The first half was Taylor Martinez getting into hot streaks and cold streaks. He went cold for a few drives after we went up 24-0. Not bagging on Taylor here because he got us to 24-0. But it's just something that he's prone to now, along with getting antsy. He's a freshman, that's how it is. Hope it goes away.
bshirt, I wonder when you will put anything on Taylor. Even when our electric, home run threat, awesome running QB was carrying the ball, you called out Wats for running with TM instead of Roy in the 2nd quarter. Does not make sense.
Here's that 2nd quarter breakdown I posted before. I added to it a bit since I watched the replay.
Stats of Note:
First half: 9 pass attempts, 21 rush attempts
Second quarter: 14 run calls, 5 pass calls. That's 76% running, and 2 of those passes were on obvious pass situations (3rd and 15, 3rd and 17). This includes the holding penalty, which was a run play.
Drive summaries in the Second Quarter:
Drive 1
Helu, 6 yard gain. 2nd and 4, we set up a playaction, but Taylor throws before pressure gets to him and it's an awful overthrow that was a dangerous, lofting duck that could have been picked. Certainly no Huskers in the neighborhood. 3rd and 4, Missouri does a stunt or something and beats our OL silly. Martinez takes the sack. 3rd and 4 isn't really a rushing down to begin with.
Drive 2
It's 24-7 now. We start on our own 45. Looks like a zone read with the rush end unblocked. Not much of a fake though, Taylor kept it. Runs into trouble, changes direction to the other side of the field and can't beat the rush end (Aldon Smith) laterally, who pulls him down for a 7-yard loss. Now it's 2nd and 17. We go 4WRs, outside guys run deep and inside guys run short. It LOOKS like Reed is one of the inside guys and McNeil is the other, not sure about McNeil but that would be logical. Now if the playcall is intended to go deep, I would disagree with it as an unnecessary risk. At any rate, McNeil has a 5/6-yard hook and is there for the easy underneath completion. But Taylor is looking deep all the way and lofts up a way overthrown duck, but Gilleylen tackled the corner that would have almost certainly made the pick. You can argue for a run here, but I think a manageable pass (6-8 yards) has a slight edge. IMO Taylor should have gone to McNeil and set up 3rd and 11, but I guess we wanted the killshot. You take risks sometimes, so I can't fault Taylor for making the decision. A better throw could have been huge for us as Gills was in man coverage.
3rd and 17 now - a playcaller's no man's land. We go for a pass, Taylor gets pressured, escapes the pocket and then completely freaks out. He reaches the right sideline and dances around before trying to come back to the near sideline. He almost makes the corner before he's cut down behind the line. Hard to blame him on a play that had little chance of going anywhere, but I pointed it out just as it's an indication of how out of rhythm he was at that point.
Drive 3
We start within our own 20 this time, and open with a solid 5/6-yard run to Helu...BUT, it's called back for an illegal chop block penalty on Ricky Henry. Reed has an illegal block on the same play too but it's declined. (Reed is pulled after this, by the way - not sure if it's relevant, but thought I'd include that). Penalty screws us here, gives us a 1st-and-18 inside our 10 instead of 2nd-and-5 past the 20. Next play: QB draw; Taylor takes a 2-yard loss. On 2nd and 20, we run Martinez up the middle and he finds a crease this time to get a decent gain. Note: what we're doing now is, instead of passing, just holding on to the ball and grinding clock/playing it safe inside our 20. Very cute, these runs up the gut.
On 3rd and 15 from the 10, we go with pass. Looks to me like we aren't going for the first down here, just going for a checkdown to get a completion and advance a few yards, while giving the receiver a chance to fake someone out and pick up 8 YAC to move the chains. We send three guys deep but mostly, it seems, to clear out space for two underneath guys. Taylor's first look is Reed, who is open there in the flat, but he feels the heat and pulls it down to scramble. Looks like he's going to run and not get very far but he looks up, sees Helu open and flips the ball to him. The broken play almost nets us a first as Helu takes this one from the 13 all the way up to the 25. It's a 4th and 1, but that was as much as we could have asked for in this situation. Very smart checkdown option. And a much better play than running it, where the chances of something like this happening are basically zero.
Drive 4
We get this one after Ressel's 54-yarder is juust short. 4:12 in the half now. On 1st and 10, we go Burkhead up the middle for 2. 2nd and 8, we go trips right, and zone read. The DE just hesitates enough for Taylor to decide to keep it and he makes it around the corner for 13 yards and a 1st down. Next play: 1st and 10, Taylor to the left, gets injured, but gets 5 yards. Now he's hobbling, and we run it up the middle on 2nd and 5. Burkhead gets about 2, so we're in 3rd and 3. Taylor throws it incomplete. He had Kinnie on the slant but it's way behind him. Dangerous throw. Announcers say it's tipped but really, it hit the helmet of the Missouri linebacker who is keying on Helu.
Now you may criticize this pass call but 3rd and short is a higher passing % situation than you might think. 3rd and 1 is more run, 3rd and 2 though, you get a step up in the passing %, and another step up for 3rd and 3. Missouri looks like they were clearly anticipating run, as they sent two linebackers straight down the middle. A better throw gets us a first down here as Kinnie would have been open. 1 on 1 and he had the inside.
Drive 5
Handoff, handoff, handoff, all Roy.
Please point out at what point in this sequence were we 'cute.' I think we took one risk, and that was a shot downfield, on 2nd-and-17. And even then we had McNeil underneath on a checkdown that I think Taylor should have taken.
