How good can we be with TM under center next year?

zoogies said:
HuskerShark said:
I'm actually very happy the coaches taught him to slide. He's not like Eric Crouch with the ball in his hands. If a defender is headed straight toward TM, he is going down, and he is likely going to take a big hit in the process. He's a straight line runner, and the times that he got loose last year, a biggest loser contestant could have made it through those holes.
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I think Taylor needs to be taught not to avoid the hit, but to know how to take one. Sliding can be dangerous sometimes too. And too often, he is straight upright when he gets steamrolled by a tackler and goes down very hard, and awkwardly, with a full-on hit. Got to think lowering the shoulder there would even reduce the chance of injury.
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There are rules in place that help protect sliding QBs. Taylor is not the type of player who is going to succeed at lowering his shoulder. In fact, he would probably get a broken collar bone if he tried.

People just have to accept that TM is an upright straight-line runner, and sliding to avoid hits and injury is the best option that he has.

 
You're probably right. Seeing him get - what's the term? clotheslined? layed out? whacked in the face? - is no good though. There has to be some kind of improvement over that.

 
zoogies said:
You're probably right. Seeing him get - what's the term? clotheslined? layed out? whacked in the face? - is no good though. There has to be some kind of improvement over that.
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HAHA! yeah, it makes me cringe every time it happens. I just think sliding is the right thing to do. Better than getting laid out like that.

 
The Dude said:
Danimal said:
For me the question is whether he can get that step he lost back. He should develop mentally and improve in his execution of the option game. He should also improve his passing-game, but he'll never be a particularly good passer. He needs that take-it-to-the-house ability that got him the job in the first place.
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I meant to bring this up because I don't remember it being mentioned. Did anyone else think Taylor looked a little quicker in the bowl game? I agree he didn't have the same explosiveness this year, but he looked pretty damn quick against South Carolina on that option keeper he nearly took to the house in the first quarter.
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I think that Taylor has always had the speed he showed during the bowl games. You saw it during the season against Chattanooga, Fresno, and a little [i think] against Washington. Even during the conference season...against Ohio State for example on our first TD, you saw his explosive straight line running ability. And then you saw it in the bowl game.

 

There has to be some truth to the idea of protecting Taylor by not having him run as much, because we were sunk if we didn't at the QB position. Now that Brion has another year under his belt, maybe Bo and Beck will be more willing to have him carry the ball more and utilize his speed and make it more of an asset; so that if Taylor does get hurt, we have a sophomore QB [who we all estimate is a good runner and is a decent enough passer] that we won't be completely ineffective if we don't have him.

 

Just a suggestion, and maybe on track...or it could be way into left field.

HuskerShark said:
C N Red said:
TM will only ever be a 9-10 win guy. Hey, that's fine and good, but if he is a 4 year starter he HAS to be able to get us to 11-12 wins with a BCS bowl win at a minimum. I for one do not think he can do this.

I have nothing against the kid. I'm sure he's a fine person and human being, but I just don't see him as a QB that can get the Huskers over the top.

I also think the kid gets more criticism than he deserves and the reason is Bo. The fact is he shouldn't be a starting QB and Bo leaving him in there does him no favors.

Sorry, but I don't see us winning a B1G championship, I don't see us getting to a BCS bowl, and I don't see us winning more than 10 games with him at QB 1. These are just my honest opinions, and I know people won't agree and that's fine.

I actually hope I'm wrong and he does do all these things and hopefully more. I like my crow medium well with the sweet and spicy taste of dorothy lynch.
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You realize that this year with a below average defense we still won 9 games, right?... What if next year our defense matures and they are a top-10 defense again? I have no doubt in my mind that with a workhorse RB like Rex, TM can win us 12-14 games.

Does that mean that I think he is elite? No. He's no Andrew Luck, but he made huge strides this year as a QB.
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To be fair to both sides of the argument here, there were times where our defense couldn't get the offense back onto the field to produce and more importantly there were times when our offense couldn't stay on the field so that our defense could get some rest. Both sides contributed to those poor-ish efforts.

Now, the issue at hand is deciding wether or not Taylor can win us a conference championship or more. None of us can ascertain wether he can or not, because football is a team game and there is more than just the quarterback who determines the outcome of the game.

So let's take a look back at this season to see what our team is more than likely going to do. You have to throw out the good-over the top performance-wins [like the ones against Minnesota, Chattanooga, and Ohio State (mainly 2nd half)], where the team did mostly everything right on both sides of the football. Now at the same time you also have to throw out the subterranean-horrific-performances where the team did almost nothing right on both sides of the ball [Michigan, Wisconsin, and the 2nd half against South Carolina].

 

What you have in the end are the games against Michigan State, Penn State, Northwestern, and Iowa-and we all know how we did against those four. The idea being, all things equal in terms of team talent [us vs them], we should win about every 3 games out of 4, with the occasional 4 games out of 4.

 

I think Nebraska next year will go about 10-2 in the regular season [maybe 11-1], and then we'll see who we're matched up against in our bowl game.

 
I was going to say something...but way too many are doing a good job of proving this thread is :lame . Or, at least all of TTTR..A's rebuttals. It is truly amazing how a QB's footwork controls an Oline.

 
Foppa said:
I was going to say something...but way too many are doing a good job of proving this thread is :lame . Or, at least all of TTTR..A's rebuttals. It is truly amazing how a QB's footwork controls an Oline.
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No. It's just out of your comprehension level. You clearly don't understand the complexity of playing QB, and the complexity of the offensive line position. Your comment makes that very clear by how simple you seem to think it is. QB's footwork controls the Oline? What the hell does that even mean?

Try playing offensive line with an erratic QB, it can't be easy. How the hell are those kids supposed to know what Taylor's gonna do. Taylor takes a 3 step drop, then panics, freaks out and takes off in all kinds of directions. I won't deny the fact that it goes both ways. Playing QB with an inconsistent offensive line isn't easy either but let's take a step back there. Weren't they a good enough Oline that we were all talking about Taylor for Heisman a year ago? Wasn't this offensive line good enough to break a single game rushing record with Roy Helu? Didn't Helu have a hell of a year? Rex Burkhead did pretty well this year. It could have been better but hell, you try running the damn ball when 8 defenders are loading the box. You didn't see defenses loading 8 guys within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage on us all year? How exactly is a 5 man front supposed to block 8 defenders 85% of every game. I don't think you people give the offensive line enough credit. You know why Taylor didn't have that stellar rushing year this year that he had last season? BECAUSE EVERYBODY FIGURED OUT THAT WAS THE ONLY THREAT HE HAS!!!!!!!! HELLLLOOOOOOOOO MCFLY!!!!

 
Beck will produce a scary offense for us once and only when we put a QB besides Taylor Martinez in there. Mark my words, write this down, bank on it, the day we replace Taylor is the day this offense becomes a legitimate top 20 offense in the country. Dual threat QB! DUAL THREAT AS IN--------2 THREATS. The threat to run and pass. Not just the threat to run.

 
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MLB 51 said:
It all starts with the O-Line.
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Yes your right. What was I thinking. Taylor is great, it's the offensive line that sucks. Everybody else in the country talks about the most important position in football being the QB position, but in Nebraska we settle for this................


 
True. We only go as far as TM's skill's will take us. But you have to have great offensive line play as well.

 
True to the Red.......Always said:
Foppa said:
I was going to say something...but way too many are doing a good job of proving this thread is :lame . Or, at least all of TTTR..A's rebuttals. It is truly amazing how a QB's footwork controls an Oline.
Click to expand...
No. It's just out of your comprehension level. You clearly don't understand the complexity of playing QB, and the complexity of the offensive line position. Your comment makes that very clear by how simple you seem to think it is. QB's footwork controls the Oline? What the hell does that even mean?

Try playing offensive line with an erratic QB, it can't be easy. How the hell are those kids supposed to know what Taylor's gonna do. Taylor takes a 3 step drop, then panics, freaks out and takes off in all kinds of directions. I won't deny the fact that it goes both ways. Playing QB with an inconsistent offensive line isn't easy either but let's take a step back there. Weren't they a good enough Oline that we were all talking about Taylor for Heisman a year ago? Wasn't this offensive line good enough to break a single game rushing record with Roy Helu? Didn't Helu have a hell of a year? Rex Burkhead did pretty well this year. It could have been better but hell, you try running the damn ball when 8 defenders are loading the box. You didn't see defenses loading 8 guys within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage on us all year? How exactly is a 5 man front supposed to block 8 defenders 85% of every game. I don't think you people give the offensive line enough credit. You know why Taylor didn't have that stellar rushing year this year that he had last season? BECAUSE EVERYBODY FIGURED OUT THAT WAS THE ONLY THREAT HE HAS!!!!!!!! HELLLLOOOOOOOOO MCFLY!!!!
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Next time I'll remember that incompetence requires the 'sarcasm' emoticon. The rest of your screaming is just pathetic.

 
Foppa said:
True to the Red.......Always said:
Foppa said:
I was going to say something...but way too many are doing a good job of proving this thread is :lame . Or, at least all of TTTR..A's rebuttals. It is truly amazing how a QB's footwork controls an Oline.
Click to expand...
No. It's just out of your comprehension level. You clearly don't understand the complexity of playing QB, and the complexity of the offensive line position. Your comment makes that very clear by how simple you seem to think it is. QB's footwork controls the Oline? What the hell does that even mean?

Try playing offensive line with an erratic QB, it can't be easy. How the hell are those kids supposed to know what Taylor's gonna do. Taylor takes a 3 step drop, then panics, freaks out and takes off in all kinds of directions. I won't deny the fact that it goes both ways. Playing QB with an inconsistent offensive line isn't easy either but let's take a step back there. Weren't they a good enough Oline that we were all talking about Taylor for Heisman a year ago? Wasn't this offensive line good enough to break a single game rushing record with Roy Helu? Didn't Helu have a hell of a year? Rex Burkhead did pretty well this year. It could have been better but hell, you try running the damn ball when 8 defenders are loading the box. You didn't see defenses loading 8 guys within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage on us all year? How exactly is a 5 man front supposed to block 8 defenders 85% of every game. I don't think you people give the offensive line enough credit. You know why Taylor didn't have that stellar rushing year this year that he had last season? BECAUSE EVERYBODY FIGURED OUT THAT WAS THE ONLY THREAT HE HAS!!!!!!!! HELLLLOOOOOOOOO MCFLY!!!!
Click to expand...
Next time I'll remember that incompetence requires the 'sarcasm' emoticon. The rest of your screaming is just pathetic.
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That's not me screaming, that's Biff. That's just the way he talks. Ever since he found that sports almanac he just kind of does what he wants.

 
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