[Husker] First week Jitters?

[Mike Jaixen]

Overall, the negatives outweighted the positives. 
But, there WAS progress made:

1) Defensive front 7.  The new players have
significantly improved the depth of this bunch, and
thus allowed more people to make more plays. Steve
Octavian showed a knack for recognizing where the play
was going in his limited time.

2) New punt return blocking scheme. Last year, Santino
Panico took way more abuse from both punt coverage
teams as well as fans than was necessary.  On his
post-game radio show, Bill Callahan even admitted that
they really didn't put much heart into the punt return
game.  The player that stood out on punt returns for
me was Blake Tiedtke.  Tiedtke would line up over the
ball, and then would break back just before the ball
was snapped to the punter to help block for the
returner.  The result?  There were no tacklers within
at least 10 yards of the return guy, allowing our
return guys time to catch the ball and find their
holes.

3) Penalties.  None.


Negatives:

1)  Offensive Line. I admit that I didn't follow the
offensive line play as close as I should have, though.
2)  Zac Taylor.  My concerns about Taylor from the
spring game were apparantly shared by Callahan and Jay
Norvell.  Taylor opened the spring game with trouble
taking the snap and with wobbly passes, but gradually
calmed down once the game wore on.  Last night,
Callahan took the ball out of Taylor's hands for most
of the first quarter.  However, unlike our backup
defenders, Maine was able to put pressure on Taylor,
and Taylor alternated between some nice throws to
Frantz Hardy, some wobblers, and some ill-advised
throws that were picked off.
3)  Play calling.  The opening ball-control series
made sense in hindsight.  Calling 3 straight passes
once you've got 1st and goal at the 2 yard line still
is bothersome.  And apparantly the play communication
system still is buggy, as Zac Taylor occasionally
needed to run to the sideline to get the play.

It will be interesting to see how the offensive line
develops during this season; if we don't see
significant improvement, I kind of doubt we'll see
Harrison Beck under center this season.  His time may
be better spent working on his reads and progressions
on the scout team than in running for his life and
getting beat up.

--- Skylar Dodds <Sklarbodds at cox.net> wrote:

> I'm typically a very optimistic "Husker Goggles"
> kinda guy.  But the
> people on this list either didn't watch the game, or
> they are more
> optimistic than I.
> 
> I would grade this game as a D+.  Mostly negatives
> with just a few
> positives.


Mike Jaixen
Blog: http://huskermike.blogspot.com

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