This offense

[Enhance]

I have a problem with everything except the play-calling. For the most part, I think Watson calls a good game.

The problem lies with the fact that a couple of players (or entire units) are extremely inconsistent. If you want to win a championship, you simply cannot play like this. It is as simple as that. Why do these players, after literally having ALL the motivation in the world to succeed this season, still find a way to trip themselves up?

To me, it just comes down to developing players and coaching them. I don't know if this offensive staff is up to the challenge of putting a consistent threat out on the football field. The offensive line got owned by a unit it shouldn't have, receivers were out of place/dropping passes, and running backs were having a lot of trouble making reads and cutting up field (which is a problem with blocking more than anything else).

We can't continue to dominate OOC opponents and then play hit or miss against all manners of competition week in and week out. This is just far too inconsistent.

The defense has played extremely well all season, as a collective unit. They've had a few slip ups, but many of the games where we gave up a lot of points was because of turnovers by the offense or mistakes on special teams that led to opposing offenses having a short field.

If the defense can perform well enough to win every game, why can't the offense?

This post is mostly on the money. The only qualm I have is the playcalling. I truly thought last nights play calling was pretty poor. What was the run/pass ratio on 3rd down? Seemed like pass heavy to me. Hard slants versus man coverage are also a very hard pass play to convert, especially with the personnel we have. Wats should be able to recognize this and figure up something different. The route combos are downright simple, like he just uses a 1-9 passing tree. No double moves, no combo routes, nothing to confuse the secondary. Maybe this is because there is no protection, which sure could be the case. It just seems all to predictable. Last offensive play of the game (4th and 5?) and a corner route into triple coverage is the primary read? Come on. I'm no offensive genius, but maybe that's why it concerns me that I notice this kind of stuff. And don't get me started on Barney. He's the most overrated O-line coach in football. I want to believe that everything will end up alright and that the ship will be righted, but I'm not so sure anymore. Here's praying for another break out game next week and in the future.

We can p*ss and moan all we want about the refs last night, but one (ONE!) touchdown wins that game. That, my friends, is unacceptable.

In my opinion, I think the quick slant route on third down is a pretty good high percentage play. The problem lies with the fact that we twice had a player drop the pass, once because of a ball thrown slightly behind and once because he just purely didn't hang on.

I agree about Barney, as well. I'm not convinced (and haven't been) that he is capable of producing a dominant offensive line. The burden of inconsistency falls heavily on him as well.

 

[fig96]

Serious question: is it possible that A&M's D is better than it's being given credit for? I keep seeing references to things like "average but played lights out" and there were several pregame comments about A&M's defense being exposed, being overrated, etc.

In the game, penalties aside (and there weren't a lot when NU was on offense other than the personal fouls) I'd say the Aggie defense looked pretty solid. Martinez wasn't 100% by any stretch and that definitely didn't help your ground game, but A&M got lots of pressure in the backfield and did rather well all night.

Not meaning to flame or troll, sorry if it's taken that way.

que?

To clarify, there weren't a lot of penalties that directly negated big gains.

 

[SnowBigRed]

Serious question: is it possible that A&M's D is better than it's being given credit for? I keep seeing references to things like "average but played lights out" and there were several pregame comments about A&M's defense being exposed, being overrated, etc.

In the game, penalties aside (and there weren't a lot when NU was on offense other than the personal fouls) I'd say the Aggie defense looked pretty solid. Martinez wasn't 100% by any stretch and that definitely didn't help your ground game, but A&M got lots of pressure in the backfield and did rather well all night.

Not meaning to flame or troll, sorry if it's taken that way.

You make a good point. A&M's D-line made red-headed step children of our O-line all night, and our passing game was too inept last night to challenge your questionable secondary. A&M played a great game defensively, and the point of this thread is to question the ability of our offense to make changes and put points on the board vs. average or better defenses. But your point is definitely valid. This thread is not just focusing on last night, but a culmination of this offensive staff's coaching, scheming and game planning on a weekly basis. A&M is a hot team right now, and I don't really want to play them again to be honest. Go ahead and plant Texas's d*cks in the dirt this week, and we'll be seeing ya'll around the bend.

 

[fig96]

Serious question: is it possible that A&M's D is better than it's being given credit for? I keep seeing references to things like "average but played lights out" and there were several pregame comments about A&M's defense being exposed, being overrated, etc.

In the game, penalties aside (and there weren't a lot when NU was on offense other than the personal fouls) I'd say the Aggie defense looked pretty solid. Martinez wasn't 100% by any stretch and that definitely didn't help your ground game, but A&M got lots of pressure in the backfield and did rather well all night.

Not meaning to flame or troll, sorry if it's taken that way.

You make a good point. A&M's D-line made red-headed step children of our O-line all night, and our passing game was too inept last night to challenge your questionable secondary. A&M played a great game defensively, and the point of this thread is to question the ability of our offense to make changes and put points on the board vs. average or better defenses. But your point is definitely valid. This thread is not just focusing on last night, but a culmination of this offensive staff's coaching, scheming and game planning on a weekly basis. A&M is a hot team right now, and I don't really want to play them again to be honest. Go ahead and plant Texas's d*cks in the dirt this week, and we'll be seeing ya'll around the bend.

Appreciated, and I'm definitely hoping we destroy Texas on T-day (it's been nice to see the number of UT football related posts on my Facebook feed slow to a trickle). Didn't mean to derail the thread.

As per the NU offense, I hadn't watched a lot of your games this season but I really expected more from the number of points you'd put up in previous games. There didn't seem to be much variety in playcalling and when it was obvious that the gameplan wasn't moving the ball well I didn't see much adjustment (other than trying to throw the ball late in the game). Having Martinez slowed certainly can't help your playcalling with the reliance you've had on running the ball but in general that would all seem to fall on your OC.

 

[Husker_x]

Watson has been bleeding supporters for over a year now. It's very alarming that by losing one player––no matter how good––we go from unstoppable to completely inept with nothing in between. That speaks to recruiting. That speaks to the development of depth. That speaks, very plainly, to coaching, or a lack of it.

I've been borderline on Watson for a long time now. I'm still not off the fence, but I can already feel that toppling sensation when gravity starts to take hold.

 

[Enhance]

Serious question: is it possible that A&M's D is better than it's being given credit for? I keep seeing references to things like "average but played lights out" and there were several pregame comments about A&M's defense being exposed, being overrated, etc.

In the game, penalties aside (and there weren't a lot when NU was on offense other than the personal fouls) I'd say the Aggie defense looked pretty solid. Martinez wasn't 100% by any stretch and that definitely didn't help your ground game, but A&M got lots of pressure in the backfield and did rather well all night.

Not meaning to flame or troll, sorry if it's taken that way.

You make a good point. A&M's D-line made red-headed step children of our O-line all night, and our passing game was too inept last night to challenge your questionable secondary. A&M played a great game defensively, and the point of this thread is to question the ability of our offense to make changes and put points on the board vs. average or better defenses. But your point is definitely valid. This thread is not just focusing on last night, but a culmination of this offensive staff's coaching, scheming and game planning on a weekly basis. A&M is a hot team right now, and I don't really want to play them again to be honest. Go ahead and plant Texas's d*cks in the dirt this week, and we'll be seeing ya'll around the bend.

Appreciated, and I'm definitely hoping we destroy Texas on T-day (it's been nice to see the number of UT football related posts on my Facebook feed slow to a trickle). Didn't mean to derail the thread.

As per the NU offense, I hadn't watched a lot of your games this season but I really expected more from the number of points you'd put up in previous games. There didn't seem to be much variety in playcalling and when it was obvious that the gameplan wasn't moving the ball well I didn't see much adjustment (other than trying to throw the ball late in the game). Having Martinez slowed certainly can't help your playcalling with the reliance you've had on running the ball but in general that would all seem to fall on your OC.

There really aren't any excuses for why the offense played so poorly.

No offense to the A&M defensive line, but I think Nebraska has played against defensive fronts that are similar and maybe even better than A&M's, and Nebraska didn't have that much trouble running the ball.

Nebraska just flat out didn't prepare well and didn't execute. If this game was earlier in the season (maybe pre-Texas), I think Nebraska wins it handily. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't.

 

[EbylHusker]

Well, when you hold a team with a good offense to 9 points, but you still don't win, something's wrong. And it's not like this is the first instance we've seen with the offense sputtering.

 

[JTrain]

I'm probably going to catch some crap for this. So be it.

The entire time we've had this offensive coaching staff, I have always told myself, "they just need their players, they'll get things turned around, cut out the mistakes and we'll be fine, blah blah blah, etc.". I have always backed Watson. Stayed on his bandwagon all last season, and up until now in this season. But tonight, I've seen enough.

Watson's playcalling and offensive schemes are neither creative nor effective. The offense is extremely undisciplined (see false starts, illegal formations, etc.), inconsistent, and doesn't seem to really have a knack for what is going on. Tonight, I actually had the chance to watch the game all by myself in the comfort of my living room. Now, as lame as that sounds, I did this for a reason. I really wanted to analyze what we are trying to do offensively. After dvr'ing the game and watching most of it twice, I still have no clue.

The route combinations on passing plays are so simple that any defense (even bad ones such as A&M's, although they played lights out tonight, go figure) seem to be able to figure it out. Up front, we absolutely get manhandled more often than not (see the play in which Martinez gets stepped on, Caputo was getting absolutely b*tched). Watson is terrible at making adjustments on the fly when something isn't working. I could go on and on and on.

All in all, as a staff, this offensive football team is not prepared to win a majority of football games. The Nebraska D played spectacularly against a very good offense tonight, but losing games like this seems to be the offense's specialty. Throw out the KSU and Washington game (and the 1st and half of the 4th quarters of the Mizzou game), this offense has been stagnant. Good coaching staffs can still score points when everything isn't ideal (Martinez not being 100%). Tonight was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I will no longer have any confidence in this offense to win a game.

Colorado seems to be coming around in their own right, and this game is far from a guaranteed win as it can be. It's just frustrating to see a defense play as well as it did, only to lose the game due to an anemic offensive showing, most of which was on the coaching than anything else. We've got enough talent to score more than 6 pts on an average at best A&M, 20 on a bad Kansas, 17 on a bad SDSU, essentially 6 on a bad Texas, essentially 17 on a bad ISU, and so on and so forth. Here's to Watson turning it around, because this team is going to need it.

Blackshirts, we pray for you.

FIFY

Watson just kills me because he's a smart guy but he seems so horrified of messing up that he doesn't get creative enough. During the Callahan years it seems we were good for several really well-executed trick plays every season (many of them in the redzone for touchdowns). But since Bo there's been very little of that. Maybe there's something psychological in play between Wats and Bo. Who knows? But this game could have been changed with one creative trick play (like on our final scoring drive) and its frustrating to see us not even try one.

But trick plays aside, I don't know that Wats will ever be an elite OC. TM being able to break 60 and 70 yard runs with his freakish cuts and acceleration made Wats look like a genius, but without that he doesn't seem to know what the offensive identity is. Nobody does. It's just a mess, and it's sad that a hobbled quarterback is all it takes to revert back to 2009-like ineptness. TAMU is solid but certainly not an elite defense this year.

 

[gobiggergoredder]

I'm probably going to catch some crap for this. So be it.

The entire time we've had this offensive coaching staff, I have always told myself, "they just need their players, they'll get things turned around, cut out the mistakes and we'll be fine, blah blah blah, etc.". I have always backed Watson. Stayed on his bandwagon all last season, and up until now in this season. But tonight, I've seen enough.

Watson's playcalling and offensive schemes are neither creative nor effective. The offense is extremely undisciplined (see false starts, illegal formations, etc.), inconsistent, and doesn't seem to really have a knack for what is going on. Tonight, I actually had the chance to watch the game all by myself in the comfort of my living room. Now, as lame as that sounds, I did this for a reason. I really wanted to analyze what we are trying to do offensively. After dvr'ing the game and watching most of it twice, I still have no clue.

The route combinations on passing plays are so simple that any defense (even bad ones such as A&M's, although they played lights out tonight, go figure) seem to be able to figure it out. Up front, we absolutely get manhandled more often than not (see the play in which Martinez gets stepped on, Caputo was getting absolutely b*tched). Watson is terrible at making adjustments on the fly when something isn't working. I could go on and on and on.

All in all, as a staff, this offensive football team is not prepared to win a majority of football games. The Nebraska D played spectacularly against a very good offense tonight, but losing games like this seems to be the offense's specialty. Throw out the KSU and Washington game (and the 1st and half of the 4th quarters of the Mizzou game), this offense has been stagnant. Good coaching staffs can still score points when everything isn't ideal (Martinez not being 100%). Tonight was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I will no longer have any confidence in this offense to win a game.

Colorado seems to be coming around in their own right, and this game is far from a guaranteed win as it can be. It's just frustrating to see a defense play as well as it did, only to lose the game due to an anemic offensive showing, most of which was on the coaching than anything else. We've got enough talent to score more than 6 pts on an average at best A&M, 20 on a bad Kansas, 17 on a bad SDSU, essentially 6 on a bad Texas, essentially 17 on a bad ISU, and so on and so forth. Here's to Watson turning it around, because this team is going to need it.

Blackshirts, we pray for you.

FIFY

Watson just kills me because he's a smart guy but he seems so horrified of messing up that he doesn't get creative enough. During the Callahan years it seems we were good for several really well-executed trick plays every season (many of them in the redzone for touchdowns). But since Bo there's been very little of that. Maybe there's something psychological in play between Wats and Bo. Who knows? But this game could have been changed with one creative trick play (like on our final scoring drive) and its frustrating to see us not even try one.

But trick plays aside, I don't know that Wats will ever be an elite OC. TM being able to break 60 and 70 yard runs with his freakish cuts and acceleration made Wats look like a genius, but without that he doesn't seem to know what the offensive identity is. Nobody does. It's just a mess, and it's sad that a hobbled quarterback is all it takes to revert back to 2009-like ineptness. TAMU is solid but certainly not an elite defense this year.

+1....Best of luck Watson

 

[chamrocck]

yeah but thats just it, without a blazingly fast and full of moxie qb this offense reverts to what it was last year, which was one of the worst offenses in football

Isn't this true of every team?

Not so much the specific speed, but if your starting QB goes down that team is in trouble

yeah but when we lose a starting qb we have NOTHING. We can't scrounge up sh#t, only thing we can do is hand off and hope to crack a run or two. Its not just that we struggle in these situations, its that we look like the single worst offense you could imagine

It has been disappointing that when TMart has gone out of the game it is like our whole offense just goes away. Agree Watson and the offense needs to have done better in these situations but I also look at our offense this way.

QB - we have one who is very dynamic and when 100% should have us in every game. Love that we have recruited Carnes and Turner to play in this style of offense.

RB - love Roy and Rex...Green is coming and we look good at RB.

OL - average. We have been recruiting OL very well so expect to build and become better.

WR - below average with no playmakers. This is a killer for us on offense. If you are a D-Coordinator do you think when TMart is out that we are going to suddenly go with a back-up QB throwing to this WR corps to win games? No, we are going to run Roy and Rex and burn clock and let the defense win the game. This is a poor area for us IMO...we need to step up the WR recruits that can catch, possess the ball to move the chains, and we desperately need playmakers to get yards after catch and TD's.

We need more balance on the offense. Texas had a very good gameplan against the zone read...so we went to the air but our WR's dropped balls and TD's. And yesterday at A&M we went back into the shell we saw last year. IMO Bo knew that we could lock down A&M...Tannehill was not impressive...so we went conservative but we all know this game took on another "12th man" which I'll let you go to several other threads on that! :madash

 

[SnowBigRed]

It has been disappointing that when TMart has gone out of the game it is like our whole offense just goes away. Agree Watson and the offense needs to have done better in these situations but I also look at our offense this way.

QB - we have one who is very dynamic and when 100% should have us in every game. Love that we have recruited Carnes and Turner to play in this style of offense.

RB - love Roy and Rex...Green is coming and we look good at RB.

OL - average. We have been recruiting OL very well so expect to build and become better.

WR - below average with no playmakers. This is a killer for us on offense. If you are a D-Coordinator do you think when TMart is out that we are going to suddenly go with a back-up QB throwing to this WR corps to win games? No, we are going to run Roy and Rex and burn clock and let the defense win the game. This is a poor area for us IMO...we need to step up the WR recruits that can catch, possess the ball to move the chains, and we desperately need playmakers to get yards after catch and TD's.

We need more balance on the offense. Texas had a very good gameplan against the zone read...so we went to the air but our WR's dropped balls and TD's. And yesterday at A&M we went back into the shell we saw last year. IMO Bo knew that we could lock down A&M...Tannehill was not impressive...so we went conservative but we all know this game took on another "12th man" which I'll let you go to several other threads on that! :madash

I've thought about it a lot in this way too, and that's why I've tried to be so patient with Watson. Somewhere in the process of getting this team ready for games he needs to figure out a formula to score 20-25 ppg with the personnel that he CURRENTLY has. Yes, we do have some good talent coming in everywhere on offense, but we don't have these guys now. O-line is one of those positions where coaching and off season conditioning/strength work often go a lot further than talent. Nebraska has made a living off of taking tall, lanky kids with big frames that love football, redshirting them and developing them into animals by the time they are juniors and seniors. I understand that we haven't completed an entire recruit/redshirt/develop/animal as junior cycle yet with most of these guys, but does anyone really think that the 2 Jones's, Williams, etc. have gotten much better during their time here? I don't really see it. I hope the younger guys are getting developed the way they need to be, because it's hard for a defense to have much success when they are on their backs, no matter which direction Watson wants to take this offense.

 

[Huskerfan1985]

Here's my take on this "offense". First, am I being overly critical or does it seem like DJ Jones screws up multiple times each and every game? We harp on Niles (and rightfully so) but it seems Jones is often our own worst enemy. We talk about depth and development, at what point does he get held accountable?

Another frustrating aspect of this O is the qb situation. Since the start of the season, it has been very unclear about the depth chart at qb, except that taylor is the clear cut starter. Green was #2 early on, but when a spark was needed against Texas and Taylor was knocked out vs Missouri, it was Lee we turned to. Suddenly, after Missouri, Green is the go to guy now? I know, rumor has it that Lee is out for the year, yet why is it so hard to come out and say that. Is it really that beneficial to keep everyone in the dark? Perhaps there are good reasons for all of this, but it seems inconsistant on the coaches part. I can't think of any other program where die hard fans would struggle to name the qb depth chart like us.

Another issue I have is I'm not even sure what type of offense we have. Can anyone tell me what exactly our philosophy is? Is it pistol, zone read, wildcat, spread, power run, wco, etc..? after 11 games i dont know (Oh wait, we are multiple ). I can only name one game that i was impressed with the offensive gameplan and that was OSU. However, it appears that was a fluke because every other game looks the same. We got lucky vs Missouri because Helu played the game of his life. Otherwise, vs any decent defense we struggle. This A & M game was a long time coming. Just look back vs. Kansas. The D held them under 100yds for the GAME! Yet we could only muster 20 points at home! Honestly, what did we think was going to happen in front of 90,000 hostile fans vs an aggressive and more talented team? After 11 games we are pretty much where we were last year. A defense we can rely on and an offense that doesn't know where to start. Thanks again Watson.

 

[I am I]

I hate the 'chess match' analogy. Yeah, coaches constantly scheming and adjusting and manuvering and setting up plays with fake attack fronts.

But when I play chess, if I get my rook or queen to outflank , I freaking don't stop taking pieces with my strength and might over and over and over until the other player stops me.

It doesn't have to be such a mind twisting playsheet to beat teams. It's one reason I think we play a little better on the road typically: Watson knows crowd noise and pressure will make it more difficult on the offense to audibilize and motion and stuff, so he just lines them up and let's them snap the ball.

When we're getting to the line, snapping the damn ball, and handing it off, it seems to me we're at our best. When Watson plays chess, we look slow and confused

 

[SnowBigRed]

I hate the 'chess match' analogy. Yeah, coaches constantly scheming and adjusting and manuvering and setting up plays with fake attack fronts.

But when I play chess, if I get my rook or queen to outflank , I freaking don't stop taking pieces with my strength and might over and over and over until the other player stops me.

It doesn't have to be such a mind twisting playsheet to beat teams. It's one reason I think we play a little better on the road typically: Watson knows crowd noise and pressure will make it more difficult on the offense to audibilize and motion and stuff, so he just lines them up and let's them snap the ball.

When we're getting to the line, snapping the damn ball, and handing it off, it seems to me we're at our best. When Watson plays chess, we look slow and confused

This might be the best post in this thread yet. See the Mizzou game for further support of Nebraska taking the foot off the neck when it is completely unnecessary.

 

[I am I]

Well I just rember playing football through college, and at every level we would have a gameplan of lots of different plays and formations and circumstances...yet when we found a play that worked during that particular game, we just ran the hell out of it. Often times, it seems we run a couple plays that have some success, then we might not see that play the rest of the game, cuz Watson thinks too hard playing chess.

For instance, we FINALLY ran a couple toss sweeps w/ Helu in the 1st quarter. Solid gains, tough yds, then? Not once more the rest of the game. Late in the game, Rex is gaining big chunks, then? Passing on 3rd and short and back to the shotgun reads..I just don't get it.

And neither does our side of the score board