The Main Concerns

[Husker_x]

We all watched the same game. As many have already said, there's nothing in it for us playing an FCS team. There's not much in it for any major D1 program. You invite a team into your house that has a one in a million shot at upsetting you. A moral victory is a victory of a kind, and it's what the Jack Rabbits walked away with tonight. Winning doesn't matter, losing really matters, but playing poorly is a lot like losing, considering the talent level. What I took from this game were four main concerns. Tell me if I'm crazy.

1. T-Magic has a heel. Shawn Watson went on record as saying that Taylor is as good a passer as he's been around. My response: time to start recruiting some better quarterbacks, then. If Taylor is the best Wats has been around, he needs to get out more. It's far too early in his career to write him off as a serviceable passer, but the concern going forward is can he do it at all? Unless we expect to score TDs on YAC alone, Taylor looks ready for an embarrassment against a top tier secondary. Almost all of his throws are behind or short, and his picks tonight were completely his own lack of vision.

2. Has Niles Paul played himself onto the bench yet? His bobbled-then-fumbled punt 'return' this evening is yet another mark on a growing resume of sloppy play from someone who is expected to be a playmaker. Without going overboard, I can honestly say that every time he gets the ball I hold my breath.

3. Whatever Carl Pelini says, our rush defense is beginning to look a bit porous. Nobody reasonable expected the line to get better without Suh, but let's just say I'm more than a little interested to see how K-State's All Big XII caliber running back is going to fare against the blackshirts.

4. The main positive of the night was that we had our trap game against a team we could beat on pure talent. We were fortunate. What troubled me more than anything (and there was enough lousy play to be troubling) was the lack of fire out there. I sort of exempt the defense from this because they played very well and were constantly put on their back foot by the offense. What worries me is a team that reads their own press clippings after blowing out Washington, who, with all respect, is nothing exceptional. The story is classic: pit an overconfident bunch against a team of scrappers with nothing to lose and watch the result. Going forward we won't have the luxury of playing teams with such an insurmountable talent gap.

I still believe NU has a heck of a season in front of them, but if these concerns aren't addressed by the time Nebraska suits up for KState, our odds of going the distance begin to shrink very quickly.

 

[Fuzzy]

This is what happens when you compare Taylor Martinez to Eric Crouch, a fast running QB with a shotty looking arm for a passer. But then again this is also a result of having a freshman QB, he is going to have off game, just be thankful this off game was against an opponent that we still won against. Imagine if this off game play happened against Missouri, or Texas?

Hopefully Taylor can learn from these mistakes that i saw from him. Stop locking recievers (Brandon Kinnie). You don't have to force the long ball all the time.

I want to elaborate on the forcing the long balls, i saw a few times on either 1st or 2nd down when Taylor tried forcing some throws to either Marlowe or Kinnie who were welled covered, but i could see a open Rex, Roy or Cotton underneath with no one around them for atleast 5-6 yards, but instead of going for an open underneath man to pick up some good yardage, Taylor tried forcing it in to a reciever for the 1st down. Unfortunately both times he forced the ball to Kinnie, Jackrabbits picked him off.

I will distribute my troubles with QB play evenly though. I was happy when Cody Green came into the game. What i wasn't happy with was how he played. He messed up two times against Washington trying to make something happen with his legs. This time he had a golden opportunity to make something of himself, it started with an open Brandon Kinnie that he overthrew. I thought to myself last night, do we have any QB's on the team that accurately pass the ball? Do they really pass the ball this badly during practice?

I should expect Taylor to be locking on recievers since he is a freshman, Cody Green did it last year along with Zac Lee. Its aggravating to me to see them constantly locking on recievers, its more nervewrecking when you look at O'Brien from the Jackrabbits and he isn't locking on recievers at all.

But let me take my offensive rants to another thread before i get too much into it.

As for Niles Paul, i really didn't see him get the ball thrown his way a lot during the game, the only time i saw him on the field was for punt returns.

 

[Husker_x]

This is what happens when you compare Taylor Martinez to Eric Crouch, a fast running QB with a shotty looking arm for a passer. But then again this is also a result of having a freshman QB, he is going to have off game, just be thankful this off game was against an opponent that we still won against. Imagine if this off game play happened against Missouri, or Texas?

Hopefully Taylor can learn from these mistakes that i saw from him. Stop locking recievers (Brandon Kinnie). You don't have to force the long ball all the time.

I want to elaborate on the forcing the long balls, i saw a few times on either 1st or 2nd down when Taylor tried forcing some throws to either Marlowe or Kinnie who were welled covered, but i could see a open Rex, Roy or Cotton underneath with no one around them for atleast 5-6 yards, but instead of going for an open underneath man to pick up some good yardage, Taylor tried forcing it in to a reciever for the 1st down. Unfortunately both times he forced the ball to Kinnie, Jackrabbits picked him off.

I will distribute my troubles with QB play evenly though. I was happy when Cody Green came into the game. What i wasn't happy with was how he played. He messed up two times against Washington trying to make something happen with his legs. This time he had a golden opportunity to make something of himself, it started with an open Brandon Kinnie that he overthrew. I thought to myself last night, do we have any QB's on the team that accurately pass the ball? Do they really pass the ball this badly during practice?

I should expect Taylor to be locking on recievers since he is a freshman, Cody Green did it last year along with Zac Lee. Its aggravating to me to see them constantly locking on recievers, its more nervewrecking when you look at O'Brien from the Jackrabbits and he isn't locking on recievers at all.

But let me take my offensive rants to another thread before i get too much into it.

As for Niles Paul, i really didn't see him get the ball thrown his way a lot during the game, the only time i saw him on the field was for punt returns.

Agreed on almost every point.

The only comparison you can draw between Taylor and Eric is speed. Taylor has that freakish acceleration like Crouch did.

I was a little upset that Zac Lee didn't get a shot to play last night. Watching both Taylor and Cody underthrow wide open guys or force stuff that wasn't there, I kept thinking, "Zac would have made that one." The deep ball was his specialty. I have liked Cody's attitude since being passed over; I haven't liked his performance on the field. I don't for one second believe he's the second best QB on our roster. If something were to happy to Taylor, my vote would be to send Zac in.

 

[I am I]

Is there any assuming that part of the gameplan going in this week was to stretch the field vertically a bit?

I thought Martin-ez forced them in there a bit too when he could have gone underneath. But maybe Wats wanted him to air it out?

Niles Paul=Human Turnover Machine

When Lee was the QB and we actually had a deep passing threat, Niles was more of a playmaker and did some nice things in the passing game. I understand he is a senior with a ton of experience and he will undoubtedly help us out this year. But i'm with X, I hold my breath.

I thought it seemed like we opened up the offense a bit this week. I could be wrong but I saw a ton of new formations and even some shifting going on around the line of scrimmage. This lead to a couple false starts, and a couple illegal formation penalties, IIRC. Maybe we were "putting something new on film" for our B12 opponents to get ready/confuse them with. Anyway, I think it was a direct correlation to our huge lack of execution on offense. WHY CAN'T WATSON JUST PERFECT WHAT WE'RE GOOD AT INSTEAD OF CONSTANTLY TINKERING WITH sh#t??? He didn't get stupid overnight again, as it's the players job to play the plays called...i get it, but damnit, just smash the ball down an inferior opponents throat and go home.

Defense looked porous against the run at times, for sure, but we also had a goal line stand after a turnover and when there was effort we pretty much kept them at bay. We don't really blitz and, we don't really stunt and I think we could see some new twists come during B12 play. Effort is what was really lacking last night.

A win is a win. Sloppy, lackadaisical effort can form bad habits...but it seems Bo is pretty good at getting the guys to rebound. It seems we play a little better on the road with less distractions. I'm not concerned overall, just ready for them to zone in and play well/execute week to week, like championship teams do