Missouri Post-Mortem

7 comments so far October 12, 2009 by Tom Cudd

I call this article a "Post-Mortem" because I spend the time dissecting the mistakes the Husker have made in the past week's game. But this week, the title of Post-Mortem is honorarily given for the fashion in which Nebraska took apart the Tigers in the final quarter of the game. From start to finish, THE Fourth Quarter, as it shall now be known, was a thing of near perfection. Execution on offense along with the tenacity on defense rivaled any effort I've ever seen the Huskers undertake. We have seen a team that learned not to give up or let off in the waning minutes of a game. So I will continue to look at our mistakes and issues, but you will not see a single negative mention of that spectacular 15 minute stretch of football in here.

Ok, so now that I got the good stuff out of the way, let's dig in for the mistakes that will hopefully be fixed before Texas Tech rolls into town. Because believe me, I think if we have some of the same problems against the Red Raiders, the outcome of the game could be very different. Weather may have been a factor in some of the problems, but that's not an excuse, it just means they weren't prepared. Maybe this week, Bo Pelini gets the hose out and sprays down whoever is getting the ball during the practice play.

I can't really fault the defense for most of this game considering within the first few drives they were able to bring pressure, forcing incomplete passes and a fumble. And it wasn't until Prince Amukamara slipped that the Tigers were able to get a their first long play of the first half which set up a "questionable" touchdown for Missouri. And the defense continued their dominance for the rest of the game only causing a couple of penalties on the drive that MU was able to get their field goal. Of course we all know how well they ended up playing after that, so on to trouble spot number two.

The offense. For three quarters, I was offended. It all might have been different if Ricky Henry's illegal chop block doesn't happen in the first quarter. We were starting to march, and Missouri brought pressure to force us to stall. It was a tactic they only needed to use a few times considering the Huskers were just unable to get respectable field position for almost the entire game. Our starting spot for three quarters was our 25 yard line (average field position in the fourth was the Missouri 32!).

MU was able to take advantage of our situation a couple of times, but our biggest problem was ourselves. Nothing can compare to the dropped and bad passes. While having to do quite a bit with the rain, it was just over the top how many should have been caught. If even three more catches happen at any point earlier in the game, drives don't stall and Missouri probably doesn't get a chance to score on offense. MU was able to catch passes in the rain, so it can't totally be on the weather. Players like Brandon Kinnie and Antonio Bell don't get that many throws their way, so they have to take advantage of those opportunities if they want to continue to see playing time.

My biggest concern however was a special teams that didn't play so special. P.J. Mangieri made a critical mistake that put MU on the board and gave them the ball back. Alex Henery's punting was sub-par (especially compared to MU, the #2 punting team in the country right now). But the snaps were off, putting him in a couple of dangerous positions. And the return game was atrocious. One dropped ball can get in your head, but having the ball bounce off another player on a punt is just unacceptable. The returner has got to communicate with his coverage as they are coming towards him. These are the types of mistakes that can give a game away.

Fortunately for us, the Huskers had four drives and four touchdowns and four stops in the the fourth quarter, enough to walk away with the game. They did everything a Coach could ask of them and more. I can't see how this won't be one of the most memorable games in recent Husker history.

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