What makes us irrelevant? (a poll without a poll)

JJ Husker

JJ Husker

Donor
I've been thinking about what tarnishes our image more and wanted to get some opinions. I realize that not competing in CCG's or for NC's contributes to national irrelevance but I would like to drill down more specifically to individual game outcomes.

Question #1- What type of loss is the most damaging?

A) A significant defeat at the hands of a higher rated and respected program.

B) A loss to some middling unranked team.

Question #2- What type of victory would do the most good helping us repair our image?

A) A win, any win, even if it is some irrelevant middling team.

B) A win over a ranked team from a power conference.

I realize people will want to freelance and add their own stipulations, but please select from my options first.

 
My answers for both are option B. This is why I would rather play a team like Georgia or LSU than some other, easier to defeat team. IMO we have sunk as low on the irrelevance scale as I ever wanted to witness. I would much rather risk losing again, primetime on a national stage than not having the opportunity to start reversing our lot. I am numb to the embarrassing loses and believe the only way back is to start beating some better teams. I don't care if it takes twenty more losses to accomplish it. Beating a Washington State or KSU might make some fans feel better temporarily but I don't think it helps return us to relevance.

 
A and B

A, because those games are on national television and get seen how we lose the game. What is significant? Like the 38 unanswered from UCLA? If we lose to an unranked middling team, it may be on regional tv. Both suck. Haha.

 
StreeterCL said:
A and B
A, because those games are on national television and get seen how we lose the game. What is significant? Like the 38 unanswered from UCLA? If we lose to an unranked middling team, it may be on regional tv. Both suck. Haha.
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So, in your opinion it would be worse to lose to Oregon on national TV than it would be to lose to Minnesota or Iowa, regionally televised, but everyone still knows they beat us?

Not saying that is right or wrong. Honestly just trying to get a read on people.

 
1st- B

The loss to Minnesota hurt us bad this year. The loss to UCLA wouldn't have hurt so bad, if we weren't up 21-0 and allow 38 consecutive points. MSU loss was expected by the nation. Not saying it was acceptable, but to it speaks the relevance of our program. With 5 Turnovers, the #4 team in the nation only beat us by 13 points. The Iowa loss I expected. Experienced, disciplined and talented defense against a decimated Nebraska Offensive line and a walk-on 3rd string QB can only result in a bad outcome. All people look at is the score, but don't look at the big picture, but same goes for us with other programs. Example, Mizzou. Mizzou was fortunate to face Georgia, Florida and South Carolina all without their starting QB's and other key contributors.

2nd-B

We need to win the games we are suppose to win, and win some that we are an underdog in. If we lose to the ones we are an underdog in, make it respectable. Not a 38 consecutive point blowout. Not allowing Wyoming 600 yards, or SDSU getting 227 yards on the ground. Blowouts needs to stop, and this year it hasn't been bad, but we lost the games we should have won. Injuries or not, we should have won UCLA, Minnesota and the MSU game. Iowa, our offensive coordinator just got out coached.

 
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Question #1: A and B. Every team, even the best ones, has to put up with these losses from time to time, you just can't win them all. But what hurts is when it happens consistently. Nebraska routinely gets blasted by the better teams we face, and we routinely poop down our leg against a mediocre opponent every year. With these losses, either A or B, but 3 or 4 of them every season being a certainty, the total effect is damagine because we will not be taken seriously as a championship contender.

Question #2: B, no doubt. It has been so long that Nebraska has had a victory that really made the nation pay attention. Even Bo's best wins against big name teams came in down years for those programs, or against Top 10 teams (Okie State and Mizzou in 2010) were not really household names as big time programs, regardless of their ranking. The problem that we are running into (for many fans) is that every time we play a bog game now, we tend to fear the inevitable blowout rather than be excited for the possibility at a signature win. The odds just haven't been in our favor.

 
JJHusker1 said:
StreeterCL said:
A and B
A, because those games are on national television and get seen how we lose the game. What is significant? Like the 38 unanswered from UCLA? If we lose to an unranked middling team, it may be on regional tv. Both suck. Haha.
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So, in your opinion it would be worse to lose to Oregon on national TV than it would be to lose to Minnesota or Iowa, regionally televised, but everyone still knows they beat us?

Not saying that is right or wrong. Honestly just trying to get a read on people.
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Well honestly I think they go hand in hand because if you have one, you will most likely be experiencing the other to some extent. The way I view it anyway.

 
JJHusker1 said:
I've been thinking about what tarnishes our image more and wanted to get some opinions. I realize that not competing in CCG's or for NC's contributes to national irrelevance but I would like to drill down more specifically to individual game outcomes.

Question #1- What type of loss is the most damaging?

A) A significant defeat at the hands of a higher rated and respected program.

B) A loss to some middling unranked team.

Question #2- What type of victory would do the most good helping us repair our image?

A) A win, any win, even if it is some irrelevant middling team.

B) A win over a ranked team from a power conference.

I realize people will want to freelance and add their own stipulations, but please select from my options first.
Click to expand...
#1: (A) because, as Streeter was getting at, lots of people actually watch those games on TV. For the average college football fan, the memory of watching Nebraska get dismantled by Wisconsin on a big stage is going to have more impact than just seeing a score on the ticker and saying, "haha, Nebraska lost to Minnesota."

#2: (B) of course. But if you're talking about this bowl game in particular, I don't think many people will care about the Gator Bowl anyway. So even with a win, I don't think we move the needle in terms of national perception. To do that we need to win a conference title or BCS bowl. Or at least get ranked and win a big nationally televised game during the season when we are still in the race for those things. Fans in general are so tired of all the worthless bowl match-ups and unmotivated teams, it's hard to care about any of them, aside from the national title game and maybe the Rose Bowl this year.

Here's the fastest path to mattering in the national picture again:

  • Go 5-0 heading into Michigan St. (beat Fresno and Miami)
  • Michigan St. goes 4-0 heading in (beat Oregon)
  • Get a primetime TV spot, both teams ranked fairly high, and...
  • WIN

 
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My reasoning is simple, a team is going to lose eventually, it's how you lose that makes the outside's perception of you. We lose to Iowa that sucks, but playing teams like MSU, UCLA, OSU, UGA, SCAR, Wiscy, and OSU and losing the way we do hurts even more. At the times of these losses we were ranked and to the casual fan these should be great games to watch, instead we get the results we get. We come out flat, inconsistent, pitiful, and downright garbage and while the lot of us on here that know what's coming, there are SO many more people than just us that watch these games which is why it hurts our image so much. The casual Nebraska fan or anyone tuning in to watch a good football game instead leaves with such a bad taste in their mouth that we are immediately wrote off in their opinion. I've had friends, and fans of different colleges, of mine ask how our season went since the UCLA game, not because they were trying to rub it in, but because they generally had no clue because they totally could care less. They saw what Nebraska was in that one game and tuned it out, save for the Hail Mary. I fear this is more our norm until we beat these teams who are ranked and have a history like we do. As much as it stings we are not getting national attention because frankly we don't deserve it at all. Every time we play on the big stage we play like a D2 school facing Alabama.

 
JJHusker1 said:
I've been thinking about what tarnishes our image more and wanted to get some opinions. I realize that not competing in CCG's or for NC's contributes to national irrelevance but I would like to drill down more specifically to individual game outcomes.

Question #1- What type of loss is the most damaging?

A) A significant defeat at the hands of a higher rated and respected program.

B) A loss to some middling unranked team.

Question #2- What type of victory would do the most good helping us repair our image?

A) A win, any win, even if it is some irrelevant middling team.

B) A win over a ranked team from a power conference.

I realize people will want to freelance and add their own stipulations, but please select from my options first.
Click to expand...
B to both.

The beatdown from Minnesota was far more damaging than the UCLA loss. The Wiscy blowouts have been pretty bad too, as no one ever remembers they are actually a good team year in and year out anymore.

Actually beating Georgia in the bowl game would do more for national perception in most years. This year its a no win, beat them and the narrative is simply bout how many injuries Georgia had, regardless if we had as many or more.

When you get down to it, not having 4 losses at the end of the season, and be ranked nicely, is the biggest way to take a step forward.

 
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