Grading out the Maine Game

[StuckinChicago]

Quarterback... Taylor was shaky at best, but we did not see the JD glaring stupidities except on one play. Dropped passes and no running game did not help either, and he did show good touch on his deep passes. Final Grade C-

Runningbacks... Fumbles, lack of vision, all around not very impressive from the leader of our team. BJax came in and had a couple of tough runs and Lucky got about ten carries towards the end of the game and showed some good patience and toughness. Poor O-line play once again did not help. Final Grade C-

Wide Outs/Tight Ends... 5 dropped passes... Unacceptable. Hardy did look exceptionaly good tonight except for having one dropped pass, but he does look like a playmaker, and can stretch the field. He will be great asset when we get Flu back and can tie up the safeties ten yards back instead of one the line of scrimmage. Final Grade C

O-line... Sucked. Got no push against a D line that weighed about 40 to 50 pounds less a man. Gave Taylor pretty poor protection, and made the rest of the offense look bad. They have to pick it up if we think our offense is going to be able to do anything this year. Final Grade F

D-line... They were in the backfield the whole game. Turner made a big impact in Nickel situations, and Carriker and Moore were unstoppable coming from the edges. Smith and Adams absolutely shut down the inside, and their play opened up alot of blitz opportunities for the linebackers. Final Grade A+

Linebackers... Played absolutely awesome. Flew around the field and made plays all game long. Octavien was unbelievable and he will be a big loss, but Rudd played very well in his place. McKeon was on top of every pile, and Bradley was a wrecking ball and was unstoppable coming off of the edge. He even had a waffle (opposite of a pancake) on their tackle. Forced some turnovers (im counting the non turnover in the endzone) Final Grade A+

Secondary... Safeties were not tested (no passes completed over the middle) Thew alot of outs on the side which are difficult to defend, but I think that Grixby could have made a couple of more plays. Bowman was as advertised and absolutely shut down his side of the field. They threw at him twice, one would have been a pick if the pass wasnt horrible and the other was a three yard out. Green was solid, but eleven sacks sure did help. Wilson came in for one play... and fell down. Leave Bowman over there and we have a shut out. Final Grade A-

Special Teams... Congdan missed an extra point... And then made four field goals. Koch was very good, and his punts were consistanly high and long, which contributed to three fair catches on their part. Kick and punt returns were awesome, and that is probably one of the more encouraging things to come out of the game. Bowman and Green absloutely shut down their gunners, and the returners (Nunn and Green) made some great moves and got down field quickly. We didnt have to cover any punts (see Koch) and our Kick coverage was decent. Congdan's kickoffs were not long, but they were high, and we pinned them behind the twenty more than once. Final Grade A-

Overall... Defense and special teams were great, but the offense struggled behind the incredibly poor play of the o-line. That part must improve, and the rest of the offense will get better because of it. Final Grade C+

 

[Red November]

From Brian Rosenthal of the LJS

RUSHING GAME (D)

It was a little disconcerting to see the Black Bears bottle up Cory Ross and Co. Nebraska didn’t even try running the ball on three plays from inside the Maine 1-yard late in the second quarter. Couldn’t Brandon Jackson or Cody Glenn punch it in? Ross’ only big run of the night ended with a fumble. And 42 carries for 121 yards against a I-AA team is somewhat alarming. “We’ve just got to clean some things up,” offensive line coach Dennis Wagner said. “In the running game, we didn’t do a good job with (the blitz). Whether it was one guy or another, we won’t know until we watch the film.”

PASSING GAME ( C)

Average, at best. Zac Taylor threw two interceptions — one the result of a bad decision. Overall, Taylor seemed to manage the team fairly well for a first game. Frantz Hardy lived up the hype as a deep threat, but he also dropped two passes inside the Maine 5-yard line. The receiving corps, overall, though, is beat up and thin, so it may be difficult to accurately gauge NU’s air attack.

AGAINST THE RUN (A)

Granted, Maine’s minus 6 rushing yards reflects 11 sacks by the Blackshirts, which is a credit to the pass defense. The front seven swarmed to the ball throughout the game, and the Black Bears were never able to sustain any ground attack.

AGAINST THE PASS (A)

The Blackshirts mauled the Black Bears up front and generated more than enough pressure. The long TD pass, it should be noted, came against mostly second-team players. Now, can the front four continue to apply this type of pressure?

SPECIAL TEAMS (B)

Gee, where they’d find this Terrence Nunn guy? What a spectacular display by the sophomore on punt returns. Truly, a breath of fresh air. What wasn’t so refreshing was a missed PAT and a muffed punt return.

GAME MANAGEMENT AND PENALTIES (A)

Wow, a season-opening game, and no penalties? That’s impressive. Liked the decision to go for it on fourth down. Also, it was good to see Zac Taylor getting the plays signaled in from the sideline. That seems to work better than running to and from the sideline after every play. On a side note, are we going to see this many instant replay reviews every game?

PLAY CALLING (B)

First-and-goal at the 1-yard line against Maine, and you can’t run the ball across the goal line? The three straight passing plays were suspect, especially when the last one brought back horrific memories from last season.

OVERALL ( C)

A fairly unimpressive victory against a Division I-AA team isn’t what Bill Callahan and his staff needed to ease nerves in this state. While the defense played sound, the offense clearly has way to go. Then again, nobody in the Big 12 overwhelmed I-AA foes Saturday night. So maybe there’s hope yet.