Purdue - What did we learn?

Indiana and Rutgers will be a true litmus test. Rutgers has a bruising RB and Indiana is well coached with several weapons. How we play against those two teams will tell us where we stand. Of course, I don’t believe our penalty and non-special teams woes will be fixed without dedicated coaching. 

 
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chamrocck said:
Sloppy win.  Can’t have long term success playing like this.  
 

If we had made the gimme kicks a lot of the negatives get overlooked.  Sure up the kicking game before it costs us any more.  The punting was good but otherwise the ST are atrocious.  
 

Lack of run blocking and running game is of concern.  
 

And the defense just doesn’t have that killer instinct like we saw against CU.  Sure the pick 6 came in garbage time but the arm tackling and inability to make the first tackle is concerning.

We had to have this win and we got it but sloppy with lots to work to improve.  The next two games will tell me a lot.  We have two undefeated teams that have somewhat stole our mojo as upstarts in the B1G.  Play sloppy and we lose both.  The season will be defined by what we do in the next two games.  Win and we play with house money on the back side of the schedule.  Lose and we have to scrape to make a bowl.
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The punting wasn’t good though. The actual kicking of the ball part of the punt was really good, but if punting is considered the entire punt play, the coverage team acted like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off and just got lucky on the bounce on the one where we put them around the 7 yard line. 

 
We finished a game that looked bleak. 

E. Johnson should be out every down back. 

Defense dominated. IDC what anyone says. 

We still haven't seen 4 quarters of football since the Frost led team beat down northwestern. 

I'm drunk. 

 
Moiraine said:
We are still a sloppy team but not in a way that gifts the other team the win (turnovers).

I knew our ST was bad but somehow they are worse than I thought. How does your punt coverage team not know the literal basics of covering a punt - getting into a position to keep the ball out of the end zone? Do they practice at all?

I could say a lot more negative things but gonna just focus on the positives:

We won the first road game we played and Raiola played, which is good to see. 

This could have been an opportunity to show we can finally have a close win, but instead we ran away with it at the end. The best way to avoid close losses is to win by a lot.

We have seen this story turn into a 3 point loss many times before, including against teams as bad as Purdue. We didn’t collapse mentally even though we screwed up over and over in the 1st half. 35 minutes in, it felt like a game we’d figure out how to lose. So I am cautiously optimistic about the team. Rutgers and Indiana will be really telling. 
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I’m often stymied by this team not knowing the basics of football too! Didn’t they learn most of this in high school football?  I love this team and am grateful for the win but we still need to learn how to last all 4 quarters. GBR!

 
huskerfan74 said:
Bullock will be playing on Sundays. He has really separated himself this young season. 
 

Matt Rhule will not be able to be successful at Nebraska if he cannot fix the non-special teams’ woes and the plethora of undisciplined penalties. It is hard to teach your team not to commit stupid penalties when you yourself do them.

We are 2 wins away from the toilet bowel with a chance to move up to the toilet sink bowl.
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I think the players were proud of Matt for getting that penalty.  That’s a coach that has their players backs.  Several of them smacked him on the backside in thanks for standing up for them.  

 
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