Good stuff as always my good friend...glad you came back to do the play by play too....I filled in badly for you for a few games....but did my best...LOL....
Final Game Thoughts.
Wow, my final thoughts of the Pelini era.
Seriously, what a great game. If you can’t enjoy this game, then you are taking football way too seriously.
There wasn’t much at stake tonight. No building blocks for the future. No offseason momentum for recruiting and what-not.
This was a throw away game. My biggest concern was that we would get embarrassed.
There were plenty of embarrassing moments, to be sure. But the players went out and fought hard with a patchwork offensive line, a Heisman trophy candidate who is running at about 80% by my estimation, an up and down QB working with an identity-less offense with many receivers who are out there for injured players and can’t seem to run the right routes consistently. Our LB core is down to next to nothing cuz we had a coach who loathed wasting scholarships on linebackers and scary thin depth at DE cuz (well see comment above regarding LBs).
First Tommy Armstrong.
It was obvious to me that Abdullah could not be counted upon to run the ball 35 times tonight. With Imani Cross out for the game and Newby a fumbling machine, we needed to find carries somewhere else. Many fans noted at halftime that Armstrong wasn’t running the ball. That was a good note for those fans. In the second half, we saw Armstrong running the offense he was recruiting to run, not that whatever it is we have been seeing.
We have had two annoying tendencies all year long that has driven me crazy. First, we believe that second and short automatically means doing something crazy like taking a shot downfield. We always get cute on second and short. This philosophy inevitably leads to third and short. Then we run a short running play into a stacked line and surprise, surprise, another promising drive stalled. I HATE that philosophy. JUST TAKE THE BLEEPING FIRST DOWN ALREADY.
The other thing is that Beck seems (seemed) to be the only person in Nebraska who believes Armstrong throws a great deep ball. Hello, he does NOT throw a great deep ball. How many times have we chucked the ball forty yards downfield on third and five or six this year? Armstrong has his issues, believe me, and I can document most of them very well if anyone would like. But chucking the ball forty yards downfield to Taariq Allen or whatever third string WR happens to still be in the game doesn’t do your young QB any good. Especially when things aren’t going well.
Armstrong is at his best when he is rolling out, mixing the mid-range passes, involving various receivers (including the TIGHT END every once in a while), and using his feet when receivers are covered and running the defense up the field. We saw that in the second half. He is so, so much better. He will never be a straight pocket passer. He wasn’t recruited to be one.
Tommy played his heart out again. But this game will come down to some things which are constant characteristics of our team.
False start penalties at inopportune times. I’m glad Jake Cotton was able to get his last foot blasting false start penalty out of his system. The fifth year senior left us with one final memory of what his career was filled full of.
A bad snap out of nowhere at the worst time.
I will forgive the first kickoff return for a TD. It happens. The guy is a great returner and what can you say. However, the long touchdown run was an absolute joke and the 2 play 80 yard drive was all too familiar on how our defense just sort of inexplicable melts down and GIVES the opposition cheap, easy points.
Armstrong’s worst play, the INT before halftime cost the team 3 points (points we would later need). Granted, I didn’t think it really was an interception, but the point is you can’t put yourself in that position at that point of the game. That ball should not have been thrown. Two plays before that, Armstrong made his second worst play of the game. With ample time to throw the ball away, he just casually strolled out of bounds for a key 6 yard loss on first and goal. Terrible.
But I will remember two awful play calls that really sunk our chances.
The first was on second and goal from the two where Ameer got sacked at the ten. Terrible call. Just terrible. See above where I mentioned we get too cute on second and short. That play by itself should have won the game for USC.
The other call which wasn’t quite as bad was the third and three call on our last possession. If you are in four down territory . . . RUN THE FREAKING FOOTBALL. But of course, a third and short play in four down territory is almost like a second and short play in normal territory, so see above about getting too cute on second and short. I like our chances if we run two plays to get three yards. My biggest concern was scoring too fast to give USC the ball. So Beck throws a pass. Granted, it was obvious pass interference but the refs often times don’t like to bail out a bad offensive play call with a penalty at that stage of the game. Then Beck on fourth down runs an end around with Pierson-El and perhaps he could have gone wide but three yards was just too much for him to get on fourth down.
I can’t believe we ran those plays in those situations. Even as I type this, I still can’t believe we did it.
I thought Beck called a pretty good game for the most part. But those were two of the worst play calls of the entire season. Just awful. We should have won this game. And we would have if Beck hadn’t tried to be so cute.
The one thing I want from Coach Riley is please, please, please give us an identity on offense.
Please, please, please.
Anyway, I think I will sign off here. A good effort by the players riddled with mind-boggling airhead mistakes by players and coaches . . . this game probably illustrates the frustration of Husker fans.
Just when you think they stink and there is no hope, they storm back. Just when you think “hey, we aren’t so bad after all”, they fall apart.
And so it goes.
How good are we? I really don’t know. I still feel we are not that far away. I had originally thought that next year had a chance to be Pelini’s best team. But the problem is, I just didn’t see any development this year. So many players flatlined. So many players didn’t play near to their potential. Some of those players are now leaving the program. Some have already left.
If you see a young player with what you believe to be incredible but undeveloped talent and he doesn’t develop, you have a thought dilemma.
Was I wrong about his potential? Was the problem in the development of the potential?
Those are the types of arguments fans are having about our program and have been having. Are we as good as we look when things seem to click, or as bad as we look when things fall apart.
If we clean up the mistakes, how good could we be? I’m not sure what kind of team we will have next spring.
Roster-wise--the pathetic numbers at some positions is unforgivable. Pelini’s biggest failing to me was his roster management and not filling his recruiting classes. I know some fans don’t “get” it, but sticking five scholarships in your hip pocket for next year, year after year, is a recipe for complete disaster. It is amazing we are able to compete as well as we do with those self-imposed restraints.
We need to be more aggressive. We have very little margin for error, but I believe it can be done. I will continue to believe.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
Mike Riley, you are now on the clock.
Take care all.
