Heartbreaking Progress is Still Progress
A week ago, Nebraska was not competitive in Lincoln against a top ten team. They surrendered 52 points, were outgained by nearly the length of an entire football field, committed another football field's worth of penalties, and lost by five touchdowns.
Today, the Huskers marched into a hostile stadium against another top ten team, outgained that team by fifty yards, and lost in heartbreaking fashion in overtime. That, my friends, is progress.
It doesn't feel good, especially when you could taste victory over a Red Raider team that embarrassed the Huskers 70-10 in their last visit to Lubbock. But it's a major step in the right direction. Bo Pelini said he got away from his beliefs against Missouri. Not this time. The game plan was simple. Line up in the base defense, hit people, and execute. It nearly meant victory for Nebraska.
The Huskers could not afford to get embarrassed again. There needed to be progress or else this team's season could have quickly gone south as it did a year ago. With winnable games in Ames and at home against Baylor, the Huskers should have restored some belief in their ability to compete in the Big 12.
Hopefully, they'll respond better than they did after the gut-wrenching loss to Virginia Tech. You have to think they will, though Joe Ganz may need to see a shrink to get his head right. Next week is Iowa State. It's probably a must win game if this team wants to get back to a bowl game. The Big Red Network will be there to see Nebraska take another step forward.
10/11/2008
Foiled again- by the “Pirate!”
Very entertaining game, though. I’m not concerned about the “psyche” of the team, because there’s enough encouragers on staff to prevent the deadly disaffectation that infected the team last season. Ganz has no choice, but to pull his’self together.
It looked like they enjoyed playing football, again.
Iowa St. is no doubt a must win, Steve. Lose that, then I’ll be concerned about psyche issues. Because, this team could really use a bowl game to cap the season. Winning the next two goes a ways toward winning the last two, though Nebraska would probably get an invite sporting a 6-6 record.
Who knows? Looks like the offense’s hit stride.
Between the 20’s, anyway. As the announcer continued to remind us of.
As usual, it’ll be very interesting to see how Bo and co. responds. When isn’t the team interesting?
10/11/2008
Very encouraging game, but still a tough loss. When I look at the two deep roster for NU, it becomes even more encouraging. It appears more and more to me that the younger guys are developing better which means more depth. A bowl game is critical because it will extend our season, and get those players in some post season play against a pretty decent team. Critical. Additional practice time lends itself to more experienced players, and that’s why I think we see the good and the bad play at times. Alabama lost some pretty close games last season and in no way would I compare this team to them but they are in a pretty good position to be in the SEC title game. At this point, all I really want to see is some improvement and like Bo says everything else will take care of itself.
10/11/2008
I got to track the game on the ESPN website and I have to say that it looked very encouraging especially after the MU game.
Lots of long drives. I mean this was the number 7 ranked team, right?
Could be that Bo has their attention now and it might just be that this ,in a way, was the turning point.
Kansas City, MO
10/12/2008
Well, I’ve got to say this about Ganz, with about a 2 to 1 TD to Int ratio in general, for every two games that he wins for us with his throwing abilities, he’ll lose one. Since he hasn’t really won any games for us “all by himself” like Zac Taylor would occasionally do, he’s got two game this year that he’s going to go out and win for us just on his sheer effort alone.
10/12/2008
I personally think that Joe Ganz played great. He outplayed one of the best passer’s in the nation didn’t he? You can’t put the blame all on him. We had a couple of redzone oppurtunities that should have been touchdown’s but weren’t due to an undisciplined offensive line. I think our problems really lie in penalties. That has killed us the last two games. GO HUSKERS!
Kansas City, MO
10/12/2008
No single play is ever responsible for a loss or a win, but one play can certainly end a game.
10/13/2008
This game was a total success when it came to an offensive game plan. We played keep away and ran the ball enough and successfully enough to chew up the clock and keep the Raiders off the field. Did you hear the kudos from Mike Leach? Yes, it hurts not to have a win, but I am encouraged to see the players and coaches rebounding after an ugly Mizzou loss.
10/13/2008
I have to say I was listening to the Mizzou game on the radio Saturday. It was great to hear all of their fans complaining and whining after the loss! On a more serious note, the commentators were examing the reason they loss to OK State and they were as follows:
1. OK State dominated both lines of scrimmage, they ran the ball, controlled the clock, and they pressured Daniels
2. OK State’s QB could not be contained, he ran and he threw
3. OK State’s speed on defense, matched up great with Mizzou’s speedy receivers
Now, this is exactly the formula Bo and company want to use to re-build the NU program. A dominating hard nosed line (on both sides), a running attack thats effective, a dual threat QB, and a lot of speed on defense.
The question remains, do any of us think we have that yet? The answer is “no”, not quite yet. But these coaches no what they want and need and we are seeing progress. Give them time to recruit and build this program and I think we are going to get there.