[Husker] I guess you had to be there (don't just skip this one, it's worth the long read)

[Skylar Dodds]

Hey Husker fans!

I am a little shocked at the response on this list to a great victory
over a desperate team.  I've been at quite a few games this year and I
must say, especially in the final minutes of the game, that was as
crazy-loud as I've heard the fans all year.

YES, there were negatives today.  Enough to discuss for sure.  But it
feels like we Husker fans are SO spoiled that anything less that
perfection and we can't believe our eyes.

"I can't believe he threw that interception!!" . Yeah, and 19 year old
kid shouldered with the responsibility of taking his first snaps in
the college ranks to get his team to a bowl game in the fourth quarter
with a 2 point lead. Geesh, I can't believe he choked so bad.

"We burned his red-shirt, now the future of the program is lost."
Only Husker fans can get away with criticizing a coach for going for
the win.  Not, "Well, if I lose today, at least I still have a
red-shirt on Beck"  Callahan CLEARLY felt that our best chance for
winning this game was with Beck.  I for one would be VERY UPSET if he
did anything less than what he thought was the best chance to win in a
crucial game like this.  Plus, I think Callahan feels with the new kid
from Missouri coming in, we will have a pretty full cupboard @ QB for
the next few years.

"Why did we run a dump pass out of our endzone?"  This is about the
only legitimate criticism I can come up with against these coaches
today.  If you were there, you could clearly see our players were
playing their butts off and they left everything on the field.
Someone mentioned the 2 yard pass on 4th and 4.  Well, it was only 2
yards because the receiver stopped and tried to juke out the defender.
If he had kept running, it would have been 4 yards.  NOT THE COACHES
FAULT.

"Why call a timeout so early in the play before the field goal".  I
think this one is because Callahan thought they were going to snap the
ball with not enough players on the field.  I think he would have
preferred to wait the extra 10-15 seconds, but he didn't want to risk
botching our last chance at taking the lead.  I can't fault him for
calling the timeout when he did, but I can fault him for not having
his players ready for the situation.

Positives (A lot longer list today, IMHO):

- Taylor played lights out.  With very few exceptions his passes were
sharp, on target, and despite a few drops, he had a very high
completion percentage.   What a tough kid.  How can you do anything
but love this guy.

- O-line played WAY better. I was at the OU game as well and I can
tell you our protection was there all game this time. Our run blocking
still left something to be desired, but we got some tough yards when
we needed them. It's amazing what Taylor can do when he has time to
throw.

- If you don't believe we have some great young talent, just look at
some key players today.  Cogdon has been lights out since his rocky
start, including a HUGE pressure kick today in what was an
unpredictable STRONG wind.  Barry Turner had a sack and a blocked
field-goal.  Grixby played lights out, breaking up some HUGE plays.
The two freshman O-linemen played very well I thought.  No stupid
mistakes, no obvious missed assignments.  Beck coming into the biggest
pressure situation of his life and recovering from a devastating
interception late to throw the big play.

- KOCH!!!  I hope everyone who attended the game realized that the
game-ball quite possibly should be his.  He had some MONSTER punts
into a wind that was SO fierce that it ripped a HUGE flag waving over
the construction clean off.  It was so bad that the referees had to
stand on the ball until the center was ready to snap it because it
wouldn't keep still (I've never seen that in my lifetime).  Not only
does he have the leg, but he's got to be the best sharpshooter off of
his foot that I've ever seen.  He can pin people inside the ten like
it's going out of style.  The play of the game for us might have been
when there was a bad snap back to Koch and he knocked it down, picked
it up, ran to the side and booted a 40 yarder just in the nick of
time.

- RUUD!! Even though it was obvious our biggest weakness on defense is
our starting 2nd string linebackers, Ruud turned in the game of his
life, recording 15 tackles, including 5 for loss.

- Swift!!  Can we say enough about this kid?  Really?  He's worked
really hard to be an impact on this team and just when we need a big
play, there's no need to look past #87.

- Finally the defense. Wow. Yes, they gave up about a handful of big
running plays. But each time we really needed them to step up, they
did and in a big way. First and goal from the 9 after a Beck INT? Oh
yeah, 3 plays for 0 total yards. KSU gets the ball back on the 26 with
about a minute left and needs about 45 yards to setup game winning
field goal? Oh yeah 7 plays, 6 yards, game over. Look at KSU's last 8
possessions:

K31  Punt           3--7  01:42
K18  Interception   7-65  02:08#
K29  Missed FG     12-57  03:15#
K09  Punt           3--2  01:14
K05  Punt           3--1  00:57
K22  Punt           6-18  03:11
N09  *FIELD GOAL     4-0   01:22#
K26  Downs          7-6   00:45

3 points in 8 possessions and those 3 points were a gift of the
offense.

This is not the best team we've ever put on the football field, we
have some OBVIOUS weaknesses.  But these kids leave it all on the
field and I for one am very proud to say I am a Husker fan after
watching these kids.  Maybe we should remember that every year will
not be a 'walk all over everybody' national championship team.  When a
so-so Husker team takes the field and gives it everything and comes
away with a thrilling victory, can't we celebrate that?

Go HUSKERS!

  

-- 
Thanks,
Skylar
mailto:Sklarbodds at cox.net