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Sign up for our email list to be notified when we update the HF Blog. October 24th, 2009
Reaction to the Iowa State game
9 points for Iowa State.
8 turnovers for Nebraska.
7 points for the Huskers.
You won't find too many games throughout college football history where a team has more turnovers than points when they have seven points on the board. Yet the Huskers managed to follow-up their lackluster performance last week against Texas Tech with an even more disappointing result against the Cyclones. Tough to pin this loss on Shawn Watson or Zac Lee. Eight turnovers, including four inside the opponent's red zone (inside the 6-yard line to be exact) won't cut it no matter how good your team is. And therein lies the problem...the Huskers aren't as good as we thought.
The offensive woes continued today. The only play that worked well was the one which drew back-to-back pass interference calls against ISU. Other than that, it was a case of dropped and tipped passes and more fumbles by one team than I can recall in a long time. Roy Helu fumbled on the Huskers' first play from scrimmage. What a fitting start, after all. Niles Paul inexplicably dropped the ball as he was heading into the end zone. True freshman Dontrayveous Robinson coughed up the ball while fighting for extra yards near the goal line. Menelik Holt put the ball on the carpet shortly after catching a pass from Zac Lee.
This team is in need of some changes and quick. I don't know if Cody Green is the answer, but our offense just isn't getting it done with Lee under center. Frankly, I was surprised not to see Cody at all today. Again though, the loss today had less to do with Zac than with his receivers and running backs. Can't blame Shawn Watson for this game either. Coaches can look pretty bad when their players don't make plays.
Today's loss makes next week's trip to Waco, Texas a must win for the Huskers, especially if they want to have any hope of winning the North. At this point though, they should worry more about winning the next game than playing in Dallas at the end of the season.
View HuskerFaithful's photos from the Iowa State game.
Comments (2)
Posted by Jon
Ryan, I still think it comes down to execution. Whether we\re talking the offensive line, the quarterback, receivers, or running backs, everyone has a job to do and if they don\t all do it on the same play, then it doesn\t work. One game it\s false start penalties, the next game it\s dropped passes, and last week it was fumbles. An offensive coordinator looks pretty bad when none of his players are making plays. I do agree that it would be nice if the Huskers could find a bread-and-butter type of play or plays that they could go to, but I don\t have a problem with Watson\s play-calling. This team should be fun to watch on offense when they\re clicking. The problem is that they\re nowhere near clicking right now. Cody Green may or may not be the answer, but he should be given an opportunity against Baylor. I thought ISU would have been a good bounce back game for Zac Lee and the offense, but fumble-itis looked more contagious than H1N1.
Posted by Ryan Blase
I am not sure I can completely agree with you on not blaming Watson for this game.I thought the play calling was baffling. Screens to WRs and short passes in the first quarter with some power football that led to the only TD, shotgun in the 2nd quarter, power football on one drive in the 3rd best drive of the game before Robinson\s fumble, and then more shotgun in the 4th.Nebraska needs to find something that works and stick with it. I thought ISU and Baylor were the perfect games to install 3 and 4 tight end packages and go with power football all game and get some guys in there that want to be physical and take control of the game by literally pounding their opponent. I also think this is the best plan of attack against Oklahoma on Nov. 7. The way to beat speed is with power. And I thought Nebraska\s power game was working well. Robinson was getting 4-5 yards per carry. Why go away from it? All the Huskers needed to do was get one score on Iowa State. Nebraska should have gone power football the whole second half and seen if Nebraska really wanted it more than Iowa State. After running 5-6 power plays, play action to the tight end a la Tracey Wistrom and Eric Crouch 99-2001 would have been wide open. I do not understand why we need to be so \multiple\ or in my view, \cute.\ Just line up and knock people off the ball and give the ball to a guy who can slam ahead for 4-5 yards. Do this all game long against inferior opponents. The turnovers may have still happened running power football, but I do not understand why you do not install power football against inferior opponents.The D should keep Nebraska in games the rest of the season, but the O needs to score at least 21 points a game from here on out.One last question for any of the readers on here: Why does Nebraska play better on the road than they do at home under Bo Pelini? The only bad road game of Pelini\s tenure was at Oklahoma in a game that very much resembled last Saturday\s in terms of turnovers. Very puzzling to me. Nebraska should have plenty of motivation to squash teams at home.
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