Nebraska vs Iowa Game Thread (11/25/16)

[Deleted member 3889]

So does this mean I can post some snarky comments about MR this week without you complaining about it?

North Dakota State beat Iowa. North Dakota State would have kicked our butts tonight. 17 years without a conference championship and counting. As each year passes, I am sure the FCS will look more and more attractive to Husker fans. IMHO, we should go ahead and pull the trigger now. If we recruit well enough to overcome our mediocre coaching, we could be a top ten FCS team in less than 4 years!

Good ahead and pick an FCS team to follow. I'm sure we'll see thread after thread after thread about it in other teams.

 

[Black_Shirts]

Well, we saw some improvement and some regress this year. The team went as Tommy Armstrong went, pure and simple. I expected a more proficient offense this year. We had a senior QB with the offense molded to his strengths, a great receiving core, a stable of good backs and a great kicker. The O-Line wasn't great, but good enough. We should have scored more than we did. Instead, we scored just enough to win 9 games. This team never really forced their will on anyone. We lost the games that really mattered and it seemed like it showed that we have a ways to go for contending. Just like last year's record didn't show how good we were, this year's record didn't show how bad we were. The defense was better, especially the secondary, so there's that to build on.

Personally, I think we did better (record wise) than most analysts predicted. I like TA and he has great heart, a good quality to have and it showed at times throughout the year. However; heart doesn't make up for talent and I honestly did not see much of an improvement from last year during the Oregon game this year and thereafter. I hope he has a great bowl game and a bright future in whatever he does. Injuries didn't help his cause and neither did the play calling at times, but that's life and it's past now. Jordan Westerkamp will be playing on Sundays and I'll be rooting for him like I do for all Huskers in the NFL.

I'm really excited about this team for next year. Unlike this year, or last year for that matter, we will see what Riley and company bring to the table as far as their philosophy. I think they were in a bind to play the skill sets that they had and it was admirable that they committed to the players that Pelini recruited. The recruiting talent is up, we had some guys red shirting that arguably could have played and contributed this year, and it is my belief that we will see what this staff can do with the talent they recruited. I think the dual QB threat was something new for this staff and I'm sure they learned a lot along the way. However; you could tell by the play calling that TA wasn't comfortable in the pocket and using his check downs. He's not that kind of QB and it showed. He threw a lot of of his back foot and missed open receivers because he didn't check down. Instead he tried to thread the needle a lot or wing it down field because of his arm strength. Some of it was poor play calling purely because the QB was limited in the options he could handle. Some of it was poor decision making as well. I think O'Brien and Lee are pure passers and they are more comfortable in the pocket. Will they make plays like TA did with his feet? Probably not. However; I think the results of a QB throwing 60%+ in pass efficiency will be more productive that a QB scrambling to make things happen.