Hammerhead
New member
I haven't seen a "What Did We Learn" thread yet, and that's one of the things I really liked from last year, so I'll start one. Mods, if I missed the WDWL thread or one of you was planning on starting one, feel free to move my post. Anyway, here's what I learned:
In a lot of ways, we looked eerily similar to how we looked the last few years. When we play well, we play really well. When we don't, the wheels fall off.
That said, I felt like we actually made adjustments when we needed to in this game. For the most part, we looked like a different, and much better, team in the 2nd half.
There is a lot of young talent on this team. Dedrick Young and Aaron Williams played well. Young seemed to make a play everytime he got close to the ball and Williams made some key tackles. Mikale Wilbon reminded me a lot of a young Ameer Abdullah with his patience and shiftiness. Stanley Morgan didn't get called on a lot, but I did see good things from him when he did.
Tommy Armstrong is definitely not the pro-style QB we're looking for. He was solid in the first drive, made a few other nice throws, and made some really nice plays running the ball, but he still tries too hard to force the big play when it isn't there, and still has form/accuracy issues. I was optimistic after the first drive, but felt like overall he didn't look improved from last year. He's the most experienced QB on the roster and the undisputed leader, so I think instead of trying to run a pro style offense, we need to work with what Armstrong gives us. We saw in the second half that we can still move the ball doing that.
I have zero confidence in Drew Brown. Sorry to say it, but if we want a reliable field goal kicker, we're going to have to look elsewhere.
All in all, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, BYU was a very difficult opponent for the first game of the Mike Riley era, and very few people expected a blowout victory for the Huskers. There are worse things than losing by one point from a last-second Hail Mary play. Still though, it sucks losing the first game of the Mike Riley era, especially knowing that it's the first home opener loss in 29 years. There's still so much that this team needs to improve on, and I kept saying that with cautious optimism after almost every tough game of the Pelini era but never saw that improvement, so I'm hoping that Riley can do what Pelini couldn't with this team, but I'm not ready to drink the Kool-Aid again just yet.
In a lot of ways, we looked eerily similar to how we looked the last few years. When we play well, we play really well. When we don't, the wheels fall off.
That said, I felt like we actually made adjustments when we needed to in this game. For the most part, we looked like a different, and much better, team in the 2nd half.
There is a lot of young talent on this team. Dedrick Young and Aaron Williams played well. Young seemed to make a play everytime he got close to the ball and Williams made some key tackles. Mikale Wilbon reminded me a lot of a young Ameer Abdullah with his patience and shiftiness. Stanley Morgan didn't get called on a lot, but I did see good things from him when he did.
Tommy Armstrong is definitely not the pro-style QB we're looking for. He was solid in the first drive, made a few other nice throws, and made some really nice plays running the ball, but he still tries too hard to force the big play when it isn't there, and still has form/accuracy issues. I was optimistic after the first drive, but felt like overall he didn't look improved from last year. He's the most experienced QB on the roster and the undisputed leader, so I think instead of trying to run a pro style offense, we need to work with what Armstrong gives us. We saw in the second half that we can still move the ball doing that.
I have zero confidence in Drew Brown. Sorry to say it, but if we want a reliable field goal kicker, we're going to have to look elsewhere.
All in all, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, BYU was a very difficult opponent for the first game of the Mike Riley era, and very few people expected a blowout victory for the Huskers. There are worse things than losing by one point from a last-second Hail Mary play. Still though, it sucks losing the first game of the Mike Riley era, especially knowing that it's the first home opener loss in 29 years. There's still so much that this team needs to improve on, and I kept saying that with cautious optimism after almost every tough game of the Pelini era but never saw that improvement, so I'm hoping that Riley can do what Pelini couldn't with this team, but I'm not ready to drink the Kool-Aid again just yet.
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