Grading the 2012 Season

[WAHusker]

Overall: B-

Offense: B+

QB: B Better than last year, but still makes bonehead mistakes and the fumbles...

RB: A- Ameer did well, but still missed Brukhead

OL: B Outmaned in a few games, but a lot of heart.

WR: B+ Good most of the time. Could be higher if they had a more accurate QB

TE: B- Cotton did well blocking and a few receptions, but Reed was invisible in what should have been a stellar year

Defence: C

DL: D doesnt need an explanation

LB: C- Compton played well at times, but the other two were horrible most of the season

DB: B+ Showed some real progress

Special Teams: C Fumbles killed us

 

[JTrain]

Look I agree with some of the grades. I'll say this. Defense - F. You don't allow 3 of the top ten ugliest games ever given up by a Husker defense in one season and get any other grade other than an F from me. Period.

The other thing I would like to completely, absolutely disagree with is the offensive line grade. If this isn't an A I don't know what the hell people can ask for? We had one of the top rushing teams in the country, that's even with our top running back out for almost the entire season. Now Abdullah is no slouch, and he deserves a ton of credit, but none of it happens without the guys up front. None of it. The other point a lot of you make against the offensive line is their pass blocking and once again I can't stress this enough (some of you just seem to completely overlook this point) that you have no idea how hard it must be for those guys to consistently block for Taylor Martinez as a passer. How do you pass block on a consistent basis for a guy who panics in the pocket and gets happy feet the way Taylor does. You never know which direction the kid is going. Many, many, MANY times Taylor actually ran into the trouble when he would have been FINE just standing in there and delivering the pass from the pocket. It has made the pass blocking look bad at times, but if you choose to really look at what creates that terrible look, you will see that 85% of the time it was Taylors unfortunate problem staying cool and calm in the pocket.

p.s. Taylor improved greatly and deserves credit for his improvement. This is no way a slam on him, it is just a simple fact that he still needs to work on his footwork and calmness in the pocket. He still panics when his primary receiver is covered. It is a problem he can fix, it just takes some time in practice.

I understand your point, but there's no way Martinez was creating 85% of the opposing defense's major pass rush success. That's way too high.

 

[chamrocck]

Hmmm, I like to grade on the curve so I'll give grades compared to what else I have seen out there.

O-Line - for example if Bama and A&M are A+, I give us a B-.

QB - B+

RB's - A-

WR's - B+

I think our offense is doing pretty well. Improved play by the O-Line and less putting the ball on the turf by TMart and Abdullah and we will be great. Our WR's are much improved from all the drops we used to see.

D-Line - D

LB's - C-

Secondary - B

Our defense is the weak link we all saw exposed in our losses. Has a long way to go.

Kicking - B+

Punting - C

Special Teams - B-

 

[Decked]

Offense: B+ to many turnovers for an "A" rating

Defense: C- gave up lots of big plays.

Special teams: D to many shanks and dropped punts.

Turnovers: F way to many this year.

Penalties: D+ very undisciplined this year.

 

[junior4949]

Putting the defensive grade at a C seems extremely generous. Statistically, this was the second worst defense Bo has put on the field since being at Nebraska as head coach. If one goes back through the total defensive stats in his time here, the average total defensive rating is 38.4. Our total defensive rating this year was 56. Then, one has to look at some of the performances this year where we had somewhere around three of the ten worst in Husker history. An F might be a bit harsh, so I'd put them at a solid D-.

Yeah, you could argue lower. But you can't ignore the pass defense was legitimately good until the bowl game. And the rest of the guys had their moments (particularly Martin), albeit they got exposed against the top-level competition.

I still think a low C is reasonable, taking into account the season as a whole. Three games were very solid Fs for sure, but there were plenty of moments of decentness in the other eleven.

I might be a little hard on the defense, but our #56 total defensive rating per rivals already has the pass defense figured in. Plus, half of our pass defense stats were padded against passing offenses that ranked in the triple digits per rivals. The only two passing offenses we faced this year in the top 30 heaved the rock all over us. Had we not played in a run heavy league, it's likely our total defensive rating mirrors the 08' season which was Bo's worst defense he's fielded since being named head coach. Granted, I'm basing my grade on the five defenses Bo has put on the field since being head coach while others are probably basing them off other teams and such. I also realize that defenses don't get much better than what we enjoyed a few years ago which is why I won't grade this defense an F but rather a D.

In terms of games with a solid F defensive performance, I'd up your three games to four. UCLA, Ohio State, Wisconsin in the CCG, and Georgia all seem like epic fails to me. After watching last night's NC game, I came away with the feeling our offense could play with Bama if they take care of the ball while our defense would have looked utterly clueless and folded like a lawn chair much like ND's defense did.