I have never felt worse about Nebraska football

BigRedBuster said:
I keep coming back to the football board and,....quite honestly, I don't even know what to say at this point.  It's just sad.
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Yep, unfortunately it brings out the 'Debbie Downer' in me.  Hard to get excited about NU football when they haven't shown real progress on the field.  You can argue all day long that the culture, recruiting and practices are better, but it has to play out wt wins to mean anything.

 
Husker in WI said:
I agree with the sentiment that we're closer than we look, but a playcaller can't make you throw a swing pass forward or make a guy hit his block. I have plenty of armchair QB issues with our playcalling, but realistically no one has concerns about the playcalling if we make the plays that have been there for the taking. 
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Really think the season would have been different if we road Mills, and the other RBs.

 
I wish I could believe that we are close, but the persistent penalties, missed assignments and turnovers tell a different story.  If you are older than 30, you know what good football in Lincoln looks like.  This is not it.

On the occasion when we do win, it is the product of an opponent being more hapless than us (i.e. Maryland 2019 or Purdue).

Finally, could we ask that the press and coaching staff mercifully end any and all references to "good practices".   If they are unwilling to end the use of this terminology, let's at least insist on them defining it for us (i.e. 5 holds or fewer this week, 3 or fewer fumbles, etc.)   

 
All Hail Herbie said:
I wish I could believe that we are close, but the persistent penalties, missed assignments and turnovers tell a different story.  If you are older than 30, you know what good football in Lincoln looks like.  This is not it.

On the occasion when we do win, it is the product of an opponent being more hapless than us (i.e. Maryland 2019 or Purdue).

Finally, could we ask that the press and coaching staff mercifully end any and all references to "good practices".   If they are unwilling to end the use of this terminology, let's at least insist on them defining it for us (i.e. 5 holds or fewer this week, 3 or fewer fumbles, etc.)   
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Yeah... the "good practice" schtick has run its course for Nebraska fans. We're beyond caring. We've used that as a crutch for 20 years to feel better about the direction of a program that hasn't been able to stop drowning itself.

I think I just saw on Twitter a quote from Mike Riley a few years ago where he said something to the effect of 'very little goes wrong during the week, it's just the games' and that's the same thing we're hearing from this staff.

Perhaps my biggest frustration is that it does appear Nebraska hurts itself more than anything else. It's not necessarily teams making good plays or exploiting some match-up deficiency. It's Nebraska shooting itself in the foot i.e. throwing a backwards lateral that gets dropped on first down and nets a nine yard loss. From a talent and even individual skill perspective, Nebraska seems to be there. The plays just aren't being made.

 
Amen to this.  Do you remember too when the Husker Press once referenced the "stress" that players were under during the Pelini and Riley years?  We as fans were to blame for on-field mishaps on Saturday because we were too "demanding" and set high expectations.  If we could only watch practice, it would be a different story.  

I suppose that narrative runs out of steam in a year when there are no fans in the stands!

Unfortunately, that could be the future of Husker football as well (post-Covid)!

 
All Hail Herbie said:
Amen to this.  Do you remember too when the Husker Press once referenced the "stress" that players were under during the Pelini and Riley years?  We as fans were to blame for on-field mishaps on Saturday because we were too "demanding" and set high expectations.  If we could only watch practice, it would be a different story.  

I suppose that narrative runs out of steam in a year when there are no fans in the stands!

Unfortunately, that could be the future of Husker football as well (post-Covid)!
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Funny story about that... I remember being at a Big Red Today breakfast a few years ago with Jason Peter as the guest. This was the 2017 season I think, so one year before Frost came. Mike'l Severe asked him what he thought about the idea that the fans and former players put too much unnecessary pressure on the program.

Before Severe could even finish the question, Jason just started yelling "Bulls***, bulls***, bulls***." And he's right. Making that an excuse is BS. Every single prominent division one football program has to deal with that kind of stuff. Do people think Alabama fans/alumni, Auburn fans/alumni or Ohio State fans/alumni aren't chomping at the bit to criticize the program when things aren't going well? They are and they do. It may not always be fair but it's the nature of the sport, job and profession.

 
As usual people are wildly overreacting to this loss. Minnesota was only 12 spots below us in SP+ entering this game; by that system we were expected to win by 3.6 points. We then missed a chip-shot field goal, had officiating swing the game eight points away from us, lost the turnover battle 2-0, gave them great field position all game, and left two big completions on the field ... and we lost by a touchdown. The "33 players out" were almost entirely reserves, and they got two weeks of rest while we got beat up at Iowa and played on Purdue's cow-field turf. Losses are losses, mistakes are mistakes, and I hate having opposing fans and national media people talking trash, but this was not some crazy, rock-bottom disaster. Our young team did some dumb stuff and we lost a game to a team we were close to even with. It doesn't invalidate the clear improvement we've made this year and some fans of this team need to get a grip. 

 
Some of y'all have real short memories if this is the worst you've felt. Worse than the "bloodbath" Iowa game? Worse than when Minnesota's QB (who would be forced out the next year because he was awful) ran for 18 yards per carry on us and they blew us out 54-21? Worse than losing to Northern Illinois and Troy in back to back years, or having to be scrape doff the field against Michigan? This loss sucked, but it was far from our darkest day.

 
J-MAGIC said:
 It doesn't invalidate the clear improvement we've made this year and some fans of this team need to get a grip. 
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Perhaps you've outlined your opinions elsewhere, so you don't have to repeat yourself, but I am curious what areas you feel have objectively improved in a way that is "clear?"

Personally, I think the defense has been solid enough to win more games with a less anemic offense. Been mostly impressed with the defensive backfield and I see a lot of good things happening in the front seven. I also like what the TE's and Wandale have done. But, I see stagnation/regression at quarterback, running back, wide receiver and offensive line. So, practically the whole offense, which was supposed to be a strength of this staff.

We then missed a chip-shot field goal, had officiating swing the game eight points away from us, lost the turnover battle 2-0, gave them great field position all game, and left two big completions on the field ... and we lost by a touchdown.
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IMO, that's the recipe bad football teams use to lose games. I don't disagree that Minnesota and Nebraska are probably equally matched, but those are big problems that have persisted around here for some time, particularly the turnovers and official blaming.

 
J-MAGIC said:
As usual people are wildly overreacting to this loss. Minnesota was only 12 spots below us in SP+ entering this game; by that system we were expected to win by 3.6 points. We then missed a chip-shot field goal, had officiating swing the game eight points away from us, lost the turnover battle 2-0, gave them great field position all game, and left two big completions on the field ... and we lost by a touchdown. The "33 players out" were almost entirely reserves, and they got two weeks of rest while we got beat up at Iowa and played on Purdue's cow-field turf. Losses are losses, mistakes are mistakes, and I hate having opposing fans and national media people talking trash, but this was not some crazy, rock-bottom disaster. Our young team did some dumb stuff and we lost a game to a team we were close to even with. It doesn't invalidate the clear improvement we've made this year and some fans of this team need to get a grip. 
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If this were the only game this season where we lost the turnover battle, made critical penalties, missed open receivers, etc.., your post might make sense. However, this has become the culture under Frost and company.  Every week there is a new mistake, whether its the penalties, botched snaps, poor playcalling in the red zone, etc..  The data shows the 2020 team has a far worse winning percentage the the 2018 or 2019 teams.  We are scoring 6 points fewer per game than a year ago while giving up nearly 3 points more per game than a year ago. These are real trends that justify strong reactions from fans and the national media.  I am really interested to understand what clear improvement you are seeing this year compared to the first 2 seasons under Frost.  

 
Even as an optimist, I am struggling to find reasons for future optimism.

I suppose one could argue that optimism can be found in Taylor-Britt's, Roger's or Martinez's play.  However, we are having to squint now to find these positives.  Missed blocks, penalties, turnovers, and poor special teams seem to be the cornerstones of the team now.

I agree that Saturday was not our darkest day, it was merely a continuation of the trend line.  CU in 2001 or Texas Tech 2004 seem to be more memorably dark to me. 

Yes 2004 and Mr. Callahan, the architect of our program's swoon.

 
J-MAGIC said:
The "33 players out" were almost entirely reserves, and they got two weeks of rest while we got beat up at Iowa and played on Purdue's cow-field turf.
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They were without 2 starting OLineman, their best WR, their top 3 TEs. They we're also down a starting Dlineman and LB. Also their depth was s#!t, because they were down 20+ other guys. Despite that, their defense giving up 32 ppg and 431 ypg held us to  17 points 308 yards. They had 2 new starters on the offensive line, and guys getting big reps for the first time at TE and WR and still ran for 200 yards. They didn't practice for 10 days and hadn't played for 22.

Sugar coat it all you want, but any coach will tell you Minnesota was an ok team with a terrible defense, they had every disadvantage in the book, and still managed to beat us. 

 
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