What did we learn

Lorewarn said:
Nah, a notable amount of it was what Colorado did, which was that they started successfully stuffing our run game. When you're picking up 6+ yards routinely on first down, it's easy for the offense to not be "conservative" because your whole playbook is wide open. When you start routinely having 2nd and 8 or 2nd and 12 you're stuck between a rock and a hard place choosing whether to try and ground and pound and wear clock or throw it around a bunch while you're behind the sticks. 

I thought Satterfield had some good answers for this with some creative screen and flat passing concepts and occasional sprinkle of some more creative run looks (I also thought Dylan did a great job with pocket awareness, throwing catchable balls and also dumping to his check downs when needed), but the story of the second half is semi equal parts nebraska failing to execute, the refs trying to get screen time, and Colorado's defense playing much better.
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This is probably what worries me the most. We'll face multiple better run defenses, so I didn't like us getting <= 2 yards on multiple carries in the 2nd half.

 
2 yard run plays aren’t the worst. When you’re still getting positive yards on your worst plays, it still can lead to manageable 3rd downs. Last year against this same team, the obvious run plays/downs were resulting in negative plays. 
 

We also had a 70 yard TD run get called back for a pancake block and another 20ish yarder for what seemed like a 50/50 call(much worse not called on Colorado the very drive before it). I only heard the second half on the radio live, but watching it back actually gave me a better sense of how in control we were. 
 

if the refs didn’t take over in the late 3rd quarter through the end, I don’t think we would be as concerned as what the end result shows. See DR’s stat line rolling out for the first drive of the second half shows we weren’t all that aggressive in the first half either. We just didn’t get reffed on our chunk plays.

 
ZRod said:
WR play has not been great. Poor blocking on the outside is an issue.
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I agree the blocking has not been good but guys are getting open and catching balls.  We aren't running the option anymore so guys need to be receivers first blockers second.  yes yes I know they can be both.  

 
MyBloodIsRed16 said:
I agree the blocking has not been good but guys are getting open and catching balls.  We aren't running the option anymore so guys need to be receivers first blockers second.  yes yes I know they can be both.  
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They have to be both. This offense likes to use swings and screens and if we aren't getting blocks on the outside those plays are dead.

 
Mavric said:
Lutovsky was our highest-graded OL according to PFF (was only in on 11 out of 72 snaps).  Mazzccua was the lowest-graded.  Everyone else was solid but not spectatular, although there continues to be significant splits in run grades vs pass grades.  Corcoran pretty good run blocking but pretty terrible pass blocking.  Benhart similar but not as extreme either way.  Scott is the opposite, though not as bad run blocking.  Evans the only one who was decent both ways (other than Lutovsky).
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I think I am done with PFF grades when TyRob got a 72.4 and Bullock got a 66.6.  Those 2 guys were causing havoc all night.

 
Lorewarn said:
but the story of the second half is semi equal parts nebraska failing to execute, the refs trying to get screen time, and Colorado's defense playing much better.
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IMO that's a fair assessment.

Personally, what Nebraska's offense is doing through two games is kind of a mixed bag of what I hoped for and what I expected. I hoped they'd be able to score and put up yards more efficiently than last year, but I didn't expect it to necessarily always look that good. They have a true freshman QB, some talented albeit new faces at WR, a good not great OL, and the Equity Bank running back group. They'll probably have more offensive issues as conference play starts and will need to rely on the D to make up for a lot of scoreless possessions.

 
cheekygeek said:
Uh, on Number 3 there - what did I miss?
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What ZRod stated. Our perimeter blocking has been abysmal against inferior defensive talent from UTEP and Colorado. That is going to haunt us in against the saltier teams on our schedule, which is most of them. The route running/effort was also lackluster on UTEP game analysis. For me, our receivers have been the most disappointing aspect of our offense.

 
Top five graded Huskers per PFF ( Don't shoot the messenger) 

This is on their youtube page so it's public information

T Hill - 83.4

Rahmir - 78.2

Ty - 72.4

Boerk - 70.1

Dowdell - 69.6

 
Red Five said:
I think I am done with PFF grades when TyRob got a 72.4 and Bullock got a 66.6.  Those 2 guys were causing havoc all night.
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I'd have to go back and watch again.  But even the TV guy made the comment after the big stop Bullock made late in the game that they hadn't called his name much.  Not that it means he's playing bad.  But I'm not sure how many chances he had.  Our DL was handling things up front and there wasn't much in the passing game for him to help with.

He was credited with 5 tackles in 62 snaps, plus the tipped pass.  I'm not sure that is really "causing havoc all night."

As for Robinson, it's not like 72.4 is a bad grade.  And DL stuff doesn't always show up in the stat sheet.  He did seem to be in the mix a lot.  But he also only had 2 tackles in 48 snaps.  So he definitely made some plays that stood out but didn't come up with a ton of stats (not that they grade on stats).

 
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