Minnesota Week Pressers

[ColoradoHusk]

That could be.  I don't know how the people on Twitter I saw saying it was Purdy found out.

Mickey initially thought Smothers was the best choice to stay in at QB, after CT was going to be out for the rest of the game.  So, that's why Mickey said it was going to be Smothers as he was going into the locker room at halftime.

Whipple and Mickey discussed it during halftime, and since NU was down 2 scores, Whipple told Mickey "I need to throw the ball on nearly every play, so Purdy is who I want at QB."  That's basically what Mickey told the press after the game.  When it comes down to it, Whipple doesn't know how to use a QB like Smothers, and has way too much confidence in Purdy.

 

[Mavric]

Mickey initially thought Smothers was the best choice to stay in at QB, after CT was going to be out for the rest of the game.  So, that's why Mickey said it was going to be Smothers as he was going into the locker room at halftime.

Whipple and Mickey discussed it during halftime, and since NU was down 2 scores, Whipple told Mickey "I need to throw the ball on nearly every play, so Purdy is who I want at QB."  That's basically what Mickey told the press after the game.  When it comes down to it, Whipple doesn't know how to use a QB like Smothers, and has way too much confidence in Purdy.

.... and then threw it less than half the time.

 

[Mavric]

 

[ZRod]

Mickey initially thought Smothers was the best choice to stay in at QB, after CT was going to be out for the rest of the game.  So, that's why Mickey said it was going to be Smothers as he was going into the locker room at halftime.

Whipple and Mickey discussed it during halftime, and since NU was down 2 scores, Whipple told Mickey "I need to throw the ball on nearly every play, so Purdy is who I want at QB."  That's basically what Mickey told the press after the game.  When it comes down to it, Whipple doesn't know how to use a QB like Smothers, and has way too much confidence in Purdy.

2 scores at half isn't even that bad in a ball control game like this. Defense was doing ok. We needed yards and field position, so just grind it out, take care of the ball, and get a couple scores. Then have it come down to a field goal. Not 26 yards in a half bulls#!t and zero points.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

2 scores at half isn't even that bad in a ball control game like this. Defense was doing ok. We needed yards and field position, so just grind it out, take care of the ball, and get a couple scores. Then have it come down to a field goal. Not 26 yards in a half bulls#!t and zero points.

I agree that it was foolish to think that NU needed to go pass heavy, when only down 11 points at halftime.  I disagree that the Defense was doing ok.  IMO, Illinois was stopping themselves, more than NU stopping them.  That attempted double pass using Isaiah Williams was one of the dumbest play calls I have ever seen.  After that, Illinois realized "hey, we can run right at NU, and they can't stop us".  Yeah, NU held Illinois to 2 FG's in the 2nd half, but I would say that was more to do with NU not doing anything on offense, so Illinois had no reason to risk anything on offense.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I agree that it was foolish to think that NU needed to go pass heavy, when only down 11 points at halftime.  I disagree that the Defense was doing ok.  IMO, Illinois was stopping themselves, more than NU stopping them.  That attempted double pass using Isaiah Williams was one of the dumbest play calls I have ever seen.  After that, Illinois realized "hey, we can run right at NU, and they can't stop us".  Yeah, NU held Illinois to 2 FG's in the 2nd half, but I would say that was more to do with NU not doing anything on offense, so Illinois had no reason to risk anything on offense.

This is a post that is nothing more than....Nebraska is horrible and didn't do anything right and anything good that happened was in spite of anything we were doing.

So.....their double pass play that you bring up.  It's not that we defended it well.  It's that Illinois made a mistake in calling it.  Is that it?

 

[Husker03]

 After that, Illinois realized "hey, we can run right at NU, and they can't stop us".  

If they didn't realize that week 3 of the season, BB isn't near the coach I have been reading about in all of the threads pining for his move to NU.  Seriously, they knew they could run on us.  My 6 year old son could coach Minnesota against us this weekend and come away covering the spread. 

 

[Mavric]

I agree that it was foolish to think that NU needed to go pass heavy, when only down 11 points at halftime.  I disagree that the Defense was doing ok.  IMO, Illinois was stopping themselves, more than NU stopping them.  That attempted double pass using Isaiah Williams was one of the dumbest play calls I have ever seen.  After that, Illinois realized "hey, we can run right at NU, and they can't stop us".  Yeah, NU held Illinois to 2 FG's in the 2nd half, but I would say that was more to do with NU not doing anything on offense, so Illinois had no reason to risk anything on offense.

Eh ... we actually did pretty well in the first half.  We were out-yarding them at halftime.  Defense was holding their own, much more than I expected.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Eh ... we actually did pretty well in the first half.  We were out-yarding them at halftime.  Defense was holding their own, much more than I expected.

And, I think this was Casey's worst game since being here.  He was not making good decisions in the passing game.  And....we still had more yards.  If he were on like he was against Purdue, we very well could have been ahead at halftime.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Eh ... we actually did pretty well in the first half.  We were out-yarding them at halftime.  Defense was holding their own, much more than I expected.

That was more to NU's offense gaining yards, rather than NU's D shutting down Illinois.  They were both over 200-225 in the first half, on pace for 400-450.  NU had 3 longish drives, and only had 9 points from it.  Illinois had 2 longer drives for TD's, another drive into NU territory but forced to punt, and a 10-yard drive for a TD.  Illinois' offense was performing about as well as they had against other conference opponents in the first half.

 

[Mavric]

That was more to NU's offense gaining yards, rather than NU's D shutting down Illinois.  They were both over 200-225 in the first half, on pace for 400-450.  NU had 3 longish drives, and only had 9 points from it.  Illinois had 2 longer drives for TD's, another drive into NU territory but forced to punt, and a 10-yard drive for a TD.  Illinois' offense was performing about as well as they had against other conference opponents in the first half.

Not really.   

They scored a TD on their first possession.  Then they went 3-and-out, 3-and-out, another punt then another 3-and-out.  Then they had an 11-yard TD drive after the interception.  But on that four-possession stretch they gained a total of 47 yards on 18 plays (2.6 yards per play).  

Three three-and-outs, four punts and 47 total yards over four possessions and nearly 20 minutes of game time is holding their own pretty well.

Brown had 5 carries for 14 yards in the first quarter.  He only had 8 for 31 before the interception that gave them the short field.  That's pretty good against one of the leading rushers in the country. 

 

[BaytownHusker]

I like how it all comes out from Whip that Purdy didn't practice 2 days last week.  Mickey had 2 chances to mention that (after the game and yesterday) and didn't.  I wonder what the reasons for not mentioning it?  Is it just that football coaches guard every detail like nuclear codes?

Let Whippy Fall on his own sword.

Chubby was so hurt he could only eye the Twin brother of the RB on defense and toss it right to him..  

 

[ZRod]

Not really.   

They scored a TD on their first possession.  Then they went 3-and-out, 3-and-out, another punt then another 3-and-out.  Then they had an 11-yard TD drive after the interception.  But on that four-possession stretch they gained a total of 47 yards on 18 plays (2.6 yards per play).  

Three three-and-outs, four punts and 47 total yards over four possessions and nearly 20 minutes of game time is holding their own pretty well.

Brown had 5 carries for 14 yards in the first quarter.  He only had 8 for 31 before the interception that gave them the short field.  That's pretty good against one of the leading rushers in the country. 

This was my take away without even knowing the stats. We had plenty of chances to get back into the game. The defense did enough.

If we even had a pulse on offense we would have eked out a win. Stop me if you've heard this before...