Nebraska Beats Idaho 38-17 But No One Ends Up Happy
by Jon Johnston on Sep 11, 2010 4:20 PM CDT
in Nebraska Husker Football
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PrintNebraska picked up it's 500th home record ran it's record to 2-0 with an easy, but sloppy victory over the Idaho Vandals. The Vandals were never a threat to win with Nebraska's offense moving at will and the defense gobbling up Idaho's offense at every opportunity.
Taylor Martinez once again put up gaudy offensive numbers, rushing 14 times for 157 yards and two touchdowns while completing 12-of-17 passes for 106 yards with one interception. Roy Helu had a 100-yard game, carrying the ball nine times for 107 yards and one touchdown. Rex Burkhead added another 77 yards on nine carries, with Austin Jones picking up 18 yards on three carries.
Nebraska's defense showed signs of living up to Bo Pelini's claim that they'll be better than last year. They picked off Idaho's Nathan Enderle (16-of-31 for 141 yards, one TD) five times, including two that were returned for touchdowns. Idaho quarterbacks were under pressure all afternoon as Nebraska totaled seven sacks.
The Huskers weren't without their problems, however. While they had six takeaways, they also had eight fumbles (four by Martinez, two by Niles Paul, and one each by Dontraveous Robinson and Cody Green), three of which were lost. Penalties continue to be a problem as Nebraska picked up 10 for 123 yards. While the fumbles can be somewhat attributed to Martinez' youth, the penalties are a lack of discipline.
Martinez showed that he's a redshirt freshman quarterback. His interception came on a play when he was wrapped up by a defender and tried to throw a pass which was picked by Idaho safety Shiloh Keo. Martinez was blindsided on a blitz and dropped the ball deep in Idaho territory - a more experienced quarterback would have seen the blitz coming and gotten rid of the ball or changed the play to avoid it.
Nebraska lead only 3-0 after the first quarter. The Huskers went on to score 28 in the second, but only added seven points in the second half, which was a half that's sure to cause a lot of angst amongst the Husker faithful.
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The second half was pretty dang bad
But both the offense and defense looked better than they did against Western Kentucky (the starting defense much better) – and this was against a better opponent.
What worries me are two main things:
1) Penalties. I am so sick of the penalties. For the third year in a row under Pelini, Nebraska again looks to be one of the most penalized teams in college football – and, if they kept stats for this kind of thing, almost undoubtedly the team called for the most personal fouls in college football. I don’t care how well they play in other aspects of the game – if they continue to get penalized at this rate, they will get beat by inferior teams.
2) They have yet to play a full game. Granted, they have not yet needed to play a full game, but we’ve seen pretty serious breakdowns in focus in the second half by starters as well as backups. It’s one thing to be able to play one strong half of football and then coast the rest of the way; it’s another thing to be in a 60-minute dogfight without making any back-breaking mistakes. By the time they play next week, Washington have played one (maybe two) of that type of game, and Nebraska will have played none.
No one is happy?
You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking that you're a fool.
~Wanko the Sane
Big Red Kool-aid Drinker @ Corn Nation
Highlights up
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/funny-pictures-happy-drunk-orange-cat.jpg
not great video, but it’s something.
You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking that you're a fool.
~Wanko the Sane
Big Red Kool-aid Drinker @ Corn Nation
Crap that was still on the old clipboard
http://huskerextra.com/app/videos/#vmix_media_id=18260018
try that
You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking that you're a fool.
~Wanko the Sane
Big Red Kool-aid Drinker @ Corn Nation
At first I was pissed...
But the more time I’ve had to think about it the more I realize that hey, a win is a win. Nebraska could have won this game 60-10 and no one would be complaining about anything. We also could have won this game 24-21 and everyone would be freaking out even worse. But the thing is, in college football, every week is a new week, and every game is a new game. Look at Kansas, losing to an FCS team last week and this week they beat a ranked team. Or how about Virginia Tech losing to James Madison?
In today’s college football you’ve got to come to play 60 minutes every week, because literally anyone can pull off an upset on any given day. Let’s give the players and the coaches the benefit of the doubt. It’s early in the season, they’ve still got work to do. Next week there will still be mistakes, but we all know Pelini is a great coach and he will have the team ready. I bet they step up when the competition steps up because great teams do that. (like Oklahoma did today vs. FSU).
Next week is next week. This week is a win. So let’s be happy about that.
okay
that’s not right.
listen – the stages are:
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
And it sounds like you skipped bargaining and depression completely, then went to acceptance in way too short a time.
You need some kind of mental help? What’s with this being all well-adjusted and stuff?
Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Twitter!
cornnation@gmail.com
by Jon Johnston on Sep 11, 2010 6:02 PM CDT up reply actions
Next thing you know,
he’ll say “It’s just a game.”
"...when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to."
— Martin Luther
Two Games In...
…and I see many of the same issues I think hurt them last year, and the year before. They have talent, which allows the Huskers to dominate opponents like WK and Idaho, but their lack of focus and passion cost them against better opponents. I love ’em, but I want to see them play an entire game, an entire season full tilt. Plenty of positives, but reason to be concerned.
Non-football schadenfreude:
Stanford swept Penn State in women’s volleyball today. Sweet, sweet schadenfreude.
"...when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to."
— Martin Luther
I saw that
PSU’s 109 match winning streak, down the drain.
Nebraska, however, was down two sets to #3 Illinois and came back to win it in five.
Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Twitter!
cornnation@gmail.com
by Jon Johnston on Sep 11, 2010 10:27 PM CDT up reply actions
Side note ....CONGRATS DANNY WOODHEAD
Danny is a JET for another year.
Back to Huskers!
Pelini is trying to get the best players out on the field thru competition for starting spots …right now is Pre-season (for College) So everyone is playing…which is good for the future of Nebraska. Pelini definitely knows how to get players fired up and motivated…..hence some of those penalties….and the other part is lack of experience.
Moving forward as the season progresses I hope to see more discipline.
One penalty cost NE the Texas game last year………it was an effort penalty….if I recall correctly :) I can forgive those…..however 123 yards in penalties today are not acceptable.
Ball handling
Since I didn’t buy last week’s game, I had to wait until Friday afternoon to watch the one hour condensed version, and I was shocked at how no one seemed to know the basics of protecting the ball..getting it tucked. I knew it would come back to bite us, and it did. OK, they know the basics, but this flashing around of the ball as you’re approaching the goal line is an invitation to disaster.
Thought the D played quite well, and liked to see the subs getting playing time.
And congrats to Turner on his first W!
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