Hello From washington

[Lil' Red]

husky here. looking forward to a great game! i think we will show you that we are not to be taken lightly! however, while i think we have an advantage at the skill positions, we are thin at the lines, and our D is unimpressive, which doesn't bode well for us in the latter minutes of the game

I will guarantee you that you do not have an advantage in the skill positions. We have crazy good cornerbacks and safeties, and a lights-out defensive line that goes two-deep as well as anyone in the nation. Where you might have an advantage is if you run the ball straight at us, or use short crossing routes around our linebackers. We've lost our top two linebackers due to injury and that's the weakest part of our defense. Of course, our backup linebackers are very, very good, so we'll see what happens there.

Defense is my favorite side of the ball, and I'm very comfortable with our defense this year. We're certainly not unbeatable, but it'll take one hell of a game by an opponent to beat us.

by skill positions, i meant QB, RB, and WR. in each, i think we have a slight advantage. in everything else, i think we will be overwhelmed

As in, your QB is better than our QB? That I will agree with. While Martinez may have a great career ahead of him, we have a large body of work to look at for Locker, and he's impressive.

At RB... I don't think you have an advantage. I'm not familiar with Polk other than what I've seen on film this week, but he does not appear to me to be better than Helu, and I have no idea who your backup is, but I know we go four-deep with pretty darned good skill. If Helu goes down we put in Burkhead, with no dropoff. If Burhead goes down we put in Robinson, with little dropoff. If Robinson goes down we put in Jones, with very little dropoff. We legitimately have four very good RBs. How our #1 compares to your #1 is what you're talking about, I presume, and that I cannot say. Helu is good, like 150-something yards against last year's VA Tech defense good. So who knows there.

At WR I would venture your guys are better across the board. My guess is you want your WRs to be WRs, while our coaches seem to think our WRs must be WRs and offensive linemen - so much so that an inability to block has kept a few very good WRs on our bench at Nebraska. I think we have talent at WR, but we also have boneheadedness, and that boneheadedness has also cost us games. So this is also hard to say.

The true test, though, isn't Locker vs Martinez or Polk vs Helu. It's your offensive skill players vs. our defense, and vice versa. That's where I think Nebraska has the advantage, because our defense is WAAAAAAAY better than our offense. And our offense is OK.

:laughpound first off, lol@guy who says NU's recievers are better.

as for RB, you make an interesting argument. your certainly deeper than we are, but i watched a fair amount of nebraska football last year and was not impressed at all by roy helu. his line gets him his stats, not any elusiveness or YAC, like polk. comparing numbers though, i can see how you might think its close. but Our line does not help Polk out at all for the most part. he earns every yard he gets.

and yes, your D is good. not yet willing to say it measures with the nation's elite, seeing as youve yet to have any competition, but they were certainly up there last year.

I agree that you have better WR's and a better QB but I have my doubts that you have better RB's. I haven't seen Washington or Polk play much but if he is better than our combo of Burkhead and Helu then you guys either have a terrible O-Line or are huge underachievers on offense. I think he is a good back but I have my doubts that your RB group is better than ours.

 

[sd'sker]

can i just say, who cares has a better rb. the question should be, "whose rb will do better against whose defense". for instance, udub may have a better qb, but he is going against a stellar defense, so he may look like the worse qb. those are the comparisons that need to be discussed. not head to head at positions, but head to head offense vs. defense.

 

[huskernumerouno]

This is a lot like saying my dad can beat up your dad, it really gets nowhere and usually pisses someone off. I like our match ups and our chances. This will be decided by coaching and who prepared better and commits the fewest turnovers or mental mistakes. At this level everyone has good athletes and everyone has strong and fast players. Just look at the James Maddison win, the Kansas loss and then their win.

The questions should be:

1. Is our offense better than their Defense

2. is their Offense better than our offense

3 whose special teams are better.

I do truely feel that if we play mistake free or limit our offensive penalties and turnovers we have the advantage due to our DL & DB, and our special teams. If our D plays up to the "Hype" as someone mentioned then Special Teams could win this for us.

GBR GBR GBR

 

[skersfan]

No way to tell who is the better QB. Stats, Locker has a bunch, but as a freshman was not as good as Martinez.

We will know who the better QB is tomorrow.

I will give you the WR's. I have no arguement that could justify thinking any of ours are comparable.

Helu is a very good running back that is continously bitten by the injury bug. Most of us have never seen him be a really good back until this year. And if we over use him, we will see him hobble off again is my guess.

I agree on the defense, we have seen nothing to tell us we can compete with a BCS level team. But my guess is we will be just fine.

Our Oline is better than last year, our LB's are good, but green.

I think if we run the ball at you from the start we win going away. Keep Locker off the field and rotate the running backs so in the fourth quarter, your defense totally gives up the ghost.

We have pretty good corners and safties and I am sure all will know quickly who is going to win that battle, but we faced a pretty good passing Arizona team that looked like Ducks out of water. I think we will hold our own on that side.

My guess is it will be close through the first half, but our talent and depth will start to pull away and could turn into a big gap, if we can get to Locker, Crick is pretty good and he seems to need a challenge to see what he can do. I think you guys bring that challenge.