The Pundits are wrong

[zoogs]

The pundits sure were wrong coming into this game. We were overrated.

 

[Igetbored216]

It strikes me that defense is well coached and playing very hard. That my friends is encouraging and is fun to watch. They are out-manned and playing up. But they have no quit in them.
Who has quit in them? The fans who are whining and calling them out. Show the tenacity and heart of the NU defense and root them on w/o ever quitting --- no matter how it goes. For our part, and fan appreciation is important, that is what we should do.

Be patient. Many points will be scored against us these next few weeks. It is to be expected. But if they (the NU defense) continues to play with heart and grit, then they will still deserve to hear our cheers.

Ehhh...I definitely wouldn't say it's encouraging. They have been making the same mistakes for four games now and it doesn't look like those mistakes are going to be fixed anytime soon. Encouraging would be improving each week, and I definitely don't see any improvement. The secondary still absolutely blows coverages, the offensive line is still not good, and the running game is not even close to where it needs to be. The only thing that has improved is that the players don't quit now. I would say that is the only encouraging thing I have seen.

 

[DCHusker]

I think the most disturbing thing to me about the D whether it was inside or outside of the 20's was the fact that we actually had two weeks to prepare for VT. They are mediocre offensively and they really made us look pretty bad.

Excactly, the bottom line is that a mediocre offense moved the ball with ease against us.

If some of you want to find a moral victory in holding VT to FGs in the red zone, that's all fine and good, but if the defense hadn't let VT absolutely roll between the 20's, we could've prevented a couple of those FGs and actually won the game.

I'm happy about our defensive line play, but our secondary is pitiful. This was not a case of the VT offense starting to come together and click, it was Nebraska's defense blowing coverages and allowing receivers to get wide open without a DB in sight.

 

[robsker]

It strikes me that defense is well coached and playing very hard. That my friends is encouraging and is fun to watch. They are out-manned and playing up. But they have no quit in them.
Who has quit in them? The fans who are whining and calling them out. Show the tenacity and heart of the NU defense and root them on w/o ever quitting --- no matter how it goes. For our part, and fan appreciation is important, that is what we should do.

Be patient. Many points will be scored against us these next few weeks. It is to be expected. But if they (the NU defense) continues to play with heart and grit, then they will still deserve to hear our cheers.

Ehhh...I definitely wouldn't say it's encouraging. They have been making the same mistakes for four games now and it doesn't look like those mistakes are going to be fixed anytime soon. Encouraging would be improving each week, and I definitely don't see any improvement. The secondary still absolutely blows coverages, the offensive line is still not good, and the running game is not even close to where it needs to be. The only thing that has improved is that the players don't quit now. I would say that is the only encouraging thing I have seen.

Agreed Michael. The blown coverages and the effectiveness have not improved much --- but we played a better team than was the case before. But you are right --- all we have to be encouraged with is lack of quit and heart. That said, that is a big thing. As long as that continues we have hope that the rest improves (if they did not have heart, then there would be no hope).

 

[AR Husker Fan]

Yes, that has an effect on the defense, but this Hokie offense has not been very good most of this year and the defense, at some points, could not stop the Hokies between the 20s. It very easily could have been much worse if the Hokies were able to keep going instead of settling for 4 field goals. The Huskers were fortunate to be in the game, period. Yes, they played hard, but the defense is still not very good. We'll see how it stacks up at the end of the year, I think they will improve, but are not going to be show stoppers. The offense's inability to run the ball and control the clock is partly to blame. If the offense could chew more of the clock by running the ball, it would make the defense look a lot better. Watson states he has confidence in the run, but if a drive or 2 stalls without getting the run established, he seems to get skittish and throw it out the window. I don't get it. They will never be able to run the ball if there is never a rhythm established in the first place.

How were they 'fortunate'? They were in the game because the defense forced 4 red zone FGs instead of GIVING UP 4 TDs. Fortune and luck had nothing to do with it. I don't remember VT kicking any field goals on second or third down, they were forced to kick FGs - not 'settle' for them. Period. Check out the 'we'll only win two more games' thread, you'll love it.

Fortunate because VT shot themselves in the foot a few times inside the red zone after marching down the field with ease. Before that last drive to pull within 5, the Huskers were outyarded nearly 2-1, were behind in turnovers, first downs, time of possession, plays, etc. Yeah, it was a close score, but if VT would have executed in the red zone, that game would have been ugly. If you're so drunk on the kool-aid that you can't recognize that Nebraska had their asses handed to them for the majority of the game in nearly every facet of the game, then I don't know what to tell you. Check out the "Bo is teh awesome and Nebraska will win out thread", I think that is more your speed. :thumbs

Wow! Seriously? :dunno Ok, I thought the "CU is going to pound us" post was retarded. But I think this has that one topped easily. Stat's really don't always translate into wether your getting your a$$ handed to you or not. I'm not sure how much football you watch, but it happens every week, college and pro, were teams have no problem marching down the field but can't punch it in. I think it's idiotic that you take all the credit away from NU's defense being able to tighten up and call it "VT shooting themself in the foot".

Maybe you should take your nonsense to the CU message boards, I think their lower IQ's would suit you well.

Your warning level has been increased for your violation of the Board rules in your personal attack, above. A second violation will result in a temporary ban; a third in a permanent ban.

 

[huskerpilot]

I agree. I mean our D isn't where it SHOULD be...but I don't think there should be any debate that we are better.

 

[melscott62]

Yes, that has an effect on the defense, but this Hokie offense has not been very good most of this year and the defense, at some points, could not stop the Hokies between the 20s. It very easily could have been much worse if the Hokies were able to keep going instead of settling for 4 field goals. The Huskers were fortunate to be in the game, period. Yes, they played hard, but the defense is still not very good. We'll see how it stacks up at the end of the year, I think they will improve, but are not going to be show stoppers. The offense's inability to run the ball and control the clock is partly to blame. If the offense could chew more of the clock by running the ball, it would make the defense look a lot better. Watson states he has confidence in the run, but if a drive or 2 stalls without getting the run established, he seems to get skittish and throw it out the window. I don't get it. They will never be able to run the ball if there is never a rhythm established in the first place.

How were they 'fortunate'? They were in the game because the defense forced 4 red zone FGs instead of GIVING UP 4 TDs. Fortune and luck had nothing to do with it. I don't remember VT kicking any field goals on second or third down, they were forced to kick FGs - not 'settle' for them. Period. Check out the 'we'll only win two more games' thread, you'll love it.

Fortunate because VT shot themselves in the foot a few times inside the red zone after marching down the field with ease. Before that last drive to pull within 5, the Huskers were outyarded nearly 2-1, were behind in turnovers, first downs, time of possession, plays, etc. Yeah, it was a close score, but if VT would have executed in the red zone, that game would have been ugly. If you're so drunk on the kool-aid that you can't recognize that Nebraska had their asses handed to them for the majority of the game in nearly every facet of the game, then I don't know what to tell you. Check out the "Bo is teh awesome and Nebraska will win out thread", I think that is more your speed. :thumbs

meh... you could say VT is lucky we shot ourselves in the foot before we got to the redzone.... its all a bunch of nonsense. they didnt score because we stopped them. we have had good redzone D all year. I dont know that we will stop great O's like MU and Ttech, but against kstate, CU... teams like that i think we will.

 

[DJR313]

Yes, that has an effect on the defense, but this Hokie offense has not been very good most of this year and the defense, at some points, could not stop the Hokies between the 20s. It very easily could have been much worse if the Hokies were able to keep going instead of settling for 4 field goals. The Huskers were fortunate to be in the game, period. Yes, they played hard, but the defense is still not very good. We'll see how it stacks up at the end of the year, I think they will improve, but are not going to be show stoppers. The offense's inability to run the ball and control the clock is partly to blame. If the offense could chew more of the clock by running the ball, it would make the defense look a lot better. Watson states he has confidence in the run, but if a drive or 2 stalls without getting the run established, he seems to get skittish and throw it out the window. I don't get it. They will never be able to run the ball if there is never a rhythm established in the first place.

How were they 'fortunate'? They were in the game because the defense forced 4 red zone FGs instead of GIVING UP 4 TDs. Fortune and luck had nothing to do with it. I don't remember VT kicking any field goals on second or third down, they were forced to kick FGs - not 'settle' for them. Period. Check out the 'we'll only win two more games' thread, you'll love it.

Fortunate because VT shot themselves in the foot a few times inside the red zone after marching down the field with ease. Before that last drive to pull within 5, the Huskers were outyarded nearly 2-1, were behind in turnovers, first downs, time of possession, plays, etc. Yeah, it was a close score, but if VT would have executed in the red zone, that game would have been ugly. If you're so drunk on the kool-aid that you can't recognize that Nebraska had their asses handed to them for the majority of the game in nearly every facet of the game, then I don't know what to tell you. Check out the "Bo is teh awesome and Nebraska will win out thread", I think that is more your speed. :thumbs

meh... you could say VT is lucky we shot ourselves in the foot before we got to the redzone.... its all a bunch of nonsense. they didnt score because we stopped them. we have had good redzone D all year. I dont know that we will stop great O's like MU and Ttech, but against kstate, CU... teams like that i think we will.

Well, hopefully you are right, because most of the teams we face from here on out will have quarterbacks that are more polished than Taylor. The spread can sometimes struggle in the red zone because there is less space to work with.

 

[captain obvious]

NU got beat in every offensive statistical category. It's troubling, but you could look at it the opposite way: They pretty much gave VT every advantage imaginable, made several huge mistakes, and they still made enough plays to be in the game with a serious shot to win it until the last 5 seconds.

You can look at the 2.5 terrible quarters of football and say, "wow, it could have been way worse," but you could also take that information and say, "wow, we only showed up for about 16 minutes of the game and still almost won."

It's still too early in the season to say exactly what type of team we've got. If you think they won't improve, then I think you are being reflexively cynical. They will continue to face adversity, much of it being self-inflicted. But I think we are going to see a big difference between this team and last year's. They won't get worse. They will get better as the year goes on. I am sure they will lose several more games this year, but I think it will at least be interesting to watch, and this season will end up being something to build on.

 

[zE bOp]

I think 1 of those red zone 'stops' was more like Ty threw the ball over a wide open rcvr's head in the end zone.

Could it be that VT just has a relatively better team than us? That's what I took from that game. We aren't as good as we may have thought, but I'm proud of the way we hung in there.

But, VT EARNED the W, we didn't 'give' them the game.

Give VT credit...and...GBR!

 

[huskered17]

Nebraska is going to give up a lot of yardage between the 20's. They have every game. The db's are just not that good yet. Red zone stats will be put to the test against Mizzo. If we want to see the Huskers hold a team to field goals in the red zone, this better be the week. I sure won't be complaining about it.

GBR!!!

 

[arenateam]

total frustration on my part as well.

 

[skersfan]

Guys, we were a 5-7 team last year. Most likely less talent than we had last year. Far less experience. A new coaching staff, and one of the tougher schedules in the country.

Expecting great leaps and bounds is too much to ask. Support this team and this staff, it has never been needed more than now.

We all love the Huskers, we all want them to win, but they are not ready to be what some expect. Bo is learning every single day. He knows what we have to do to win. And he knows it takes time, listen to his presser yesterday. Reality is what he said. We as fans need to accept that to.

Accepting that we are not what we once were is okay. Saying we do not want to regain that is not okay. But expecting it overnight, with a coaching change and the same basic talent we had is not okay.

Give this team time, bare with their losses as it is much tougher on them than us.