What did we learn? Mich St version

[gossamorharpy]

We should have never let Casey Thompson leave. 

I would’ve loved to have him as an option but he too would struggle with this offense. If you took out Palmer last year we lacked difference makers- not sure how effective he would’ve been this year given the state of options to throw to

 

[DefenderAO]

We are vulnerable to any team with a competent passing game. I do not like our changes against Maryland, in fact I have a suspicion it will be ugly. Not sure what to think about Wisconsin overall, but the Iowa game may be our best/only chance to become bowl eligible. 

We held Purdue in check.  I’m not saying you’re wrong; we definitely need to generate turnovers to help out our terrible offense. 

 

[knapplc]

I kind of got the feeling Nebraska just expected to turn up today and win. At no point did they appear to match MSU's intensity, effort, or desire. It seemed like it was penciled in as an easy win.

This was the most disappointing part of the game for me, and where a lot of our problems stemmed from. We saw this SO MUCH the past 20 years. Rhule is doing a good job purging this mentality from the team, but it's not gone yet.

It was clear from the first two opening drives that Michigan State brought a greater will to fight than we did. We're pretty evenly matched teams. They out-efforted us.

 

[gobiggergoredder]

We are vulnerable to any team with a competent passing game. I do not like our changes against Maryland, in fact I have a suspicion it will be ugly. Not sure what to think about Wisconsin overall, but the Iowa game may be our best/only chance to become bowl eligible. 

We had almost no pass rush against MSU.  Hardly heard the from 9 or 0.  The sack machine and Lenhardt got in there once each, but that’s all I remember.

 

[Vizsla1]

We turned the clocks back  last tonight. One extra hour of Michigan State/Husker football to enjoy.

 

[LennynSquiggy]

We all wanted to think this is a new team.

But Nebraska is still the same Nebraska we’ve seen for 10 years

It is a new team with progress being made and it's out there for anyone that cares to see it.

The team is still a work in progress and that's ok.

 

[MyBloodIsRed16]

"The Sack man" can get after the QB.  He uses his hands well and dips his shoulder under would be blocks very well.  

 

[desertshox]

We only have 1 game left where we can use Sims. Look for him in that Iowa game. No doubt in my mind Rhule and him have an eligiblity saving agreement in the works now. Which is cute because it allows Sims to make his 1.5 amigos bucks without ever having to sacrifice anything!

Why is there only one game left to use Sims? Might as well use him in all three if you're going to use him in 1. He's already taken snaps in 4 games.

 

[Mavric]

 the problem with the routes you outlined is we don’t have a qb to execute those routes. HH release point coupled with the velocity he throws with is a main reason why he’s sailing a lot of his out throws and quick hits over the middle.

my guess is the coaching staff has zero confidence in him to make those plays without a high risk of turnover.  Something also tells me that HH’s passing IQ is terribly low, I don’t know how else to explain why he’s still missing receivers wide open by design. You need a qb who can quickly go through designed progressions- something HH has shown incapable of for 2 months now.

Except that we did run them and did complete them, as I noted.

 

[ZRod]

It's also pretty mind-boggling that our Special Teams coach specifically said this week he didn't like where we were with punt returns.  And our plan to fix it was apparently to fair catch everything.

I know Rhule said they were trying for blocks.  But after you don't really get all that close on the first few - and run into the kicker once - perhaps a different strategy was in order.  Especially with how returnable many of those kicks were.

I didn't understand it either. MSU flipped the field on one punt and we struggled to recover from it the rest of the game. It probably cost us a shot at a field goal and maybe being tied up after HH's long run.

There were a couple punts where if we had just blocked 2 guys we would have had great starting field position. Just stupid...

 

[Mavric]

MSU blitzed at least three different times in the first half alone, so I'm not sure the PFF stats are quite right. 

The line played well enough for us to win yesterday. Wasn't pretty, but they were not the reason for the loss. Several of those hurries seemed to be HH being unaware of where the pocket in front of him was and didn't trust his eyes & feet while being in there. The 4:26 mark is a perfect example where the line creates a decent pocket, but by the time HH completes his dropback, he's already thinking scramble and he runs right into a sack. 

I rewatched the first quarter though the end of the touchdown drive.  They have not blitzed on a single pass play so far.  They did blitz on a couple of plays that turned out to be running plays, so perhaps that's the difference.  I'll continue checking after lunch.

I don't see a play at the 4:26 mark of that video.  But there were definitely a couple of times where he panicked early.

 

[Archy1221]

I rewatched the first quarter though the end of the touchdown drive.  They have not blitzed on a single pass play so far.  They did blitz on a couple of plays that turned out to be running plays, so perhaps that's the difference.  I'll continue checking after lunch.

I don't see a play at the 4:26 mark of that video.  But there were definitely a couple of times where he panicked early.

They blitzed on the pass play in the first quarter at the 5:15 mark

 

[Archy1221]

I rewatched the first quarter though the end of the touchdown drive.  They have not blitzed on a single pass play so far.  They did blitz on a couple of plays that turned out to be running plays, so perhaps that's the difference.  I'll continue checking after lunch.

I don't see a play at the 4:26 mark of that video.  But there were definitely a couple of times where he panicked early.

They blitzed in the second quarter at the 2:50 mark with the corner 

I rewatched the first quarter though the end of the touchdown drive.  They have not blitzed on a single pass play so far.  They did blitz on a couple of plays that turned out to be running plays, so perhaps that's the difference.  I'll continue checking after lunch.

I don't see a play at the 4:26 mark of that video.  But there were definitely a couple of times where he panicked early.

They blitzed at the 2:10 mark of the second quarter 

 

[Mavric]

They blitzed on the pass play in the first quarter at the 5:15 mark

Eh ... there's a bit of semantics to that one.  The MLB shoots but he's following the back who is flaring out to the right side.  He only redirects back towards the QB once he sees the RB isn't going to get the ball.  So it ends up being kind of a delayed blitz but it really didn't end up having much of anything to do with the pressure. 

 

[Mavric]

 the problem with the routes you outlined is we don’t have a qb to execute those routes. HH release point coupled with the velocity he throws with is a main reason why he’s sailing a lot of his out throws and quick hits over the middle.

my guess is the coaching staff has zero confidence in him to make those plays without a high risk of turnover.  Something also tells me that HH’s passing IQ is terribly low, I don’t know how else to explain why he’s still missing receivers wide open by design. You need a qb who can quickly go through designed progressions- something HH has shown incapable of for 2 months now.

There were at least four times we ran slants or digs in the 12-15 yard range and those were some of our best plays of the game.