What did we learn?

The defense was good in the second half..... I'm sure some adjustments helped. I also think that our best talent on that side of the ball might also be the rawest. A lot of the younger guys looked really good. As the year progresses and they get more experience, we might see the emergence of the next really great Husker defender or two.

We still seem to have a really hard time bringing down a quarterback once he leaves the pocket. It was a big problem last year and it was a big problem in the first half yesterday. I'm so tired of seeing a linebacker corner the guy in the backfield, whiff on the sack, then allow him to scramble for 15 yards. On 3rd and 12. Still a problem. Still have nightmares of that $^%# from Northwestern doing it.

I'm not too worried about Maher yet.... special teams are always a slow starter.

The offense deserves every bit of praise it is getting..... it's early yet, but there was a professionalism there that I just haven't seen in a long time. Great timing, great execution, great blocking. Taylor throwing as well as I've ever seen. Receivers getting open, making incredible catches. Backs absorbing hits and then dragging the piles, getting 3/4/5 extra yards after being hit. No false starts. No holding. No turnovers. If that becomes the rule and not the exception, we will be a very tough team to beat.

I feel like Southern Miss tested us a little, and I feel like we swung back and swung back hard. I don't know how much it proves, but I certainly feel like there is much more to be gained than if we'd played Pacific and won 63-7.

 
1. Qvale will be a swinging gate against better defensive ends.

2. Taylor and the offense had a great game, but they also had great games last year. Let's see if they can be more consistent this year.

3. All of the running backs have notably improved. Specifically, the ability of Heard and Ameer to run in between the tackles impressed me.

4. Ed Cunningham is an idiot and Taylor's mechanics haven't improved all that much. He has become more accurate and his pocket presence is better, but his throwing mechanics are still pretty bad (but who cares if he completes that many passes?).

5. D-line is about as bad as I thought it would be. The coaches better think of something for conference play, or teams like Wisconsin, Ohio St, Michigan, and Michigan St are going to run all over us. It's probably a good thing that the offense looked so crisp, because I think Nebraska is going to have to score a fair amount of points to win games this year (i.e., defense will give up alot).

6. Field goals are not automatic anymore

7. Nebraska should kick the ball out of the endzone on kick offs

8. Punt/kick off returns will get us good field position this year

9. Cross is a very physical runner. Was there any carry that he didn't gain at least three or four yards regardless of how many guys were trying to tackle him?

 
'SkersRule said:
Enhance89 said:
That said, mwj98, I don't believe we have great talent on the defensive line right now. Nobody is explosive or dynamic. Ankrah is often lauded for his athleticism, but it doesn't correlate to the field, Steinkuhler has been good-not-great over the last couple of years, and Meredith isn't a force either. We're pretty average across the line.

Maybe they made huge strides over the off season, and the lack of film coupled with three different quarterbacks would have done a number on any good line. I don't know.
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I think that's the 64,000 dollar question. Just exactly how much impact did the circumstances of Southern Miss affect our DL's ability to showcase improvement?

I will say this though: You're absolutely right no one will ever as of yet confuse our DL with what Alabama has. That DL is on a whole other level of awesome.
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I find LSU and Alabama to be on their own playing field in the SEC. The rest of the SEC is good, but Alabama/LSU are substantially better than the rest.

Extenuating circumstances aside, So. Miss averaged 3.9 YPC yesterday. Last year's Nebraska defense gave up an average of 4.0 YPC. It can't continue.

 
carlfense said:
Defense is about what I expected . . . a bit worse than last year. Offense is much improved.
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Offense is much improved I agree. However, our defense gave up 13 points defensively and 260 total yards yesterday.

By comparison we gave up 230 yards to Tennessee-Chatt in our first game.

So while one strictly looks at the raw numbers it would appear that we are worse. However, Southern Miss is way better, faster, and more athletic on both sides of the ball than a school like Tenn Chat could ever hope to be.

UCLA will be a good test to see if in fact we are better, the same, or god forbid worse defensively.

 
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Rewatched on DVR. Names that stuck out to me:

Justin Jackson - Great motor. Snaps need a little work but looked nasty a lot. Needs to learn that he is supposed to be ahead of the RB when he pulls but I liked what I saw for his first start.

Jamal Turner - Good to see the ball in his hands. Thought the across-the-field cut back might blow up but it worked and showed his athleticism.

Alonzo Whaley - Love the excitement. Missed on a few tackles but it's great to see someone bring a truckload of emotion out there.

Ed Cunningham - Heard so much about how it was when he was playing he could have been on the field. Is there any injury he hasn't had?

Tyler Wullenwaber, Steve Osborne, Tyler Evans - some nice catches by people I've rarely heard about, if ever.

 
Rollin said:
We have a full arsenal of weapons on offense (new nickname for offense swiss army knife?) and it is very tempting to get real excited about it. I know that Bo was going for an "Oregon" style of offense, and it seems that he might be getting there quicker then I thought we would....
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You may be on to something there. I like it!!!

 
HuskerShark said:
Rollin said:
We have a full arsenal of weapons on offense (new nickname for offense swiss army knife?) and it is very tempting to get real excited about it. I know that Bo was going for an "Oregon" style of offense, and it seems that he might be getting there quicker then I thought we would....
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You may be on to something there. I like it!!!
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Seconded. That's pretty great.

 
'SkersRule said:
carlfense said:
Defense is about what I expected . . . a bit worse than last year. Offense is much improved.
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Offense is much improved I agree. However, our defense gave up 13 points defensively and 260 total yards yesterday.

By comparison we gave up 230 yards to Tennessee-Chatt in our first game.

So while one strictly looks at the raw numbers it would appear that we are worse. However, Southern Miss is way better, faster, and more athletic on both sides of the ball than a school like Tenn Chat could ever hope to be.

UCLA will be a good test to see if in fact we are better, the same, or god forbid worse defensively.
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The stats may show one thing but my own eyes saw another. The DL and LBs are weak. Very weak. They will be exposed by decent offenses. Particularly any offense with a mobile QB . . . like Michigan and Ohio State.

 
carlfense said:
The stats may show one thing but my own eyes saw another. The DL and LBs are weak. Very weak. They will be exposed by decent offenses. Particularly any offense with a mobile QB . . . like Michigan and Ohio State.
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And the program "Head Games" on the Science Channel shows how easily our sub-conscious brain fools us into readily accepting and believing things we want to be true despite empirical evidence to the contrary.

For example, participants underwent an experiment where they were asked what the probability was they would get cancer, suffer a bone fracture, get diabetes, etc.

Everyone in the experiment thought their chances for any of those things was 10% or less.

When revealed that the statistical probability for something like that happening to them was in the 30-40% range nearly every participant, when asked the same question again, still maintained that their chance of suffering those ailments was 10% or less.

Relating this back to Nebraska football: We have a segment of fans (not saying you) that desperately want, need, and/or hope, that Nebraska fails simply so they can revel in being "right" and no amount of success or otherwise empirical data will change their opinion.

 
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suh_fan93 said:
The entire game I kept thinking about how losing Carl, Crick and David has really changed things for us defensively. I hope Papuchis and Bo can whip these guys into shape. It's one game. We can still improve.

Also our LB's. Wow. We definitely need some help there too.
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I agree that they can improve, but we held a team that was ranked higher than us last year to fewer than 300 yards and 13 points. That's not bad.

 
After watching the replay, I can understand the resurgence of T-martmania, but I think the thing that gave me the most hope, was the play of the O line.

 
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