Have you seen me?

I would have liked to see more of Wilbon too. But I don't dislike Newby. I think the OL has not come together yet. Maybe it will take a few more games, or never.

I think it is more appropriate to compare Newby with Ameer's sophomore season, then to compare to AA's senior season. Even then he had defenses keying on TMart and Rex helping him out on the sidelines.

 
Mike Riley is a work in progress. I don't think he has ever had a team where running the ball was a path to success, so he really can't comprehend it working on a regular basis.

Someone needs to clue him in on that.

Hard to run the ball when you're down by 17 points in the first quarter.
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Long ago against Miami, Nebraska kept running the ball when they were down 14 points halfway through the fourth quarter. Fourth down and 8 was a running play that went for a TD...then Osborne went to a pass play to win it, and didn't...

 
My beef with Newby has less to do with his production per se and more to do with his awkward style. He runs very upright, seems timid and hesitant, and repeatedly turns down an additional 2 yards on the end of his runs by dancing around in a way that ends up causing him to go backwards.

If Newby was a linebacker who'd been converted to a RB this fall, I'm not sure he'd run any differently.

 
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Langsdorf said part of the reason Wilbon didn't play was Nebraska was throwing a lot. He'll have more of a role when we run more.

Translation: Pass Protection

 
Although I have seen a few runs where Newby looked decisive and made some great cuts, I am still not really a fan of his. He leaves yards on the field far too often with his "happy feet" dance. Additionally, he seems to lack vision at times. I hope Wilbon improves his pass protection if that the reason he is not seeing the field.

 
Bowfin said:
Mike Riley is a work in progress. I don't think he has ever had a team where running the ball was a path to success, so he really can't comprehend it working on a regular basis.

Someone needs to clue him in on that.
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I'm not a big stats guy but I use to watch a lot of Thursday night and Late Late Saturday games.

It seemed like Jacquez (spelling?) Rodgers was a huge part of the OSU offense for several years. He was literally the go to guy.

 
gobiggergoredder said:
Bowfin said:
Mike Riley is a work in progress. I don't think he has ever had a team where running the ball was a path to success, so he really can't comprehend it working on a regular basis.

Someone needs to clue him in on that.
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I'm not a big stats guy but I use to watch a lot of Thursday night and Late Late Saturday games.

It seemed like Jacquez (spelling?) Rodgers was a huge part of the OSU offense for several years. He was literally the go to guy.
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that Steven Jackson guy was pretty good also.

 
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
Mavric said:
Just for comparison, last year Ameer averaged 6.5 yards per carry against Miami. Today Newby averaged 5.9. That's not a huge difference. But Ameer got 21 more carries last year than Newby got this year.

Speaking to HuskerfaninOkieland's point, It's also quite possible that if you give a guy more carries, the bigger plays are more likely to show up. This year we ran it 41% of the time against Miami. Last year it was 80%. Some of that had to do with how the game unfolded no doubt. But that's quite the disparity.
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It just seems when the offense is able to move the ball on the ground effectively, throwing the ball sparingly to keep the defense honest, the Huskers tend to have more success. At least that's how it appears to me
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That's been Nebraska's recipe for success in recent years, but, there's some combination of scheme, talent and performance that's preventing us from really utilizing the ground game in an effective way.

Newby averaged 5.9 YPC against Miami, which is great and exactly what you'd like to see out of your running back. The problem, at least in my opinion, is he's not great in open space or making the first guy miss. I also don't think there's much blocking going on at the second level because our line is struggling at the point of attack.

Combine this with drive killing penalties, and dropped passes, and the offense sputters. As I've said in another thread, the offense was extremely balanced by the time we were part way through the third quarter - 28 passes and 28 runs. Our run game definitely isn't for a lack of trying.

I'd like to see Wilbon on the field too but I always take a very conservative angle on these types of things. In the vast majority of cases, the best players at any given position are the ones playing. If Wilbon isn't playing then there's something about his game the coaches think isn't as good as someone else.

 
Enhance89 said:
Newby averaged 5.9 YPC against Miami, which is great and exactly what you'd like to see out of your running back. The problem, at least in my opinion, is he's not great in open space or making the first guy miss. I also don't think there's much blocking going on at the second level because our line is struggling at the point of attack.

Combine this with drive killing penalties, and dropped passes, and the offense sputters. As I've said in another thread, the offense was extremely balanced by the time we were part way through the third quarter - 28 passes and 28 runs. Our run game definitely isn't for a lack of trying.
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A couple comments on this. Not necessarily directed at you as I've seen similar comments elsewhere.

- I was actually surprised when I saw that Newby averaged 5.9 ypc - I didn't expect it to be that much. But it seems like people are downplaying the effectiveness of our running game. If Newby is leaving a bunch of yards out there and the line isn't blocking, how is he getting almost six yards per carry? I think both (Newby's running and the line's blocking) are better than people are giving them credit for. Adjusting the sack yardage to the passing stats means we averaged 5.9 yards on all running plays and 6.1 yards on passing plays. When you factor in the three interceptions thrown, I think it's fair to say that we were more effective running the ball than passing it.

- Newby got 14 carries on the day. Cross added four carries. We had the ball 15 times during the game and once more in overtime. If our running backs are getting one carry per possession, I don't think that's much of a commitment to the running game.

- I think the stats about the run/pass ratio are skewed by TA's scrambles. Did we call any designed runs for TA? There were probably a couple but I don't remember any. He was sacked twice which was obviously a called passing play that shows up in the stats as a running play. And he had several scrambles. Now that's a strength of TA and he got some big first downs that way. But strictly by the numbers, we ran the ball 41% of the time. If, say, 8 of TA's 11 rushing attempts were actually called passing plays, we were actually only calling running plays about 31% of the time. That's not particularly balanced.

 
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Newby broke two big runs, 14 and 23 yards. That's how he got almost 6 yards per carry.

At the start of the third quarter we were down 27-3. 8 non-QB runs rest of the way (including Newby runs of 9 and 14 yards in the midst of all this passing)...and 30 points scored. So, yeah, I find this idea that the run was doing better against Miami to be very puzzling.

Nothing was going especially well for a half, and then the entire team started coming to life late. I thought we had a good, patient approach too, although obviously for the last couple of frenetic drives it was pass, pass, pass, pass. As it had to be. There was barely time for the Huskers to finish tying the game up.

 
Bowfin said:
Mike Riley is a work in progress. I don't think he has ever had a team where running the ball was a path to success, so he really can't comprehend it working on a regular basis.

Someone needs to clue him in on that.
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Gotta love that 3rd and 1 in the second quarter when instead of maybe lining up with Cross who had just finished a nice run before back there or any running back really back there to get the 1 yard they needed for the first down they decide it's best to try and pass instead. Queue the punter.

40 years of experience though...

 
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zoogs said:
Newby broke two big runs, 14 and 23 yards. That's how he got almost 6 yards per carry.

At the start of the third quarter we were down 27-3. 8 non-QB runs rest of the way (including Newby runs of 9 and 14 yards in the midst of all this passing)...and 30 points scored. So, yeah, I find this idea that the run was doing better against Miami to be very puzzling.
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So do we throw out Reilly's 41 yard catch and Morgan's 33 yard catch and say we only threw for 235 yards on the game?

Not every running plays gets nice yardage. Not every passing play gets good yardage. If you don't like looking at yards per play, what are you using to say the running game wasn't doing very well?

 
Here's another stat, at least for those that care about stats:

Nebraska is currently averaging 7.5 yards per passing attempt for the season, good for #61 in the country.

We are currently averaging 5.1 yards per rushing attempt for the season, good for #39 in the country.

That would also seem to indicate to me that, relatively speaking, we're better at running the ball than passing the ball.

 
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