How UT/SDSU defended Nebraska

[HuskerNMO]

Taylor had many opportunities to check out of plays and attack the UT defense but didn't.

The strong safety constantly was walking up and a well timed slant or hook route would have ate the Texas D up. That's why they backed off the zone read when Lee came in, they knew he would have had a field day with that assuming the WR's would have actually caught the ball.

With that said, where the heck is Khiry Cooper? Kid goes from a part time starter last year to completely MIA this year. So frustrating, guess he can't block and do 100 lb curls like Paul and Kinnie :facepalm:

 

[Hunter94]

Great stuff, Hercules. Those were some good analyses you put forth up there.

The D-line of UT was a LOT faster than anyone we’ve seen yet. There’s no way the timing of our read option could work against that defense. But we knew that going into the game. We just didn’t do enough to adjust for the extra speed of the Whorns.

To me, this was the crux of this game. Our offense seems hide-bound to do a certain thing. All this talk of "multiple" blah-blah-blah is nice to say, but it seems when we NEED to be multiple, we are unwilling or unable to be so. The big play for this offense has been the Zone Read. We've run it all season, and by gum we're going to run it the rest of the season, too. Which then begs the question - what's the point of having a huge playbook when you don't use those plays?

We came into this game with a single-minded focus - do what we do, and do it well. The problem is, we changed nothing from what we'd been doing the previous five games. Texas had more film to watch on us than a Cecil B. DeMille epic, and everything they spent two weeks planning for, we did. Contrast that with Texas' plan of letting Gilbert run loose, something we very clearly were not prepared for, and you have a recipe for a disaster.

You cannot give enough credit to Texas for this win. They out schemed us, they out planned us, they out prepared us, and they out hustled us, all game long. I tip my cap to Mack Brown and Will Muschamp - they showed why, even when the chips are down, they are two of the best coaches out there. But here's the problem Nebraska faces - extra time to prepare for an opponent is only valuable if you use it. We had an extra two days to prep for Texas. Clearly we did not use it. Clearly we rested on our laurels and did nothing to prepare for our opponent - or at least, we did nothing different.

I'm probably more bitter about this loss than any of the other upcoming losses we're going to have simply because this was Texas. This was the one single game all season where we had to put everything on the table, and we simply did not.

You do not put a focus on a game like this and come out and play like that. Not unless you want to be the laughingstock of college football for a day.

The one single saving grace of this day was that Ohio State lost as well. Had the #1 team not also lost today, taking a huge measure of attention away from this game, we would be hearing about this all season long.

good analogy, i think wats sat on his azz, i don't care for his lack of preparation, he should have reacted much sooner.

 

[Danimal]

The D-line of UT was a LOT faster than anyone we’ve seen yet. There’s no way the timing of our read option could work against that defense. But we knew that going into the game. We just didn’t do enough to adjust for the extra speed of the Whorns.

This is true. However, to me it appeared that we knew about their speed (after all, Pelini did talk about it all week). Even with that speed on the d-line, Martinez on several plays showed the speed to get past them or get around them, when he scrambled. The reason they shut down the zone read was because of the extra help from the linebackers and safeties.

I have to think Watson anticipated this is what would happen, but wanted to test the waters early on in the game and make sure he knew how Texas would play us. Starting around our 3rd or 4th series, we finally made the adjustment that needed to be made, which was play action on 1st and 2nd down, and we had guys running wide open down field. We missed a throw or two, but the drops absolutely killed us. Texas didn't have to adjust their scheme because we never really made them pay in the passing game.

If we make those catches, UT, at one point or another would have to back off of the run game, and play us more like they played Lee in the second half, and that opens up more holes for Martinez.

Anyways, I don't think there was anything wrong with the read option scheme we brought in. I'm not sure there was anything wrong with the gameplan, though I'd say that Watson should've anticipated from the get-go how Texas would play us, and start the game off by throwing on 1st and 2nd down. Maybe he wanted to get Taylor comfortable first by staying conservative, but I think it'd have been smarter to play aggressive and get Texas to stop creeping up to stop the run. Of course, we probably would've just dropped the ball.

I agree. I think one reason we showed little going into the Texas game was that we wanted to hold-back what we'd do when they sold-out to stop the run. We knew we'd have to get it done through the air, and the plays were there to do-so, unfortunately we just didn't have the execution and gave Texas the enormous luxury of not having to play us honest. I do think we could've assumed Texas would cheat-up and start passing from the get-go, maybe get the horns back on the heels. As you said provided we actually caught those passes.

I don't think Wats called that good a game but folks need to realize a team like Texas can shut our option scheme down if they really commit to it. We have to burn them deep, score points through the air and they'll loosen-up, then we can run. By dropping those passes we failed to execute a vital part of the gameplan and really hamstrung Wats.

 

[Blaze1up]

If they're gonna key on the run then go to play action passes. You got them spread out on an island so take advantage of it. What was with them trying to run on every 1st down, Texas knew it was coming.

 

[Hunter94]

If they're gonna key on the run then go to play action passes. You got them spread out on an island so take advantage of it. What was with them trying to run on every 1st down, Texas knew it was coming.

agree, stupid play calling by Watson...."gee, let's call the same play and expect a different result" :LOLtartar

 

[Igetbored216]

One thing I noticed with texas versus some of the other teams, when the guy was unblocked he knew he was unblocked and ran straight to a certain point, taking an angle that kind of disrupted the whole play, made it hard to read because he's gonna get the inside guy, but also force the outside guy to loop out a bit and slow it down, also the read itself was slower because the end wasn't really committing one way or the other but closing down the space as fast as possible. i just think the unblocked tackle or end type was not working at all bc those guys were fast enough to close down the gap. later when lee was in I think we changed it up. without looking at tape it looked different, like we were reading a backer or safety or something.

That's because if you watch the game again, the DEs were spying the QB. So on plays where it was likely the zone read would be run, the DEs would run to a certain spot on the field and just wait to see what the QB did. This wouldn't be a problem, except it seems that Martinez has already made his mind up before he snaps the ball on whether to keep it or hand it off. Obviously, this isn't the way the zone read is supposed to be run.

Hopefully we can get our running game going against Okie St, otherwise it's going to be another long day.