[Husker] Capitol One Bowl

[Titsworth, Scott]

I agree that the offense has been really bad the last quarter of the season.  But, the considerations you point out below are only snapshots and conceal these other facts that are also part of the 2010 Huskers:

* Nebraska scored more against Washington than any other team they played, including Oregon, who I heard was playing in the MNC game and has a decent offense.  

* Nebraska scored more against KSU than any other team on their schedule, and had the largest margin of victory by far on their schedule.

* Remember the 51 points Nebraska hung on a two loss OKie State team?  That was the most scored against them and the largest scoring margin in a loss for them.

I think to look at the season and say that the offense was at the same level as the defense in the latter stages of Callahan/Cosgrove is wrong.  We had offense that was pretty darn potent for 3/4 of our games.  The problems came when we faced disciplined, aggressive defenses--then our offense meted away.  The issue is consistency, not having a play that defenses MUST stop or we are guaranteed 3-5 yards every time we run it, etc.  TO seemed to always have that play in his game plan.

How will this translate into our first Big Ten W and L record?  It depends on a lot.  But we definitely had inconsistency and to have more wins than loses next year we MUST develop a consistent ability to gain yards in sustained drives and not rely on defensive breakdowns resulting in quick strike plays and scores.  I did not see that ability in big games against sound defenses this year.

Scott 

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 1, 2011, at 9:57 PM, "Andrew Smith" <arossman at earthlink.net> wrote:

> I don't know how anyone can be optimistic after the offensive play in 
> this year's losses.
> Consider:
> * Only Wyoming scored fewer points against Texas than Nebraska.
> * No one scored fewer against A&M.
> * 7 of OU's opponents scored more.
> * None of Washington's opponents scored fewer; all but UCLA scored more.
> 
> And this is with one of the nation's best defense (giving the offense 
> good field position and time of possession chances) and THE nation's 
> best field goal kicker (and a great punter)!
> 
> Though 5-6 is pretty unlikely, end of season rankings suggest a 4-4 Big 
> 10++ record.