Benard originally posted this messege:
Ok. I'm not entirely sure numerically what has happened over the past two years on offense, and I really don't care. What I have seen is a signifigant improvement in the running of the WCO. Callahan has made no secret of the fact that this is the style of O he wants to run no matter what. Yet, last year, the true WCO was not to be seen on the field. Yeah, there was a bit more passing, but for the most part Huskers fans were just privy to watching an inept QB in Dailey try to make long pass plays to players that weren't recruited to do so. The WCO is mainly button-hooks and short to intermediate slant routes. We didn't see very much of that last year. The players on the field now are much more talented than last years', and when the actual WCO is run, we see better execution (for the most part). In the last three games, it has seemed like Cally, against all reason, has decided to go away from the true WCO into one of utter predictabilaty. There were games earlier in the season where the Huskers would set up a center screen, or the middle slant, or something creative, but recently it has either been a run up the middle, or a intermediate to long pass to the sideline. I was amazed to watch in the KU game a KU offense that was using the WCO weapons against us. How many times did they run the center screen? I even called it several times. I knew it was coming, but the NU defense wasn't, and I think there might have been two scores off of that one play. The point is, the play on the field, when coupled with some creative play-calling has been of an exceptional rate, at least when compared to last year. I agree that the offense hasn't been putting up what they need to, but I saw signifigant improvement until the MU game. I don't know why the offensive scheme started to morph, but it didn't need to. Bring back the hard-nosed quick short pass plays and the Husker offense might start racking up the score again. Were we to regress into last years theme, though, I think we would find ourselves at a loss to make anything happen offensively on the field. GO HUSKERS!!!