I've trash talked the coaching staff so..,.

[Guy Chamberlin]

Fun fact: you're really crabby.

 

[Enhance]

Fun fact: this utterly clueless offense Riley and Langsdorf insist on running is currently #1 in Total Offense and #2 in scoring in the Big 10.

That fact is fun. But not much more.

Mike Leach offenses traditionally scored a lot of points. But he's not exactly known as a championship caliber coach.

They currently rank 3rd in the conference in both categories, respectively, which it looks like Guy addressed.

Either way, I get the feeling you would only acknowledge that statistic if it benefited your argument, and since it doesn't, you dismiss it as little more than eye candy. That doesn't seem fair to me.

 

[Mavric]

It's patently obvious we've been better off this season when we've made a real effort at getting the ground game going instead of slinging it around 50 times.

I don't think that's obvious at all. I'd say we've had near equal amounts of non-productive spells with an emphasis on running or passing, and explosive spells with an emphasis on both as well. Remember Tommy's second half against Miami?

I agree that it's pretty obvious. The key part of the statement was "real effort". Several games we ran the ball a decent number of times but there was precious little creativity put into which plays were called. The games that we've put more effort not only into calling running plays but mixing up what type of running plays were called - Minnesota, Michigan State and Rutgers - the results have been noticeable. Jay Foreman said basically the same thing earlier this week.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

You cherry picked the wins and gave credit to the running game, when we actually ran very similar plays in the games we lost.

We passed quite successfully against Minnesota, Michigan State and Rutgers, too, and the "real effort" of which you speak could be credited to the defense as well, since they dictate half the game, frequently requiring the Nebraska offense to come from behind. There are several examples of creative play-calling, including precisely the plays fans were clamoring for last year, but some people are only seeing doomed pitches to Imani Cross that didn't actually happen.

The only thing that's patently obvious is that running game works best when everything else is working, too.

The Illinois game was a mess. Purdue was a debacle. Other than that, it's been a much better offense than some want to credit.

The criticism of Langsdorf is identical to the criticism of Beck which is identical to the criticism of Shawn Watson. Their style of offensive play-calling is shared by a lot of coaches, including most of the guys you wish Nebraska had hired instead. Except maybe for the last of the run-first coaches, Paul Johnson, who is currently 3-7 at Georgia Tech and had three senior leaders quit midseason.

 

[Mavric]

You cherry picked the wins and gave credit to the running game, when we actually ran very similar plays in the games we lost.

We passed quite successfully against Minnesota, Michigan State and Rutgers, too, and the "real effort" of which you speak could be credited to the defense as well, since they dictate half the game, frequently requiring the Nebraska offense to come from behind. There are several examples of creative play-calling, including precisely the plays fans were clamoring for last year, but some people are only seeing doomed pitches to Imani Cross that didn't actually happen.

The only thing that's patently obvious is that running game works best when everything else is working, too.

The Illinois game was a mess. Purdue was a debacle. Other than that, it's been a much better offense than some want to credit.

The criticism of Langsdorf is identical to the criticism of Beck which is identical to the criticism of Shawn Watson. Their style of offensive play-calling is shared by a lot of coaches, including most of the guys you wish Nebraska had hired instead. Except maybe for the last of the run-first coaches, Paul Johnson, who is currently 3-7 at Georgia Tech and had three senior leaders quit midseason.

No, we did not run similar running plays in other game. At least not in the same proportions. I have pointed out after the Miami game (and others) how often we were simply running up the middle. I pointed out during the Minnesota game that we were having much more success running to the outside. I'm not just pointing this out after the fact. I've said the same things all year.

Early in the year we were about 65% passing through the first three quarters of games. Lately we have been much more committed to running the ball. Over the last five games, we threw the ball 48 times in both games we lost. We threw the ball 26, 33 and 21 times in the three games we've won. We did pass well in those games as well. But part of that is also due to the better mix of plays - strong running game setting up play-action passes.

It wasn't necessarily that the running game wasn't working in the other games. Ozigbo had 7 carries for 70 yards against Illinois. We ran for almost 200 yards against Wisconsin at 5.3 ypa. Newby (5.6 ypa) and Cross (4.9 ypa) were having plenty of success against Purdue. Your statement that the running game works best when everything else is working is true but is an attempt to detract from the success the running game has had even when the passing game isn't working.

My criticism of Langsdorf is nothing like what I thought of Beck. Our offense has been success because of Langsdorf and because we have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball. But it has been severely lacking from what it could be in several games.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I'm not detracting from the success of the running game. Kinda the opposite. I love a good running game. I wept when Janovich was pulled out of the mothballs.

But looking at the persistent problems of the Nebraska football team this year, including our current record, I don't think offensive play-calling is the major culprit, and I don't think more or different running plays would have made a significant difference. When we're confident and not playing from behind, we run the ball better. There are a lot of moving parts this particular season, including constant player reevaluation.

If I seem a tad over-vigilant defending the passing game, it's because I believe there are still folks around here (not you) who consider any forward pass a trick play.