What did we Learn? (The NIU Huskies Edition)

[r06ue1]

A win is always good, especially when it is a blowout, but the fact is this was against Northern Illinois, a team whose only win this season was over Illinois State and was blown out by Utah last week. 

NIU stinks at running the ball, Utah held them to 2.7 yd/rush and IS held them to 2.6 yd/rush.  

Liked the explosiveness that showed up at times.  

Defense looks good most of the time.  

Only one turnover

NIU had the ball nearly two times as much as Nebraska did even with their incompetent running game.  Against opponents the quality of Ohio State, Wisconsin and Iowa, this could be a huge issue as the defense is left on the field all game.  

The Offensive line is still a work in progress, which is the result of the Riley years, will be another two years to get that cleaned up and have depth.  

Vedral looked good at the end of the game, nice having depth at the QB position unlike last season.  

Illinois should be a better test even though they will likely end up in last place.  

 

[B.B. Hemingway]

You aren't any part of the offense or team.  There is no "our" 

Don't be that guy.... The fan base is the only thing that kept this program anywhere close to relevance the past 18 years....

 

[BigRedBuster]

Yes ---and for Verdal(or someone whos competent) to come in when Martinez is unable to execute the plays that SF is sending in to our Offense.

I see, so now AM is incompetent. 

 

[Nebfanatic]

Don't be that guy....

Only to the experts that think Martinez should sit. Don't be that guy.

 

[brownNgold]

That even with a 44-8 win and not allowing an offensive TD, this fan base still finds ways to nitpick and b!^@h about the team versus enjoying the win. I swear, we're the most self absorbed fan base in CFB.

Any team that calls a swing pass 3 yards deep in there own endzone deserves just a small amount of nitpicking I believe.  

 

[Mavric]

[No message]

 

[Nebfanatic]

Bench him

/s 

 

[Mavric]

[No message]

 

[lo country]

Nice to see the D getting the important stats like TFL, sacks, TO's etc......Great ST teams play. Regardless of the opponent.  Blocking punts is not the easiest thing to do.

Great to see Noa finally get some touches.  More guys get the ball, the better we will be going forward.

 

[Undone]

Pretty unusual chain of events late in the first half:

-they quick kick on 4th down

-we get stopped in our end zone for a safety

-decent punt by us on the safety kick

-stop them for a 3 & out

-they quick kick again

-two minute drill with less than a minute and deep end zone strike for Noa's first touchdown

 

[Red Five]

The quality of kicking tonight wasn't an issue. The issue was that somehow we forgot or didn't try or were unable to block the rush. That's got nothing to do with the kicker unless Armstrong is somehow taking a notable amount of time longer to go through the kicking motion, which didn't seem like the case to my amateur eyes at least.

To my untrained eye, it does seem like Armstrong is slow getting to the ball on his kicks and also kicks with a lower trajectory. 

I thought one of the blocks was definitely his fault (the last one, when the guy got it from the edge) for being slow.  IIRC the second block was terrible blocking up the middle.  I can't recall what happened on the first block right now.

 

[grandpasknee]

As crappy as they blocked, the OLine had NO false starts and DIDN’T get caught holding tonight

I like your qualifier ""didn't get caught" holding....well said. I hadn't realized they had no penalties of either type.  I'll take that as definite progress.

 

[ndobney]

I thought the defense lucked out on a couple dropped passes and a couple wide open wr that had our guys beat against better teams those were touchdowns. That needs to be cleaned up.

Offense we have no o line. I'm not holding my breath either when is the last time we have seen good line play from this team. This needs to get better.

We have no kicker. A lot of kicks getting blocked cause we have no o line. This needs to change.

Washington is a stud

 

[grandpasknee]

You aren't any part of the offense or team.  There is no "our" 

I had the chance to talk to Tommy Frazier a few months after the Fiesta Bowl win against Florida.  I said that my favorite part was when "we were whipping the so bad on defense that their coach just had a lost, dumbfounded look on his face."  I immediately corrected myself saying "Well, not we, I meant the Husker Defense".  He said "No, you're right.  The fans are every bit as much a part of the team as the QB, the offensive line and the coaching staff".  

I'l go with his thought on this personally.

 

[TGHusker]

I learned we have some pretty good guys that I've never heard of :Stailbird, Sullivan 

That was an amazing pass break up by Sullivan in the end zone.  In the reply you can see him follow the play from the far side and display  the speed and presence of mind to know where the ball was going.   Excellent.

I also learned that Mo has some jets in those shoes. 

I'd like to see Wan'dale get more touches also to display his speed.  He got 'heal' tackled on one play in which I think he could have broken it for a very long TD.

Mills has potential- it was finally seen

Lamar Jackson is nicely becoming the  kind of defender we hoped he would become a long time ago.

The Brothers Unit on the D-line is very, very hard to move.  Great end zone stand.