Nebraska vs Washington - Postgame Overreaction

Since I said this but is anyone else worried about our defense? Damn, we can’t stop the run and our secondary looks like Swiss cheese.

Refs – they were a refreshing 12th man for the Huskers.

t-Magic – The scarecrow visited the wizard recently. He showed significant maturity.

D-(only gave up 38, not 39 points) Seemed like a lot more, and probably should have been. This is the one place that I BELIEVE can be improved upon the easiest. They were a bit disappointing, but they are young in the back field. What was the lines excuse?
 
FB-There was a FB sighting in Lincoln Saturday, and it was glorious.

summary – I’m torn, but a win is a win. And there is hope.

(I had to sleep on it some in order to not blow another gasket at that officiating)

It was an entertaining game and a tightly fought game until “all the KCIs? ALL THE KCIS.” After that the Huskies looked like they lost their composure and you rolled over us. Your O-line was able to impose its will on our D in the second half, and everything else came from there. I have doubts Martinez will ever look like a polished passer, but he’s learning quickly – he actually started sliding on his runs near the end of the game!

I’ll be rooting for you the rest of the way. You’ve been the friendliest and classiest of our opponents that I can remember, and it’s been a pleasure visiting here. I’m glad that the old adage “familiarity breeds contempt” didn’t apply here. Just, PLEASE fix your defense. Please.

We beat Washington, we got revenge! Remember, this is the team that completely embarrassed us in the Holiday bowl and threw off Pelini’s groove. That loss made the 8 months between the season excessively miserable. I guarantee you that Washington wanted to win that game yesterday just as bad as our guys did, and our guys came out and (almost) made a statement when they were up 44-17 early in the 4th quarter. If that had been the final score, I really don’t think anyone would be that worried about the defense today. Unfortunately Washington kept fighting (good for them), and Pelini admitted in his postgame press conference that he didn’t coach the 4th quarter well and that he was trying some different things on defense.

Nonetheless, I’m still concerned about our defense…but the more experience these young guys get the better. When we get Dennard back the secondary will look a lot better, I’m sure of it.

And if so, I like our ability to win a shootout. Bo’s unnatural calmness is very unsettling.

This has been an excellent set of non-conference tune-ups. Each presented their own challenges.

UTC allowed Beck to play with the offense and see what works and what doesn’t.
Fresno State hit us in the mouth and forced our young team to show grit and determination.
Washington showed the team that they cannot give up, no matter how many TDs ahead we are.

Wyoming will show us that we can’t overlook any opponent. Looks at Minnesota and Michigan State

We’ll be ready for Wisconsin, mark it down.

every game from here on out will come down to line play. For every opponent, just look at how the o-line and d-line matches up. If Nebraska has the advantage, they’ll win 9/10. If they do not, it will be a mighty struggle.

I was pretty sure midway through the first quarter this ref crew hadn’t actually seen a football game before, and were just winging it.

Its almost getting embarrassing, I mean, we aren’t iowa state where we live to play one game a season – our big brother iowa.

Last I checked we were nebraska, where we set our own standards and not sit like little pussies in the closet afraid of the upcoming beatdown in camp randall.

about the offense to get mad at the Defense. how many times have they pulled the offense out of the fire in a game. they should get the same from the offense. they are not a complete team yet but they took a huge stride in that direction yesterday. Plus Tyler Legate is my new hero, what a beast up the middle!!!!!

But those calls didn’t lose them the game, not even close. Well, really we’re talking about 2 calls. The first and the worst was the phantom kick catch interference penalty at the end of the half, more on that later. The second one was not so costly, but it was still a bad call (well timed hit on Burkhead, 15 yard penalty). The third one UW partisans are up in arms about was a completely correct call. On all kicks, either kickoffs or punts, the kick catch interference rule is in effect until the ball hits the ground. That’s why you see most onside kicks driven into the ground by the kicker, so the kicking team can crash into the receiving players as the ball gets there. UW didn’t do that, so they had to give NU a chance at catching it, which they did not do.

Anyway, back to how those two calls didn’t really affect the game. The second one didn’t matter at all (anyone think those 15 yards was the difference between our offense scoring on that drive and not? me neither). So we’re down to the really bad call. First thing we have to know is that the ball might very well have hit a UW player before it hit the NU player. If that’s the case, it’s still a bad 15 yard flag against UW, but it would’ve been rightfully NU’s ball anyway, which takes a lot of the edge off of that screwup. If not, well you can’t advance a muff, so it would’ve been UW’s ball around the NU 30. Hardly the automatic “10 point swing” we’ve heard so much about from UW partisans.

Even with the 10 point swing though, UW still loses this game, maybe by more than had things gone the way they actually did. NU still dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half without the refs help, putting up 24 unanswered points through a combination of our excellence and their incompetence. Now here’s where I get the “UW might have been worse off had they gotten that call at the end of the half” line of reasoning. UW’s 21 4th quarter points was a crystal clear example of our defense letting down with the game well in hand. A string of 3 td’s in 7 minutes when they’d only managed 17 points in the first 50? There’s no question what happened there. My contention is that with a 17 point lead as opposed to a 27 point lead, our defense doesn’t fall asleep like that (or at least doesn’t do it until later in the 4th), probably giving up 7 or maybe 14 instead of 21, while the offense would’ve gone on doing its own thing.

It’s a classic case of UW fans wanting to have their cake and eat it too. If they get the 10 point swing at the end of the first half, they almost certainly don’t get all 21 points in the 4th quarter.

I’m much more worried about our kick coverage and kick return teams than I am about our defense. Bo and Carl will get the defense going (I thought they did a good job of bending but not breaking for the first 50 minutes). Special teams have a tendency to be more of a nagging problem if you start the season with them. Our return team handed UW 7 and nearly handed them 3-7 more yesterday. Our coverage team allowed them to have good field position most of the day.

I was at the game but I’m basing my assessment on rewatching the plays in question on tape and reading the NCAA Football 2011 and 2012 Rules And Interpretations guide.

According to Rule 6 Section 4 Article 1c:

“It is an interference foul if the kicking team contacts the potential receiver before, or simultaneous to, his first touching the ball (A.R. 6-4-1-II, III, and VIII). When in question, it is an interference foul”.

The infraction in the first play was called on #31 Dennison. In the tape it appears the ball almost hits Dennison’s helmet and lands so close to him that it almost hits his left foot. However… it does not appear that Dennison impeded our potential receiver by contacting him before or simultaneous to, his first touching the ball. My conclusion is that this was a bad call.

Unfortunately for Washington, according to the NCAA Football 2011 Instant Replay Case Book, the following did not allow for this bad call to be corrected…

Limitations on Reviewable Plays—Rule 12-3-6
84. Kick-catch Interference
On a kickoff to start the game, A12 attempts an onside kick. The ball possibly hits the ground as soon as it leaves the tee and bounds high in the air to the Team A 43-yard line, where B25 signals for a fair catch. A20 contacts B25 before the ball arrives and A30 recovers it. Officials rule kick-catch interference. RULING: Not reviewable.

However, the statement in Jon’s article that “They should have had a touchdown before the half because of a muffed punt by Tim Marlowe.” is also wrong.

According to Rule 6 Section 3 Article 6:

“ARTICLE 6. a. If a player of the kicking team catches or recovers a scrimmage kick that has crossed the neutral zone, the ball becomes dead (A.R. 6-3-1-IV). The ball belongs to the receiving team at the dead-ball spot, unless the kicking team is in legal possession when the ball is declared dead. In the latter case, the ball belongs to the kicking team.”

Even though our player was not impeded the ball would have been dead so Washington would not have been given the touchdown. This was confirmed by Matt Millen during the broadcast that it would have been Washington’s ball from the spot. Who knows what would have happened if Washington had received the ball on 26 yard line as they should have.

Now for the second call on Burkead’s return… the fact that Rex caught the ball is irrelevant. The question is whether he was contacted before, or simultaneous to, his first touching the ball. Obviously he was not contacted before but it is not unreasonable to conclude he was contacted simultaneous to touching the ball and still made a great catch. The important point is in the rule where it states “When in question, it is an interference foul”. In this case I concluded this was a reasonable call… if I was a Washington fan I wouldn’t like it either but if you’re going to play Monday morning official… you have to be fair.

I’ll be interested to hear from others on my assessment of these 2 calls.