Coaches lost this game

[Saunders]

Two sad things about the state of Husker football:

1. There was one thing I thought these coaches brought to the table, which is one thing I thought was holding Nebraska back. I thought we would stop being the stupidest team I have ever seen in situational aspects of this game, and would end the days of being our own worst enemy. This game showed clearly, that these coaches years of experience means nothing to that aspect. I don't care if this is your first year of your 40th, you don't manage the clock at the end of the game like that unless you are seriously overwhelmed, out of your league, and dwarfed by the situation. Riley, and more importantly Langsdorf, displayed incompetence and lack of composure that I've only seen once before here, by the previous staff.

2. After we failed to run the clock down and looked like a clusterf#@k of a football team giving Illinois the ball back, I knew we were gonna lose. I knew it. There wasn't a doubt in my mind Illinois would score those points and win that game. That in itself is sad, but true.

Right after we failed the conversion, I looked over to my wife and said "we're going to lose" and it's just sad...

 

[WhatDoIKnow]

I'm usually very hesitant when it comes to criticizing playcalling and coaching decisions, but, I hit the wall today and have to be honest. That was some of the worst playcalling I have ever seen at this program. And not just the last series - the whole game.

Fellow fans, at one point in the game we were averaging 7 yards per carry. Just let that sink in. 7 yards per carry.

Yet, we elected to throw the ball downfield multiple times in difficult situations. 31 times we through the ball, and about 21 of those were wasted plays because they fell incomplete. Let that sink in, too. We had about 21 plays that literally meant nothing.

I'm also not the type of person that sits here and boldly proclaims "run the damn ball!" without any situation awareness, either. But, today was one of those days. You have Tommy throw five or six less times this game and I'm 99.9% confident we win.

Just wanted to echo this point. How many times did we throw deep on first down? I know it may have been TAs decision to throw deep, but why even call for a pass in those conditions when they were not stopping the run? I understand taking a few shots early, but why did we continue to put ourselves behind the chains in a 2 score game when we were running the ball well? We have a lot more options on 2nd and 5.

I don't get it at all.

I kept saying towards the end, one slip from a DB or a busted coverage and we are going to lose. It's sad that many of us could feel it coming. The game didn't need to be that close but our coaches kept them in it.

 

[GOAT]

Just the idea that we were even in the position to lose to frickin' ILLINOIS says it all. Never in my lifetime did I think we'd ever fear losing to teams like Illinois and Minnesota. How hard is it to figure out that we need an ELITE coach and we're going to have to pay him ELITE money if we want to be an ELITE program? You can't put lipstick on a pig (or in this case, a .500 staff) and expect it to suddenly become a beauty queen.

 

[Husker67]

Take the third down play call out of this for a minute. It was indeed one of the worst play calls, and one of the poorest in terms of execution. So was the long pass defense, this happening after obviously a similar thing happened to close out the BYU game. Let's take a look at how poorly managed the play calling was throughout. You guys have mentioned it here quite a bit in the last 15 hours or so.

Why is this so much like Callahan 2.0? Because of the poor game management. Cally was more concerned about shoving his system down everyone's throat, that wins became secondary. It somewhat appears the same thing is happening this year. Riley and staff are so concerned with making sure everyone knows this is a West Coast offense that they are becoming clueless about how to just win. That's the bottom line in this business, always has been, always will be. Just win. I have two examples of a just win attitude, and one of them occurred last year.

Case in point #1, Miami at Nebraska, 2014. The Huskers ran the ball 54 times for 343 yards (an average of 6.35 yards per carry). Ameer set a personal best that night, and the Huskers walked off with a 10 point win that might not have even been that close. Tim Beck commented after the game about why the Huskers only attempted 13 passes, he said because the running game was working so well, so we stayed with it. Yesterday the Huskers averaged 5.5 yards per carry in, but Riley and staff made damn sure they were 50/50 in their play calling. Brutal.

Case in point #2 Ohio State at Illinois, 2011. Luke Fickell was the interim head coach for Ohio State, keeping the seat warm until Urban Meyer arrived. He had a freshman QB named Braxton Miller that was just coming back from the ankle injury against Nebraska a couple weeks before this game. The wind was howling like yesterday, so even Fickell, as bad as he and that staff were, decided that running the ball was going to deliver the win. Ohio State ran 51 times for 211 yards, a 4.14 average. They attempted 4, yes four passes. They completed one for 17 yards and a TD, and you know what, they won the game 17-7. Bottom line, two wins by teams adjusting their game plan.

Case in point #3. My own high school team. I coach middle school football and help with the high school. Last year, we had a new staff who wanted to pitch it all over the place and did not have a QB capable of doing that. When we ran we did well enough to win some games, but they were determined to throw it all over the place. We went 0-10, and those guys are all assistants somewhere else. Good guys, still friends, but it just didn't work out trying to fit the proverbial square peg into a round hole.

Some of this is on Tommy, too. The West Coast offense seems to generally call for shorter safer passes. Yet, time after time, TA just reared back and heaved passes into double and triple coverage, into or with the wind. The drops didn't help matters. But, at that point, Wind, Drops, Mis-reads by Tommy, all of that considered, Langsdorf and Riley needed to say to each other, "this isn't working, we might need to do something different" 15 carries for Jano, maybe 15 for Ozigbo, a couple more called, designed runs for TA, and this one turns out differently

I'm not saying they need to completely abandon their offensive approach. I am saying adjust to the weather conditions, adjust to the game situations. Clearly these running plays are in the game plan and clearly they have been repped in practice because they worked for an average of 5.5 per carry yesterday.

The WC offense just will not work in the wind and cold and rain in the midwest in October and November, sorry it just doesn't. You need to have the power running game to take the pressure off of always chucking the ball around. If Riley and staff don't make the adjustments on both sides of the ball, then their stay in Lincoln may be shorter than Callahan's

 

[Danny Bateman]

GOAT, I think some of us have to get over the nothin Nebraska is some infallible football power that simply cannot churn out poor seasons or piss-poor play. That can happen to anyone. We can lose to anyone. Illinois, So. Miss, anyone. It is what it is.

Right now, you're seeing coaches struggle to use players effectively in schemes they're not used to... And man, sometimes it's hard to watch.

I've been a staunch defender of the coaching staff. I thought the last guy really effed up several aspects of the team and it was going to take a while to work out. I still do. I've been an adamant supporter of the "give them time" argument. I still am. But after last night, I sure feel a hell of a lot worse about it.

Five games in, and we seem to be developing a pattern of not finishing teams off. Leaving them enough room to creep back in. Burnt us against BYU, nearly burnt us against So. Miss, sure as hell toasted us last night.

I understand how their offense works. Vertical shots to stretch the defense downfield and spread them backwards to open up the running game. But Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I'd have hoped this staff was smart enough to lean on the run in conditions like that. Wen the pass game was clearly not working. I understand if they think they're better equipped to pass than run with this roster. But forcing the pass game was mind boggling.

Absolutely inexcusable to not run I formation ISO right up the gut on that 3rd down and shave time off the clock. Then you can punt to burn more, kick a field goal to ice it, or maybe even get a first down and end the game. But Riley and Langs got cute, and it bit them in the @ss. I was so over Beck because he did this a lot, but to his credit he didn't do it at the END of games... With a LEAD. Even he wouldn't have mucked this up.

Riley was pressed on what led them to think a bootleg option play was a good idea on 3rd down. He launched into some explanation about 3 types of zone coverage Illinois was using before trailing off and not saying anything really until a reporter refocused him with another question.

Says all that needs to be said.

 

[huskerfan92]

GOAT, I think some of us have to get over the nothin Nebraska is some infallible football power that simply cannot churn out poor seasons or piss-poor play. That can happen to anyone. We can lose to anyone. Illinois, So. Miss, anyone. It is what it is.

Right now, you're seeing coaches struggle to use players effectively in schemes they're not used to... And man, sometimes it's hard to watch.

I've been a staunch defender of the coaching staff. I thought the last guy really effed up several aspects of the team and it was going to take a while to work out. I still do. I've been an adamant supporter of the "give them time" argument. I still am. But after last night, I sure feel a hell of a lot worse about it.

Five games in, and we seem to be developing a pattern of not finishing teams off. Leaving them enough room to creep back in. Burnt us against BYU, nearly burnt us against So. Miss, sure as hell toasted us last night.

I understand how their offense works. Vertical shots to stretch the defense downfield and spread them backwards to open up the running game. But Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I'd have hoped this staff was smart enough to lean on the run in conditions like that. Wen the pass game was clearly not working. I understand if they think they're better equipped to pass than run with this roster. But forcing the pass game was mind boggling.

Absolutely inexcusable to not run I formation ISO right up the gut on that 3rd down and shave time off the clock. Then you can punt to burn more, kick a field goal to ice it, or maybe even get a first down and end the game. But Riley and Langs got cute, and it bit them in the @ss. I was so over Beck because he did this a lot, but to his credit he didn't do it at the END of games... With a LEAD. Even he wouldn't have mucked this up.

Riley was pressed on what led them to think a bootleg option play was a good idea on 3rd down. He launched into some explanation about 3 types of zone coverage Illinois was using before trailing off and not saying anything really until a reporter refocused him with another question.

Says all that needs to be said.

The fact he had to think that much on that play. It is so simple, just run up the gut.