Underdog against Purdue

Mavric said:
If Bo had left the cupboard that bare, it should have been pretty easy for Riley to recruit more than 1 defensive starter in two years.
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I agree, Mav. Just an observation.

It's not an excuse for the failures on defense in year three. Our defense has been more pathetic than I could have ever dreamed this season.

 
brophog said:
They actually had one of their best games against Rutgers, they just didn't score much off of it. You won't find many games that is further apart between what happened and the final score. Rutgers had 2 plays that accounted for half their yardage, Purdue marched up and down the field all day. It's a strange game sometimes.
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It makes sense that Purdue is favored.  The two teams are close to each other on offense, they have the same records, Purdue is better then Nebraska on defense, it's at Purdue, it's at night, and nothing Nebraska has done this year indicates they are a better team.  Purdue gets 3 for the home game and another 3 because of Nebraska's defense.  Plus, Nebraska lost there the last time because the coach didn't realize Purdue had one of the worst run defenses in the country and decided to pass instead.

The keys to the game will be what others have said in being aggressive on defense.  If Nebraska goes into the game in a prevent defense and never adjusts out of it, they'll have to hope the Purdue QB and receivers make a lot of unforced mistakes.  On offense, no turnovers.

Nebraska gets zero benefit of the doubt and will have to prove they are better then they've been playing.  They'll be underdogs in most of the remaining games until they do.

 
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If played on a neutral field this game would be a push or Nebraska would have a slight edge.  Purdue gets a field goal for being at home and another for the night game atmosphere.  Nothing to react to imo...  we both stink this year.  

 
Hilltop said:
If played on a neutral field this game would be a push or Nebraska would have a slight edge.  Purdue gets a field goal for being at home and another for the night game atmosphere.  Nothing to react to imo...  we both stink this year.  
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Um .... pretty sure this isn't how that works.

 
brophog said:
We're both sitting here, on a public message board, saying "this is what they do, this is how you stop it".....this is not an opponent that presents a complex problem that can't be solved with 2 weeks preparation. They run what they do because that's what their personnel allows them to. They'll have some trick plays, throwback passes and such but it's mostly shallow crosses, short hooks, screens...lots of underneath routes that can be disrupted at the LOS...and that's what Wisconsin and Michigan did.

You won't find an opponent that more clearly says, do this and win the game. But the Riley era hasn't been one of adapting to the opponent and conditions, has it? 
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Nope, more than likely we'll be back here after the game wondering what the hell happened. This should be an easy win and if we struggle, it'll add more fuel to the fire. Even an ugly win, and I think that'll still affect Riley negatively. That's kind of what it's come to right now. We should be able to handle these guys in a 35-13 type of fashion but something tells me it's going to be close. Like 24-21 and could go either way really. 

If we take care of the football, I think we'll be okay but I don't trust our OC one bit. He's gonna air it out on Purdue. The writing is on the wall and the staff will show some desperation by slinging it when we probably should hand it off to Ozigbo 25 times.

 


@skersfan Sipple also highlighted the week of the Wisconsin game (either via Radio or Twitter)how we were ranked ahead of all of the recruiting classes in the B1G West, Wisky included. More than one person brought this up during the gameday thread too, IIRC.

And yes, recruiting stats and rankings don't tell the entire story, but they're a very solid base to work from, and the overwhelming consensus among pundits is that we have the kids to win at DoNU. There's not a whole lot else to point at for a root cause of the current ineptitude in our program if the kids aren't the issue.  

 
FTW said:
If we take care of the football, I think we'll be okay but I don't trust our OC one bit. He's gonna air it out on Purdue. The writing is on the wall and the staff will show some desperation by slinging it when we probably should hand it off to Ozigbo 25 times.
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Or air it out on 3rd and short repeatedly (see BYU 2015), or air it out in the red zone with a cute screen/boundary pass that gets intercepted (see most of 2017), or...

 
It's downright embarrassing to be honest.  And frankly it will be announced nationally next week when a bunch of the college gameday folks have us as one of the teams beating the spread or upset special.  Get a load of that, Nebraska upsets Purdue in football.  Never though I'd hear those words in my life.  

 
About half a dozen points are being deducted from NU on this game as a result of the negativism that pervades the program, the media and the fan base.   This type of game is a hard one for odds makers I suppose because it is hard to tell what type of effort our players will put forth when the season is all but over with as a practical matter.   Those players who came to play for Riley and Co are no doubt quite discouraged and those who remain from the Pelini regime are no doubt feeling kind of screwed and those that are just plain discouraged by lack of success and or getting dumped on everyday by fellow students, etc are not going to be all excited to go out and give their all.   If Riley gets this team to play well, it will have been quite a surprise certainly.   They need to play for pride but what is there to be proud of based on all the criticism they receive nonstop.  ?    

When the going gets tough, the tough get going - but this assumes that there is a reason to do so.   Guess we'll find out whether the players really do care how they play or not.   

 
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