What will it take to beat Wisconsin?

ladyhawke

ladyhawke

All-Conference
Well, we're right where we want to be. We 'won out'-6 games in a row! Wow! Way to go Huskers!! BUT!!! Next weekend we face a team that's going to be out for revenge. In visiting one of their message boards I read that they are glad they're playing us instead of Michigan, that they think they have improved more over the season than we have, that they will beat us BUT!!! one guy said, 'I'll wait until halftime in Indy to make that decision.' (as to whether Wiscy will win or not)

SO! What do the Huskers have to do to beat Wisconsin? For my part, I think we have to:

>Play error free ball (NO FUMBLES, DUMB PENALTIES AND NO PASSING ON 3rd and 4 WHEN THE RUN GAME IS WORKING!!!)

>Take advantage of the fact that we are going to be at a neutral site and that our fans travel well. One of the posters on the Wiscy board said, 'I'm glad we're playing Nebraska! Half their state will be in Indy. It will be a hoot.' I agree! Sea of Red!

>Smashmouth football!! I think these two teams are pretty evenly matched. However, I think we excel in the receivers department for both running the ball and catching it. Weather won't be a factor in the dome in Indy so our offense should shine!

What else?

 
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If we play a fundamentally sound game we win. Wisconsin is much better than they were early, but if we can play mistake free ball we win.

 
Don't turn the ball over and contain Ball & the Huskers will be on their way to Pasadena!

 
HUSKER FREAK said:
If we play a fundamentally sound game we win. Wisconsin is much better than they were early, but if we can play mistake free ball we win.
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Do you honestly think we can do that? This team seems incapable of coming out and playing well to start a game (unless its against Minnesota)

 
Try not to score for both teams. Look, if the turn overs in the next game can be reduced some what, we win. That first game is at least two touchdown difference not three points, if we take better care of the ball, and play a low penalty game like the one we just had. Put those together for this game, and we should win. But with that said, I look for another nail biter.

GBR!!!

 
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If we have turnovers, make certain they don't lead to points. That killed us in the first game. They got 14 points gifted to them with drives of less than 30 yards.

Bottom line, if we can play a clean game we'll win by 10. If we shoot ourselves in the foot like we have, then it's a toss up.

 
Quit dropping the punts! Christ I can hardly take it with these punts sometimes and Abdullah should've just stayed away from that punt yesterday. Chances are that punt was going to roll back towards Iowa based on the way the wind was blowing and the way the ball was spiraling. We can't have any stupid penalties, mainly ANY personal fouls, those are completely unacceptable and they've been happening all season. We need to start the game like we come out in the 2nd half. Don't allow Wisconsin to get up on us by a few scores again because they are playing so much better. While they may have improved so have we on some level. We will definitely need great play out of our defensive line to help stop the run. Sound tackling, no arm tackling, hit and wrap don't worry about getting the ball out, let the second guy do that! Run the ball, run the ball, RUN THE BALL! It's the strength of our offense and I don't think they can stop it. One of our backs will end up being successful, if a play is working I don't care if you have to run it 15 times in a row, if they can't stop it, keep running it!

 
The obvious is to limit TO's, and stupid mistakes. Beck HAS GOT TO call a stellar game from the start. In a previous article he said that most teams have thrown stuff defensively that we haven't seen on film and it takes a while to see what will work. He needs to find a way to counter this and get off to a quick start ie force the D to adjust to us not the other way around.

Establish the run game and force Wisky to cheat up and then play action to death. Wisky's LB's are very good. We need some counters and misdirection to negate their crashing the line. Break out the screen passes to negate the pressure as well. Find a way to catch the friggin punts and put the "special" back in special teams. We are now playing punts worse than 2004 with Santino Panico back there (22 returns for an awesome 68 yrds or 3.1 average) It seems we are now in "that stage" ref our punt returns. If we can't catch it we just run away. Unsure if pathetic or embarrassing better describes this. Needs to improve. Without this phase improved we are basically playing with 66% of our capabilities.

IIRC, they used delays to get their receivers in space underneath we need to expect this and find a way to counter. teams have feasted on having our LB's try to cover RB's or TE's out in the flats or coming across the middle. (Whaley showed up BIG yesterday). Put Evans on Abracadabra all game. IIRC, Evans covered him in the second half of the first game.

Their QB. Pressure him. Again and Again. Make him shy to try and sit in the pocket. I would imagine that we will pull our safeties up to help in run support.

Did I mention no TO's. Really think that depending on which Husker team shows up, we can play with anyone in the country. Until we find a way to stop killing ourselves, who knows.

 
Wisconsin is going to try to dominate our defensive line (now minus Baker) with their offensive line, which has improved a little bit from the first time we played them. So key #1 is going to be to stop Montee Ball by stacking the box and forcing them to throw.

When they do throw, we HAVE to stop Abberderis. I think our secondary has been playing much better, and has been our #1 unit this year, but Abberderis had is way against us in our previous meeting. That can't happen this game. We need to make them a one dimensional team. I think we can do that, we've made a lot of good passers look terrible this year, only Florida has a better secondary than us, but that's if you want to look at efficiency. If you go by opposing QB completion percentage, we dominate every other secondary in the nation. Great secondaries have been the staple of great Pelini defenses.

Offensively we need to keep it balanced. Having Rex back is nice, but we shouldn't be afraid to throw in Abdullah, Heard, and even Cross in there at times. We have great RBs, we need to utilize them. Their defensive line is going to try to take advantage of Mark Pelini by stunting and crashing in on him. More runs to the outside will be needed, but we can't be afraid to go up the middle.

This is Taylor's second CCG. He's much more experienced and he's much better fundamentally than he was against Oklahoma. Our WRs are probably some of the best WRs we've ever had at Nebraska. This offense has the makings of being absolutely unstoppable, but it will go as far as the offensive line can carry them. Taylor also can't be afraid to tuck it and run, either.

I think this team is too focused, and too motivated to win a CCG for it to fall apart against Wisconsin, who knows that they really shouldn't be playing us; Ohio State should.

Wisconsin will score, but I don't think it will be anything extraordinary, probably somewhere around the 17-24 range. We on the other hand, hit 30+ and win our first CCG since 1999, our 7th straight game, and march into Pasadena for a interesting game with the Cardinal.

 
Bye Bye Big XII said:
Wisconsin is going to try to dominate our defensive line (now minus Baker) with their offensive line, which has improved a little bit from the first time we played them. So key #1 is going to be to stop Montee Ball by stacking the box and forcing them to throw.

When they do throw, we HAVE to stop Abberderis. I think our secondary has been playing much better, and has been our #1 unit this year, but Abberderis had is way against us in our previous meeting. That can't happen this game. We need to make them a one dimensional team. I think we can do that, we've made a lot of good passers look terrible this year, only Florida has a better secondary than us, but that's if you want to look at efficiency. If you go by opposing QB completion percentage, we dominate every other secondary in the nation. Great secondaries have been the staple of great Pelini defenses.

Offensively we need to keep it balanced. Having Rex back is nice, but we shouldn't be afraid to throw in Abdullah, Heard, and even Cross in there at times. We have great RBs, we need to utilize them. Their defensive line is going to try to take advantage of Mark Pelini by stunting and crashing in on him. More runs to the outside will be needed, but we can't be afraid to go up the middle.

This is Taylor's second CCG. He's much more experienced and he's much better fundamentally than he was against Oklahoma. Our WRs are probably some of the best WRs we've ever had at Nebraska. This offense has the makings of being absolutely unstoppable, but it will go as far as the offensive line can carry them. Taylor also can't be afraid to tuck it and run, either.

I think this team is too focused, and too motivated to win a CCG for it to fall apart against Wisconsin, who knows that they really shouldn't be playing us; Ohio State should.

Wisconsin will score, but I don't think it will be anything extraordinary, probably somewhere around the 17-24 range. We on the other hand, hit 30+ and win our first CCG since 1999, our 7th straight game, and march into Pasadena for a interesting game with the Cardinal.
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IIRC, at the half of our first meeting, Evans spoke to Joseph and said he wanted Abracadabra the rest of the game. Evans git his wish and Abracadabra became a none factor.

http://www.dailynebr...19bb30f31a.html

We need to stack the box, pressure the QB and make them have to throw. Ability to stop Ball and Co will prove vital.

 
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Personally, our chances to win are directly tied to Montee Balls ability to gain more than 4 yards per carry. Contain him and the offense is so much less dangerous. I really like how our LB's are playing, and I think we are going to push from both sides to stop him. I think we all know that the middle of our D is our weak stop with Stein out. So I think some corner blitzes opposite of Martin to scrap the back of the OL will help stop Ball.

 
BIGREDIOWAN said:
Quit dropping the punts! Christ I can hardly take it with these punts sometimes and Abdullah should've just stayed away from that punt yesterday. Chances are that punt was going to roll back towards Iowa based on the way the wind was blowing and the way the ball was spiraling.
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+1

I would like to see a concerted effort to improve our return game. The drops are completely inexcusable.... enough is enough, you can't give away possessions like that week after week.

This is compounded when you have returners that become skittish as a result - so even when they do field it correctly, they will start fair-catching in situations where perhaps it isn't necessary , or they'll run away from the ball completely and give up field position.

 
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