Illinois Week Pressers

NUs defense is its strength and if the offense/ST do not put the defense in negative field position, then I they’ll nab the dub.

The offense will click as much as the OL will allow. I’m pleased with the off-season departures there and look for this group to actually be a unit. The fresh faces on offense and different skillsets will bring about newer wrinkles for NU too. I just don’t want to believe we’ll be as stale and inefficient as previous seasons, but I’ve believed that about this team for the last 5 seasons. While I’ve been down on AM, it’s accurate that he hasn’t had consistent surrounding cast either and hoping his refined physique channels some CU 2018 hype. I’m anticipating more rollouts or getting him on the run with a moving pocket. My biggest worry is QB/WR being on the same page, no dropped passes, and not trying to do more than what is there. AM didn’t want to dive deep during an interview after practice, but that leads me to believe multiple TE sets and creating nightmares with mismatches. 

If offense comes together, this is an easy 2 TD win with backups getting PT in the 4th. 

 
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Husker in WI said:
I think it's more telling that they only had 4 his last season, they were not great when he took over. 2 years removed from being very good, but the Petrino scandals and year of John Smith had them in a pretty bad spot. He made some progress, then floundered. I think he's a good coach because bad coaches can ruin good situations, and he kept it going at Wisconsin. But probably overrated a bit by our fanbase, particularly considering we should probably give more credit to the OCs for our Bielema era defeats, Chryst and Canada.
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Very true about the 4 losses his last year.  My point was that he's not a coach that has proven he can come in and make a program a winner immediately the first game.

 
Savage Husker said:
NUs defense is its strength and if the offense/ST do not put the defense in negative field position, then I they’ll nab the dub.

The offense will click as much as the OL will allow. I’m pleased with the off-season departures there and look for this group to actually be a unit. The fresh faces on offense and different skillsets will bring about newer wrinkles for NU too. I just don’t want to believe we’ll be as stale and inefficient as previous seasons, but I’ve believed that about this team for the last 5 seasons. While I’ve been down on AM, it’s accurate that he hasn’t had consistent surrounding cast either and hoping his refined physique channels some CU 2018 hype. I’m anticipating more rollouts or getting him on the run with a moving pocket. My biggest worry is QB/WR being on the same page, no dropped passes, and not trying to do more than what is there. AM didn’t want to dive deep during an interview after practice, but that leads me to believe multiple TE sets and creating nightmares with mismatches. 

If offense comes together, this is an easy 2 TD win with backups getting PT in the 4th. 
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Great post. I came here to say the bold as well.

They hung so many points on us last year because of the turnovers. Limit turnovers, play well on special teams = NU wins by 14. If we're the bumbling, fumbling team that also shanks punts 14 yards downfield then yeah...we're in for another brutal and embarrassing season.

One of the bigger concerns I have is the young backs putting two arms around the ball in traffic. We'll see how that goes. Pretty underrated potential issue there.

 
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Toe said:
^ This. I'd be more surprised if we don't have any stupid procedural penalties (false start, illegal formation, ineligible man downfield, etc.) this week. It's week 0.
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I'm not saying we don't need to be better with penalties.  We do.

But I also think it's a bit over-blown and magnified because we've lost a lot of close games.  

We were #91 in the country in penalties per game last year.  Not good.  But one fewer penalty per game would have moved us up to #56.  Still not great but pretty middle-of-the-pack.  Two fewer penalties per game would have moved us up to #19 in the country.  But would two fewer penalties per game really seemed like that much of a difference?  I'm not sure.

We were #93 in the country in penalty yards per game last year.  Not good.  But 10 fewer yards per game would have moved us up to #59.  Still not great but pretty middle-of-the-pack.  20 fewer penalty yards per game would have moved us up to #19 in the country.  Depending on when and what those yards are the probably makes a difference but really only on a couple possessions during the game.  So maybe that makes a lot of difference and maybe not.

Basically, I think the rankings make it seem worse than it really is because there isn't a lot of difference between teams that are ranked significantly differently.

 
I read the forums and follow. I don't like to post my opinions because admittedly I'm a novice fan. I played the game in HS so I understand it at that level. I've been a husker fan all my life so in watching the Skers my knowledge has increased. Still, my opinions have little merit so please read this comment and remember it comes from me. LOL

I honestly think some of what ales our favorite university is a prejudice mind set of the conference against us. I don't think its a stretch to think the officiating is part of that bias against us. Sadly I don't believe that will change anytime soon.

 
The really odd thing to me is yesterday was the first day I've seen/heard anything about him being anything but a locked in starter.  So it seems odd that the story switched so dramatically all of the sudden.

Makes me hope that it's being blown out of proportion.  But I have no idea at this point.

 
Mavric said:
The really odd thing to me is yesterday was the first day I've seen/heard anything about him being anything but a locked in starter.  So it seems odd that the story switched so dramatically all of the sudden.

Makes me hope that it's being blown out of proportion.  But I have no idea at this point.
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I feel like I saw a "haven't heard anything about Manning recently, hopefully he's not hurt" a few days ago, hoping somebody took that and ran with it. I really hope he's good to go, but I still feel a lot better about it because we've been hearing about Toure/Betts/Martin/etc. But it would be disheartening to say the least if Manning isn't able to go out and show something. 

 
Mavric said:
I'm not saying we don't need to be better with penalties.  We do.

But I also think it's a bit over-blown and magnified because we've lost a lot of close games.  

We were #91 in the country in penalties per game last year.  Not good.  But one fewer penalty per game would have moved us up to #56.  Still not great but pretty middle-of-the-pack.  Two fewer penalties per game would have moved us up to #19 in the country.  But would two fewer penalties per game really seemed like that much of a difference?  I'm not sure.

We were #93 in the country in penalty yards per game last year.  Not good.  But 10 fewer yards per game would have moved us up to #59.  Still not great but pretty middle-of-the-pack.  20 fewer penalty yards per game would have moved us up to #19 in the country.  Depending on when and what those yards are the probably makes a difference but really only on a couple possessions during the game.  So maybe that makes a lot of difference and maybe not.

Basically, I think the rankings make it seem worse than it really is because there isn't a lot of difference between teams that are ranked significantly differently.
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Great stats.  It speaks to what Frost has preached.  We are not good enough to make these mistakes.  A more prolific O or D and these stats wouldn’t matter.  Unfortunately, to date, we don’t have the ability to find those extra 10-20 yards via the O, ST play or take away.....

 
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