Final Game thoughts.
No need to flush the toilet, our season is now all but officially circling the drain on its own.
Last week Scott Frost said that we keep finding creative ways to lose. Nebraska loses to a 2-6 team with an injured QB, a team missing key players including Rondale Moore, in a game Nebraska should have been ahead by three touchdowns at halftime.
This team refuses to do ANYTHING easy, and the only time they ever execute anything at all is when they are certain that it won’t be enough.
Adrian Martinez was brutally bad today. He was just awful. His throws were over the heads of his receivers or they were straight into the ground. He took two touchdowns off the board by missing wide open receivers (we got one of those back). But it was not seeing the wide open receivers and the mind-numbing poor decisions he made time and time again that really spelled doom for Nebraska. His interception in the first half was an unacceptably bad play and his drop the ball fumble continues a disturbing trend. His stats ended up okay and he did lead the team to two late scores that should have been enough. But he simply waited too long and then on the last final drive, he was brutal again giving the offense absolutely no chance to come back one last time.
Can we stop the Adrian Martinez going pro after his junior year talk? I’m not sure he can hang onto the job for four years the way he is regressing.
He played just well enough to lose to a bad team. Last week, our QB play probably wins this game with ease. This week, it is QB play that dooms us on offense. And so it goes.
Keeping with the theme that this team only makes plays when they know it isn’t going to be enough, the defense with quite the pathetic egg-laying effort in the fourth quarter. Down to their backup QB, Purdue marches down the field like a knife through butter when it counts as the announcers call out the defensive “effort” on play after play throughout the game. Not once, but twice the defense is suddenly inept at crunch time giving up two long scoring drives after Nebraska’s offense awoke from their long slumber and started to actually execute. Unfortunately, the defense did this same egg laying act at the end of both halves. So . . . who is more to blame? The offense for leaving dozens of points on the field? Or the defense for caving in at crunch time?
The truth is . . . this was a total team effort. No heart. No toughness. No accountability.
4-8, here we come . . . again.
On that final TD play that put a knife through the heart of NU’s 2019 season, JoJo Domann did a wonderful job of giving up contain to tackle the wrong guy. There were some other key bad moments by Domann by the way.
I have said a couple of times, we are absolutely the best team in the country at tackling the wrong guy. When the other team fakes a handoff, every single player on our team goes 100% balls to the wall to nail the guy without the ball virtually every time. We deliver vicious hits and make sure tackles. If the guy had the ball, oh what great plays we would be making.
And what is with the helicopter tackling style? We see guys flying in with arms flailing and they unnecessarily leave their feet to dive at the player’s lower leg and then sort of spin around to the ground. Sometimes you do have to leave your feet to make a desperation play when the offense is breaking a big play—but leaving your feet is usually not a good option—just like defense in basketball. But what is frustrating is our players keep doing it when they don’t have to. Another frustration is they don’t do it all the time—just crunch time. Crunch time = time to panic. They did it in the second half against Colorado (after not doing it in the first half) and they keep doing it intermittently in game after game. When you start seeing the helicopter tackling, you know a TD is coming with ease for the other team.
Another thing, when you are a DE or an OLB rushing the passer and the OT takes you wide . . . you need to break down—keep working in from there and maintain containment. Running twenty yards downfield isn’t a good option. There is no way you can run 20 yards downfield, get around the OT, and then come back 15 yards for the sack. When I see this, I think lack of effort. The announcer called us out on this on a play late in the fourth quarter.
Last week we went 1 for 2 in FG tries and our percentage actually went up. This week, we went 2 for 2. But why did we kick FGs there? Both times we were inside the 5 and Scott Frost decided to get cute. We start running all kinds of weird motion plays. Here’s an idea. Let’s try bringing in our physical RB and try to ram our way into the end zone? Or is that just too simple? Don’t get style points for that, I guess.
All game long, Wan’Dale up the middle and Mills wide. Then we wonder why Robinson keeps limping off the field. I don’t understand Frost’s reluctance to pound Mills more frequently and inside. I don’t get it.
Now I know some fans would say, HIO, we can’t be so predictable to run Mills inside and Robinson outside. But we are predictable. We always seem to do the opposite. It is like a hitter knowing on a 3-2 pitch that the guy on the mound is ALWAYS going to go to his fourth best pitch. It makes no sense.
So where do we go from here?
A total team loss against a crippled team on the ropes in a game that showed just how little heart our team really has. I know fans are mad at the coaches, but this team just never will do ANYTHING the easy way. They make everything so dang hard. And then they do just enough to lose in heart-breaking fashion.
We have seen this for 15 years and the coaching carousal has depleted the “guts” of this program. We have a Head Coach who has been fed the lie that all this started 4 years ago and he has gone balls to the wall with that theory. It has taken us 15 years to get here. Personally, I’m tired of talking about firing coaches. I’m tired of listening to it. I’m tired of blaming former coaches. And I am not saying that the coaches and former coaches are good/bad/deserved to be fired or whatever—I’m just tired of it. Each coach firing has generally made the problem worse. Why? Because it is a lie that the problem started four years ago. We need a much more holistic solution than that. But hey, have fun with that.
We have another off week. It is obvious some players aren’t playing for the team. The transition class was a disaster and all of Riley’s classes have largely left the program or have been chased out. We have huge gaps in our program. Last year’s class still holds promise . . . but remember, we brought in 5 top 125 players—four of them are redshirting.
Recruit. Recruit. Recruit.
I expect some players are getting their exit visas ready. I don’t want to name names, but there are a couple of players I have heard about, and sure enough some of those guys didn’t look too engaged today.
Some folks blame the coaches. I generally blame players when I see them clearly giving less than 100% effort.
We are pretty banged up and going into a bye week. Most of our freshman can now play most if not all the remaining games on our schedule and still redshirt. I am not advocating wholesale abandoning this season, but perhaps now might be a good time to try some things. Like moving Benhart to RT and sliding Farniok inside to guard. You would have two weeks to work that wrinkle in and perhaps try to surprise Wisconsin a bit.
This team needs a spark. But it looks like some of the players are too frustrated to keep moving forward. We may be on the verge of our lowest point as a program.
Three games left, and Maryland is certainly winnable. If you can’t beat a crippled Purdue team though, I’m not sure who you CAN beat. But then again, it really is us who keep beating ourselves.
Physically. Mentally. And emotionally.
Take care all.
