Baylor Post-Mortem
11 comments so far
November 2, 2009 by
When Nebraska fans showed concern for Baylor because of the offensive production worries over the past few weeks, I started to worry. Everyone can say that there are no easy wins in the Big 12, but I disagree. Iowa State and Baylor should be easy wins, and were respectively not a win and not an easy win for the Huskers. But a win is a win is a win, so what do I have to complain about? Just a few things. We mostly saw the same Huskers take the field this weekend, which means good defense, and not so good offense. But there were a few wrinkles that were a glimmer of hope for the future, near and long term.
To harp on the bad, I wondered where was the urgency on offense? Young players like Cody Green and Dontrayevous Robinson take their attitude from the coaching staff during games. If the coaches are going to go for the jugular all the time, these players will take the same attitude of the staff. The second half offensive woes are directly on the shoulders of the coaches this week. The play calling was atrocious. You can't start trying to kill the clock in the THIRD QUARTER. If that's not what he was trying to do, your guess is as good as mine as to what that was called. Shawn Watson and Bo Pelini have to work together to maintain the mentality of the offense from the scoring drives over to the rest of the game.
But I digress. The first half of the game showed me why Cody Green, when properly utilized, looks like the threat that people thought he would be. When given the chance to use his legs, he made decisive moves and went full steam ahead. And not only that, he actually lowered his head and went for a hit and a couple extra yards instead of prancing out of bounds. That's the kind of guy that I could rally behind. His throws were crisp and a couple of times I thought that they might have been too hard of a throw and could have used some touch, but it's something he will have to learn. His interception was a rookie mistake and he should have recognized in that situation there's no place to put that ball where good coverage won't block or intercept it. It's all part of the learning process.
Special teams finally came up big this week when I thought they had been M.I.A. for most of the season. Niles Paul had his 17 yard return that led up to his 45 yard catch, putting us in the position to score a couple of plays later. Of course there was everyone's favorite special teams play of the game, the touchdown on a blocked punt. While there may have been some tense moments for Husker fans during the game, this really set the tone of the first half, letting us take the lead that would allow us to come away with a win. Three facets of the game have to line up if we want to continue winning. Defense seems to be in the lead with special teams showing more promise than the offense. If offense can catch up to the defense this year, we could have an exciting November.
Other Random Observations:
- The Tight Ends had some passes thrown their way, with Kyler Reed breaking out one of the best plays of the game
- Traye is the real deal. I wish we could have a fully ready Helu and Burkhead with Oklahoma coming into town, Robinson could be the knockout punch
- Alex Henery might be the best player on our team next to Suh. The guy straight up does his job and even saves touchdowns
- There's only so much bend but don't break I can take. The Sooners will take full advantage of opportunities we give them
- Anyone else happy that Crick is a Sophomore?
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kw Nov 02 09
Once again, I don't understand our play calling. If somethings working, we abandon it. If something isn't working, we keep doing it (ex: option out of the shotgun). Our offensive line is sketchy at best, with momentum killing penalties. Our defense is solid, but we can't expect them to win against OU. They need some help, even if it's just sustaining a drive long enough to give the defense a breather. I liked what I saw out of Green. Obviously, he still needs to work on some things, but I think he was stifled from play calling that didn't take advantage of his strengths. Do we even have a true play action passing play anymore? The half hearted fake out of the Zone Read, doesn't count and it doesn't fool anyone.
Orthodox Nov 02 09
Things I learned on Saturday.
1) There is no way Helu is 100%healthy, I kind of doubt he is even at 75%. 24 yards on 7 carries, plus I noticed a he had a lot of hesitation before he hit the line of scrimmage.
2) Despite Kansas State and a struggling Colorado team, there isn't an easy win left on the schedule.
3) If Suh is the #1 DT in the nation, Crick is #1a.
Questions I still have.
How much of the offense's problem belongs to the players, and how much belongs to the coaches?
The play calling was atrocious STILL, One pass thrown in McNeil's direction all day? Really?
Is Nebraska running a West Coast offense or a Spread Option offense? I wouldn't mind the "multiple" offense so much if Watson ran both the first quarter and then primarily stuck with whatever worked for the rest of the game.
Go Blackshirts
Andrew Nov 02 09
I wonder is expectations for this years team are actually getting in the way of improvement? Dr. Tom was quoted at the beginning of the year as saying - improvement does not always come in the form of wins and losses. I know we must have goals at the start of the year and as the year goes along, but the main goal should be for these guys to get better after each game. We need to see improvement, not necessarily more wins. However, if improvement comes and so do the wins I will be more than happy to take them.
Matt Nov 02 09
Orthodox--I had the same reaction re: McNeil. The kid is too good to only have one attempt at getting him the ball.
Frankly, if our receivers are as such that we can take our second and third stringers (excluding Paul, mind you), start the game with them, and we have similar production and results, then perhaps we need to look for another playmaker, especially if Helu is out again due to bum shoulders.
I guess I'd like to know why we can't line McNeil up as TE, use motion to slide him over as a receiver, and just blatantly use him as a wide, consistent short and medium-yardage target. Hell, use him as the recipient of a screen, and I guarantee he'll get more than the 0-2 yards we seem to get on similar plays with our current receivers.
As I said elsewhere, one of the fundamental tenants for coaching an offense is to get the ball to your playmakers. McNeil is a playmaker that hasn't had his fair share of touches, and is a weapon collecting dust on the sideline (or is being used to shore up the right side of the O-Line). Do what is necessary to get McNeil, Green, and Paul the ball (and Helu/Robinson if they're healthy), and I know this offense will put 30 up on the board again.
It's just a question of how to do that with the hindrances we have currently.
RuggerHusker Nov 02 09
I would say that Cody had a good day at Baylor. He is a young QB that really only made one mistake on the day. Now that mistake did cost us 6 points, but with the way that the defense was playing it didn't hurt us. I didn't expect him to come into the game and get 300yds passing and 150yds on the ground, I was hoping for him to learn how to make sound decisions. Minus one play, I think that he did that all day. Zach has thrown a few interceptions this year as well.
For the first time I will say that the second half belongs to Coach Watson. Clearly different play calling in the second half from the first. Cody isn't Zach, he shows a different scheme then Zach does, and if they use that against teams, it will cause problems for other teams. Just maybe not this year. I liked the idea of starting Cody this past weekend, it won’t only help him, but it may push Zach to become a better QB. How cool would it be for NU to have two QBs that are interchangeable during a season that they are struggling offensively? If the O-line can handle the pressure of playing to both of their strengths (and that is a big IF), then that alone could give them a great advantage.
What gets me is that NU is really hurting at the RB position. I can’t remember another year that we didn’t have someone that would really step in and clock off 150yds in a game. There have even been walk-ons that have been able to do this in the past. Even with the “West Coast Offense” we have had good RBs in the back field. That is what we lacked in Saturday’s game, no one to carry the ball out of the backfield with dominance. That is what helps the QB step back and pass. You always have to make the other team respect your running game. Even Roy when he is health runs lightly in the first part of game, it is at some point that he will start to run through tackles and then the offense starts to fire at that point.
OU is the game that I have been waiting to see all year. Now we get a true test to see how good the defense really is. I only wish that Bradford was healthy, as I wanted OU to be firing on all cylinders. The offense is going to really need some help to get through this game, maybe a QB catching a pass for a touchdown as well.
kw Nov 02 09
RuggerHusker...I agree with you that our depth at RB is lackluster, mostly due to injury. But we went through a major drought at that position towards the end of the Frank Solich era. I don't know if it was because of Crouch being our primary ball runner or what, but for whatever reason, there were a couple of seasons that we were more than lacking at RB. Think back to 2002-2003 when David Horne, Josh Davis, or Tierre Green were our top backs.
WyHuskerFan Nov 02 09
Sadly, most of our woes are of our own making. It's scary to think this team is just two very makeable completions from being 7-1, because right now they're not playing anywhere near that good. Injuries to RBs are the most pressing issue outside of we keep doing the other team's job for them by shooting ourselves in the foot.
How do we end up with a stable of scholarship RBs that cannot perform on the field? It's mind boggling we have two true freshman leapfrog the whole herd to fill the #2 slot. I can't recall NU ever having such a shallow pool of talent at that position, kw's comments aside.
I don't have a clue how Wats will scheme for OU. Right now he has no consistent running threat. Unless the O line can give Green some decent zone reads, look for short quick passes. But to whom? Hopefully Holt and Gilly got the message and will man-up this week and be ready to perform on Saturday. Maybe the TEs and FB get involved in the passing game as well. Maybe Wats has been holding out on us and will open his little black book for this game.
It would not surprise me for the Huskers to win or lose all their remaining games. The optimist in me says they'll finish somewhere in between. GBR!
bnahusker Nov 02 09
The play calling isn't new. Am I the only one who remembers the game at Okie State a few years ago? We were up (17-0?) and had aver 150 rushing yards in the first quarter and then...................
GBR anyway!
Bob
tom Nov 03 09
There may be plenty of things to gripe about with this team, but some of the problems were there last year and through the first part of this year. The difference is winning. It doesn't matter as much what you're doing wrong if you put the W in the column. A win this weekend would go a long way to shut up a lot of griping from people including me.
Scott Nov 03 09
Quit blaming the play calling and face the fact that this offense doesn't have the talent that a lot of the other Big 12 teams have.
Do you really think these teams are worried when they see our receiving corps?
tom Nov 03 09
Trust me, I don't just blame the play calling. Good players do good things on the field regardless of what plays they are running. It's just that when you have sub-par talent, you have to do something different. I'm not saying all of our players are bad, but there's a lot of injury, inexperience, and lack of football smarts going on. There's a reason the spread offense has been the great equalizer in college football over the past ten years, because coaches figured out a way to make less talented offenses compete with more talented defenses.