Northwestern: What did we learn?

teachercd said:
It is bad to say...but this loss is good because next year there will be a real coach.
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It's good to move on, but I think Nebraska fans need to collectively realize the rot that lies in Nebraska football. 

The next coach is going to have to rebuild Nebraska football while the league expands and gets more difficult. Assuming they hire a competent coach - no guarantee - it'll still take 3 or more seasons before they can compete for the division. Nebraska fans think that the team is "close", but frankly they aren't. The problems here run deep and it's not going to be easy to fix. 

I'll add: what teams like Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota are going to do to Nebraska is going to be hard to watch. 

 
It’s hard to look past the onsides kick atrocity. Lost the game right there. But instead of dwelling on that steaming pile I do think CT and the receivers showed some good game. To me this translates to Whipple and Joseph. This is what I expected year one of Frost in the passing game.

The OL and run game were not very good. 
 

Our punter was good but the NW punter was great. 

The defense looked awful. Tacking was really poor. The DL has no pass rush or anything off the edge. They got pushed back and NW was calling 4th and short in their own territory and converting. The MLBs look slow and not instinctive at all.  The DBs got toasted as the the QB had no pressure at all and the DBs can only cover so long, when they didn’t have to cover as long they made better plays.

This was a must win to get to a bowl and keep building and we pissed it away. The onsides kick debacle gave all the momentum back to NW. If we don’t do that I think we win like 35-27.

 
After a day of reflection this is what I think we learned.

1. Frost is still Frost. He inserted himself into the game in a major way and it was a massive failure.

2. We really miss all those seniors on the d-line. It’s going to be a long year in the B1G if teams are able to run on it that easy.

4. We still make any mediocre QB look like Tom Brady. 
4b. Very disappointed in Nelson, Mathis, Tannor’s ability to get to the QB today, but dial up a hood blitz Chins c’mon.

5. I really liked what we saw from Thompson, he seems to offer some things that Martinez doesn’t like keeping his eyes downfield. That scramble play was awesome. 
6. Am I the only one that noticed how wobbly CT passes were? They were not right spirals at all now wonder we had so many drops when you get a 70 mph knuckle ball thrown at you. Every throw was just off in the second half, hope he’s ok.

7. Still don’t love the RB situation but we’ll see what he can do the rest of the season.

8. Special teams was good other than a bad play call. If we have our punt game from a year ago instead of Buschini this may lose it going away.

9. I’m afraid this year will be much like last. Last year our defense was good enough to keep us in games against everybody but not great enough to win games by themself. This year it’ll be the same on offense. CT will keep us in most games but not sure they will be good enough to win most games by themselves. It seems like it’s been 20 years since we’ve had both a good offense and defense in the same season, one unit is always a letdown.

10. We just made getting bowl eligible a lot tougher. I think NW is a better team than the Illinois team we lost to week 0 last year so I’m not giving up hope for 6 wins.

11. I’m sure Alberts wanted to make at least halfway through the season before having to assess Frost but I can’t imagine what he’s thinking on that plane now but if I had to guess he’s coming up with a list of guys to throw $10 million a year at. 

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
It's good to move on, but I think Nebraska fans need to collectively realize the rot that lies in Nebraska football. 

The next coach is going to have to rebuild Nebraska football while the league expands and gets more difficult. Assuming they hire a competent coach - no guarantee - it'll still take 3 or more seasons before they can compete for the division. Nebraska fans think that the team is "close", but frankly they aren't. The problems here run deep and it's not going to be easy to fix. 

I'll add: what teams like Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota are going to do to Nebraska is going to be hard to watch. 
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With someone like Urban Meyer I think we'd have a loaded roster in year 1 and finish the season something like 11-1.

It's not like old timey college football where we have to wait 3 or 4 recruiting cycles.  We have free agency now. 

But that would probably be his final season here too because of some fictional health excuse or something. 

 
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Farms said:
After a day of reflection this is what I think we learned.

1. Frost is still Frost. He inserted himself into the game in a major way and it was a massive failure.

2. We really miss all those seniors on the d-line. It’s going to be a long year in the B1G if teams are able to run on it that easy.

4. We still make any mediocre QB look like Tom Brady. 
4b. Very disappointed in Nelson, Mathis, Tannor’s ability to get to the QB today, but dial up a good blitz Chins c’mon.

5. I really liked what we saw from Thompson, he seems to offer some things that Martinez doesn’t like keeping his eyes downfield. That scramble play was awesome. 
6. Am I the only one that noticed how wobbly CT passes were? They were not right spirals at all now wonder we had so many drops when you get a 70 mph knuckle ball thrown at you. Every throw was just off in the second half, hope he’s ok.

7. Still don’t love the RB situation but we’ll see what he can do the rest of the season.

8. Special teams was good other than a bad play call. If we have our punt game from a year ago instead of Buschini we may lose it going away.

9. I’m afraid this year will be much like last. Last year our defense was good enough to keep us in games against everybody but not great enough to win games by themself. This year it’ll be the same on offense. CT will keep us in most games but not sure they will be good enough to win most games by themselves. It seems like it’s been 20 years since we’ve had both a good offense and defense in the same season, one unit is always a letdown.

10. We just made getting bowl eligible a lot tougher. I think NW is a better team than the Illinois team we lost to week 0 last year so I’m not giving up hope for 6 wins.

11. I’m sure Alberts wanted to make at least halfway through the season before having to assess Frost but I can’t imagine what he’s thinking on that plane now but if I had to guess he’s coming up with a list of guys to throw $10 million a year at. 
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1.) Our MLB play was bad. 
2.) We got zero pressure! 
3.) Offensive line play was bad especially running the ball. 
4.) Wrs looked good. 
5.) No depth at TE like I thought we would. 
6.) Oliver Martin shouldn’t play again. His effort before the INT was bad but his effort after the INT got me out of my seat. (think he did this last year against Wisconsin as well) 

7.) Special teams won’t lose us games this year as long as Frost doesn’t make anymore decisions on them. 
 

 
lo country said:
D blew chunks for sure.  No DL.  No run D.  Blown coverages.  Missed tackles.  No edge pressure.  Nada.
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Yeah.  And this is how you lose to a lousy or mediocre team:

Nebraska’s possessions after the onside kick nonsense that will live in infamy: punt, punt, interception, punt, punt, interception. Total plays: 23. Total yards: 85. Points: zero.

Northwestern possessions after being gifted a comeback opportunity: touchdown, punt, missed field goal, touchdown, punt, punt, ran out the clock. Total plays: 40. Total yards: 214. Points: 14.

 
Right after the game, I wasn't sure I learned anything.  After some time, I learned that the bend but don't break defense really puts our offense in a hole time after time.  We let the opposing offense get to the 50 or better which allows their punter to really pin us deep.  I learned that our offense is the bend until we break them meaning the QB.  We saw it time and time again with Martinez, and I think we saw it yesterday with Thompson.  He started the game where he could do no wrong.  He finished the game where about everything went wrong.  I also learned that we're the same team we've been for years.  Once the momentum swings, we are screwed.  I will give the team credit.  They did overcome the first momentum swing after we lost that fumble.  Unfortunately, someone on the coaching staff decided on that awful onside kick to give the momentum back to Northwestern.  The onside kick was just horrible.  The risk in that instance is just so much greater than the reward.  

 
We have good receivers via the portal, Martin and Liewer should be getting them water, not causing turnovers and half assing on the run back.  
 

LB play was slow and weak, sitting back and reacting late as plays develop instead of being aggressive.  

 
Farms said:
7. Still don’t love the RB situation but we’ll see what he can do the rest of the season.
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I don't know. Seemed to me the very few times they had a crease to run through they looked pretty good. But on the majority of the running plays they were met by a wall of purple at the LOS. Unless the OL can open some holes I don't think it matters who we have in the RB room.

 
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