Here are my conclusions on Lee vs. Martinez:
Lee manages and executes the offense very well. He makes the right decisions, and he's an accurate passer. In the zone read game, while he makes the right reads fairly consistently, he's not a threat to gain more than a couple of yards, and the defense sells out on the running back. The defense also plays softer in general on the run, and so while Lee is capable of hitting receivers in tight spots, he has to do it a lot with defenses playing softer on 1st and 2nd down. Lee brings steadiness to the offense, and he makes it potent. However, the way defenses would play it all year is the same way Texas played Lee: Bend but don't break. They'll give up 5 yard runs or passes all the way down the field, but you have to execute 12-14 play drives down the field every time.
While Lee makes the offense potent, Martinez makes it nuclear. Now, Martinez makes more mistakes than Lee in the zone read game, and he's less accurate as a passer. But in order to shut down Martinez in the zone read, defenses have to absolutely sell out, committing their linebackers and safeties to stopping the run. They leave their cornerbacks on an island, and on any first down or second down play where the Huskers so much as hint at a zone read, the LB's and S's creep about 3 or 4 steps towards the line. This allows our WRs to run wide open. When we establish our passing game (which with safeties and linebackers selling out on the run, is pretty easy to do), the running game opens up, and we've all seen what Martinez does when that happens.
The problem the other day was that both QBs were victimized by their receivers. And for me, in a question of Lee or Martinez, it's a no brainer. With Lee, it's a blue collar offense that can work their way down the field, drain the clock, and win close games with great defense. With Martinez, our current offense is potentially unstoppable (if we catch the ball).
Martinez needs to get better at executing the zone read, and he needs to become a more accurate passer. But against Texas, he really only made a couple of misreads in the zone read, and only a couple of poor throws. A couple of drops that really should have been catches, and the offense becomes an absolute nightmare for Texas to defend. Really, it becomes impossible for them to defend. We beat ourselves, end of story.
