What did we learn? Northwestern Version

cornheadnation said:
And northwestern beat Minnesota. Who (checks notes) beat Nebraska, ironically I think the quarterback who played that game had a couple detrimental turnovers. 
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Yeah.

Now I wouldn't really want either guy being the QB that's trying to throw on that 2nd & goal from the 6 at the end of the first half against Minnesota where Sims throws the INT.

But that game was pretty win-able regardless if Grant doesn't fumble in the 4th quarter. We're a fumble and a false start (in the same game) away from being a 5-2 team right now because of how good our defense is.

Different train of thought: Chinander consistently flew under the radar as a huge problem in Frost's program because so many people expected Frost, the offensive expert, to win games on offense. Our program was so overdue on getting a good defensive coordinator that it wasn't even funny.

 
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Undone said:
Yeah.

Now I wouldn't really want either guy being the QB that's trying to throw on that 2nd & goal from the 6 at the end of the first half against Minnesota where Sims throws the INT.

But that game was pretty win-able regardless if Grant doesn't fumble. We're a fumble and a false start (in the same game) away from being a 5-2 team right now because of how good our defense is.
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Yeah, the grant fumble hurt too, but the pic immediately after the fumble was terrible also. 
 

Neither QB is ideal. But my point is I don’t think that saying either guy would have won the 4 games that HH won is a given. I actually get the feeling that JS would have made a mistake or 4 to lose us at least one of those games. 
 

In my opinion it feels like HH has done less to hurt the team and has yet to make any mistakes that has cost us games. For that I’m rolling with HH for the rest of this year or until he gets as or more wreckless than JS.

I’m just enjoying winning a few games again. I don’t care how ugly it is GBR

 
The fact that Haarberg was 3rd string QB for the last two years and most likely in that same position coming into this year tells me what he is and its not  grade A..  the fact that he has came in and gave us 4 wins is commendable at the very least...  you cant get filet mignon out of ground beef but it seems like you can make a pretty good meatloaf...  either way...  ill take what is being served until the menu changes...  

 
The Big10 network is contractually obliged to carry these games, but lots of these match-ups are just bad football games that only a fan could care about. 

That being said, watching Matt Rhule body surf over happy Husker players feels good. It's a game, we won, and the weekend is a little brighter for it. 

Haarburg has caught up with Jeff Sims in poor decisions, bad interceptions, and mishandled snaps. I'm fine with Rhule sticking with Haarberg as his 4-1 starter, but I don't think there would be any drop off if Sims had to step back in, and frankly HH would benefit if he made quicker, more aggressive decisions to run, like Sims. 

I forgot about the one-possession loss curse. When we were up 17-9 with plenty of time still on the clock, I was feeling pretty confident we would win. If I felt that way, I guess the players did, too, and that's good news for a team with lots of young unproven players. 

It's becoming kinda fun to root for this defense. Games like Michigan remind you that we're still an entire level of football below where we want to be, but we do have a lot of company in the Big 10. 

So buckle up for more ugly football. Could be fun in its own ugly way. 

 
Mavric said:
Can we please stop with this narrative? Colorado is DFL in Total Defense - Dead Frickin Last.  There offense is good so they've won some games but their defense is literally the worst defense in FBS.
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No narrative involved. My OPINION is that our first two games ever with a new staff, new systems, some new players and both games on the road were expectedly our two hardest games (excluding Michigan as I did). My comments had nothing to do with how good or bad Minnesota or Colorado are/were.

The only team we play all season long worth two fiddler’s farts is Michigan. Every result is therefore directly and soley attributable to one thing, how good or bad Nebraska is. Our opponents really aren’t a factor IMO.

 
Heretic Husker said:
In defending the player, not named, you seem to divaricate the situation to basically a walk on QB? If so, then ok, but my main point is the player not named at TE was a highly recruited player, while getting hit with the injury bug might have hurt his athletic ability to move like an elite player, did he break his hands? Or I should say, crack his hands, because they seem to be made of stone. On the play selection portion of your player not to be named, defensive analysis, i'd say that must be the coaches quixotic play calling, if he is back to his 4 star athletic ability, they should put him in better positions to maximize that athleticism- all speculation I know, but I felt the need to add depth to the conversation.

The last thought is a question.

Do you think this TE is as good as you thought he'd be? I think an honest answer would be no, as I can't think of many reasons to say yes based what we've seen.
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Can't lie.  I had to use Google-fu to see what the bolded word even meant.  Kudos on the vocabulary :D  

 I will have to agree that to date, Fidone is not playing as well I as thought he would.  QB play, limited receiving threats aside from him (is he really a threat though?) and dropping some balls hurts.  My frustration was all the pre-season self hype.  But that's just me.  

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
The Big10 network is contractually obliged to carry these games, but lots of these match-ups are just bad football games that only a fan could care about. 

That being said, watching Matt Rhule body surf over happy Husker players feels good. It's a game, we won, and the weekend is a little brighter for it. 

Haarburg has caught up with Jeff Sims in poor decisions, bad interceptions, and mishandled snaps. I'm fine with Rhule sticking with Haarberg as his 4-1 starter, but I don't think there would be any drop off if Sims had to step back in, and frankly HH would benefit if he made quicker, more aggressive decisions to run, like Sims. 

I forgot about the one-possession loss curse. When we were up 17-9 with plenty of time still on the clock, I was feeling pretty confident we would win. If I felt that way, I guess the players did, too, and that's good news for a team with lots of young unproven players. 

It's becoming kinda fun to root for this defense. Games like Michigan remind you that we're still an entire level of football below where we want to be, but we do have a lot of company in the Big 10. 

So buckle up for more ugly football. Could be fun in its own ugly way. 
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Haarberg may have made some poor decisions and had some dumb moments, but if you now feel, after 4 games, he has caught up to Sims in the number of those mistakes, the fact that it took 4 games to match Simms 2 shows who the better QB is. 

I still say, if we started HH instead of Simms, we have a win at Minny. 

 
Wistrom Disciple said:
Extra practices from a bowl season could do wonders in moving the line from average to good/great. I used to think they were overrated practices, but after not having them for 5+ years, it's becoming painful obvious how the extra work could help improve a lot of the younger guys.
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You can get more practice time in bowl prep than you can from spring camp. Spring is capped at 15 practices, but bowl game prep is only capped by the same number of practice hours per week as during the season.

 
JJ Husker said:
No narrative involved. My OPINION is that our first two games ever with a new staff, new systems, some new players and both games on the road were expectedly our two hardest games (excluding Michigan as I did). My comments had nothing to do with how good or bad Minnesota or Colorado are/were.

The only team we play all season long worth two fiddler’s farts is Michigan. Every result is therefore directly and soley attributable to one thing, how good or bad Nebraska is. Our opponents really aren’t a factor IMO.
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I mean ... you literally said "two hardest opponents."  If that's not what you meant, then fine.  But you're directly contradicting what you said earlier.

 
Big Red Viking said:
Fidone is a 5 star that can't catch.  
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I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this.

I haven't been wowed or underwhelmed with Fidone overall - he's getting targets, and he's playing ok, but he really strikes me as having pretty mediocre to bad hands. I've seen at least 3 passes on the season that were very catchable balls and he looks as if his hands are cinder blocks :lol:

I think he's still got plenty of upside and with more game reps will become more comfortable but thus far I haven't seen a single play from him that seems to represent his elite high school potential.

Guy Chamberlin said:
I forgot about the one-possession loss curse. When we were up 17-9 with plenty of time still on the clock, I was feeling pretty confident we would win. If I felt that way, I guess the players did, too, and that's good news for a team with lots of young unproven players. 
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While I definitely would affirm the narrative that our team is getting mentally tougher and learning how to win and how to expect to win, I think this is overblown (not by you, but as a general sentiment across the fanbase).

First of all, we were 4-3 after seven games in 2019, including two one possession wins against Illinois and NW (the latter of which we were doing everything we could to give the game away), and second, people seem to have hazy memory of how the team's competitiveness improved last year under Mickey Joseph, winning similar tough and ugly games against Indiana, Rutgers and Iowa.  

 
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