What did we learn? Minnesota edition
- Thread starter NUance
- Start date
Center, Punter and Special teams coach are all struggling.
Utter is doing the best he can, however being undersized in the big10 is tough. Having a smart center is important, however when a linebacker puts his hands on you and you fall back 3 yards - there is an issue. Cav's line will look better next year and even better the following.
Caleb was scheduled to watch and learn from a future NFL multi-year player, however both players lost that year. Caleb would have possibly done alright this year if he would have gotten off to a good start, however a couple bad punts and a couple blocked punts because of poor blocking has steam rolled into a bad year for the punter. He was highly recruited and hopefully after an off-season to get his head straight will become solid next year.
Read is terrible - I don't know the full detail of what his job entails however punting and punt returns should be a big part of it and he has not shown the ability to get either to change their current downward trajectory. For a guy that has about 7/10 plays per game to get right - 12 on the field is a career changer. Pretty likely we have one new coach next year.
Utter is doing the best he can, however being undersized in the big10 is tough. Having a smart center is important, however when a linebacker puts his hands on you and you fall back 3 yards - there is an issue. Cav's line will look better next year and even better the following.
Caleb was scheduled to watch and learn from a future NFL multi-year player, however both players lost that year. Caleb would have possibly done alright this year if he would have gotten off to a good start, however a couple bad punts and a couple blocked punts because of poor blocking has steam rolled into a bad year for the punter. He was highly recruited and hopefully after an off-season to get his head straight will become solid next year.
Read is terrible - I don't know the full detail of what his job entails however punting and punt returns should be a big part of it and he has not shown the ability to get either to change their current downward trajectory. For a guy that has about 7/10 plays per game to get right - 12 on the field is a career changer. Pretty likely we have one new coach next year.
GBRHouston
Special Teams Player
Analysis time.
We pay $450K a year for illegal formations, -2 yard punts, and no blocking effort whatsoever. Fire him.
Minnesota has a talent loaded offense, and last night was no exception. Our defense had many problems last night. Our run defense performed decent compared to what was expected, as Minnesota's run game is good. Our secondary was awful in the first half, then better with some still-awful spots in the second. Too many men left wide open, and I noticed on one crucial 3rd down Chris Jones was standing behind the receiver on a very good pass, accepting the fact that it would be caught for a 1st down and just tackling him. That should not happen. Sticking with 3rd downs, just wow. Our 3rd down defense in the standings is down there with Maryland, Rutgers, and Michigan State. I'm not saying "Fire Banker," but that definitely needs to be worked on soon.
Playcalling yesterday was questionable in some areas, such as passing on 3rd and 1 in the red zone, but definitely improved from the past 3-4 games. I also like the inclusion of screens, which I thought Tommy executed well for the most part. And look at Newby being our star RB. I still don't like the fact that we use him up the middle, but Minnesota clearly has a not-so-good up the middle defense.
Glad to have our offensive line back. Definitely made a huge difference.
Who's ready to get a reliable backup QB next year?
We pay $450K a year for illegal formations, -2 yard punts, and no blocking effort whatsoever. Fire him.
Minnesota has a talent loaded offense, and last night was no exception. Our defense had many problems last night. Our run defense performed decent compared to what was expected, as Minnesota's run game is good. Our secondary was awful in the first half, then better with some still-awful spots in the second. Too many men left wide open, and I noticed on one crucial 3rd down Chris Jones was standing behind the receiver on a very good pass, accepting the fact that it would be caught for a 1st down and just tackling him. That should not happen. Sticking with 3rd downs, just wow. Our 3rd down defense in the standings is down there with Maryland, Rutgers, and Michigan State. I'm not saying "Fire Banker," but that definitely needs to be worked on soon.
Playcalling yesterday was questionable in some areas, such as passing on 3rd and 1 in the red zone, but definitely improved from the past 3-4 games. I also like the inclusion of screens, which I thought Tommy executed well for the most part. And look at Newby being our star RB. I still don't like the fact that we use him up the middle, but Minnesota clearly has a not-so-good up the middle defense.
Glad to have our offensive line back. Definitely made a huge difference.
Who's ready to get a reliable backup QB next year?
Last edited by a moderator:
ZRod
Heisman Trophy Winner
The guy flopped. The ref never actually saw it though. Just a reactionary flag...
HuskermanMike
Starter
I do not remember the guy flopping, but regardless Cethan should be more disciplined than to push a guy off of a teammate. Especially in a late game situation, they will call that, although I still agree they should have kept the flags in their pockets for that call. A talking to or a quick separation of the players would not be bad for the refs to do in that situation. It was a tough call and the refs made the call in a bang bang situation.
GBRHouston
Special Teams Player
He did not push the guy off forcefully. He may have put his hands on him, but the guy flopped and you should have clearly seen it by his terrible acting job.
Swiv3D
Starter
Yeah, Cethan barely flicked the guy with his hand and the dude went flying.
Mierin
Assistant Coach
He had every reason to push him. The tackler was not straddling Newby when they landed on the ground. Then he purposely whipped his leg over Newby's chest, straddled/sat on him and pretended it was part of his effort to get up. I hate it when players do this and it should be penalized.
Here's how the Minnesota player landed. Beside him. The fastest way to get up is to keep his feet where they are.
But no, he has to try to dominate the player he tackled by straddling his chest. The play was over, he already showed how manly and tough he was.
A reciprocal reaction would've been much worse than what Carter actually did.
Last edited by a moderator:
ZRod
Heisman Trophy Winner
Cethan basically put his hand on the guys chest, he didn't even push. If I'm his coach I praise him for looking out for his teammates, and tell him he did the right thing. This is the offcial being a trigger happy bumpkin. The offcial blew the call plain and simple, nothing Cethan should change about his actions here.
SuperBigFan69
Head Coach
Dominated!
huskerfan92
All-Conference
I wasn't able to watch the game until today because I was in Clemson on Saturday to watch them lose their first home game since 2013....which all my Clemson friends are blaming the loss on me, and not for the fact that the Tigers only ran for 50 yards against Pitt. So if you guys liked the chaos on Saturday night, "you're welcome" for being the reason the first big domino of a chaotic night dropped. Anyways here are my thoughts on the Huskers.
Bruce "Fo Fiddy but Can't Afford a Decent Haircut" Read. What more needs to be said. Had we all done a decent background check we would've realized this guy has been committing fraud all his life, and shouldn't have been hired in the first place. Then 2015 happened, and we all knew he had to go. Yet here he is, still on our Husker sideline posing as a special teams coordinator. Dude needs to go, and should've been fired at halftime.
Tommy Armstrong will absolutely be missed after this season. Outstanding game, and gutty performance for not just being out on the field a week after he was knocked out cold, but playing what may have been his most efficient game of his career. The guy has made every single one of us pull a few hairs out of our head with the decisions he has made over the years, but tonight was fun to watch. Hope he's healthy enough the rest of the season because this offense will be downright ugly with Fyfe under center.
The -2 yard punt. First time I've seen a punt go negative yards that was not influenced by strong winds. I'm not a punting expert, so I don't know if kicking it a certain way can make a ball spin back as much as that punt did, or if it was simply an unlucky bounce. That was just...weird. And it made Mike Riley lose his 2nd stick of gum.
Defense was back to being great. Nice to see them play like that after getting run over last week. Interior defensive line was outstanding. Josh Banderas might be the most improved player on the team, dude has been everywhere these last few weeks.
Matt Millen loves saying the names "Wolitarsky" and "Smith". Goodness it seemed every play he said "The Husker defense needs to look out for Wolitarsky or Smith here. That's who the Gophers like to go to". Dude, we get it, don't need to talk about them in every big situation.
Mitch Leidner....should not be drafted in the first 2 rounds. There was a lot of talk about him being a first round QB before the season started...I just don't see it. Seemed to have a clean pocket most of the game, and couldn't make big throws.
Overall, this game played out a lot like I thought it would, and glad we came away with the win. Not easy to bounce back after losing a heartbreaker in overtime and then getting destroyed 62-3 on national tv.
Bruce "Fo Fiddy but Can't Afford a Decent Haircut" Read. What more needs to be said. Had we all done a decent background check we would've realized this guy has been committing fraud all his life, and shouldn't have been hired in the first place. Then 2015 happened, and we all knew he had to go. Yet here he is, still on our Husker sideline posing as a special teams coordinator. Dude needs to go, and should've been fired at halftime.
Tommy Armstrong will absolutely be missed after this season. Outstanding game, and gutty performance for not just being out on the field a week after he was knocked out cold, but playing what may have been his most efficient game of his career. The guy has made every single one of us pull a few hairs out of our head with the decisions he has made over the years, but tonight was fun to watch. Hope he's healthy enough the rest of the season because this offense will be downright ugly with Fyfe under center.
The -2 yard punt. First time I've seen a punt go negative yards that was not influenced by strong winds. I'm not a punting expert, so I don't know if kicking it a certain way can make a ball spin back as much as that punt did, or if it was simply an unlucky bounce. That was just...weird. And it made Mike Riley lose his 2nd stick of gum.
Defense was back to being great. Nice to see them play like that after getting run over last week. Interior defensive line was outstanding. Josh Banderas might be the most improved player on the team, dude has been everywhere these last few weeks.
Matt Millen loves saying the names "Wolitarsky" and "Smith". Goodness it seemed every play he said "The Husker defense needs to look out for Wolitarsky or Smith here. That's who the Gophers like to go to". Dude, we get it, don't need to talk about them in every big situation.
Mitch Leidner....should not be drafted in the first 2 rounds. There was a lot of talk about him being a first round QB before the season started...I just don't see it. Seemed to have a clean pocket most of the game, and couldn't make big throws.
Overall, this game played out a lot like I thought it would, and glad we came away with the win. Not easy to bounce back after losing a heartbreaker in overtime and then getting destroyed 62-3 on national tv.
HuskermanMike
Starter
I rewatched the play and from what I had seen before, it seemed like Carter pushed him. But after watching it again, it was a friendly tap for the guy to get off his teammate. Lots of times players get away with doing this, and the refs should allow the players to dictate the outcome of a game. Even the announcer said the guy flopped and I missed that the first time watching the game. As I said before, he should have got a talking to or a warning, Minny got a sideline warning and what they did was worse than Carter's love tap. In the end of the game just don't touch anyone because the refs are so trigger happy its getting really out of hand with these soft penalties.
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't know about strong winds but there was definitely a south wind that was affecting kicks. Kickoffs going north were 10-15 yards longer than going south.
It wasn't a great punt. But the wind hung it up and got it moving almost backwards by the time it hit the ground a took a terrible bounce.
That's what it looked like from my seat anyway.