Is this Watson's last chance?

[Husker_x]

I have a question.

For the growing number of grumblers––and let's be clear that I count myself among them––who are just about out of patience with Shawn Watson's, let's say, uneven track record in big games, is this the last straw? If our offense goes out there on Saturday and lays another egg like they did last year, will you finally go from the fence and into the opposition's camp?

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

I haven't been a big fan of Watson for awhile now, but he always keeps me on the fence with the decent games he calls. Having said that, if we go out and lay an egg on Saturday........I'll be done with him.

 

[zoogs]

Having said that, if we go out and lay an egg on Saturday........I'll be done with him.

This is what I mean when I said earlier, sarcastically, that every competent OC clearly needs to put up the same stats against top defenses as with bad ones, whether he is running his 1st string QB or his 3rd string.

Not sure how good OU's D is this year, but I really hope Green can build on the confidence he took from last week's game. The defense will have to be leaned on to win this game, which is why I'm glad it isn't OSU, because we had to count on the offense to simply outscore those guys.

 

[Malth]

If Green starts, it wouldn't really surprise me if we go with a pretty basic and vanilla offense while relying on the defense, and I don't think this something that Wats decides on his own. We laid an egg on offense last year because that was kind of the plan, and we had a bum QB

 

[Husker_x]

Having said that, if we go out and lay an egg on Saturday........I'll be done with him.

This is what I mean when I said earlier, sarcastically, that every competent OC clearly needs to put up the same stats against top defenses as with bad ones, whether he is running his 1st string QB or his 3rd string.

Not sure how good OU's D is this year, but I really hope Green can build on the confidence he took from last week's game. The defense will have to be leaned on to win this game, which is why I'm glad it isn't OSU, because we had to count on the offense to simply outscore those guys.

Zoogies, I totally get where you're coming from, but let's be honest with ourselves. If Green can go out there and get us 21-28 points, and we lose by a field goal, that's one thing. Watson's issue is he goes from brilliant to completely inept in these situations. We're talking zero touchdowns. Losing games that would have been won if we had scored a single touchdown. The beef with Watson isn't that he never calls a good game. It's that when he struggles, we lay an egg.

 

[RedDenver]

It would depend on how the game turns out. If we have a ton of dropped passes like the UT game or Green just makes ridiculous decisions, I won't be too upset with Watson. Also, OU's offense might force Watson's hand into a shootout which will turn out badly for us. That might be the defense hurting the offense, or it might be the offense having a bunch of turnovers. Too many possibilities to give a good answer. Let's wait until after the game, and I'm sure there will be lots of opinions on both sides.

The opposing question is, "Will the grumblers give Watson credit if the offense plays well?"

 

[Husker_x]

It would depend on how the game turns out. If we have a ton of dropped passes like the UT game or Green just makes ridiculous decisions, I won't be too upset with Watson. Also, OU's offense might force Watson's hand into a shootout which will turn out badly for us. That might be the defense hurting the offense, or it might be the offense having a bunch of turnovers. Too many possibilities to give a good answer. Let's wait until after the game, and I'm sure there will be lots of opinions on both sides.

The opposing question is, "Will the grumblers give Watson credit if the offense plays well?"

I more than intend to. I hope to credit Watson, shower him with praise if they go out there and show us something.

 

[BornRedCornFed]

if he didnt get lose his job after last year, he wont lose his job after this year.

besides, i think he came through on the Arizona bowl game, which could be argued to be a pretty important game

 

[bball_backer]

The opposing question is, "Will the grumblers give Watson credit if the offense plays well?"

I more than intend to. I hope to credit Watson, shower him with praise if they go out there and show us something.

I completely agree. However, I can tell you right now we don't need to worry about the grumblers giving Wats credit, this is going to be a LOW scoring game.

Edit: I should add, even if NU scores 60 on Saturday it will not be enough to eliminate all my doubts simply because of the number of games the offense did not show up to. That's just in my mind, though. I'm sure 60 would be enough to win many people over, and frankly that would make me a very happy man on Saturday night!

 

[zoogs]

I agree that it will be a low scoring game. I think that more than probable, that's how it will turn out. Seems to have all the makings of a defensive clash, where a top NU D shuts down anyone's O, and OU's good D puts the brakes on an ailing Husker O. Hopefully we come out of that with a victory, because that situation would be a toss-up.

However, it does seem a lot more likely for our O to break out and put up some points on the Sooner D and win by a fair margin, than the other way around. IMO, a shootout with us scoring 28 and the difference being a field goal, is pretty unlikely all the way around.

 

[Hercules]

I have a question.

For the growing number of grumblers––and let's be clear that I count myself among them––who are just about out of patience with Shawn Watson's, let's say, uneven track record in big games, is this the last straw? If our offense goes out there on Saturday and lays another egg like they did last year, will you finally go from the fence and into the opposition's camp?

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

I wouldn't say it's his last chance unless there is a severe meltdown. However, this isn't a vintage OU defense. I'm not expecting more than 20 points from us given our injury problems, but we should be able to move the ball with some regularity.

 

[huskerscott]

I have a question.

For the growing number of grumblers––and let's be clear that I count myself among them––who are just about out of patience with Shawn Watson's, let's say, uneven track record in big games, is this the last straw? If our offense goes out there on Saturday and lays another egg like they did last year, will you finally go from the fence and into the opposition's camp?

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

I wouldn't say it's his last chance unless there is a severe meltdown. However, this isn't a vintage OU defense. I'm not expecting more than 20 points from us given our injury problems, but we should be able to move the ball with some regularity.

Yes I dont expect us to score more than 20. But I wanna see us move the ball downfield chew some clock, stay ahead of the chains, maybe throw some play action to keep them honest. If we somehow get up by a couple of scores, I hope he goes for the knock out punch.

I would think with as well as Green played against CU, he would put alittle more confidence and trust in the guy to get the job the done, if called upon.

 

[husker_99]

I have a question.

For the growing number of grumblers––and let's be clear that I count myself among them––who are just about out of patience with Shawn Watson's, let's say, uneven track record in big games, is this the last straw? If our offense goes out there on Saturday and lays another egg like they did last year, will you finally go from the fence and into the opposition's camp?

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

If we lay an egg Watson needs to go. When we move to the Big Ten next year do you really want an OC that can't show up for big games against Ohio State, Penn State, etc? It feels like if the defense had an offnight we would be screwed cause we couldn't put up the points when we need to. We can't always rely on the defense to always shut them down to win. We need an offense that can win big games. Last year we got away with it because we had Suh.

 

[huskerscott]

I have a question.

For the growing number of grumblers––and let's be clear that I count myself among them––who are just about out of patience with Shawn Watson's, let's say, uneven track record in big games, is this the last straw? If our offense goes out there on Saturday and lays another egg like they did last year, will you finally go from the fence and into the opposition's camp?

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

If we lay an egg Watson needs to go. When we move to the Big Ten next year do you really want an OC that can't show up for big games against Ohio State, Penn State, etc? It feels like if the defense had an offnight we would be screwed cause we couldn't put up the points when we need to. We can't always rely on the defense to always shut them down to win. We need an offense that can win big games. Last year we got away with it because we had Suh.

This I agree with.

 

[bshirt]

A great defense and FG kicker will win us a lot of games as we've all seen. It just doesn't get us to the elite level. To reach that, we need an offense that doesn't vanish whenever we play a decent defense (not to mention vs Kansas, SDSU, etc).

However we go about it it's glaringly obvious what we need.