Penn State - What Did We Learn?

JJ Husker said:
^^^ This

Luke played fine but I’m afraid a bunch of fans will read way too much into the result. I think 2AM would’ve had an almost identical game and result. Neither one of our top 2 QBs are or have been anywhere near our top ten most pressing problems. I just thank God we had such a large lead going in to halftime.  Defense did what was needed in the 2nd half but our offensive play calling and woes still reared their ugly heads. Our issues are directly related to coaching. I love Frost and can’t imagine there is another coach in the country who would or could care as much about this program but they have some learning and adjusting to do.
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I think the offense played too poorly in the 2nd half for people to anoint McCaffrey our savior. But I still think he should be our starter for the rest of the season.

 
JJ Husker said:
^^^ This

Luke played fine but I’m afraid a bunch of fans will read way too much into the result. I think 2AM would’ve had an almost identical game and result. Neither one of our top 2 QBs are or have been anywhere near our top ten most pressing problems. I just thank God we had such a large lead going in to halftime.  Defense did what was needed in the 2nd half but our offensive play calling and woes still reared their ugly heads. Our issues are directly related to coaching. I love Frost and can’t imagine there is another coach in the country who would or could care as much about this program but they have some learning and adjusting to do.
Click to expand...
I think Frost was struggling on finding something which would work in the 2nd half.  The o-line was struggling with Penn State's front 4.  Frost didn't want to be too aggressive, and risk a turnover.  Plus, with a big lead, Frost would have been killed if he didn't milk clock and take the points early in the 4th quarter.  The thing which really almost bit NU in the butt was the quick TD after the long pass after NU made the lead 14 points.  After that, Frost was just trying to hold on.

 
Nice to win this game! 

But...

Nebraska has to be able to throw the ball further than 20 yards and they can't right now. That worries me. Hypothetically, if Penn State scored and tied the game or was winning with 1:30 minute left, I don't have the confidence Nebraska could throw the ball and march down the field. Thank goodness for the strip sack, fumble score. 

 
Positives:

1.  Although imperfect, I think LMC earned the right to be the starter.  I'm afraid that would have been loss three with AM2 at the helm.

2.  Some of the run plays with Wandale where he was slashing in the Guard-Tackle gap looked really good.

3.  Although still lacking NFL-calibre talent at key positions, Chin's Blackshirts continue to improve,. I would add that most of the mistakes I noticed were individual mistakes (bad angles in particular) as opposed to schematic failings.

4. Some real nice glimpses of youthful talent today.  Betts in particular was a pleasant surprise today.

Negatives:

1.  LMC needs a tonne of reps as in the passing game he doesn't see the field that we'll.

2.  Frost needs to run more deep routes.  His propensity to cut off all the routes at 10-15 yards is making it way to easy for the opposing defenses to sit in zone and stack that area.  

3.  The OLB coach needs to threaten to bench any player who overruns the play.  I lost count of the number of missed tackles as OLB's including Domann were schemed perfectly to make plays and whiffed.

4.  "Snaps" .....damn snaps.

Very happy for team to get the win.  They deserved a break.  Kudos guys.

 
Moiraine said:
I think the offense played too poorly in the 2nd half for people to anoint McCaffrey our savior. But I still think he should be our starter for the rest of the season.
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 It would be crazy to argue otherwise. I mean Luke got the W. But in no way do I feel that it is fair or correct to blame our past woes on 2AM. IMO they are virtually identical  players. I think we get the same win with Adrian today and I think we have the same chance with either of them in the future. Luckily our D has improved and PSU’s offense appeared to be fairly anemic. Our offense still had the same issues we have had, just made it over the hump today.

 
JJ Husker said:
^^^ This

Luke played fine but I’m afraid a bunch of fans will read way too much into the result. I think 2AM would’ve had an almost identical game and result. Neither one of our top 2 QBs are or have been anywhere near our top ten most pressing problems. I just thank God we had such a large lead going in to halftime.  Defense did what was needed in the 2nd half but our offensive play calling and woes still reared their ugly heads. Our issues are directly related to coaching. I love Frost and can’t imagine there is another coach in the country who would or could care as much about this program but they have some learning and adjusting to do.
Click to expand...
I need to point out that one of the things AM has issues with is also something LM does well......game tempo. LM can get people set up quickly and that allows us to go more up tempo......AM struggles with this.

Also, how about a shout out to Jojo for recognizing the D was not lined up properly and causing a timeout to be called by N to correct it. That is what good football IQ does for you. I think Reimer can be that guy with some seasoning under his belt  (sorry for that mental image).

 
huskerfan74 said:
Here is what I learned:

(1) Luke should start every game moving forward...he gives us the best chance at winning

(2) Our special teams continue to be mindnumbingly unspecial. We really need to invest heavily in this phase of our team

(3) play calling was very predictable in second half and had zero imagination. We need to develop more playmakers on offense. We can’t win all our games relying on Luke and Wandale. We need to develop our receivers and get them more reps. Also, our receivers should not drop sure touchdowns
(4) Our defense continues to show signs of improvement and they are the only reason that kept us in our games. They are doing more than enough to give us a decent chance at winning but our offense has been uncharacteristically anemic in the second half.

(5) when we do not commit more than 3 to 4 stupid fouls and we play smart, we can win games. When we have 10+ fouls a game, we can never win.

(6) Game management has been awful and that falls squarely on Frost. He wasted most of our time outs for being indecisive and not knowing who needs to be out there.

(7) DOMANN and HONAS are real studs and the heart of our defense

(8) if Luke started the game against Northwestern, we win for sure

(9) we continue to struggle tremendously in the red zone and Frost has been horrible in play calling when we get so close to scoring

(10) We won our first game this season,,,Yey...finally...
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I thought the special teams were solid today.  3 for 3 on FG's, good job on kickoff return, and a smart coaching job by having Taylor-Britt as the short return guy, which got a nice punt return.  Plus, Prysztup had a booming punt late in the game to make Penn State drive further down the field.

Regarding the red zone offense, Warner had a drop in the first quarter which should have been a TD.  After that, Frost was going conservative and making sure to score points.  I think Frost was spooked by the turnovers against Northwestern last week, and he admitted it in his post-game presser.

 
JJ Husker said:
 It would be crazy to argue otherwise. I mean Luke got the W. But in no way do I feel that it is fair or correct to blame our past woes on 2AM. IMO they are virtually identical  players. I think we get the same win with Adrian today and I think we have the same chance with either of them in the future. Luckily our D has improved and PSU’s offense appeared to be fairly anemic. Our offense still had the same issues we have had, just made it over the hump today.
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Ya I agree with that. The QB was a factor but not the only and probably not the biggest problem.

 
Thankful we won!

Props to Luke and Wandale but we need more weapons.  Have to find way to stretch the field.

Big play Betts!

Defense bend don’t break. The turnovers were huge or we don’t win.  Williams sack, force fumble, scoop n score was the play of the year so far.  That was boss! 
OL and DL making progress but still lots of room to improve.

Saw some good tackles and pass break-ups.  Still vulnerable to QB with time can beat our secondary.

Nice that the improved play translated to the win but concerned we were flat the second half and almost blew this game.  Needed to dominate second half and not give Penn State life.  
#DayByDay

 
ColoradoHusk said:
I thought the special teams were solid today.  3 for 3 on FG's, good job on kickoff return, and a smart coaching job by having Taylor-Britt as the short return guy, which got a nice punt return.  Plus, Prysztup had a booming punt late in the game to make Penn State drive further down the field.

Regarding the red zone offense, Warner had a drop in the first quarter which should have been a TD.  After that, Frost was going conservative and making sure to score points.  I think Frost was spooked by the turnovers against Northwestern last week, and he admitted it in his post-game presser.
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Ya... I'm content with our special teams being decent and not losing us games, because that's a huge improvement.

 
Spooky Tooth said:
I need to point out that one of the things AM has issues with is also something LM does well......game tempo. LM can get people set up quickly and that allows us to go more up tempo......AM struggles with this.

Also, how about a shout out to Jojo for recognizing the D was not lined up properly and causing a timeout to be called by N to correct it. That is what good football IQ does for you. I think Reimer can be that guy with some seasoning under his belt  (sorry for that mental image).
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Luke definitely enables NU to go with more tempo, especially early in the game.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
I think Frost was struggling on finding something which would work in the 2nd half.  The o-line was struggling with Penn State's front 4.  Frost didn't want to be too aggressive, and risk a turnover.  Plus, with a big lead, Frost would have been killed if he didn't milk clock and take the points early in the 4th quarter.  The thing which really almost bit NU in the butt was the quick TD after the long pass after NU made the lead 14 points.  After that, Frost was just trying to hold on.
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I agree. But I do think we will start faring better when Frost and the staff actually commit to their own preached no fear of failure. They have been calling games fearing failure every step of the way. At this point I think the biggest adjustments we need to make involve the coaches rather than the players. And that is not saying we need different coaches but rather that they need to evolve and adjust.

 
JJ Husker said:
 It would be crazy to argue otherwise. I mean Luke got the W. But in no way do I feel that it is fair or correct to blame our past woes on 2AM. IMO they are virtually identical  players. I think we get the same win with Adrian today and I think we have the same chance with either of them in the future. Luckily our D has improved and PSU’s offense appeared to be fairly anemic. Our offense still had the same issues we have had, just made it over the hump today.
Click to expand...


I felt this way coming into the game and nothing changes my mind. Luke has some strengths Adrian doesn't and Adrian has some Luke doesn't. I don't think our offense really works better with either. If Betts shovel is considered a run we threw for less than 100 yards today...

 
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