Said senior guard Matt Slauson: “We are on the edge of being a great rushing team. It isn’t any particular guy. It’s just one different guy every different play not necessarily finishing their block. … And what’s weird is they can do it fine on the next play. Just one mental breakdown by one guy kills us every run.”
Since the Huskers have had 165 running plays, Slauson seems to be saying that each lineman has been guilty of 35 mental breakdowns…oh, unless you throw in the two regular reserves, then each one of them has only had 24 mental breakdowns this year. Boil it down a bit and it would appear that during a 10 play drive, you can expect a different lineman to have a mental breakdown of some sort on 6 of the 10 plays…or you could say that each lineman has, on average, 5 mental breakdowns a game. Of course, this doesn’t take into account the mental breakdowns that the linemen have on passing plays which would probably drive the numbers a little higher…this group doesn’t need a coach…it needs a psychiatrist!
“On first down, a lot of times we’re expecting blitz and when we line up and go, we kind of sit and wait and watch and see what they do,” he said. “And we can’t be having that. Because if you wait until third down to fire off, you’ll be short every time.”
Okay…someone help me out here. What teams that Nebraska plays throughout the year blitzes on first down on such a consistent basis that you actually expect it? None of them! Sorry…if that’s what you’re looking for on first down, you need to go back, look at the film and count all the 1st down blitzes you’ve seen this year because you’ll find out your playing a tendency that doesn’t exist. And apparently the line expects the blitz again on 2nd down? It seems that they do since they don’t fire off till 3rd down!?! And isn’t 3rd down traditionally the down where you would expect the blitz??? What is going on here? I mean, it’s been a while since I played football but I’m thinking it can’t have changed that much.
When I read these quotes, I get the sinking feeling that there is something really fundamentally wrong here….