Final thoughts.
I’ll try to keep this PG.
Congratulations to McNeese State. They played hard. They deserved to win.
And, you’re welcome McNeese State. We carried you all the way to the finish line.
We have seen this slopfest formula before. It seems like EVERY single player on our team, does ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING they can do to shoot the team in the foot over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Jake Cotton didn’t block anybody all day long, except for the block in the back away from the play that took a key touchdown off the board. And then to make his day truly complete, the potential gaffe of the year as he wonders downfield negating a great catch by Westerkamp that should haveall but sealed the game. Love that senior leadership!
With our offense fluttering in the second half (led by an offensive line that was sound asleep, a QB who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, and an OC content on chucking the ball downfield over and over and over again with a depleted WR core), we are up by ten and hey no problem, no worries. McNeese State has no offense. Then all of a sudden, the defense lays down for an 80 plus TD drive . . . right on cue.
No one on our field for about 15 mintues was capable of making a play or at least, getting out of the way of someone who tried to make a play. Fortunately, McNeese State didn’t have anyone capable of making a play either.
Wyoming last year. We did everything in our power, play after play after play after play to CARRY Wyoming to an exciting, embarrassing finish. New year, same garbage.
Pelini with a huge penalty. Collins a huge penalty. Of course, the game wouldn’t have been close had Tommy Armstrong not thrown his pick 6 that led to a McNeese State player jogging down the field as our offense had to avoid him to run off the field. Here’s an idea, when the other teams’ player intercepts a pass, tackle him before exiting the field.
The play that worked all day was Tommy Armstrong running on the zone read. That was our last first down of the second half (before Ameer bailed us out). Not surprising, the last first down of the second half was also the last time we ran that play. Amazing play calling there.
Tommy Armstrong was dynamite running the football for 2.5 quarters before Beck shut him down. He was awful throwing the ball today. In his defense, we were down some key receivers and some of the receivers didn’t run the best routes and were late to execute their moves causing Armstrong to look even worse. But no sugar-coating it, Armstrong was off.
Now what a good OC does is call plays designed to give the QB a sense of rythym. Chucking the ball the length of the field over and over and over and over again is not the right formula. Armstrong had another of those days where the ball was sailing on him. That is something he is going to need to work on. It is what grounds him from reaching his potential. I thought Beck paniced today. He went for TDs when he should have been thinking about simple first downs and establishing consistency.
The thing that really stinks out when NU goes into its self-induced coma like this, is that we cannot get any first downs. I think we got two first downs in the entire second half against a worn out division 2 defense on our home field.
I hope the offensive line enjoyed reading their press clippings all week long. Now get ready for the fabled “Gosh, we learned a valuable lesson this week—never take a team lightly.†We have heard those lame words two or three times a year for the past 10 years.
That will be followed by, “We is really a great team. We just keep making silly mistakes over and over and over and over and over and over again.â€
Great teams don’t keep making silly mistakes like this.
Great teams don’t keep learning the same lessons.
Nebraska returns from this weeks’ bye-week and plays at Fresno State on the road next week.
Thank you Ameer Abdullah for bailing out your teammates.
We need Randy Gregory back.
The team needs to take a good hard look in the mirror and examine how much heart they truly have.
Take care all.
Awesome post!
And that talk of TA moving on to the next play after making a mistake is garbage...that pick 6 did him in...should have called a better game Beck...unless what Beck was doing was trying to prove that you don't sprinkle in play actions and draws and quick hits when the D is keying on your RB...
What you do in that situation is abandon all reason and start running empty backfield sets and going for it all every play, as you so astutely pointed out...
This year's version looks similar to last year...I hated how we looked last year...
