What did we learn? (The Rocky Mountain Low Edition)

Went to the game. Here’s some thoughts, observations. Some has likely been mentioned already. 

- CU stadium is pretty cool aesthetically. Not very big or loud though. Also, their video boards didn’t have any stats, timeouts, other game scores etc which was kind of annoying. 

- CU was grossly unprepared for the amount of people attending the game. Lots of vendors running out of water, beer, food. Little to no organization. 

- Thought the defense played well but gassed out towards the end. Got gashed on some big plays. But they seemed to give the offense chances. 

- AM missed lots of open receivers. 

- Oline seemed okay at times. Still glaring weakness of the team. 

- Play calling seemed to go conservative. 

- After the game our group stopped at a gas station to get some water and Gatorade. CU fan was behind us on his phone and said “I felt like I was in f*ckin’ Lincoln”

- Didn’t really encounter any obnoxious CU fans, but I chalk that up to the fact there were so few of them there. 

- As players were leaving the field, Mo Washington was flipping out. Screaming and flailing. 

 
Nebfanatic said:
We almost made a bowl last year. We will get to 6 at least. To me it looks the same as last year out there, but I expect the improvement to be expidited. One thing we saw a year ago that I look forward to this year is getting better. It seemed lile we improved week to week last season, when under past coaches we would fall apart down the stretch it seemed. If we get stronger and stronger as the season progresses like we did last year I think we will be fine and it will be very encouraging for 2020
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The trends are the same and it’s why I have no faith in NU. The graduation losses made this team weaker. 

 
KCBuc said:
The trends are the same and it’s why I have no faith in NU. The graduation losses made this team weaker. 
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They are similar, not the same. This defense is better and honestly the offense has more pieces, I just don't think we've seen them yet. Ramhir Johnson will make an impact. Frost said we are stronger at every position besides WR and I am going to trust that right now because I do think we are better now than this time a year ago.

 
I agree this team is better than the one that played CU last year.   But, not necessarily in every position group.   The O line is clearly struggling, although I am of the belief that it will make considerable imrovement as the season proceeds.  The WRs are, so far, not showing much as a group.  We had been told over and over that we have a bevy of good WRs ready this fall.   Haven't seen them yet.

The TEs are supposed to be much improved but really have not seen them either.  Stoll had several plays but that's about it.  The RBs are clearly lacking in something but with the O line play being so inconsistant, we may not really know yet.

The defense may not be statistically any better (I have not looked at the overall stats at all) but it is clearly playing more aggressively and getting more big plays and etc.   Itr is without a doubt much better.

The return game is also improved, although yesterday was not a game to really evaluate them as their Kickoffs and Punts were superb.

Really no chance to show much.   The punting is improved (our punter was arguably the player of the game for the Huskers).

The kickoffs were much better and we can't fairly judge our number one place kicker as he hasn't played yet.   But it is very troubling that a team with 150 plus on the roster doesn't have two decent or good kickers.   Kick coverage has been 'OK'.

We are 1-1 (that's better than 0-2).   We lost in OT on the road so we were not' embarrassed and 'should of, could of, would of' won that game if we were in better condition.  I suspect we may be bigger and stronger but the the conditioning has a long way to go.   There is way too much talk from the coaches about 'we're going to freely substitute every few plays to keep guys fresh'.   Substitutions are fine but athletes at this level ought to be able to play hard for a dozen snaps at a time without being 'gassed'.  

The O line did improve considerably this week and will keep doing so but we need to substitute them every couple series as well.  We need to build depth and experience in the 'losing' seasons so we are ready to win long term.

 
I still wonder how much the altitude played in this. Nebraska isn't deep anywhere but the dline and our LB and DB corps clearly fatigued. I think the offense fatigued as well. It was just such a different team after half. 

Once the momentum and adrenaline of the first half wore off at half time the team couldn't get it back and that seems like an altitude thing. 

Next week will be the true barometer of that though. If we play a full game like the first half depth and altitude killed us. If we make mistakes and shoot ourselves in the foot it's deeper issues. 

 
Fru said:
- Didn’t really encounter any obnoxious CU fans, but I chalk that up to the fact there were so few of them there. 
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I found one. Drunk kid with a peach fuzz mustache, weighing about 140 lbs...yelling ‘f$&@ Nebraska...f$&@ em!’ at each husker fan he passed while walking on the concourse. I am absolutely amazed at the restraint I witnessed from the folks in red. 

Hopefully, for his sake, he was puking and/or passed out by halftime. 

I am not usually a guy that buys into the self anointed exceptionalism of our fan base...but I was impressed by what I saw. 

 
First half looked good, not great, even though we were ahead 17 - 0, should have been at least 24 - 0.  Colorado made adjustments and pwnd our coaching staff, that truly was the difference, we were unable to match their adjustments with our own.  

What I don't get is how we end last season 4 - 2, almost beating both Ohio State and Iowa which would have been 6 - 0, to this garbage?  Did losing players to graduation really result in our talent taking a nose dive?  Did the coaching staff all get replaced by Mike Riley and co.?  By the end of last season, we would have blown the s#!t out of Colorado; this doesn't even resemble that team in the least bit.

 
r06ue1 said:
First half looked good, not great, even though we were ahead 17 - 0, should have been at least 24 - 0.  Colorado made adjustments and pwnd our coaching staff, that truly was the difference, we were unable to match their adjustments with our own.  

What I don't get is how we end last season 4 - 2, almost beating both Ohio State and Iowa which would have been 6 - 0, to this garbage?  Did losing players to graduation really result in our talent taking a nose dive?  Did the coaching staff all get replaced by Mike Riley and co.?  By the end of last season, we would have blown the s#!t out of Colorado; this doesn't even resemble that team in the least bit.
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I think that is what has everyone concerned.  What is the problem?  Losing the seniors hurt that much?  Staff can't adjust (which is a truly scary thought)?  Culture still has issues.....IMHO, Martinez is the missing piece.  He has yet to "play" a complete game this season.  

 
Fru said:
Went to the game. Here’s some thoughts, observations. Some has likely been mentioned already. 

- CU stadium is pretty cool aesthetically. Not very big or loud though. Also, their video boards didn’t have any stats, timeouts, other game scores etc which was kind of annoying. 

- CU was grossly unprepared for the amount of people attending the game. Lots of vendors running out of water, beer, food. Little to no organization. 

- Thought the defense played well but gassed out towards the end. Got gashed on some big plays. But they seemed to give the offense chances. 

- AM missed lots of open receivers. 

- Oline seemed okay at times. Still glaring weakness of the team. 

- Play calling seemed to go conservative. 

- After the game our group stopped at a gas station to get some water and Gatorade. CU fan was behind us on his phone and said “I felt like I was in f*ckin’ Lincoln”

- Didn’t really encounter any obnoxious CU fans, but I chalk that up to the fact there were so few of them there. 

- As players were leaving the field, Mo Washington was flipping out. Screaming and flailing. 
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This is what I was wondering about the most actually about this game as you can only see so much of the field on television.  I kept asking myself is everyone literally covered or does CU have a really underrated secondary or are these other WR's besides JD just not getting open?  I sort of felt in my gut that our guys couldn't have literally been blanketed that entire second half.  

AM to me especially compared to last year seems like he is just thinking too much back there.  I also think that sometimes football is far too analytical in terms of how it is taught and implemented these days but that's a totally different discussion.  I know the coaches talked about pairing down the playbook for CU.  The guy has the ability but maybe mentally he is just being overloaded?  I don't know if that's true at all but it's something I seriously wonder about.

 
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lo country said:
I think that is what has everyone concerned.  What is the problem?  Losing the seniors hurt that much?  Staff can't adjust (which is a truly scary thought)?  Culture still has issues.....IMHO, Martinez is the missing piece.  He has yet to "play" a complete game this season.  
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According to @ZMagers22 who was sitting up close and personal, the bolded is an issue with the Riley recruits. Apparently they can't stay focused the entire game. 

As to the question why does it look so different than the end of last year, I think we need to realize maybe it doesn't work that way. I look more at the beginning of last year and where we were at then compared to now. I like what I see. Obviously I wish the offense was just working right now, but maybe we have to work through the kinks with new O lineman and such just like last year. One thing I am certain of is the staff will not settle for this offensive performance. They will make adjustments personel and otherwise to get us right. It was a struggle for the first few games on offense last year and I'm thinking its similar this year. By conference play the offense and team as a whole should be a bit better and look for them to improve week to week.

 
suh_fan93 said:
This is what I was wondering about the most actually about this game as you can only see so much of the field on television.  I kept asking myself is everyone literally covered or does CU have a really underrated secondary or are these other WR's besides JD just not getting open?  I sort of felt in my gut that our guys couldn't have literally been blanketed that entire second half.  

AM to me especially compared to last year seems like he is just thinking too much back there.  I also think that sometimes football is far too analytical in terms of how it is taught and implemented these days but that's a totally different discussion.  I know the coaches talked about pairing down the playbook for CU.  The guy has the ability but maybe mentally he is just being overloaded?  I don't know if that's true at all but it's something I seriously wonder about.
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Not trying to pick on you specifically but this is the funniest part about all these people that "know" the problems with our team. Until anyone is watching the game again without emotions and watching a better angle than what you get on TV I will take what they think with a heavy grain of salt. 

 
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