[Husker] Misc thoughts II

[Andrew Smith]

Regarding Henery's punting: 
It seems unlikely to me that the replay monitor was the cause of his 
poor kicks, as someone speculated.  (1) It wouldn't be built so that it 
could cause problems under normal situations, (2) he'd have had been 
able to practice punts in the stadium before the game. 
Perhaps he was more concerned than usual about a punt block (at least 
one looked like it was almost blocked) and/or perhaps part of the plan 
was to kick toward the sidelines or short to avoid returns.  Shipley IS 
#17 in returns with a 13 yard average (fyi, Niles in #26 and we saw what 
happened when Texas let him return some).
Regardless, I'm curious for an explanation.  Henery averaged only 37.1 
yards on his 8 punts (and his longest was only 42 yards).  That has to 
be well under his average.  His punt before Texas' TD drive was only 31 
yards and let Texas start on the NU 42.

Regarding Asante's horse collar tackle:
It's clearly NOT the case that without it, the receiver would have 
scored a TD or even gained more than a few extra yards.  He shouldn't 
have done it, but I don't feel any harsh criticism is in order.  It's 
hard to avoid mistakes for an entire game and sometimes, when you reach 
out and grab what you can, you accidentally end up with the collar (or a 
face mask). 

Go Big Red
Andy

Andrew Smith wrote:
 > Blaming any one player for the loss is silly.  There were several 
plays that on their own could have changed the outcome.  And blaming 
anyone on a defense that held Texas to 13 points makes no sense to me.
 >
 > Putting a second back on the clock was the correct call.  Whining 
about us makes Nebraska fans look bad.  If roles were reversed and there 
was no review, we'd be livid.  And don't forget the early review that 
gave Nebraska a 1st down (and eventually a FG).
 >
 > If we were told before the game that Nebraska would have 3 turnovers, 
would any of us have believed that Nebraska would have had a chance?  
This was easily the greatest defensive performance I've ever seen from 
any team at any level.  While Nebraska got a field goal after each Texas 
turnover, Texas got 0 points off the 3 Nebraska turnovers .
 >
 > At least Suh got the praise he deserves and put on a Heisman worthy 
performance.  If ever a defensive player deserves it, Suh does.  He 
won't, but I hope he's at least invited to New York.  If McCoy doesn't 
win the Heisman, we'll have the pleasure of knowing the Blackshirts are 
the reason.
 >
 > For those who wanted less conservative play calling, particularly 
when Nebraska was in field goal range, considering Zac had 3 ints to his 
6 completions, taking the field goals whenever possible was the 
percentage play.  Don't forget the int thrown after starting at the 
Texas 37 - wouldn't a FG have been nice instead?
 >
 > It's quite likely that the Texas offense was also being 
conservative.  They also knew going in that they didn't need many points 
to win.
 >
 > Go Big Red!
 >
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