Nebraska Cornhuskers vs Fresno State Bulldogs Postgame Overreaction: The Offense Improves

I’m really disappointed in Kinnie. I was a fan last year and did not have any doubt that he’d step up and be the tough possession receiver the team needs to complement all the speed guys. But so far, it seems like he has more drops than catches. What happened to the tough catches, the third down receptions that he gave us last year? Hopefully he figures it out soon.

I really like these young guys. Turner needs to touch the ball as often as we can get it to him, and Abdullah is absolutley electric on those returns (reminded me of Randall Cobb). It feels kind of wierd watching “Big Daddy ’Dullah” (as my friend called him) out there doing his thing, considering he’s a full year younger than me.

I really hope the OL can figure it out soon. Very scary.

15 tackles for David, 15 for Compton, and 11 for Stafford? A) those are sick individual numbers and B) that was way too many times someone needed to be tackled by someone in the back 7.

Maybe I’ll have more later.

But I agree, seeing Beck make adjustments (and really, he out-did the Pelini bros in that department today) was important.

I think Nebraska continues to improve over the next two weeks and surprises people against Wisconsin. How far that goes, who can say. But against Wisconsin, we’ll see four quarters of Nebraska football that we can be proud of. (Believe me, Wisconsin and Michigan State will be easier to game-plan for.)

Beck is learning where the offense stands and he’ll be able to build around that. Fresno State may prove to be the game to move this team forward to Big Ten contender.

It’ll be a fun season, for most of the BCS. No team has looked light-years ahead of any other team.

To speak to the qb/rb combo question, Price and Polk both looked pretty damn good today against Hawaii for Washington.

I’m torn about the offense. It’s still feast or famine but I have this gut feeling that Beck has found a way to hurt defenses that stack the box. Fresno teed off on the run tonight (I thought the oline played MUCH better) and Beck just had Martinez start bombing away deep. If the offensive line can get some push up the middle, we could have a pretty dangerous offense with running threats up the middle, on the perimeter, combined with the deep ball. In a way its conceptually alot like the NU offenses of old.

On the more negative side, if Tmart gets hurt we are F*#$&D. We had what? 40 non-Tmart yards? We have GOT to get our I back-based running game moving.

My main problem with Watson was his inability to change a gameplan and to adjust…and also his tendency to outthink himself and not go with what’s working. Tim Beck proved tonight that he can adjust, and he knows what he’s doing.

The Watson offense always planned on being ahead and when they were behind it or things weren’t going well it was game over.

Tim Beck made the right calls tonight to set them up for a second half comeback. Granted, it wasn’t an epic comeback…but we took the lead and when they kept fighting so did we.

We may not end up being 13-0 this year, but I think we’ve got a good OC finally, and that in a couple of years when this young offense matures it will be pretty hard to stop.

I didn’t stay up last night/this morning to watch the game, and plan on watching it tomorrow after I arrive in Hyderabad. But after seeing the score this morning, and the Box Score, and you now saying that the offense has improved – seems rather strange to me.

Definitely sounds like the Blackshirts didn’t do their thing though. And with Washington around the corner, and then Wisconsin in 3 weeks, it just sounds like the Big Red has a lot of improving to do.

Right now though, based on these first 2 games & seeing where the O & D are, I don’t think I want to see October 1st arrive!

1. Fresno State Talent – We know that Carr was a cocky bastard, but he pretty much backed it up. Whether it was due to the constant bootlegs action, or just flat out skill….he performed. So did Robbie Rouse, and so did that little guy #7? I don’t see him on the stat sheet, but I swear there was a guy in #7 returning punts and catching big passes from Carr at times when they needed him to.

2. No sacks – We couldn’t get to Carr, and that’s probably due to a few keys reasons. Great blocking and shifty QB. Either way, no sacks. Heck, we rarely pressured the guy.

3. Weak secondary on both sides – I don’t know how FSU was supposed to stack up, but we killed them on long balls…even with Kinnie doing his best impression of Niles Paul. On our end though…we got abused. It always seemed like we were missing a guy. That’s good scheme coaching on their part. We got a bit lucky on more than one occasion.

4. Sitting in the armpit of the upperdeck is interesting – First time sitting here..and the combination of piss and armpit smell was delightful.

5. Big plays – We won because of these in my opinion. And I’m fine with that. Sustained drives make you feel all warm and secure, but if we win 11 games on big plays…what the hell is the problem? I felt pretty warm when Ameer broke that return…coulda been the booze. Or the piss running down my leg from excitement. Okay, I’m done.

Blatchford was struggling all night, and Fresno was abusing Andrew Green quite a bit. Dennard is the piece of the puzzle that will fix things for the Blackshirts. Hopefully he’s back before next week.

Was really impressed with the offense in the second half. The o-line was working and the play-calling was better — despite frequent NU fan calls for power formations, the spread formations were really working last night. Martinez looks incredibly comfortable out of the pistol; he makes better reads and more confident throws/cuts. If this Taylor plays the rest of the season, good things will happen.

Also, Turner is a playmaker. Need him on the field.

as a runner, good luck on the season

Secondary was either hit or miss and most of the time it was miss. Give Fresno credit in that Carr was spot on most of the night and his receivers made some amazing catches, but if we struggled against him, then we will defiantly struggle against Wilson and Toon.

Defensive Line We were not able to get to Carr the entire night and we had very few plays where we had a defender in his face. We have to be able to pressure the QB if we are to be successful against any future gunslingers.

Offense We were able to adjust in-game which was great to see, but we have a lot of work to do in play execution and creating a game plan that gives the offense confidence with stable 5+ yard gain plays at the start of the game. In too many instances it was either run up the gut and get stuffed or loft the ball up and hope it is caught. We also need to use Burkhead way more than we did last night, such as mix up the running plays so that its not up the gut every time, or utilize the option more often when in a 3rd and short situation. All in all I did not see a lot of creativity in play calling and the offense needs to stick to the play and execute. Martinez also needs to work on ball handling, QB sneaks, and leadership. When we were behind there was no one on the sideline pumping up the team. We will need leaders to step up in many crucial games ahead, this will not be the last time we will have to come back from behind to win.

If you want to talk about Fresno playing a well executed game. Like the first offense play of the game for Fresno. Wide open and got past the safety. QB just missed him. Cassidy seems a bit lost, O’Hanlonish I dare say. I am actually kinda fine with the Dline, more worried about the LBs. Seemed to bite hard on the fake leaving the outside open.

Seems like our WRs can never come up with a ball without being wide open, that is fustrating. So is Martinez’s fumbles. And Martinez at times abondons the pocket too earlier. But his decisions making is better, and the burst of speed is back. Not a great passer, but a bit better than last year it seems.