How to Avoid Another South Dakota State (or Worse)
When you see an opponent like Chattanooga on the schedule, you expect a big win for Nebraska. That's apparent when you see that the point spread is five touchdowns. Last season, the Huskers were coming off a big win at Washington and were hosting South Dakota State for homecoming weekend. The team came out flat, particularly on offense, and won by a too-close 17-3 margin. How then, can Nebraska avoid a similar (if not worse) fate this weekend?
Be Ready to Play
The Blackshirts got off to a ho-hum start by yielding a pair of first downs to midfield. After Taylor Martinez fumbled on the Huskers first offensive play, the defense gave up another pair of first downs before making a penalty-assisted goal-line stand to preserve a 0-0 score. The offense then went three and out backed up to the goal line. A terrible start by the offense and nothing to write home about defensively, and most of the first quarter had been played.
Avoid Dumb Penalties and Turnovers
Penalties are always maddening, but particularly when you commit them against a much weaker team. It's not like you should need the advantage. The Huskers nearly undid their first touchdown drive with two offensive penalties, one for an illegal formation and another for a personal foul. NU matched that with a pair of offensive penalties in the waning minutes of the first half to cost the Huskers a scoring opportunity.
Turnovers always hurt, but committing three against a lower division team simply shouldn't happen. Once the Husker offense starting finding a rhythm in the second quarter, it was undone by a Martinez interception on first and ten. Later, when the Huskers were in position to ice the game with a three-score lead in the fourth quarter, a false start followed by another Martinez interception stymied the Huskers again.
Third and Medium
Against a team like SDSU or Chattanooga, running the ball on third and medium is a viable strategy. Whether it was to work on the passing game or respecting the opponent, the Huskers tried to convert every third and four or third and five with a pass play. There's no need to get cute against lower division teams. If you're a team that averages 5 yards per carry, you can get 5 yards on a third down against a lower division team. But time and again drives ended with incomplete passes on third and medium.
The good news is you don't expect NU to be as emotionally flat as they were a year ago with South Dakota State sandwiched between two much bigger games. That might help in the "be ready" category. While turnovers and penalties are hard to predict you'd hope an offseason to mature for Martinez and talk of a simplified offensive scheme could help. Chattanooga does have a ball-hawking defensive back to watch out for though. If rumors are true, Nebraska will run the ball more than even a year ago. If that's the case, we may not see the team get too pass-happy when running can move the chains.
8/29/2011
The last paragraph is dead on. I would be more concerned if the game were any other week. The players are most likely dying to hit anyone not on their own team at this point and are also itching to put the end of last season as far behind them as they can. They’ll come out amped just a matter of how long that energy will last and if it’s channeled positively or causes lost focus resulting in penalties and turnovers.
I still think we’ll roll and I’m one of the most pessimistic Nebraska fans out there.
8/29/2011
Another ‘Appalachin State vs Michigan’ is not out of the realm of possibility in these types of games. True, at the time Michigan was not the Michigan we all grew up with but they do recruit 4-5 star athletes like most brand name schools. These teams simply get down played in threat often.
Not all great athletes get scholarships or cannot afford to foot the bill to a Nebraska, etc.. Stands to reason that they will show up somewhere and when you schedule them, you will most likely get their best shot…when the stars are in perfect alignment.
I’ll say it again, I am not for scheduling these teams. Too many bad things can happen and the risk assesement is not worth it.
8/29/2011
Everyone is on pins and needles. Not so much because of the team we are playing, but everyone wants to see how the new offense and new defense works. The end of the 2010 season was certainly not what everyone wanted. For this reason I think that regardless of the opposing team, the Huskers will be highly motivated and ready to play. Considering the amount of scrimmage time against the Nebraska number one defense, I think the new offense will play well. I also expect the penalties to be at a minimum. No team should be overlooked and that will not happen here. Get ready for a great season.
8/29/2011
Stephen Johnson
I’ll grant that everyone is excited to see the new offense but I doubt we’ll see much in the way of what the new offense will be like. They’ll try and keep things under wraps for as long as possible. I’m envisioning a lot of disappointed fellow Nebraska fans when it comes to seeing a new fancy offense. We’ll prolly only see enough to get us a comfortable lead and then just vanilla after that.
One could make the argument that this new offense needs as many reps as possible but wouldn’t we have seen more of it in the spring game? Bo just seems very protected of ANY information about his team, offense included.
8/29/2011
The ones and twos need snaps, turn em loose and if they get hurt they should recover by October 1st. We got depth so don’t sweat the small stuff, let’s get this show on the road and kick all their ass’s.
8/29/2011
I envision a replay of the Spring game offense to polish the “basics / fundamentals” but Chattanooga will not be fielding the same caliber D as the Huskers did in the Spring so the yards will add up and the 2’s and 3’s will see action in the second half. Coast and not get hurt.
8/29/2011
I agree with Howard in CA
He basically said what I was trying to say only better. Spring game ‘O’ should be more than enough to get us past Chatt, “Coast and not get hurt.” couldn’t agree more.
I’m hoping/looking forward to seeing 2nds and 3rds on the field. Really one of the few good things about a game like this one aside from an almost guaranteed ‘W’.
8/29/2011
Wyoming is the trap game this year ... Washington will certainly have everyone’s attention after last years ... but after that there will be a ton of hype looking ahead to Wisconsin.
8/29/2011
I agree with the comments thus far. Probably the offense will be pretty vanilla, but I do expect to see better execution than we saw in the spring game on both sides of the ball. I hope Bo renews the Osborne approach of getting in the 2s and 3s as soon as possible so even though they may not be starters this year, when they come back next they have lots of game experience. I have not seen that approach for the last decade. The first string has been left in to play to long. I know they want to get game time for the first string, but back ups need love to.
8/29/2011
HEED THIS BO….Last year i said that Nebraska needed to rely on Zach Lee early…and then sprinkle in TM… What happened? Bo got greedy and TM go hurt 2/3 the way through the year…the rest is history…NOW listen…BO dont be such a hard head…You will need to play BC and even #3 qb early. Taylor will have to pass 40% or more of the time of they will load the box. This is how I see it again mark my words. Thats what I have to say and Im outta here.
8/29/2011
LoL, I think bo knows what he’s doing ok
8/29/2011
It is said that hindsight is 20/20. Sometimes it is not. I will stick with Bo.
8/29/2011
If Martinez has to pass 40% of the time, we will fail. In the Golden days of Nebraska the pass to run ratio was about 80 / 20. It is just the passing has to be effective and on target. Mostly the receivers need to catch the ball. This year I am sure they will.
8/29/2011
live by the pass, die by the pass. Nebraska will run and run hard where they are not!
8/29/2011
I don’t know that if Martinez passes 40% of the time we fail. He was only a freshman last year, we are too hard on him. Just have to hope he has improved his decision making and he stays healthy.
8/29/2011
Let me explain my comment about 40% passing is a failure. As many long time Husker fans know, when Osborne took over as head coach in the early 70s he wanted to make the team a passing team. And he did. The Huskers were very good with the pass producing two quarterbacks that went to the pros. What also happened is Nebraska lost to OU 5 years in a row. Starting in 1979 Osborne changed the offense to a run first and often but occasional passing to keep the defense off balance. All of a sudden Nebraska started to control the tempo and just killed the competition. This approach lead to the 1983 team which was the best offensive team in Nebraska history. I learned this while watching the DVDs on Osborne’s 25 years at Nebraska. The experience was very informative. That is why I said if we are passing 40% of the time we are losing. The comment had nothing to do with a lack of faith in Taylor. The OSU game showed he can pass.