Buffalo: What Did We Learn?

My takeaways (which have probably already been stated by others on here, too many comments to read)...I said it after Fordham,  the lack of chunk plays on the ground concerned me...that's directly on the o-line.  We definitely struggled again in that area, but those 4-5 yards against Fordham were 1-2 yards Saturday. 

We have had success all season running the ball on the option looks and had success in the counter game in the 2nd half.  Perhaps, we shouldn't have bread and butter runs until we see what we're actually good at?  We suck at power right now.

I don't really have an issue with our backs too much, it's hard to run effectively when there's a wall of defenders and no creases.  Ervin showed some wiggle in the 2nd half.  

Our lack of a pass rush is still an issue.   Oklahoma will torch us on the back end without one.  Our secondary, aside from Williams was average, at best in coverage.  

We play the run very well through the first 3 games.  AM has had back to back good games, here's a guy hoping it continues. 

Our WR room is deeper than it's been in a long while...athletes galore there.  Excited about that room.

Injuries bit us a bit Saturday,  hopefully the guys will be back sooner rather than later.

We had an opportunity for 58 points Saturday...9 on missed field goals,  21 on tds called back.  2 were BS calls.  Snake bitten again by bad timing, luck, technique,  whatever you want to call it.

CTB, shouldn't return punts anymore.  He's a good corner, but he's been nothing short of horrendous as a returner.  I think the experiment needs to be over.

 
What did we learn? 

We learned that this offense takes large swaths of game time off, for whatever reason.

We learned that this team is just like former Husker teams and can't run the ball consistently outside of broken pass play runs by the QB.

We learned that the offensive line seems absolutely lost out there, for whatever reason...especially at the tackle position.

We learned that this defense is playing pretty decent football as of right now, but the dam is about to burst without help from the O.

We learned that this team's special teams is indeed......special.

 
If Culp makes all three of his field goals this one would have really been perceived as an impressive blowout.

It was still a blowout and we roughly doubled the Vegas point spread in the win.

Our veteran defense doesn't get a whole lot of love IMO, but when you combine the really hungry young guys like Reimer with the solid play of Daniels, Stille, JoJo, Dismuke, & Williams it really is a stout run defense. And I think Newsome is going to be special as well - possibly already is.

 
  • Defensively, people are taking 2-3 bad plays for CTB and insisting he sucks, overall he played really well. He made a bad read on the attempted INT, and the one where he was sitting underneath the receiver and the QB dropped it over him was not great. But those were both low risk high reward plays, and I don't have a big issue with either - it would be nice if he made the play though. 
  • He should not be returning punts though, I thought he should have been done after the Illinois one this year given the Iowa one last year. It's to the point where 3 straight games with a turnover as the PR while not even being back there each time is too much. Bad hops, culpability of the blockers, I don't care. The risk is not worth the reward.
  • I don't agree with people saying the pass rush is bad. Buffalo just doesn't take sacks, they throw quick and it's a point of emphasis for them to get rid of it under pressure. Their QB got beat up, the pass rush did it's job. I'd like to see more aggressive coverages called against teams that are throwing quick, but with our offensive struggles I understand playing it a bit safer.
  • The OL deserves a lot of blame, but at the same time I can't recall more than 1 or 2 RB runs where they actually broke a tackle. There are a lot of solo tackles where it's just one LB between a 2 yard gain and a 10 yard gain, and they are not getting past them. A lot of times the defenders have leverage and everything so I'm not expecting it to be broken every time, but the RBs have to be better too. 
  • Offense could be pretty good if we ever get everyone healthy - I like where Martinez is at, and a Martin/Toure combo with Allen/Vokolek and some Manning/Betts sprinkled in works for me.
  • Speaking of Martinez, what other Big Ten QB would any of the haters rather have this year? There are arguments for Morgan, Clifford, Tagavailoa, and Penix and by the end of the year Stroud. But the only one I'd really consider is Tagavailoa tbh, and he has also had games as bad as Martinez in the past. I think there's a pretty strong case Martinez is as good a QB as there is in the Big Ten right now.
 
To summarize, the team has not changed much in the past 3+ years.  Saturday will be a highlight bonanza for Spencer Rattler and the OU offense.  The NU offense will remain anemic at times and the special teams will be good for 1 or 2 mistakes.  

We do not possess the ability to limit mistakes or control either line of scrimmage (regardless of opponent).  

This spells trouble when you run into teams that are not only superior from a talent perspective, but also from an execution perspective.

For the first time in 35 years of following this program, and for those two reasons, I am hard-pressed to find another win on the remainder of the schedule.

 
BigRedBuster said:
One other thing I thought about was, we don't seem to run the RBs outside the tackles very often.  It seems like all of our hand offs are up the middle.  Also, I don't remember ever running any type of screen play this year.

Maybe we will see those this week against OU?   :dunno   Both of those types of plays, I would think, would help open up run plays up the middle.  Screen plays would also help slow down the pass rush.
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I've noticed that too. Through three games, our RBs have a total of five catches. Stepp had a single catch for 30, and the other four catches went for a combined five yards.

 
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Toe said:
I've noticed that too. Through three games, our RBs have a total of five catches. Stepp had a single catch for 30, and the other four catches went for a combined five yards.
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And the reason he got so stupid-open is because we play actioned. Something I'm really hoping Frost does a bunch more of to switch it up.

One of our best plays might just be play action roll out keepers for Martinez, honestly. Guy is practically unsackable this year in one-on-one running situations in the backfield so do some of that stuff.

 
Toe said:
I've noticed that too. Through three games, our RBs have a total of five catches. Stepp had a single catch for 30, and the other four catches went for a combined five yards.
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He did leave one high against Buffalo which forced the RB to contort body to make the catch and resulted in losing his footing as a defender cleaned up the tackle, otherwise the hole was there for the first down and a lot more. (Just a comment about that one play, not bagging on AM, I am impressed he hit Toure in stride twice, I hope he can build on that)

 
My main takeaways were:

  • Buffalo wasnt nearly as good as I expected. Part of that could have been the Huskers playing better but they just seemed to make life easy for us.
  • Culp is in his own head. The missed extra points show me he has the yips. At this point, ya gotta show faith in him and hope he finds his swing. I think he will.
  • I wish we would have played Illinois now. They look lost and we look more confident. I think Nebraska would win by 14+ if they played this week.
  • Toure is really fun to watch. Again, Omar Manning has disappeared, so having a guy who seems to run good routes is fun. 
  • I like when Adrian just plays and doesnt over think. 



I have been very negative on this team, but overall was happy with the win. 

 
Minnesota_husker said:
My main takeaways were:

  • Buffalo wasnt nearly as good as I expected. Part of that could have been the Huskers playing better but they just seemed to make life easy for us.
  • Culp is in his own head. The missed extra points show me he has the yips. At this point, ya gotta show faith in him and hope he finds his swing. I think he will.
  • I wish we would have played Illinois now. They look lost and we look more confident. I think Nebraska would win by 14+ if they played this week.
  • Toure is really fun to watch. Again, Omar Manning has disappeared, so having a guy who seems to run good routes is fun. 
  • I like when Adrian just plays and doesnt over think. 



I have been very negative on this team, but overall was happy with the win. 
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Manning was injured so didn’t play. 

 
MyBloodIsRed16 said:
if they made a 53 man roster for this season I would assume they are pretty good.  not sure if they did tho.
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Yeah I did a bad job of showing it but my comment was a joke on the post you quoted from Toe about them not playing any P5’s. Buffalo is obviously a great team and they had the stats/talent to prove it- them not playing a P5 team is completely irrelevant to how good and talented of a football team they are

 
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