What did we learn? Purdue

The game unfolded a lot like I thought it would with a couple of surprises although the outcome was closer than I thought it might be.

First, while I expected Palmer to get open a few times I didn't envision our deep game and long plays to be anywhere near as dominate as it was. Palmer should get B1G offensive player of the week. The lack of a running game wasn't a surprise since Purdue's run defense was ranked only few yards behind Rutgers which thoroughly stuffed us. Purdue did the same.

Purdue's short to intermediate passing game was their strength coming in an we didn't have an answer to it. O'Connell, as advertised, was able to deliver the ball quickly and accurately to his receivers. But the surprise was how consistently they were able to pick up good gains on the ground since their running game was ranked #103, averaging 119 yards/gm coming in. Our defense, facing a decent team after two games of playing bad teams showed again how utterly incapable they are of stopping any team with a pulse.

Pleasant surprise of the game - Tommy Hill on KO returns. We had better KO returns than I can remember for a long time and it looked like he was just a step away from breaking a couple all the way.

Illinois, who also has a bye week and looking to be the best team in the West is going to be a monumental challenge.

 
Our offensive line continues to play like dogs#!t. We have maybe one guy who should be starting on a Big Ten OL out there right now. All credit to the guys out their playing to the best of their ability but they're just not talented enough. Frost and Austin can get bent. Raiola was not a good hire. We could not afford a developmental coach for the most important position on the offense.

Newsome is a gamer for going out there and gutting it out while not 100%. He's badly needed. Hartzog is really coming along for a true frosh. Brown had some good moments last night. But overall our depth and talent along the secondary needs to improve.

We cannot sustain more injuries at LB. Our front seven plays the run well at times and very poorly at others. We need more dogs up front because we still can't get consistent pressure on QBs, whether we're blitzing or not. Injuries to our LB corps don't help.

I have no idea how old some of our players are. Tannor is a SR, Reimer a JR and Gifford/Heinrich are SO. Huh. I thought Tannor was younger and the other guys older. Nice that we won't lose too much. I wouldn't count on Heinrich for Illinois - he was clutching the knee and came back on crutches. No knee injury affecting weightbearing is going to be a ~two week recovery time frame (I'm a PT).

Palmer's got to get a player of the week award. ~300 yards of offense is insane. His talent is unreal - he's probably gone to the NFL.

Illinois is the real deal. We better go to work and get ready for a typicaly Bielema or Iowa-style game. They're going to try to run it down our throats and use that to set everything else up. Completely different gameplan than vs. Purdue. Glad Busch showed a willingness to focus on stopping the run first last night - we're going to need to next, too.

 
KCBuc said:
I miss Davidson on the radio. Hope he’s a good sales guy. NU needs A LOT of NIL monies to get half way athletic. 
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Not me! Damon Benning was excellent. He was able to talk about the good things the team was doing but also suggested how they could improve. Great balance. When we would start to lose before Matt would just go into this doom and gloom mode. No thanks!

 
This marked the 789th game where the Nebraska offense and defense could not come together and both have a good game. Once again, one unit shows up while the other takes the night off. One of these games both the offense and defense will show up and play well.

Palmer is one of the best WR's in the country. We need more plays where we just throw it deep in his general direction and just let his natural speed and ability go get the ball. I think we make our offensive plays too difficult and too much, simplify it by just throwing it deep to Palmer.

Offensive Line needs to benched vs Illinois. Let walk-ons give it a try. 

It's been 15 years since the defense has been able to stop slant routes and 7 years since they've been able to stop the same up the middle run play over and over. 

 
Most people before the game gave us zero chance to win. Fun game to watch although I don’t think that’s a style that wins many games; running game abysmal and putting all the pressure on the D, the D that often backed off pressuring the QB and receivers when it was clearly helping. You could complain about the picks but that’s what happens when you’re throwing like that…. Could’ve just as easily been fumbles if we ran the whole time. They stayed after it until the end, nothing to hang their head about.

 
Ok you have two offensive tackles that whiff more than they can touch a defensive end.  Isn't it about time for the coaches to wake up and have a TE or a RB help them out.  Thompson is going to get killed!!!

 
It was frustrating to watch Nebraska's defense play unphysical, soft (i.e. far off the line of scrimmage) coverage and consistently only rush three or four. Purdue's QB is immobile and their WR's are undersized and pose no deep threat so get after the QB by blitzing and play physical against the WR's (i.e. press/jam/lock up/bump/etc.) at the line of scrimmage to knock them off their timing on short routes.

If you know their QB is immobile and wants to throw from a clean pocket then make the pocket uncomfortable by blitzing and putting pressure on him.

If you know they are throwing short routes you don't have to cover for very long so play physical against their WR's at the line of scrimmage, cutoff or step in front of some of those short routes and look for a pick or pass breakup early in the play knowing their QB is under pressure from the blitz.

Purdue ran 101 offensive plays (54 passes and 47 rushes) and never got called for holding.
 
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Mathis is not what he was billed as.  Some of that is scheme and some of that is him.  I watch him alot, and he is usually standing and watching.  Once he fails at getting too the QB, he just stops.  Not a big fan.  Like I said, could be some to do with scheme. 

Our blitz packages all take the wrong angles and or just are too slow at getting there.  Is that athletes or is that just scheme?

 
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