will again. Last year's recruiting helps a lot and I hope it continues.

 

[zoogs]

If we have not been a run first offense this and last year, what exactly have we been? I already posted the 65-35 numbers this year, it was closer to 69-31 last year. What will it take before we are a "run first" offense in your eyes?

 

[bshirt]

Sure we average in the low/mid 20s throwing per game; we also average in the mid 40s in passing. We have about a 65/35 ratio, in a day and age where even 50/50 is considered pretty run heavy (see those pass-happy offenses that Callahan and Mangino had). How much more run-heavy you want to be?

To had supreme success for decades with around a 80/20 ratio (some years even higher). I would "love" to see that again.

The advantages are that current defenses aren't built to stop run heavy offenses anymore. That's reduced to some degree with all the official & non-official officiating (no holding.....gotta keep the ratings up with high scores!) but imo is still a big unique asset we would have. To say it would fit our geographic location for recruiting road-graders is a huge understatement too.

GBR!!

 

[EZ-E]

I love Urban Meyer's offense. I am completely convinced that if TO were still coaching that he would be running this offense. I would love nothing more than for us to have a tank of a QB like Tebow at QB and just run at teams from the shot gun. Tebow was in the neighborhood of 240. Iowa's MLB James Morris is around 220-225. If we had a QB that size what do you think we would do?

I am not married to this crap that we need to be running the option, but I would love for us to run to open up the pass.

 

[Ratt Mhule]

I just hate to see us waste a talent like Tmart. Hate him all ya want but the dude is a real-deal weapon with his feet that opens things up for everyone else. It's a tough call but if we're gonna sling the ball around it's not a tough call at all.

I don't hate him at all actually. I don't know him, so how can I hate him? If Beck wants to pass, there are ways to go about it without puting him in bad situations. I have not seen any bubble screens at all this season, maybe I just can't remember. Throw a bubble screen to Turner/Enunwa. It is a relatively easy throw and Turner/Enunwa can get the ball in open space and do their thing. More quick hitters would also be nice. I want to see RB screens, also. Those plays always seem to work on third downs.

Honestly, I think the reason we are throwing so much this year is because our receivers have really stepped up their game and have surprised even Beck. I bet when he said the "primarily running team" he did not think we'd be this talented at the receiver position. Hell, I don't think any of us thought we'd be this talented at WR. Taylor just needs to stop trying to hit a home run every time. Just move the chains, thats all we need.

 

[bshirt]

I just hate to see us waste a talent like Tmart. Hate him all ya want but the dude is a real-deal weapon with his feet that opens things up for everyone else. It's a tough call but if we're gonna sling the ball around it's not a tough call at all.

I don't hate him at all actually. I don't know him, so how can I hate him? If Beck wants to pass, there are ways to go about it without puting him in bad situations. I have not seen any bubble screens at all this season, maybe I just can't remember. Throw a bubble screen to Turner/Enunwa. It is a relatively easy throw and Turner/Enunwa can get the ball in open space and do their thing. More quick hitters would also be nice. I want to see RB screens, also. Those plays always seem to work on third downs.

Honestly, I think the reason we are throwing so much this year is because our receivers have really stepped up their game and have surprised even Beck. I bet when he said the "primarily running team" he did not think we'd be this talented at the receiver position. Hell, I don't think any of us thought we'd be this talented at WR. Taylor just needs to stop trying to hit a home run every time. Just move the chains, thats all we need.

Yeah, I didn't see this monster upsurge of outrageously talented wrs coming either. Those kids are freakin good! Just now thinking about it I can see why Beck's willpower couldn't resist trying to get them the ball. Damn, they're really something.

Otoh, SuperRex & the triplets are really electric. Tmart can burn a 60 yd run anytime too. Haha...well, it's Beck's problem but I bet it's a problem he doesn't mind very much. Well, Tim.....that's why ya make the big $$$!

GBR!!

 

[Hammerhead]

Depends on what offense you're running. A "good" qb is totally dependent on just that. Dan Marino/T. Brady/etc would be sh*t on TO's offense. Or Georgia Tech's offense. Frost, Crouch or Frazier would be sh*t for Texas Tech's offense and so on.....

That's the problem. Taylor doesn't really fit any particular system, because his skillset isn't ideally suited for being a quarterback. That's why I think the comparisons to Frazier, Crouch, et al. are so off-base.

Really? I see extremely close comparisons. Frazier & Crouch were superb weapons with their feet and "very" marginal passers. What else could describe Tmart more accurately? I think the two main differences are....

1. With SW (especially) & even Beck so far we're not a "run first" offense (at all). TO's & Frank's offense fitted their qbs talents perfectly. Not even close so far with Tmart.

2. The difference in functional talent between Frazier's Oline and Tmart's Oline is so big I don't even have words for it. Maybe, a "different galaxy" would be appropriate? I don't know.....but you understand. Crouch's Oline wasn't 30% as good as Frazier's but was still vastly better than what Tmart has had. It's not easy to create a real-deal pipeline but I keep hoping we will again. Last year's recruiting helps a lot and I hope it continues.

I do agree that if anything, T-Mart's a run-first QB. The times I've seen Taylor at his best are the times when the zone read's working to perfection, but unfortunately thus far that's been against lesser defensive talent. Taylor's best asset (aside from all-out speed) is his ability to sell the fake on the read, but he still has to have a lot of room to run. When it comes to triple option, Frazier was way ahead of where Martinez is now. That makes sense because the triple option was Nebraska's bread and butter back then, we knew it, and by the time Tommie graduated he could've made the reads and the pitches in his sleep. Taylor obviously doesn't have that kind of instinct when it comes to triple option yet, but of course he needs it if we can expect to have any success at all running it, and I'm not sure how hard they're working on it in practice. What I've noticed is that he has a tendency to hesitate a bit too much when he's making the decision to pitch or keep, and he either loses too much time or gets out of sync with the pitch man. Probably something that can be fixed with experience and time, but the question is, how much time will it take?

I hope that Beck can work something out with Martinez and find something that at least works better than making him drop back and pass it 15 times in a row. I don't want to be proven right when I say that I don't think Taylor has the skillset of a quarterback that can help Nebraska win big games. I'm all for whatever offensive identity the team can find that'll help it get back on track, whether it's smash mouth, air raid, fun 'n' gun, west coast, whatever. While I agree that Taylor's abilities relegate us to needing a run-first mentality, even a run-first mentality has to have a pass-second counterpart. The $64,000 question is, can Taylor improve enough as a passer to at least not make us quite so nervous on obvious passing situations?

 

[Hercules]

Taylor isn't Tommie Frazier running the option, but we have had success running the option this year, it's downright wrong to think we haven't. Taylor even ran the option very efficiently against Wisconsin last Saturday night, and he made good decisions to keep and get up field for enough for the first down a number of times.

As far as his passing game, I think Taylor has a long ways to go to become an NFL prospect. I don't think he has a long ways to go to become effective in Nebraska's offense. The next step for him is to stop forcing throws - pretty simple.

 

[Jason Sitoke]

You are welcome to a different opinion, zoogs. The fact of the matter is, Dirk was not objective and dispassionate in this article. He violated Rule 1 in Journalism, plain as day.

You can support that if you like. It doesn't make it correct, it just means you're OK with journalists putting themselves in the story. I'm not OK.

Just a point on which we differ.

It's an editorial piece. Presenting an opinion IS rule #1 in writing an editorial.