Scanning magazines: What do they say about the Huskers?

[Branno]

It's funny that you point out our big issues last year were turnovers and lack of discipline... as if injuries had nothing to do with this. A healthy Martinez with a healthy offensive line would have lessened our turnovers and greatly improved our passing completion percentage. This is a fact, compare Martinez' stats from 2012 to Armstrong's and RK3's from last year.

I don't think it's crazy to think that if both Georgia and Nebraska were fully healthy that we wouldn't win, and convincingly at that. Our 2nd string QB with a 2nd string line was able to fairly easily score against Georgia's 1st line defense. Adding Martinez and a healthy offensive line would have greatly increased the number of points scored. Our defense in the last 5 games was what... top 5 in the country? I have a feeling they still would have held a Murray led Georgia to a score similar to what they ended up with.

So we add Martinez and Long back to the lineup and it makes a huge difference (I actually agree with that), but if Georgie adds in Aaron Murray and their entire squad of injured WRs and RBs, it wouldn't make much of a difference at all. I see.

Look, of course injuries hurt us last year, and the QB stats were way off of what we hoped to see from a healthy T-Mart. But turnovers and focus have always been problems. With fewer injuries and better QB play in 2012, what was our record and ranking? It's difficult to pin this team's problems on a glut of injuries when the results are the same every year regardless of the number of injuries.

There is not a nationwide stat that I'm aware of that measures how much injuries effect each team so we can compare ourselves to the rest of the country. But there are nationwide stats for turnover margin, and they are consistently bad. And that is a controllable issue that coaches can correct, and it is an issue that distinguishes the Huskers from other teams and directly plays a hand in our losses. Fix that, and we'll be getting somewhere. Unfortunately, coaches can't control the injury bug (unless it is an issue of having softer locker doors or thicker shoes).

Our biggest issue in 2012 was defense, you can bring up turnovers (they did occur), but it doesn't change that we had issues with our defense and made great strides to correct that in 2013. It also doesn't change the fact that we actually made it to the conference championship.

I hate playing the guessing game, but if T-mart doesn't get injured before the UCLA game we might have had a completely different season record wise. Maybe we still don't beat UCLA, but we sure as hell don't lose to Minnesota, Michigan State, and Iowa... which means another CCG appearance and with the way our defense was playing at that point in the season a possibly trip to the fricken Rose Bowl. Injuries RUINED 2013.

But at this point none of the matters. We have a capable Sophomore QB with starter experience, a Heisman candidate and All-American Senior RB, a good offensive line, amazing receivers, and a stout defense. Which brings me back to my original point which somehow got turned into this dumpster fire... if we can avoid the injury bug I honestly don't see any obvious losses on our schedule this year.

 

[Count 'Bility]

I think after reading all this the point about the injuries is being missed. Us sunshine pumpers are not using the injuries as an excuse for the 4 losses. At least myself anyways, believe that we'd a lost 4 games last year anyway. It's just the way the cards were gonna fall after seeing the inexpereince rear its ugly face against Wyoming and UCLA. But what we're saying is that due to the injuries, this team deserves a lot of credit for still finding a way to win 9 game and maintain a status quo. Sure it's depressing and the patience is starting to run really really thin, but god damn it, step back off the ledge and look at things with some frickin perspective for a change. Teams like Florida had injury problems and finished with 4 wins. Georgia went from a preseason NC to 8-5. We basically just went about business as usual and still found a way to win as many games as we have been. Now, what does that mean for 2014? Not a damn thing, cuz I'm the first to say that if some pretty basic fundamental issues of football that this program has had issues with over the past 6 seasons are not fixed, we're again gonna see 9/10-4. But that's no reason to discredit what a whole sh#t ton of young, inexperienced, and yes, I'll say it, in places undertalented, players busted their a$$ to accomplish last season.

 

[The Dude]

But what we're saying is that due to the injuries, this team deserves a lot of credit for still finding a way to win 9 game and maintain a status quo.

Or it shows Martinez wasn't as indispensable as a lot of people wanted to believe.

 

[Landlord]

But what we're saying is that due to the injuries, this team deserves a lot of credit for still finding a way to win 9 game and maintain a status quo.

Or it shows Martinez wasn't as indispensable as a lot of people wanted to believe.

By my perspective if you leave everything else exactly the same but plug in a healthy Martinez we automatically get two more wins against UCLA and Minnesota.

 

[Count 'Bility]

But what we're saying is that due to the injuries, this team deserves a lot of credit for still finding a way to win 9 game and maintain a status quo.

Or it shows Martinez wasn't as indispensable as a lot of people wanted to believe.

By my perspective if you leave everything else exactly the same but plug in a healthy Martinez we automatically get two more wins against UCLA and Minnesota.

UCLA, i dont know. At that early point in the season and our young defense, once they turned it on, it was dun. I'm not sure a healty and running Martinez could lead us to enough points in that game. Sure we can say we coulda scored 42, but I also feel that they coulda scored a hell of a lot more had they wanted/needed too.

But I have no problem chalking up a win against Minnesota. I'll also throw in a win against Michigan St. I think his experience and added ground ability wouldve limited 3-4 of our 5 turnovers and consequentially more than cut their points in half. Probably beat Iowa as well.

Again, this is healthy Taylor Martinez. 2012 Taylor Martinez. You have to remember how he sliced around and through some of those defenses two seasons ago.

 

[Landlord]

But what we're saying is that due to the injuries, this team deserves a lot of credit for still finding a way to win 9 game and maintain a status quo.

Or it shows Martinez wasn't as indispensable as a lot of people wanted to believe.

By my perspective if you leave everything else exactly the same but plug in a healthy Martinez we automatically get two more wins against UCLA and Minnesota.

UCLA, i dont know. At that early point in the season and our young defense, once they turned it on, it was dun. I'm not sure a healty and running Martinez could lead us to enough points in that game. Sure we can say we coulda scored 42, but I also feel that they coulda scored a hell of a lot more had they wanted/needed too.

But I have no problem chalking up a win against Minnesota. I'll also throw in a win against Michigan St. I think his experience and added ground ability wouldve limited 3-4 of our 5 turnovers and consequentially more than cut their points in half. Probably beat Iowa as well.

Again, this is healthy Taylor Martinez. 2012 Taylor Martinez. You have to remember how he sliced around and through some of those defenses two seasons ago.

A humongous reason for UCLA even scoring 41 points in the first place is our offense going 3 and out on like 7 straight drives or something.

 

[Saunders]

But what we're saying is that due to the injuries, this team deserves a lot of credit for still finding a way to win 9 game and maintain a status quo.

Or it shows Martinez wasn't as indispensable as a lot of people wanted to believe.

But the schedule sucked. At least, that's what I've been told.

 

[Saunders]

1. Enough of the offense was injured that I will generalize by calling it 2nd string, it seemed to be the consensus back in Dec/Jan here (do a search).

2. Taking into consideration the crappy field conditions and who was playing on offense? Yes I think scoring 24 points and getting 300 yards on a stout SEC defense with the team we had was a pretty good performance.

Georgia was 45th in the country in total defense, allowing 375 yards per game. (Nebraska was 40th) Georgia was 78th in the country in scoring defense, allowing 29 points per game. (Nebraska was 50th) Is that a stout defense? I'd call that average to below average.

But paaaaawwwwwwlllllllllllll said they were in the SEC, so they're automagically elite.

 

[NUpolo8]

But what we're saying is that due to the injuries, this team deserves a lot of credit for still finding a way to win 9 game and maintain a status quo.

Or it shows Martinez wasn't as indispensable as a lot of people wanted to believe.

By my perspective if you leave everything else exactly the same but plug in a healthy Martinez we automatically get two more wins against UCLA and Minnesota.

UCLA, i dont know. At that early point in the season and our young defense, once they turned it on, it was dun. I'm not sure a healty and running Martinez could lead us to enough points in that game. Sure we can say we coulda scored 42, but I also feel that they coulda scored a hell of a lot more had they wanted/needed too.
But I have no problem chalking up a win against Minnesota. I'll also throw in a win against Michigan St. I think his experience and added ground ability wouldve limited 3-4 of our 5 turnovers and consequentially more than cut their points in half. Probably beat Iowa as well.

Again, this is healthy Taylor Martinez. 2012 Taylor Martinez. You have to remember how he sliced around and through some of those defenses two seasons ago.

A humongous reason for UCLA even scoring 41 points in the first place is our offense going 3 and out on like 7 straight drives or something.

Which was a adjustment once they realized Taylor wasn't exactly Taylor.

Which makes me wonder the thinking behind crippling an offense and thereby exposing a defense you're pretty sure may be suspect.

Goddamn there were some decisions last year that made no sense.

 

[Scratchtown]

Which was a adjustment once they realized Taylor wasn't exactly Taylor.

Which makes me wonder the thinking behind crippling an offense and thereby exposing a defense you're pretty sure may be suspect.

Goddamn there were some decisions last year that made no sense.

It's easy to say that they don't make sense, but some of the decisions made weren't really in an ideal situation anyway. I really think Pelini took a 6+ loss team and turned it into something salvageable. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Redux]

How did we cripple the offense?

 

[Junior]

But paaaaawwwwwwlllllllllllll said they were in the SEC, so they're automagically elite.

Don't look at me, I never trumpeted Georgia's credentials. It was a solid win, and it is always satisfying to beat an SEC team. But that's all.

 

[Mavric]

Which was a adjustment once they realized Taylor wasn't exactly Taylor.

Which makes me wonder the thinking behind crippling an offense and thereby exposing a defense you're pretty sure may be suspect.

Goddamn there were some decisions last year that made no sense.

I would speculate that a big factor in the decision was that we had a redshirt freshman as a backup who really hadn't played, was basically as likely to throw an INT as a TD and has fumble issues of his own. Lesser of two evils and everything. Knowing what we know now - that Martinez wouldn't end up getting better the entire season - it doesn't make as much sense. But trying to win a big game at home with your four-year starter - even if slowed by injury - didn't look really bad at the time.

 

[skersfan]

Hind sight tells us that the kid was never ready to play this year. But we kept marching him out and there, and most likely do to the stubbornness of both, have destroyed any chance he may have had to play the game at the next level.

We have highly paid people to know who is ready, who has an injury and the degree of that injury. The lack of concern for said injuries is what put this program in the situation it was in, and it went on the kids whole tour here.

Management of players and the whole roster have not been strong points the last few years. Hopefully that improves.

 

[Landlord]

Hind sight tells us that the kid was never ready to play this year. But we kept marching him out and there, and most likely do to the stubbornness of both, have destroyed any chance he may have had to play the game at the next level.

We have highly paid people to know who is ready, who has an injury and the degree of that injury. The lack of concern for said injuries is what put this program in the situation it was in, and it went on the kids whole tour here.

Management of players and the whole roster have not been strong points the last few years. Hopefully that improves.

I heard from somebody that the training staff had a fun night out on the town before the Minnesota game and without actually checking confirmed to the staff that Taylor was good to go.

No idea how accurate it would be or if I'm mixing up details but hooray for anecdotes.