[Husker]Performance Evaluation

[BRADALAN at aol.com]

BC stated that they needed the QB to complete about 60% of his passes for the 
offense to be successful.  The last stat I heard on JD was around 46 or 48%.  
Anyone want to hazard a guess on what it would have been if about half of the 
drops had been caught?  Overthrows and inaccurate passes aside, I saw, from 
the beginning of the season, several passes a game that were on the money and 
just plain dropped. 

 I think Dailey was hobbled by BC not allowing him to run for fear of injury, 
justifiable after Adams was lost without another quality backup.  The few 
times Dailey played last year I thought he showed promise running the ball, kind 
of like Tommie, not super fast but with some moves.  I don't recall ever 
seeing even a called QB draw this year to establish Dailey as a run threat, I think 
that would have helped some, not that it matters now.

I think BC spent too much time trying to "take what he wanted," instead of 
"what the defense gives us."  This, as has been mentioned repeatedly, cost the 
Huskers at least two games.  The most blatant example, in my mind, was the end 
of the SM game when they ran the ball down the field into the red zone and 
then stalled trying to run four straight pass plays to the end zone instead of 
continuing to run.  There was time for at least 1-2 rush attempts initially.

I hope BC has learned some lessons about building a game plan to use the 
strengths of the players he has instead of trying to force feed the WCO system.  I 
also hope he has the integrity to have a "come to Jesus" meeting with 
Cosgrove about his pacifist defensive playcalling.  It wasn't the timeout late in the 
second quarter that gave CU the late FG, it was the prevent offense that they 
went to for that series.  Even Terry Bowden noted that NU couldn't afford to 
rush 4 and not get pressure.  Unfortunately it was like that all year and Cos 
didn't fix it.  I guess in 9 months we'll see if he makes any changes.

Boy it's going to be a long winter...

Brad Bredenkamp


In a message dated 11/27/2004 10:49:26 AM Hawaiian Standard Time, 
dkarre at comcast.net writes:
If Callahan were completely honest (as he never will be publicly), I believe 
he would say that the loss of Jordan Adams was probably the most significant 
negative factor in the outcome of the season. Question: If CU and NU had 
traded quarterbacks, how would yesterday's game have come out? I think NU 
wins easily. For that matter, if NU and OU had traded QBs, I believe THAT 
game would have been much closer.
Dick Karre