Defense at fault

Fumbles are usually regarded as the player's fault. See: Niles, Cody, and what people thought of them.

I don't know since when Taylor Martinez was supposed to be a safe, few turnovers kind of guy. If you thought that was going to be the case this year, it was a pipe dream and I could have told you as much in September. That's what Taylor is: inconsistent, young, mistake-prone, but with high potential. And then we go back and say it's Watson's fault with playcalling that we are mistake-prone and inconsistent, when really it's reflective of the QB.

Roy's fumbles, and other players, and the lack of discipline...you could blame that on Watson I guess. Or the specific position coaches. Or Pelini. The buck really stops there but I'm not really a blame-anybody kind of guy as far as fumbles go. We fumbled 9000 times in 1999, and I don't think any of those coaches were particularly responsible. If I remember, we cleaned it up a bit in the years following.

Sometimes people gotta point fingers. I think there's criticm to go around, but with few exceptions it is not searing. Even my criticism of Taylor is not that bad, since I think he still has a ton of potential, bad game(s) or not. I think the light could still come on for him. The only guys I really take issue with would be Gilmore and Cotton. Everyone else, I will criticize if I feel it's merited, but for the most part it's discussion and pointing things out, rather than pointing fingers and saying people should go. It's a fact that the defense had some bad plays today, just as it's a fact that they had good ones. How costly the bad plays and how redeeming the good plays were I think makes for good discussion.

No need to be very defensive and a "no! the defense did no wrong!" or "the offense did no right!" about it.

 
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zoogies said:
Fumbles are usually regarded as the player's fault. See: Niles, Cody, and what people thought of them.

I don't know since when Taylor Martinez was supposed to be a safe, few turnovers kind of guy. If you thought that was going to be the case this year, it was a pipe dream and I could have told you as much in September. That's what Taylor is: inconsistent, young, mistake-prone, but with high potential. And then we go back and say it's Watson's fault with playcalling that we are mistake-prone and inconsistent, when really it's reflective of the QB.

Roy's fumbles, and other players, and the lack of discipline...you could blame that on Watson I guess. Or the specific position coaches. Or Pelini. The buck really stops there but I'm not really a blame-anybody kind of guy as far as fumbles go. We fumbled 9000 times in 1999, and I don't think any of those coaches were particularly responsible. If I remember, we cleaned it up a bit in the years following.

Sometimes people gotta point fingers. I think there's criticm to go around, but with few exceptions it is not searing. Even my criticism of Taylor is not that bad, since I think he still has a ton of potential, bad game(s) or not.
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And there it is, kids. Buried in his 1,000,000th post. A shred of blame for Watson by Zoogies. I shudder to think how many gallons of e-ink had to be spilled in order to finally get us there.

 
You must have not read the posts where I ripped on Watson for his play calls at the end of the game.

You must also have not read the rest of that paragraph. It's a very tenuous connection at best. You are blaming someone for something tenuously connected simply because you want to blame him. And not anyone else, who could similarly shoulder the same blame.

 
Discipline and preparation falls solely on the shoulders of Watson. Sometimes, there isn't a lot you can do about them, but our entire offensive unit plays inconsistent.

 
This Game comes down to one play one mistake that shouldn't have been made. Whether it was a breakdown in coverage on D, or missed asignment on the run D, or if we Don't fumble the damn ball (hold on to even one), make better decisions when pressured (again just one damn time) on Offense, throw the ball away and settle for 3 just ONCE.

There is plenty of blame to go around. The D played a very good game against a very respectable Oklahoma Offense. But, if you take one mistake away more than likely we win. Our Offense, well I just find it mind boggling that we can start out so good, and when the D we are playing adjusts and makes crucial plays we can't adjust the same. I Don't know if there is one person or unit to blame, but the coaches have got to figure this out and so far ESP. on Offense have failed to do so when it counts the most.

 
zoogies said:
You must have not read the posts where I ripped on Watson for his play calls at the end of the game.

You must also have not read the rest of that paragraph. It's a very tenuous connection at best. You are blaming someone for something tenuously connected simply because you want to blame him. And not anyone else, who could similarly shoulder the same blame.
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The defense did not dominate the game. That being said, that unit did more than its share. Christ, if you were told that you would go into halftime with the lead and that your defense would surrender a grand total of 6 points in the second half, how would you feel?

I'll answer it for you: You'd feel great, unless your a Husker fan and by extension are very familiar with an offense that, at any time, will completely implode.

Once again, you are so used to leaning entirely on the defense, that when an opposing offense plays decent against them, it's magnified. 2 field goals in 30 minutes of play seem back breaking when your f'ing offense does NOTHING.

I know you've levied some criticism of Watson, but do you think he should be here next season?

I apologize if you're on record on this matter, but I don't want to search the archives.

 
If you turn the ball over 5 times and lose to a team like Oklahoma by only 3, and seriously think the defense is to blame for the loss, then you're mentally deficient. Sorry to be so blunt, but it's true.

 
Our entire offensive unit is a joke.

O-line is inconsistent and makes the same mistakes they always have. Same stupid penalties, missed assignments...nothing has changed since the first game. They are still making the same mistakes. I'm sure this isn't Watson's fault though. He's just the offensive coordinator.

Our WR's are probably one of the most inconsistent groups on the field. They have a hard time catching the ball, the WR coach doesn't know what he has, and I haven't seen much improvement from year to year either. I'm sure this isn't Watson's fault though. He's just the offensive coordinator.

And no one on the team can hold on to the ball. How many fumbles do we have on the year? It's ridiculous. Fumbles every once in a while just happen, but when it's a trend and almost a forgone conclusion that the team will fumble at least three times a game, it becomes ridiculous. I'm sure this isn't Watson's fault though. He's just the offensive coordinator.

Overall the offense is sloppy, undisciplined, and highly inconsistent. I'm sure this isn't Watson's fault though. He's just the offensive coordinator.

The offensive playcalling is consistently bad and the gameplan never seems like much thought is put into it. I'm sure this isn't Watson's fault though. He's just the offensive coordinator.

Time for Bo to step up and make some changes. Otherwise more offensive performances like this one, Texas, A&M, 2009 VT, 2009 Big 12 championship, 2009 Texas Tech, 2009 Iowa St, etc. can be expected. Step up Bo and take control of this team.

 
Jason Sitoke said:
zoogies said:
You must have not read the posts where I ripped on Watson for his play calls at the end of the game.

You must also have not read the rest of that paragraph. It's a very tenuous connection at best. You are blaming someone for something tenuously connected simply because you want to blame him. And not anyone else, who could similarly shoulder the same blame.
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The defense did not dominate the game. That being said, that unit did more than its share. Christ, if you were told that you would go into halftime with the lead and that your defense would surrender a grand total of 6 points in the second half, how would you feel?

I'll answer it for you: You'd feel great, unless your a Husker fan and by extension are very familiar with an offense that, at any time, will completely implode.

Once again, you are so used to leaning entirely on the defense, that when an opposing offense plays decent against them, it's magnified. 2 field goals in 30 minutes of play seem back breaking when your f'ing offense does NOTHING.

I know you've levied some criticism of Watson, but do you think he should be here next season?

I apologize if you're on record on this matter, but I don't want to search the archives.
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I think the defense pulled more weight in this game, I agree with you, because of how the O disappeared in the second half. I am just recognizing that there is blame to go all around.

Knowing what everyone knows about our team and its makeup, if you were told that you would go into the 2nd quarter up 17-ZIP, how would you feel about the prospects of OU cutting that lead? Not great, but they did it very quickly with two drives of 80 and 71 yards. Maybe that's magnified, but it's huge when 17-0 turns into 17-10 at the drop of a dime like that. Martinez with the huge assist.

I think Watson should be here next season, and I like the guy, but I think the entire approach to the game leading up to the week: starting Taylor, not preparing Cody; and the entire approach during the game: continuing to give the ball to Taylor and call passes in crunch time; were DREAD-AWFUL. It's so bad I had to combine two negative words into one. All of that is on Bo and Watson. Because of the degree it's related to Taylor, I strongly suspect it has a mite more to do with Bo, who made the QB call, than Watson, who I'm sure would have been fine and happy going with Green. For some reason, Bo loves Taylor. I love Taylor too, when he's healthy and can run all over anyone. It was plainly obvious that this was not close to the case last night. Taylor - legs + deer-in-headlights look, is not only worse than Green, but a disaster. The fact that we didn't prepare a contingency plan shows some extremely dangerous, entire program-risking faith in the guy that was almost off the team twice now, from Bo.

And I love me some Bo Pelini, so I don't want the guy to go anytime soon, or ever, but this is something I am starting to worry about. Coaches make important calls like this and have to ride them and fall with them. IMO, there were a lot of things that went wrong in the game, but the one guy I will really point any finger to is the guy I don't want to leave, our HC, who put us in that position.

 
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Nebraska has clearly just lost the fumble lottery, that's all. Coaches have nothing to do with fumbles, nebraska just recruits all of the fumblers and other schools manage to dodge those self-inflicted wounds. Coaches have nothing to do with it.

 
You heard it here first, folks: if a coach continues to play the guys with a chronic turnover problem and refuse to give a chance to other guys, it's not their fault; it all goes on the players. And while you're at it, don't practice ball security either, cause there's nothing coaches can do about it... gimme a break.

 
No I'm not a troll. Husker fan since birth. Went to my first game before I was born!!! And I'm not a Watson fan or apologist. and yeah, I watched the whole game, from start to finish. The offense did some good things and I think the defense held the Sooners to 2 out of 18 on third down conversions. Obviously the offense stunk it up, but there were some things the defense could have done better. Do you think giving up 342 passing yards for the second rated pass defense in the country is acceptable? Do you think 454 total yards is a good showing? The defense was on the field too long? check the stats Time of Possession: OU 28:00 NU 32:00. And OU had a short field more than once after turnovers, but still ended up with huge yardage. How many long 3rd downs did we give up big yards? I remember two times at least.

Look, in other posts I ripped Watson for coddling Martinez, and worrying more about hurting his feelings than winning the football game. I was yelling at the TV for the wildcat with Rex. Watson's statement that he wanted to mix things up, and you can't just run the limited wildcat make me puke. Run the plays that make the yards until your opponent stops them. That's pretty basic coaching. Quit running the read option on first down, so you don't face 2nd and long the whole game. How predictable was that??? I'm not giving the offensive play calling a pass. It was terrible. It deserves to be second guessed, from starting Martinez to not sticking with the wildcat to leaving Martinez in as a receiver on the wildcat.

The defense played really well at times. The goal line stands in the second half were great. Holding the Sooners to three field goal tries and only two makes was really stand up. But answer me this: where was the blitz on 3rd and 24? Was that a good call to drop back in coverage and give up a completion for 23 yards? And hey, make a tackle on the play and don't try to strip the ball, and maybe the Sooners punt on 4th and 4 instead of running the bootleg.

 
dergibog said:
I've been bashing Watson, but the Pelini's were not in the zone either. Why didn't we blitz on 3rd and 24??? We gave up 23 and then the DE didn't stay home on the naked bootleg. The more I think about it, there's blame to go around.
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I've had a bit of time to digest this a bit further.

How can you blame a defense that stopped two fourth down conversions early in the game, that could have made this real ugly by half time.

To blame the defense that kept this game close, is assinine.

 
Nobody is calling for heads on the defensive side here, but blame is due where it is due. On a critical 3rd and 24, they allowed the conversion. They made up for it later with two key 3 and outs at the end of the game, so praise is due where praise is due, too.

I am thinking on the 3rd and 24 that the playcall is not really to blame there. Hard to criticize taking away the deep stuff. It was player error (Prince) in not making the tackle right away, that led to the 4th and 1 situation.

I think offensive playcalling is a lot more open to criticism as a general rule for any team in any game, because people have plenty of things to say. "Where are the screen passes? Where's the draws? The counters? The traps? The playaction? The deep ball? The read option? etc, etc, etc." Whereas on defense, I don't think I EVER hear anyone say "Why were we sitting in a zone" or "Why didn't we call Cover 1". About the only three things anyone will ever say on defensive playcalling: "We should have blitzed." "We shouldn't have blitzed." "Prevent defense is stupid."

 
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walksalone said:
dergibog said:
I've been bashing Watson, but the Pelini's were not in the zone either. Why didn't we blitz on 3rd and 24??? We gave up 23 and then the DE didn't stay home on the naked bootleg. The more I think about it, there's blame to go around.
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I've had a bit of time to digest this a bit further.

How can you blame a defense that stopped two fourth down conversions early in the game, that could have made this real ugly by half time.

To blame the defense that kept this game close, is assinine.
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I'm not blaming the defense, although rereading the topic title I probably should have said "defense can take a little bit of blame" or "defense not perfect". I don't the defense played their best game, and I don't think the defensive coaches made the right choice on the 3rd and 24.

 
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