What did we learn? Wiscy Edition

Guy Chamberlin said:
Yeah, we went up 14 pretty quick. Our third string quarterback caught everyone by surprise, including the Wisconsin defense. Then they did what defenses are supposed to do and adjust. Did you honestly think we were going to roll 56-0 against Wisconsin at Camp Randall? Like, come on man!

While we almost laid an egg point wise, the defense had a couple great third and fourth down stands, and the offense clicked well enough to move down the field at the end of both halves for what could have been game deciding field goals. You do know that Wisconsin was favored in this game, right? 

And while it might seem foolish to defend this offensive line, it would also be crazy to ignore that the Huskers rushed for 200 yards, leads the conference in rushing, and  Chubba Purdy had enough time to go 15-23 for 195 yards. Sacks did not seem to be an issue. Neither were turnovers. 

Abortion? Dude. 
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Yes I used some inflammatory language, but I stand by it. 
 

This team may be showing improvement in some aspects but have taken giant leaps back in others. 
 

we will more than likely, barring a miracle, end up 5-7. We are not as embarrassing as Frosts team but we just found other ways to lose close games. 
 

on a losing streak? play the Huskers. Want to put up madden like numbers and break some record? play the Huskers. Hell Allen didn’t even know if he was going to stick with football  then decided after he ran all over us a couple years back that this football thing is kinda neat. 

We suck!! And it prob won’t change in our lifetime. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
Well if the program is an abortion, it's never even given a chance. 

When it comes to the Huskers, I still lean Pro-Life. 
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I hope I’m wrong. I really do. I’ve been watching this team for a long time. And it isn’t a stretch to say this program hasn’t been given a chance by the people running the show. 
 

Rhule has made some critical errors and they all seem to center around Satterfield, his buddy. Who else did this? nepotism and fans buying the hype hook line and sinker every regime change will be the death of this program if it’s not already dead. 

 
Archy1221 said:
I have to disagree with you here for a couple reasons.   
 

1) in general, you play for the win on road and the tie at home…in general.

2) In my view, after the previous losses, this team was no longer in contention for a West championship so there is nothing to lose.  Go out and win a ballgame.  
3) Ball at the 20 yrd line with just over a minute left and three timeouts is an eternity in football terms.  The entire playbook is available to go get a win.  Much different than playing conservative and letting time win down to kick the “winning” field goal last week.  
4) The reason you keep timeouts is to have them for these types of situations at the end of game. 
5) the field goal kicker already missed a 42 yarder that game by a big margin

6) Purdy had been making good decisions all game.  Let’s see if he can win a ballgame.   
7). I’ll say it again. This week is totally different than last week.  Wasting lots of time for a  field goal for a tie on the road is much different than wasting time for a field goal for the win at home.  
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And that's fine (disagreeing on strategy) and I'm ok with that and give you a plus 1 for it.  My thinking and probably Matt Rhule's thinking took into all of the considerations you pointed out, which are good points, but went with a different strategy.  And that's ok too.  

But also, had we won in OT I'm sure this would still have been a talking issue among Husker fans regardless.  And I just don't think it should be.

Speaking of strategy, decisions, and Overtime, I also think differently on this and might upset some football thinkers......but after winning the coin toss, I would have sent Wisconsin's defense back onto the field (in OT).  Because they were just out there for 4 minutes, and we moved the ball on them to tie the game.  Drove 60+ yards.  Tied the game.  Momentum shifted slightly towards us.  And our offense was ready to go.  The pressure goes back onto them.  Even if we settle for a FG in OT on first drive, we now have come from behind to tie the game, we now have taken the lead, and the heat is all on them.  Our defense gets pumped up with the lead.  That's what I would have done differently.  

And the flip side, if we are really trying to win the game as some fans point out, why didn't we take the ball first in Overtime?  Thought the point was to go for it with nothing to lose?  Or does that same thinking suddenly change?  Go for it. 

 
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gobiggergoredder said:
It was nice to see at least one punt return attempt, but overall it was a rough day.

What has to be done to slow down the gunners on punt return?  There has to be some team that does it well.  I’m sure our dedicated ST coach is all over it.
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There is a glaring difference between our punting and our opponents punting.

Our punter kicks the ball 30 to 35 to 40 yards max on most punts.  And the reason why the other teams return those punts often is because he has no hang time on those weenie punts.  He pretty much has a HS leg. No hang time.  Short punts. It is something noticeable since he's been punting last year.  I don't know if Montana has some altitude that helped him at FCS, but it's not the same punting in the midwest.  

Our opponents seem to be able to punt the ball with good hang time and distance, more often than not.  Those guys seem to flip the field position with their punting.  Our guy doesn't but only once in awhile when the other team lets it bounce and roll another 10-15 yards.  

Quite frankly, our punter is below average and only booms it when we punt from the 50 yard line.  Helps his averages and stats.  I wish we had someone else.  I can never count on him to flip the field for us.  But I can count on some 18 yard shankers, and the constant 30-35 yarders.  Woo.  

 
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gossamorharpy said:
I’m not sure how you can say that in the bold when we lost against Maryland because our QBs had 5 turnovers.

we lost to Michigan st because our qb was overthrowing and throwing pics all day

we lost to minny largely due to 3 ints from our qb, one of which took 3 points off the board and the last one setup minny for game winning fg

who knows what would’ve happened against Colorado but surely our qb getting the yips and dropping the snap multiple times and throwing a horrendous pick at our 30 did not do the team a favor.

it’s not just qb play, injuries certainly have impacted us, as have embarrassingly poor special teams and general year 1 transition issues. But if you look at any one position group, qb, by far shoulders more blame than any other group 
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Sure qb play has been out front. It’s tough to ignore how bad they’ve been. 
 

I just found it interesting with GOOD not just ok qb play we are systematically broken as a program…still. Finding a qb in the portal won’t right this ship as people have been saying. That is all. 

 
Scofrosghost said:
Sure qb play has been out front. It’s tough to ignore how bad they’ve been. 
 

I just found it interesting with GOOD not just ok qb play we are systematically broken as a program…still. Finding a qb in the portal won’t right this ship as people have been saying. That is all. 
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Fully agree.  Here's my list in order of priority:

1.QB- Already covered, 1 week ago i said no one in this years' qb room should be on the depth chart next year.  If chubba plays well again this week I'll change that.  Still think we need at least 1 qb transfer, potentially 2

2. O line improvement- its been cleaner than past years and there is improvement to speak of.  Still dont feel great of our ability to really run on anyone consistently.  You take away the long qb runs we've had on broken plays and our run game looks pitiful.

3. Find a DUDE on the d line- perhaps he's already in house and needs another year (lenhart).  Nash has progressed tremendously, we''re still missing that one guy who commands a double every single play and can single handily wreck a team on any given day. 

4. Continued depth at WR & big body receiver- I expected kemp to be a much bigger factor and a lot of it, outside of injuries, is probably more due to our qb situation.  That being said, we sorely miss a big bodied receiver- I dont want another 5'8 wide out, go get a guy who can go over the middled or win a jump ball in the end zone.  

5. Find a god damn punter who is somewhat accurate and at least consistent with distance and hang time, something our punters have been incapable of for years now

 
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gossamorharpy said:
I don't think there's a right answer and any case can be made.  I bolded your line above just to play devil's advocate... If I'm rhule, my mindset is, ok we're def in fg range and have TO's and time to work with- lets bleed this down on this play because what i dont want is to use a time out, then get stuffed on 2nd & 3rd, and potentially let wiscy stop the clock, and they get the ball with a min plus left to try and win.
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My thought process was, for the last few minutes, we had the momentum.  Our Offense was driving the ball.  I would not have done any risky plays, but I would have ran plays and...maybe....an RB gets loose and scores.  I would also not run any long developing plays where I could lose yardage.  I would probably have keyed on stretch plays to the right...or some type of misdirection play with a quick handoff to the fullback to the left.

My concern would have been that our defense was wearing out.  Wiskey was starting to be able to run over us with their RBs up the middle.  If they get the ball back in regulation and we are up by 4, they have to march the entire field to score a TD.  In OT, all they have to do is go 25 yards.

All in all, I'm not mad at the decision.  It's a crap shoot either way with this team right now.

 
Scofrosghost said:
I hope I’m wrong. I really do. I’ve been watching this team for a long time. And it isn’t a stretch to say this program hasn’t been given a chance by the people running the show. 
 

Rhule has made some critical errors and they all seem to center around Satterfield, his buddy. Who else did this? nepotism and fans buying the hype hook line and sinker every regime change will be the death of this program if it’s not already dead. 
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Obviously, it's way too early to say Rhule is not the answer. But it really does feel like the same old song and dance, over and over. The same terrible discipline, the turnovers, the mistakes. It's defined this program for over 20 years now. And, yes, that includes 2009 and 2010. Remember 2009 Iowa State? 2010 Oklahoma? Where we choked away winnable games for no discernable reason? It's one thing for a program to have a real stinker of a game every few years. But we have multiple every season. Every season is just full of games where it looks like half the team has never played football before. And this has been going on for decades now. One bad year is one bad year. A few bad years is a rough patch. We've been garbage for decades.

The program is essentially dead as things are. Can it come back to life? I guess. But so far, nothing indicates that. I'm concerned not because we're getting beat. I didn't expect Rhule to win like 9 games or something season one. I'm concerned because all the things that should be fixed day one haven't been fixed. The discipline, the turnovers, the game awareness, the game management. It's the four issues that have plagued Nebraska for 20 years now, and I just want someone, anyone, to make it stop. For the love of all that is holy, make it stop.

You fix discipline, turnovers, game awareness, and game management, and you have a winning team with this lineup. Is it a top 25 team? No. But you have a winning team. I am not asking or expecting them to contend with Michigan at the moment. That game, we just got straight up outtalented, and that's fine, you can only control what you control. Hell, I'm not expecting them to be like 9-3. I get it's not easy to win.

But if you even half the turnovers? We're certainly 7-4 at the moment, if not better. You have some better game management, we maybe win both MD and Wisky. Sure, you can't 100% stop turnovers, and you'll make mistakes. I am not asking for flawlessness. I am asking for competency. Competency holding onto the football, competency avoiding penalties, competency managing the game.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
My thought process was, for the last few minutes, we had the momentum.  Our Offense was driving the ball.  I would not have done any risky plays, but I would have ran plays and...maybe....an RB gets loose and scores.  I would also not run any long developing plays where I could lose yardage.  I would probably have keyed on stretch plays to the right...or some type of misdirection play with a quick handoff to the fullback to the left.

My concern would have been that our defense was wearing out.  Wiskey was starting to be able to run over us with their RBs up the middle.  If they get the ball back in regulation and we are up by 4, they have to march the entire field to score a TD.  In OT, all they have to do is go 25 yards.

All in all, I'm not mad at the decision.  It's a crap shoot either way with this team right now.
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Agreed.  If anything, saturday's game just gets me even more pissed off at the MSU and maryland games.  Had we just played like 80% of what we showed against Wiscy, we'd be sitting at 7-4 right now heading into iowa week.

 
gossamorharpy said:
Fully agree.  Here's my list in order of priority:

1.QB- Already covered, 1 week ago i said no one in this years' qb room should be on the depth chart next year.  If chubba plays well again this week I'll change that.  Still think we need at least 1 qb transfer, potentially 2

2. O line improvement- its been cleaner than past years and there is improvement to speak of.  Still dont feel great of our ability to really run on anyone consistently.  You take away the long qb runs we've had on broken plays and our run game looks pitiful.

3. Find a DUDE on the d line- perhaps he's already in house and needs another year (lenhart).  Nash has progressed tremendously, we''re still missing that one guy who commands a double every single play and can single handily wreck a team on any given day. 

4. Continued depth at WR & big body receiver- I expected kemp to be a much bigger factor and a lot of it, outside of injuries, is probably more due to our qb situation.  That being said, we sorely miss a big bodied receiver- I dont want another 5'8 wide out, go get a guy who can go over the middled or win a jump ball in the end zone.  

5. Find a god damn punter who is somewhat accurate and at least consistent with distance and hang time, something our punters have been incapable of for years now
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That is a really good list dude. 
 

I would add, Rhule having a sit down with Satt and saying you have the Iowa game to show me something different with HOW you call plays in certain SITUATIONS or you’re gone. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
That was pretty glaring, but you know these special teams guys get drilled hard to never touch the punter and risk ruining a defensive stand with a roughing/running into the kicker penalty. 
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Yeah, I'm not going to hold that one against them, he still nearly made the block and it is far more likely to end in a roughing penalty than a block with how those go, it happens.

 
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