I think I figured out why yesterday's game bothered me so much...

Cdog923

Cdog923

New member
...it's because we've seen it before. Think of it this way: watch the game without sound, and ignore the shots to the sideline. What are you reminded of? Occasionally explosive offense? Aggressive defense? Silly mistakes by both players and staff that ultimately cost the team a game it should have won? An electric quarterback named Martinez who can't finish a game without getting hurt? It was almost the perfect encapsulation of a Bo Pelini game.

 
On defense it didn't remind me that much of the latter half of Pelini's stint once we had entered the B1G. Pelini's defense was not very "aggressive" once he entered the Big 10. I'd describe his defenses during those seasons more as schizophrenic and overly complicated in ways that cost us games we shouldn't have lost.

The blitzing puts pressure on your secondary. We blitzed a lot yesterday. But the effort and attitude on defense yesterday looked nothing like anything we've seen in three seasons. It looked very much improved.

Here's the big thing I'll say - one measure of large improvement I have for this team would be to finish this season with a positive turnover margin. That would be a huge stride. The turnovers were absolutely the biggest factor in why we lost. I mean, we had 565 yards of total offense and they only rushed for 44 yards.

 
Eleven penalties for 95 yards also killed us. And all of the penalties hurt. They either converted on 3rd and long or put us in a field position hole.

 
Cdog923 said:
...it's because we've seen it before. Think of it this way: watch the game without sound, and ignore the shots to the sideline. What are you reminded of? Occasionally explosive offense? Aggressive defense? Silly mistakes by both players and staff that ultimately cost the team a game it should have won? An electric quarterback named Martinez who can't finish a game without getting hurt? It was almost the perfect encapsulation of a Bo Pelini game.
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I felt the same way. While there were a lot of things to be encouraged by, this really stings and it’s difficult not to feel like this is second verse same as the first. 

 
First of all, this was game one.  It might have reminded you of a Bo coached team but it was a Bo coached team in later years.  Bo inherited some very good players from the previous staff, but they were still making boneheaded plays four games into the season.  If memory serves me correctly, Suh committed one such boneheaded play late in the game against Va Tech.  Everyone needs to relax.  If this becomes a pattern, then we should freak out.

 
While I get the comparison, I disagree.  Although, 2 fumbles lost for 14 the other way and a c note of penalty yards....maybe you're right.

 
After watching a few minutes, I thought they can move the ball out of any harms way, no matter where we were lined up.  The way this offense plays, was nothing i can remember, since T O's. 

Maybe it's just me but, i think we can move the ball out of harms way no matter how deep we are in our end. Sure looked like it yesterday. jmo

GBR!!!

 
Cdog923 said:
...it's because we've seen it before. Think of it this way: watch the game without sound, and ignore the shots to the sideline. What are you reminded of? Occasionally explosive offense? Aggressive defense? Silly mistakes by both players and staff that ultimately cost the team a game it should have won? An electric quarterback named Martinez who can't finish a game without getting hurt? It was almost the perfect encapsulation of a Bo Pelini game.
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While I agree with @In the Deed the Glory about how our defense attacked from all angles making it almost nothing like a Pelini defense...

I see, and agree with, your overall point: this team couldn't get out of their own way.  The thing that made Pelini's teams so frustrating to watch was all the self-inflicted wounds. 

The biggest difference though with your analogy is that Coach Frost will, I believe at this point anyway, see what is wrong and will take steps to fix it immediately.

But therein lies the rub...even with all the mistakes Nebraska made, it was going -3 in turnovers which was the biggest deciding factor in the loss.  Take away that -3 stat and I belive NU wins by 21 easily.

One last point...I can't really explain or quantify this, but it felt like Nebraska came out of halftime flat.  And it seemed like the crowd was flat as well.

 
Have to agree with the OP. But.....I have a lot more hope now based on this staff. 

This staff durring and after the game showed a high level of competitiveness.....but was still under control, thinking, coaching and trying to help win the game....and afterwards, helping the team be mentally prepared to come back next week even better. 

 
Making Chimichangas said:
But therein lies the rub...even with all the mistakes Nebraska made, it was going -3 in turnovers which was the biggest deciding factor in the loss.  Take away that -3 stat and I belive NU wins by 21 easily.

 
One last point...I can't really explain or quantify this, but it felt like Nebraska came out of halftime flat.  And it seemed like the crowd was flat as well.
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I thought the second half was flat, too. It's as if all the energy was expended overcoming that deficit. But they did, and as much as we can talk about turnovers and spotting them 14, at halftime that's a new ballgame. You don't need to win the game at that point, just that half. From that perspective, not capitalizing on so many chances to put this game away is what lost it. That's a typical first year way of losing. 

 
The biggest difference is this staff has shown they can take a team that was 0-12 and go 13-0 in the span of two seasons.

We haven't had a coach since Osborne that I thought could do that.

I wasn't that excited for this season and I'm not that disappointed in how it's gone so far.  I'm waiting until next year and the year after to really judge what this staff is capable of.

 
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