I went back and watched the CU Nebraska game again. And took notes play by play. Why I don't know, but my attitude is a little bit different now that I've had a second chance to watch the game.
Obviously as everybody knows offensive line is the problem. But I don't think it's an issue of talent or ability I think it's an issue of attitude and desire, as well as time in the system. The announcers were talking about the offensive line for Nebraska and how they've got multiple guys that have 40 or 50 starts under their belt. That's huge. And to be in the second year with the same offensive line coach, and they're playing with continuity. CU is in its second game with four new starters and a new online coach. Anybody reasonable who is paying attention should have said people need to temper their expectations for a while until the O line starts playing better, and after they begin to gel a little bit. In retrospect it seems it should have been obvious.
In terms of the touchdowns that Nebraska scored, The first came after a nice drive where they drove the ball down the field and scored. One came off of huge explosion play That took them down to the one yard line for an easy score on the next play. And the third came from that crazy carrum that should have been a CU interception had Bentley been able to corral it.
The first quarter was a s*** show for CU's defense. But as the rest of the game wore on the defense got much better and with about 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter CU had only allowed Nebraska 88 total yards and no more scores from the beginning of the 2nd half on. So that to me is a reason for optimism. That's decent. Again decent adjustments on the part of Livingston.
All around the defense has to get better though. We have to tighten up because the defense is going to have to carry the offense for a while in a lot of these games. And that means you can't spot the opposing team 14 or 21 points in the first half. And to fix that you need to nail down the explosion plays. There were half a dozen big plays that contributed to Nebraska really moving the ball. And Nebraska had maybe five or six good runs that were more than 5 yards, but less than 20. Everything else was the modest two or three yard per play variety. Take away the explosion plays and Nebraska's offense is much more modest. In my rewatch I didn't see Nebraska moving the ball up and down the field consistently.
The pick six that #2 threw was just a boneheaded play. And he made a couple bone-headed plays this game that were uncharacteristic of him. What really pissed me off about that was the fact that he blamed the receiver on that. Calling at a rookie mistake. I can't see how six made a mistake on that play.
The last thing is special teams. Specifically the kicking game. Points are points and CU could had six more points potentially with a better kicking game.
The bottom line for me is that Nebraska had some serious veteran talent on both sides of the line in this game. And that was a huge advantage. CU's defense lost focus at the wrong time allowing for some big plays that gave Nebraska relatively easy scoring opportunities. And more than anything Nebraska came in with a juiced crowd and a huge emotional advantage and they took it to The buffs before the buffs could really get their footing. I doubt the bus will play in another environment like they did on Saturday, for the rest of the season.
Going forward I think the buffs can win some football games this season. If the defense keeps improving and starts really finding their footing and limiting explosion plays which I think they can; and if the offensive line can start playing with some attitude then I think the buffs can turn it around. In terms of the offensive line playing with attitude, I think that it would help immensely to just line up in a power formation like the pistol and run the ball. And then leverage play action off of that. And then once they get some confidence then start mixing in the spread option and some more developed blocking schemes. But more than anything the offensive line needs to start getting some wins and needs to start building some competence. And I think the way you do that is by running the ball using a downhill running game.
That's way too many words. But I kind of needed to do a brain dump after watching that game. Hopefully somebody appreciates this.
Obviously as everybody knows offensive line is the problem. But I don't think it's an issue of talent or ability I think it's an issue of attitude and desire, as well as time in the system. The announcers were talking about the offensive line for Nebraska and how they've got multiple guys that have 40 or 50 starts under their belt. That's huge. And to be in the second year with the same offensive line coach, and they're playing with continuity. CU is in its second game with four new starters and a new online coach. Anybody reasonable who is paying attention should have said people need to temper their expectations for a while until the O line starts playing better, and after they begin to gel a little bit. In retrospect it seems it should have been obvious.
In terms of the touchdowns that Nebraska scored, The first came after a nice drive where they drove the ball down the field and scored. One came off of huge explosion play That took them down to the one yard line for an easy score on the next play. And the third came from that crazy carrum that should have been a CU interception had Bentley been able to corral it.
The first quarter was a s*** show for CU's defense. But as the rest of the game wore on the defense got much better and with about 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter CU had only allowed Nebraska 88 total yards and no more scores from the beginning of the 2nd half on. So that to me is a reason for optimism. That's decent. Again decent adjustments on the part of Livingston.
All around the defense has to get better though. We have to tighten up because the defense is going to have to carry the offense for a while in a lot of these games. And that means you can't spot the opposing team 14 or 21 points in the first half. And to fix that you need to nail down the explosion plays. There were half a dozen big plays that contributed to Nebraska really moving the ball. And Nebraska had maybe five or six good runs that were more than 5 yards, but less than 20. Everything else was the modest two or three yard per play variety. Take away the explosion plays and Nebraska's offense is much more modest. In my rewatch I didn't see Nebraska moving the ball up and down the field consistently.
The pick six that #2 threw was just a boneheaded play. And he made a couple bone-headed plays this game that were uncharacteristic of him. What really pissed me off about that was the fact that he blamed the receiver on that. Calling at a rookie mistake. I can't see how six made a mistake on that play.
The last thing is special teams. Specifically the kicking game. Points are points and CU could had six more points potentially with a better kicking game.
The bottom line for me is that Nebraska had some serious veteran talent on both sides of the line in this game. And that was a huge advantage. CU's defense lost focus at the wrong time allowing for some big plays that gave Nebraska relatively easy scoring opportunities. And more than anything Nebraska came in with a juiced crowd and a huge emotional advantage and they took it to The buffs before the buffs could really get their footing. I doubt the bus will play in another environment like they did on Saturday, for the rest of the season.
Going forward I think the buffs can win some football games this season. If the defense keeps improving and starts really finding their footing and limiting explosion plays which I think they can; and if the offensive line can start playing with some attitude then I think the buffs can turn it around. In terms of the offensive line playing with attitude, I think that it would help immensely to just line up in a power formation like the pistol and run the ball. And then leverage play action off of that. And then once they get some confidence then start mixing in the spread option and some more developed blocking schemes. But more than anything the offensive line needs to start getting some wins and needs to start building some competence. And I think the way you do that is by running the ball using a downhill running game.
That's way too many words. But I kind of needed to do a brain dump after watching that game. Hopefully somebody appreciates this.
