Lets just say. What if offense changes

[lo country]

Bottom line, offense or defense - it doesn't matter. I've never watched a team that rides higher on momentum or falls so far when faced with a little adversity. This offense is spectacular 1 quarter of almost every game until something happens then it crumbles. The defense with momentum (Miami) is unstoppable, but it crumbles as quickly as it dominates.

A scheme (both sides of the ball) that has little margin for error certainly contributes to these swings, but at the end of the day it's something far bigger than X's and O's at this point. At this point, you can watch a game and know when the wheels are getting ready to fall off. I've turned to my wife the last couple of weeks (after the Gordon run to bring it to 17-10, and after the couple of sacks on Armstrong and short punt that set up Minnesota's 3rd quarter score) and said "here we go"...and sure enough, one or both sides of the ball begin to crumble shortly after.

+10000000

The crazy thing is we, as fans, can see it. Surely the team can and more to the point, when Gordon hit that run, no doubt in my mind the entire team including the staff said "oh sh!t, here it goes again".....

And its not just this season. Every loss, you can go back and point to the one incident where it went critical....The hail Mary against the Gamecocks, AA fumble against UGA, the Gordon TD, roughing the punter against Michigan, air Martinez against Wisky etc.....

The mental stability of this team is scary fragile....

 

[kchusker_chris]

The mental stability of this team is scary fragile....

...or is the coaching in those situations misdirected? I would imagine a lot of young men (they're not kids) get shaken up mentally during a game. You see plenty of heads hung low when watching games - look at Gordon after his 2nd fumble against us. But the coaching in that situation was different than I would imagine it to be if that had been Ameer. 2 very similar, very talented backs, playing in the same game. Lets imagine that was reversed and Ameer's 2nd fumble just occurred and Wisconsin is now up 17-3. Does Bo and the staff pump him up or bring him down? Does the team rebound or crumble? Those pivotal moments where momentum is everything - that's on the coaches on the sidelines. I don't think Ameer is mentally fragile, but I think if that situation had been reversed you wouldn't have seen the same outcome.

 

[roadrat]

What people fail to realize this is a team game. The past month the offense has not kept up their side of the bargain. When is the last time NU went on a 14 play 80 yard drive? I can't remember either cause Beck is too much of an a$$ to give it a try. Maybe our defense is bad, but they have been on the field way too much particularly in the second half of games. What did our offense do at Wisconsin other than turn the ball over 4 times in a row. How many 3 and outs against Minnesota were there? I don't care what kind of defense you have when they are on the field 35 minutes with big dudes leaning on them, don't expect them to make a stop on 3 down and 3 yds to go. I remember a game not that many years ago against Missouri in Lincoln. What was the key to that win? Long drives in the 4th quarter almost exclusively on the ground. We're getting beat at what once was our game and Beck is not smart enough to understand how simple the game can be. How many times this year has our defense just made a stop and our offense comes out and throws 3 incomplete passes and about 40 seconds run off the clock? That barely gives our defensive guys a chance to catch their breath.

I imagine Beck is glad he is hiding in the press-box. He should have his butt on the sideline talking to his QB instead of Joe Ganz.

 

[kchusker_chris]

What people fail to realize this is a team game. The past month the offense has not kept up their side of the bargain. When is the last time NU went on a 14 play 80 yard drive? I can't remember either cause Beck is too much of an a$$ to give it a try. Maybe our defense is bad, but they have been on the field way too much particularly in the second half of games. What did our offense do at Wisconsin other than turn the ball over 4 times in a row. How many 3 and outs against Minnesota were there? I don't care what kind of defense you have when they are on the field 35 minutes with big dudes leaning on them, don't expect them to make a stop on 3 down and 3 yds to go. I remember a game not that many years ago against Missouri in Lincoln. What was the key to that win? Long drives in the 4th quarter almost exclusively on the ground. We're getting beat at what once was our game and Beck is not smart enough to understand how simple the game can be. How many times this year has our defense just made a stop and our offense comes out and throws 3 incomplete passes and about 40 seconds run off the clock? That barely gives our defensive guys a chance to catch their breath.

I imagine Beck is glad he is hiding in the press-box. He should have his butt on the sideline talking to his QB instead of Joe Ganz.

We went 12 plays for 80 before fumbling against minnesota, does that count?

Before that it was probably Illinois, where we had 4 drives of 10 or more plays - all resulting in touchdowns.

Miami, we had a 14-79 drive that wasTDs, and a couple other 10+ play drives.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

This past month the defense has not kept up its side of the bargain, either.

That was indeed a 12 play, 80 yard drive with the game on the line against Minnesota, ending with the ball in the hands of one of your most exciting gamebreakers at the goal line. Tim Beck did not call for Peirson-El to run out of bounds or get the ball stripped. It was a nice pass by Tommy.

That left a minute and half with three time-outs and Minnesota pinned inside the 10. A defensive stand gets the ball back inside the 50 with a full minute for the offense to work. Everyone in the stadium knows Minnesota is going to run three plays into the line. And the Nebraska defense couldn't stop them.

Offensive changes? Great. Defensive changes? Mandatory.

 

[lo country]

This past month the defense has not kept up its side of the bargain, either.

That was indeed a 12 play, 80 yard drive with the game on the line against Minnesota, ending with the ball in the hands of one of your most exciting gamebreakers at the goal line. Tim Beck did not call for Peirson-El to run out of bounds or get the ball stripped. It was a nice pass by Tommy.

That left a minute and half with three time-outs and Minnesota pinned inside the 10. A defensive stand gets the ball back inside the 50 with a full minute for the offense to work. Everyone in the stadium knows Minnesota is going to run three plays into the line. And the Nebraska defense couldn't stop them.

Offensive changes? Great. Defensive changes? Mandatory.

And therein lies the hard part. It's not just one quick fix in an area i.e. LB play or QB play. It's a complete brake down of the basics......