The Reason We Lost

[Fuzzy]

I'm with BIGWILLIE. Defense was taking care of business and offense had issues all game except Helu would played a crazy game. I would've punted it and let suh have at em too. BUT we should've been scoring TDs! 5 field goals is pathetic. I know tech's d is good but come on. 1st and goal at the six ROY!!!!

There were atleast 3 or 4 shots we should've been able to TD's on the board. Twice with Helu, once with Holt and another with McNeill. But bad playcallling from Watson and Pelini, poor execution and penalties cost us this game that should have been winnable.

 

[KansasHusker]

Take a chill pill and get off Bo's behind about this loss. Like he said, it's all about EXECUTION and that wasn't what happened today. Lee looked like crap and the receivers didn't help him out.

 

[BigWillie]

Kicking the ball was the right thing to do. Our defense was incredible all game and besides missed tackles (a couple on ST, one on defense) the defense did everything they possibly could.

I've never bought this argument. If the defense is that incredible, then it should be irrelevant whether you have to defend 60 yds of field or 80 yds, you go for the yard to end the game, and you trust your defense enough to know then won't give up 60 if you don't get it....

It's a game of momentum in that situation. We are talking as if we had not gotten in - if we had not, every drop of momentum swings towards Tech and we our put on our heels to defend a shorter field.

People treat MO as if it isn't real and doesn't affect the game, but it does - ALOT.

 

[statman]

Big Willie, you make sense here on the 4th and 1, but my point is that the three plays before this, you should play as if you are down by 5 and have to score a TD to win. I hate it when teams become passive when they are up in close games at the end and allow their offense to just be satisfied to not turn the ball over and not worry about getting a first down. One first down and we would have won or could have moved into to kick our 6th field goal, but instead we move the ball 9 yards and kick it away and only take 16 seconds off the clock..

 

[HuskerJosh]

I don't understand how everyone can say this is Watson and the OLine's fault. The OLine allowed Helu to rush for 170 against a pretty good defense. Watson had some great calls (the QB draw on 3rd down?) Lee and the WRs just didn't execute the way they needed to. It was a tough place for Lee to get dropped into in his first road game. The drops from Meno (I mean, JESUS) and one from Paul didn't help, but damn, he just looked awful in the second half. I'm not one calling for Cody Green, but Lee struggled mightily today. That red zone offense was pathetic.

 

[DCHusker]

Respectfully disagree. We had all the momentum. Bo had his foot on Beamer's throat. A QB sneak or draw hadn't failed all game and we had very few negative run plans. You just go for it. You TAKE your victory. Even if we failed to convert, we'd still have our stellar defense with 60 yards to defend. It was a bonehead call and it would have been the difference between victory and defeat.

But here's the thing, IF we do not get it, every single drop of that momentum we had is gone, in one play. The crowd goes insane and you give the Tech offense a shorter field to work with.

You punt the ball away, you keep the momentum we already have and force Tyrod, who had not done a single thing all game, to go almost 90 yards on us.

I like my chances with the latter more than I do anything else.

Unfortunately O'Hanlon botched a coverage horribly. It happens.

Fortunately, we showed what we are capable of.

I've got enough heat to go on Pelini for some mistakes in this one. The punt isn't one of them.

But NOW we get to see what type of real coaching staff we have. A bad coaching staff will let this bother their team for the rest of the sason. A good coaching staff will use this to show a young team how good they really are and as a motivating factor into the B12 schedule.

I say it again, and I'll go to my grave believing it. You have a running back averaging over six yards a carry. A QB sneak/draw hadn't failed all game. Sometimes you just have to smash through for that yard and damn the torpedos. But he played conservative. He did the safe thing. Well whoopie.

Moving forward I hope this staff never chickens out like they did today. If you want to have a team with attitude, you've got to believe you can get one God damned yard to win the biggest game of your life.

Agreed, look at it this way...

You punt: you have to defend 80-90 yds

You go for it: you end the game if you get a yard (likely), even if you don't get a yard (unlikely), you are still defending 60 yds

It is well worth risking that 20 yds of field position given the high likelihood you can end the game!

 

[Fuzzy]

If you want to have a team with attitude, you've got to believe you can get one God damned yard to win the biggest game of your life.

While i dont agree with the playcalling, i didnt realize it was 4th and 1, too much static in the background.

This wasnt the biggest game of their life. We werent playing for the Big 12 championship or NC title.

Im off to the bar to drink my sorrows away and get ready for week 4.

 

[Red Storm Brewing]

Matt O'Hanlon=the 2009 version of Clint Finley, you are the safety NO ONE gets behind you!! It was a cover 2 on that play and the game falls on his shoulders. Reality hurts. He's the obvious glaring weak link in what otherwise was a great defensive performance.

And yes you punt the ball. The defense was playing their asses off let them decide the game. The offense in the red zone was putrid. The crazy thing of the game, as Zac Lee was given more time in the pocket as the game went on his completion percentage started to bomb. Weird.

Hats off to the defense they dominated after the first quarter, but you MUST convert in the redzone.

Ricky Thenarse starts the rest of the year.

 

[BigWillie]

I say it again, and I'll go to my grave believing it. You have a running back averaging over six yards a carry. A QB sneak/draw hadn't failed all game. Sometimes you just have to smash through for that yard and damn the torpedos. But he played conservative. He did the safe thing. Well whoopie.

Moving forward I hope this staff never chickens out like they did today. If you want to have a team with attitude, you've got to believe you can get one God damned yard to win the biggest game of your life.

Couple things ..

Try not to say GD. Really disrespectful although I know you are using it to just force. Just not the proper way to do it.

And again, you are not wrong in believing that. However, with the way our defense had played all day do you not believe those 30 extra yards would be invaluable once we went into our cover 2 shell? If we had not gotten it, we were playing cover 2 either way to keep things in front of us. Those 30 extra yards with no timeouts left for VA Tech would be huge.

A bigger argument you should be making is Pelini wasting those timeouts so easily. If we keep those timeouts, completely different situation, especially at the end.

 

[DCHusker]

Kicking the ball was the right thing to do. Our defense was incredible all game and besides missed tackles (a couple on ST, one on defense) the defense did everything they possibly could.

I've never bought this argument. If the defense is that incredible, then it should be irrelevant whether you have to defend 60 yds of field or 80 yds, you go for the yard to end the game, and you trust your defense enough to know then won't give up 60 if you don't get it....

It's a game of momentum in that situation. We are talking as if we had not gotten in - if we had not, every drop of momentum swings towards Tech and we our put on our heels to defend a shorter field.

People treat MO as if it isn't real and doesn't affect the game, but it does - ALOT.

You're already losing a lot of momentum by being forced to punt with 1:00+ on the clock, you're on the road, you take the risk and try to end the game....

 

[irafreak]

The only thing I could think of on that 4th and short was USC trying to ram the ball and giving it to Texas and Vince Young at midfield.

As far as the conference...our playcalling better get keep feeding roy the ball when we need him most (ahem...first and goal at the 6!) and tech had some big plays that they let get away. So I am still concerned about winning the north...that said....this will definitely prepare our team for tight games and hostile environments. Lee has to be more accurate though.

 

[BigWillie]

Matt O'Hanlon=the 2009 version of Clint Finley, you are the safety NO ONE gets behind you!! It was a cover 2 on that play and the game falls on his shoulders. Reality hurts. He's the obvious glaring weak link in what otherwise was a great defensive performance.

Probably one of the worst plays I can remember. What O'Hanlon was doing I still do not know. As I said before, you have ONE responsibility in that situation. Get as deep as the deepest man. O'Hanlon was nowhere in sight.

Almost wish he had let the guy score. Would have given us quite a bit more time to get Henery in position.

 

[BigWillie]

You're already losing a lot of momentum by being forced to punt with 1:00+ on the clock, you're on the road, you take the risk and try to end the game....

Explain that one to me. You lose momentum by punting? How? The offense had been putrid all day. We put it back on the defense and VA Tech's offense. A battle we had won all day and give them incredibly long field.

Don't see how that took away momentum AT ALL.

 

[irafreak]

I really think the logic is...do we put the pressure on the strength of vtech (the defense) and go for it or punt and put the pressue on their weakness .... seemed like the right call.

 

[NU fan in Denver]

And this board has officially gone into meltdown mode. Here comes the "fire bo pelini" and "cody green should've played" crowd :ahhhhhhhh :ahhhhhhhh :ahhhhhhhh

I guess Helu having a career high game with over 170yds is the coaches/teams fault. I guess our D holding VaTech to less than 60 yds (before the big play) the entire 2nd half was our coaches/teams fault.

Face it. Bud Foster's defense played very well.

Bud Fosters defense played good, but our offense pissed this game away. 1st and goal at the 6 and you cant even get a fg attempt. I think Zac Lee has been watching too much Tyrod Taylor film cuz he sure started throwing like him.