I'll give you some perspective.
Let's start with giving credit where credit is due to Fresno St. They came to play and put together a good game. They've got a good QB (I'd gladly take Carr over TM in a hearbeat) complimented by some decent receivers, a shifty midget running back that can burst through tiny holes, and O and D lines that can get the job done a fair amount of the time.
Nebraska, however, looked like absolute sh#t for most of the game. And yeah, we definitely came out in some kind of funk and looked totally flat throughout the first half. But it's more than that.
TM has not shown any real improvement at all. None. He has no ball security, still makes love to his receivers with his eyes every single play, is incapable of reliably going through his progressions, and has so-so accuracy. Now, I didn't expect us to get a miracle and get something like Griffin III or anything, but I expected him to have shown visible improvements in at least SOME of those areas. The staff even said he's shown improvement. bullsh#t. If we had any other option at this point, ANY other option, that we could possibly win games with, I'd say sit his a$$ down and let him ride the bench for the rest of college career. He's shown he isn't capable of improvement and so he's a dead end investment. Sadly, we don't have another viable option right now.
Our O-line is young and still inconsistent. What more needs to be said? Cotton continues to put a subpar product on the field no matter how much experience he has to work with there. He should have been gone before last season and he sure as f#*k had better be gone after this season unless the O-line turns into something worthwhile on a regular basis. But we all know that's not going to happen because we've all been saying the same things and making the same excuses for our O-lines for a while now. It's not getting any better, so cut the dead weight and let's get someone in who can build a real O-line.
We've got good backs with lots of talent. Nothing new there, the future looks bright. Abdullah was obviously a returns stud just from watching in the first game, and he only proved it more with his performance this game. I'm pretty sure that guy he faked on his way to the endzone never found his pants. And exactly how someone can pull a move like that a full speed, without loosing too much momentum, is mind boggling.
We still have issues with our receivers, but I think we started seeing a couple people step up in the second half. We're not ever going to have awesome, superstar receivers that can do anything and beat anyone, but I think they'll get the job done as the season goes on. We still have some issues with catches and soft route running at times, but it's really the O-line and TM that are the weakest links.
Our defense is not "great". In fact, they're not even good right now. I don't give a sh#t how many announcers claim we've got a great defense - watch the f'ing games and pay attention, they're not great. We lost a lot of talent on defense and it's going to take a while for the more inexperienced guys to catch up.
The secondary is easily our weakest link, and while I know Dennard is out, his return will not be some miracle pill for the secondary. You can see them start to play better when the space tightens up in the red zone, but out in the open field, they're still a bit clueless and outmatched. They'll improve as the season goes on, but we're not going to have a shutdown secondary this season.
The same is true for our LB's. They've got a long way to go this season, and just like our secondary, I expect them to improve, but not be great this season. In a way it's really a rebuilding season for our defense. I think our D-line is fine, but they're not a superstar unit and they won't be able to reliably get pressure with just the four of them. They'll need help from the LB's and secondary, and that's where we'll really be in a dilemma this season. Our D-line can't do it alone, but we really can't afford to further weaken our second and third levels by bringing in too much help.
So when you couple just an alright defense with TM (who is 100% feast or famine and will never change) and a sh#t O-line, yeah, we're going to lose some games. Teams like WI, who is probably one of the best in the country, are going to embarrass us. The defense is probably going to get shredded by good teams with a balanced attack, and the offense doesn't appear capable of consistently bringing it.
So there's your perspective. It's going to be a very up and down season. And while credit goes to Fresno St. for playing a good game, we also deserve some credit for managing to pull it together and pound out a win. But that sh#t isn't going to fly with a lot of our Big 10 opponents, and there are some serious problems with this team that won't be improving that much before we hit those opponents.
