[Husker] Some Comments

[Steve Reichenbach]

> 1. Starting with the end, the final score was better than hoped.
> 
Actually, it was just about the betting line, which was worse than
what most Huskers "hoped".

> 2. The Huskers played a much more promising game than anticipated on 
> both sides of the ball, especially on run defense although pass 
> defense turned out less effective than anticipated, especially in 
> regard to three missed clear shots at interceptions.
> 
I don't see how one can view a game in which NU had 10 first downs,
averaged 1.9 ypc, and scored only 10 points can be especially promising.

> 3) Zac Taylor did not have one of his best nights. Several passes 
> were downright shoddy, but I suspect he wasn't able to find his 
> passing rhythm. The Trojan defense had something to do with that.
> 
No, with 17 attempts, he had trouble finding a rhythm.  It looked
like he was put off-rhythm early by the speed of the USC defense,
but started to find some rhythm as the game went along.  I would
have liked to see more.

> 4) The Husker offensive line can play the running against anybody. 
> What a change from last season! Repeatedly they cleared good holes in 
> USC's rightly vaunted defensive seven. And that was without Kurt 
> Mann. This is a very young offensive line with the potential of 
> developing into another Pipeline. But we'll probably have to wait 
> until next year to see that happen.
> 
NU averaged less than 2ypc.

> 5) The hugeness of the loss of Zack Bowman was all too apparent 
> tonight. That's not a knock on Andre Jones who played pretty well 
> considering the circumstances. (Although I suspect that in the future 
> he'll be more circumspect in commenting on future opponents.)
> 
One aspect that I perceive (which may or may not be the case) which I
don't like is that the coaches seem to say frequently that execution is
the problem.  It seems to me that there are some legitimate questions
about the schemes, which must take into account the skills of NU's
players and the opponents, that the coaches never seem to acknowledge.
For example, it seemed to me that NU's scheme was not adequate to
counter the wide receiver screens --- it wasn't just execution.  When
ND lost, Charlie Weiss pointed to his coaching and preparation of the
team.  When NU loses, it seems the coaches always see it as a problem
with the players executing.