[Husker] Texas A&

[Nick Chevance]

On 10/15/07, Scott Lawson <scott71lawson at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Just a quick note, I was looking at odds this morning on the USA Today
> site and unbelievably Nebraska is a 2.5 point favorite this Saturday. A&M
> must really be bad!
>
>   And that got me thinking, how on earth did Nebraska beat Nevada, who
> scored 67 points last night in Boise? And Iowa State must REALLY be bad...
>
> Scott raises an issue that I've found the most puzzling out of this year.
We didn't start out bad, and we haven't played bad all year.  But we've play
consistently terrible since the USC game.  I mean, look at Nevada.  Yes, a
game we should have won and did, handily.  Then we went on the road a played
well enough to beat a Wake Forest team.  These were good games, and its my
humble and totally uneducated opinion that we played well and did the things
necessary to win those games.

Look at that Nevada game - we literally dominated both sides of the ball.
Now I realize that the Nevada team last night in Boise wasn't the same team
that we beat in September, but they've played well for most of their
season.  Lost all but one, but played well.  So, perhaps the Nevada game
isn't the aberration it appears this week, but maybe a true sense of where
this team was headed.  Look at Wake; we're the only ones to beat them at
home so far this year, included ranked Florida State.  They haven't lost
since we beat them.

Then the train wreck with USC.  Since then, things have been rapidly
snowballing.  We barely stay in the game with Ball State, and frankly you
should be able to beat Iowa State on your own field.  And now, for the last
two weeks, nothing much on defense, and an offense that becomes more and
more offensive.  Mizzou pressured Keller; Okie State nearly killed him.  I
think something happened with that USC game, some loss of confidence, and as
I posted before, a loss of desire.  Somewhere in there the coaches became
more cautious, more concerned with the players abilities, the players
feeding off of that and each others' concerns and lack of confidence.  That
left us with Mizzou and Okie State.  Some of the tackling in the last two
weeks resembled flag football, not even touch football.

My point in all of this is that we had something at the start of the season,
but I can't quite put my finger on what it was that made it all go wrong.
But we went from what looked like a strong physical team on both sides of
the ball, to a timid, cautious team.  Not a good situation.  And it seems to
point to that USC game.  Perhaps that game destroyed all identity in this
team as a strong aggressive team and made us more careful and scared of
making mistakes on the field.  Like Callahan, you can't coach scared, and
you certainly can't play scared.

Like a lot of fans my knee jerk reaction is to fire everybody; heck, let's
fire the University president - why not!! How about the mayor of Lincoln -
he's probably partly responsible (tongue firmly planted in cheek!!).  But my
concern is more for the players and what might have been the trigger to send
this thing spiraling down the ole toilet.  And what might bring it back.
New coaches, maybe.  New AD, probably won't make much difference to these
kids this year.  And if the '97 team couldn't get them up on their toes and
ready to rip someone's head off, we may not see any resolution until next
year, no matter who's coaching or administrating.

Nick
-- 
"The only thing standing between me and total happiness is reality."
Douglas Porter