Thanks, Watson...

[Micheal]

[that is absolutely disgusting to look at. youve got a corn cob up your backside if you defend watson. bo took one of the worst defenses in the country and has turned them into one of the best in three years. granted, bo is the head coach so he's culpable with the offensive pee fest as well, but he's obviously a defensive minded one, and shawn watson has the exact same resources as bo to get his sh#t together on that side of the ball. its simply not happening. watson needs to go the way of the cosgrove.

yep, agree with ya, the defense was totally reworked into the beast it is today, while the offense still is just a kitty kat

 

[schuhbdoo]

I don't think there's any way you can blame Watson for failing to develop Cody Green. Green has just not panned out so far, and part of that is his fault, and part of that is the situation (not being able to redshirt when he needed to).

Because Watson's work bringing along Taylor as a quarterback has been nothing short of impressive.

You can't at once deflect blame from Watson for Green's development AND credit him for Martinez's development. He coaches both of them. He's either responsible for both of them, or for neither one.

Well said. And frankly, I think you could get away with pinning Green's lack of development on Watson while simultaneously refusing to give Watson credit for Martinez. How?

Because the things that make Martinez special are clearly natural abilities. It's basically his speed. He is very raw. In fact, the more the season progresses---that is to say, the more he seems to work with Watson---the worse Martinez is. When was the last time he ran for a TD? K State?

You can't teach poise and Green has no poise in the pocket. To put it plain and simple, he panics under pressure. Either you have it or you don't, and clearly Green doesn't have what it takes. He's a bust. Get over it.

the ship has sailed with Green. the wide open throw to niles paul sums it up for me. his throwing abilities are not up to D 1 standards. the fact that he is our number 2 is really quite scary. if we have to rely on him for anything more than 4th or 5th string, we are in trouble.

 

[CFHusker]

Fans need to get off of Watson. It is much easier to rebuild a defense vs an offense. I am sure Watson looks at game film and wishes he could have some plays back. But overall the offense moves the ball well. He cannot be to blame for false starts, drops, errant throws etc. Last night he had to call plays with a one legged freshman QB. They had a great game plan and exposed weaknesses. It just did not get executed.

 

[schuhbdoo]

I don't think there's any way you can blame Watson for failing to develop Cody Green. Green has just not panned out so far, and part of that is his fault, and part of that is the situation (not being able to redshirt when he needed to).

Because Watson's work bringing along Taylor as a quarterback has been nothing short of impressive.

You can't at once deflect blame from Watson for Green's development AND credit him for Martinez's development. He coaches both of them. He's either responsible for both of them, or for neither one.

Well said. And frankly, I think you could get away with pinning Green's lack of development on Watson while simultaneously refusing to give Watson credit for Martinez. How?

Because the things that make Martinez special are clearly natural abilities. It's basically his speed. He is very raw. In fact, the more the season progresses---that is to say, the more he seems to work with Watson---the worse Martinez is. When was the last time he ran for a TD? K State?

You can't teach poise and Green has no poise in the pocket. To put it plain and simple, he panics under pressure. Either you have it or you don't, and clearly Green doesn't have what it takes. He's a bust. Get over it.

the ship has sailed with Green. the wide open throw to niles paul sums it up for me. his throwing abilities are not up to D 1 standards. the fact that he is our number 2 is really quite scary. if we have to rely on him for anything more than 4th or 5th string, we are in trouble.

I just watch the Green interception in the second qtr. they gave it to a & m but helu was wide open with no within 15 yards of him. he chose to throw to mcneil who was double covered. the ship has sailed.

 

[Husker_x]

Fans need to get off of Watson. It is much easier to rebuild a defense vs an offense. I am sure Watson looks at game film and wishes he could have some plays back. But overall the offense moves the ball well. He cannot be to blame for false starts, drops, errant throws etc. Last night he had to call plays with a one legged freshman QB. They had a great game plan and exposed weaknesses. It just did not get executed.

Yes he can.

Watson is the offensive coordinator. The ATROCIOUS fumbling issue, the consistency issues, and the ongoing penalty issue, are ultimately his responsibility. I hope you took a good look at the TD breakdown over two seasons posted above. That tells a story, whether Husker fans––even me––want to listen or not. We have a growing body of evidence that Watson cannot get the job done with any consistency. His players are not prepared. They do not execute. How many seasons does this have to go one before Bo is forced to throw his hands up and say, "If you can't get it fixed, I'll find somebody who can"?

I am not one to be on the picket line holding a Fire Watson sign, but when you have an offense that goes from lights out to garbage with no middle ground with the loss of one player, and add to that what has been discussed in this thread, I'm at a place where if it comes out that Watson and a few selected assistants find a home with another school, I won't be crying about it.

 

[TripleOption]

Yes, the last couple seasons are just too much. We can do better and at the end of the day that's what this game is about. Bo and Tom are both going to see that as well. Time for a change, I'm afraid.

 

[fig96]

Fans need to get off of Watson. It is much easier to rebuild a defense vs an offense. I am sure Watson looks at game film and wishes he could have some plays back. But overall the offense moves the ball well. He cannot be to blame for false starts, drops, errant throws etc. Last night he had to call plays with a one legged freshman QB. They had a great game plan and exposed weaknesses. It just did not get executed.

Interesting to look at the coach in charge and the way a team develops. With Pelini the Huskers have obviously become a much stronger defensive team, with Sherman at the helm A&M developed a pretty potent offense well before having much of a defense to speak of.

 

[Washusker]

Watson most certainly does have culpability for penalties, fumbles, drops, lack of development for QBs, etc. I don't understand why that is up for debate. If he truly is in charge of this offense, then its failures fall directly at his feet. And with good reason.

For two straight years, this offense has been unable to carry this team. Sure, we saw brilliant performances in Seattle, Manhattan, and for one quarter against Mizzou. Yes, the offense won the game against OSU. But this team does not match up to legit championship contenders this year. Too many issues.

If Watson truly was a keeper as an OC, we'd have seen more consistency from the offense. We'd see fewer mistakes. We'd see a real identity.

Watson has had plenty of time to make this work. His unit is hindering, not helping the team achieve its goals. I don't see how anyone can argue otherwise.

Time for a change.

 

[zoogs]

To reiterate: QB development has actually been pretty impressive...from Ganz's jump in Year 3, to his even bigger jump in Year 4 (both with Watson as OC)...then Lee, who faded last year but he had a throwing arm injury and has been known to be a smart player making all the right reads...then Taylor, talk about impressive, getting some passing development there.

Penalties, fumbles, lack of discipline - point a finger at every man in the staff here, and the players individual effort. I'd focus more on the players with this one, but if you are trying to find an overarching problem the target OUGHT to be the head coach. It isn't as if we haven't had a lot of defensive penalties either, although a preponderance of our lost yardage seems to come from OL.

Now: lack of depth, and lack of production has been a key problem holding us back in two notable areas on offense. OL, and WR. You can guess, coincidentally, my feelings about those two position coaches. OL in particular, felt that way since before he was hired. Just like our lack of linebackers (we got one guy?? one guy!) could be placed at Ekeler's feet, rather than Carl's or Bo's. If our young DL do not grow into their roles and we see struggles on this front, or in the secondary next year, it won't be the DC masterminds getting stupid, either, but a problem with either the players we have tying up those schollies, or the position coaches. In those cases I think I'd go with the players. If that happens.

 

[JTrain]

We don't seem to improve offensively throughout the season. We don't have a clue what our identity is, and therefore have nothing to really build on. We have a whole mess of running concepts, route combinations, formations, etc. and can never really settle on a core group of them. We bounce around so much that we don't allow the players to improve on specific skill sets as the season progresses. Compare that with the phenomenal improvement of the defense from the first half of the season to the last, under Bo and Carl.

 

[zoogs]

We don't seem to improve offensively throughout the season. We don't have a clue what our identity is, and therefore have nothing to really build on. We have a whole mess of running concepts, route combinations, formations, etc. and can never really settle on a core group of them. We bounce around so much that we don't allow the players to improve on specific skill sets as the season progresses. Compare that with the phenomenal improvement of the defense from the first half of the season to the last, under Bo and Carl.

That's nuts, because thanks to Taylor, we have been extremely limited in the scope of what is available to us to work on, what plays and packages we have open to us, compared to where we would like to be. We have made plenty of hay still working in these confines. And it's why we often see pretty vanilla playcalling...because we have a lot of closed doors in the Offensive Playbook building.

It's pretty much a nice-sounding, cogent (well rehearsed and recycled from the Callahan days) argument but with very little connection to the reality of our situation this year, IMO. I wouldn't agree with the argument in general either, but I don't think that's worth arguing about now over the point that we have a pretty narrow scope of plays we have to work with this year. One play/set of plays in particular has come up over and over again to the point where people are getting sick of it; it starts with 'Z' and ends with 'one Read'.

 

[JTrain]

We don't seem to improve offensively throughout the season. We don't have a clue what our identity is, and therefore have nothing to really build on. We have a whole mess of running concepts, route combinations, formations, etc. and can never really settle on a core group of them. We bounce around so much that we don't allow the players to improve on specific skill sets as the season progresses. Compare that with the phenomenal improvement of the defense from the first half of the season to the last, under Bo and Carl.

That's nuts, because thanks to Taylor, we have been extremely limited in the scope of what is available to us to work on, what plays and packages we have open to us, compared to where we would like to be. We have made plenty of hay still working in these confines. And it's why we often see pretty vanilla playcalling...because we have a lot of closed doors in the Offensive Playbook building.

It's pretty much a nice-sounding, cogent (well rehearsed and recycled from the Callahan days) argument but with very little connection to the reality of our situation this year, IMO. I wouldn't agree with the argument in general either, but I don't think that's worth arguing about now over the point that we have a pretty narrow scope of plays we have to work with this year. One play/set of plays in particular has come up over and over again to the point where people are getting sick of it; it starts with 'Z' and ends with 'one Read'.

Not sure what you're getting at. I wasn't referring to this season alone, but Watson's tendencies in general. He has never had much of a core identity in a way almost all the great offensive coaches do. I can work on a detailed analysis, but I don't think Watson's offenses have generally showed significant improvement from the first half of the season to the last. Would you refute this?

 

[zoogs]

The top OCs in the game today: what are their core identities? I thought after Callahan what we wanted was a guy who was adaptive to the roster and flexible, rather than square peg, round hole, WCO or bust.

But anyway. I think you basically have a few glitzy offenses that have some "face guys" associated with them: Rich Rod, Paul Johnson, Air Leach...aside from that, your top OCs like the Malzahn, or the guys at OU and Texas, or even Urban Meyer who is going with Brantley now, they don't have that, and it's not a bad thing. We had a very knowledgeable user on here, brophog I think was the username, who explained in great detail why any offense NEEDS to be multiple and complex to combat any modern day defense that can also give you so many different looks and hit you so many different ways. And while multiple is some of the bad lingo of the day among our fanbase, the reality is that even the guys with core "identities" are extremely multiple and that is why they succeed.

Fans tend to think of them as "they do one core thing and do it well" when in reality, they run a lot of different looks and attack defenses a lot of different ways, using certain principles. But for simplicity sake, fans will choose to just identify say, RichRod as the 'spread offense' attack, when in truth that means so many different things it can hardly really be called a core identity.

We are similar. Watson's core principles are still rooted in the WCO, I believe, but we use those principles and are able to adapt them based on our personnel. We saw maybe a tiny bit of zone read with Joe Ganz (he scored a TD off of it against CU in '08 I believe), but that wasn't going to be our bread and butter. It is pretty much our core offense now though. And TO's offenses evolved a lot over the many years he coached as well, from more open passing attacks to a power-based game that was adapted to his personnel.

I think this is another case where we are targeting an area that is deficient in perception only, because we are trying to target something. JMHO.

 

[Hercules]

The top OCs in the game today: what are their core identities? I thought after Callahan what we wanted was a guy who was adaptive to the roster and flexible, rather than square peg, round hole, WCO or bust.

But anyway. I think you basically have a few glitzy offenses that have some "face guys" associated with them: Rich Rod, Paul Johnson, Air Leach...aside from that, your top OCs like the Malzahn, or the guys at OU and Texas, or even Urban Meyer who is going with Brantley now, they don't have that, and it's not a bad thing. We had a very knowledgeable user on here, brophog I think was the username, who explained in great detail why any offense NEEDS to be multiple and complex to combat any modern day defense that can also give you so many different looks and hit you so many different ways. And while multiple is some of the bad lingo of the day among our fanbase, the reality is that even the guys with core "identities" are extremely multiple and that is why they succeed.

Fans tend to think of them as "they do one core thing and do it well" when in reality, they run a lot of different looks and attack defenses a lot of different ways, using certain principles. But for simplicity sake, fans will choose to just identify say, RichRod as the 'spread offense' attack, when in truth that means so many different things it can hardly really be called a core identity.

We are similar. Watson's core principles are still rooted in the WCO, I believe, but we use those principles and are able to adapt them based on our personnel. We saw maybe a tiny bit of zone read with Joe Ganz (he scored a TD off of it against CU in '08 I believe), but that wasn't going to be our bread and butter. It is pretty much our core offense now though. And TO's offenses evolved a lot over the many years he coached as well, from more open passing attacks to a power-based game that was adapted to his personnel.

I think this is another case where we are targeting an area that is deficient in perception only, because we are trying to target something. JMHO.

In our last three games against Texas teams, our offense has managed exactly 0 touchdowns.

In our last game against the next closest thing to a Texas team, Oklahoma, our offense scored one touchdown. And they were given the ball at the one yard line.

I don't think this is an area that is deficient in perception alone. How many masterpieces do we have to watch the Blackshirts pitch only to see them outdone by their bumbling, ugly sibling of an offense?

It needs to be addressed, from top to bottom, Watson down to the 6th string walk-on left tackle.

 

[mmmtodd]

yup, eggs in the scoring column and your defense outscoring your offense is a pretty easy target zoogies.

watson is very good at adapting his personnel to score few points to coincide with herculean efforts on the other side of the ball.

edit: didnt see your post Herc, and funny i used the phrasing and wording I did.