Pelini examining Home Game woes

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

NEBRASKA FOOTBALL: Pelini Examining Home Game Woes

Bo gives Taylor Martinez strong vote of confidence

by Samuel McKewon

 

October 18, 2010

 

Bo Pelini and his staff will “think outside the box” for “handling home games a little bit differently” after Nebraska's football team stumbled out of the gate in yet another Big 12 home game Saturday during the 20-13 loss to Texas.

 

“I'm not looking to make excuses, but you've got to look at everything and see if maybe there's something there,” Pelini said during Monday's Big 12 Teleconference. “Talk about it and be extra guarded against it.”

 

Pelini said NU could be struggling with distractions “maybe the day before and the day of” home games, which appears to be affecting on-field performance. The Huskers dropped a slew of passes on Saturday, spotted the Longhorns a 10-0 first-quarter lead, and couldn't run the ball.

 

“We did some things that were out of character,” he said. “I'm a little bit concerned about it.”

 

During the Pelini era, Nebraska has played ten home games against foes from BCS-autobid conferences (nine Big 12 teams + Virginia Tech). In those games, NU has been outscored 88-52 in the first quarter. In 7 of the 10 games, the opponent scored first, and it would have been 8 if Oklahoma had not missed two field goals in the 2009 game.

 

The Huskers are 5-5 in those games, and have been outscored 240-221 overall. Out of those 52 points NU has scored, 42 of them were in 2008. So, in the last five home games vs. BCS conference teams, Nebraska is 2-3 and has been outscored 30-10 in the first quarter.

 

By contrast, the Huskers are 8-3 in road games vs. BCS conference teams, which includes two blowout wins over Washington and Kansas State this year.

 

“The games where we weren't really ourselves – that has crept up a lot more at home than it has on the road,” Pelini said.

 

It has nothing to do with the Memorial Stadium crowd, Pelini said, which is “great.”

 

Pelini also said benching quarterback Taylor Martinez midway through the third quarter may have been a mistake. Senior Zac Lee took over for Martinez, leading two drives into Texas territory

 

“As you look back, I don't know that it was the right thing to do,” Pelini said. “Taylor wasn't the only problem...you live and learn as a head coach.”

 

When asked why he chose to bench Martinez in the first place, Pelini responded: “I have confidence in Taylor Martinez. I'll just leave it at that. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in the guy. I'm really not going to revisit that anymore.”

 

 

[ESPY]

Further confirmation that something's gotta change. This is the great and mighty Memorial Stadium we're talking about here. 5-5 vs AQ teams is unacceptable. I'm sick 'n tired of there being no advantage to playing on the home field. This is ridiculous.

 

[JTrain]

Personally all the coaches' comments about TM's benching sound like borderline a$$-kissing to me. Maybe it stems from fear of him (our only big threat offensively, this year and in future years) transferring or his parents starting trouble, I don't really know, but it doesn't come across very well.

He wasn't performing, so he got benched. Lee came in and did a pretty decent job. End of story. TM was off in some mental aspect as his throws were behind more than usual and his reads in the running game were not very good. He's a freshman, it happens. But when a linebacker or safety or left guard gets replaced mid-game, the coaches don't have to tip toe around explaining it or question themselves or make excuses. They just do it. You'll never see a coach explain the benching of, say, Ricky Henry or Eric Martin by saying they "sensed his frustration".

 

[zoogs]

They're simply protecting their guy and standing behind him. We had somewhat similar nice things said about Lee...actually, I'm not sure on that. But there were some token nice things said about standing behind Lee when he got the hook last year, even as Bo behind the scenes wanted Green to start the rest of the way. Announcers, etc, all said Lee was getting some time on the sidelines to observe the game, and that coaches had his back all the way, after TT. It's somewhat necessary, at least pretending to stand behind your quarterback.

 

[roundegotrip]

Or it could just be that they realized they overreacted. Or, halfway through the season, they don't want their insanely talented freshman QB out on the field worrying that one or two mistakes is going to get him benched.

 

[irafreak]

I'm really wondering if this whole home-field thing is a reflection of the current coaching staff or the previous one. We have some seniors that were BC recruits.

 

[sd'sker]

I'm really wondering if this whole home-field thing is a reflection of the current coaching staff or the previous one. We have some seniors that were BC recruits.

are you serious? we can not blame all of the team's problems on callahan. this is pelini's team now, and plelini's staff. all their accomplishments, failures, and faults are on him.

 

[HuskerMav11]

Him getting benched was the wrong move. He made some bad reads, but he also had some fine throws. Had them passes been caught, he never would have been benched. So in the end, we're benching him for something that isn't his fault. If he makes the right reads like Lee did, he busts them for huge gains. Lee is good for 3-5 yards on the Zone read. Taylor turns those into Touchdowns...if he makes the right reads.

Also, I found it easy to hate on Niles because of all the mistakes he made in the past, but I watched the game again (yeah, it was hard...kept hoping for a different outcome) and he actually had some good moves. There was a play where it was 3rd and long, Niles makes a catch behind the first down, breaks a tackle and busts it up field for another 10 yards.

He had some key first down catches. One of his drop passes was thrown a little behind him, however I agree that he should have caught it. I think he would agree with that as well. The pass that went through his hands was actually well defended, again he should have caught it.

I would say he takes a lot of flack from this game, but it really wasn't his worst game. I have seem far worse from Niles.

 

[Apathy]

If this isn't fixed by the Mizzou game and they beat us you can say "Bye Bye Big 12 Championship game!"

Our crowd wasn't into the Texas game and it could be because we had nothing to cheer about or that Texas placed 10 on the board within 5 minutes.

The crowd needs to be loud from start to finish for the Mizzou game because that game will decide the Big 12 North champion.

 

[kansas husker]

I think we may be making a mole hill into a mountain with this one. While the record and performance at home has been shakey. Remember the shambles of a team he took over, he has made great strides in very little time.

 

[roundegotrip]

Him getting benched was the wrong move. He made some bad reads, but he also had some fine throws. Had them passes been caught, he never would have been benched. So in the end, we're benching him for something that isn't his fault. If he makes the right reads like Lee did, he busts them for huge gains. Lee is good for 3-5 yards on the Zone read. Taylor turns those into Touchdowns...if he makes the right reads.

Taylor made some really bad reads, but that was only part of the problem. Even when he made the right read, we couldn't get anything going because the Texas LBs and safeties were coming down to the line hard to stop the run. Lee made the right reads, and I'd have to go back and rewatch the game, but it seemed to me that the defense backed off a little when he came in because they were more concerned with his arm than his legs. What we really needed to do was play action them to death until they respected Taylor's arm, though obviously the drops killed that, too.

They said Taylor was getting frustrated, well... understandably so, but I still don't think it was at all necessary to pull him.

 

[308_Husker]

Him getting benched was the wrong move. He made some bad reads, but he also had some fine throws. Had them passes been caught, he never would have been benched. So in the end, we're benching him for something that isn't his fault. If he makes the right reads like Lee did, he busts them for huge gains. Lee is good for 3-5 yards on the Zone read. Taylor turns those into Touchdowns...if he makes the right reads.

Taylor made some really bad reads, but that was only part of the problem. Even when he made the right read, we couldn't get anything going because the Texas LBs and safeties were coming down to the line hard to stop the run. Lee made the right reads, and I'd have to go back and rewatch the game, but it seemed to me that the defense backed off a little when he came in because they were more concerned with his arm than his legs. What we really needed to do was play action them to death until they respected Taylor's arm, though obviously the drops killed that, too.

They said Taylor was getting frustrated, well... understandably so, but I still don't think it was at all necessary to pull him.

I normally agree with the things Bo does, but pulling Taylor was ABSOLUTELY the worst call to do (besides the onside kick). I rewatched the game tonight and Martinez had six dropped passes in the first half, three shortly after half. Four (three of them Niles..) of those passes could have been caught for touchdowns.

Another note, the plays that Lee was getting 5-6 yards on the zone read, T-Magic would have been getting 15-20 on them. He was getting those runs in the fourth quarter, when Texas's defense was getting tired. Leave Martinez in there as the defense wears down in the fourth and let him run wild.

Phew! :rant (I think I could have went on for a little longer) :woo