[Husker] 12 Rules for Success and It's Very Quiet Out there

[Nick Chevance]

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 10:05 AM, Killmar, John <John.Killmar at stjude.org> wrote:
> To quote Rod:
>
> "Having said that, what has Michigan State done?  They lost to Notre Dame, and ND doesn't exactly look like a very good team right now."
>
> I think the same comparison could be made with Nebraska's loss to Wisconsin.
>
> John Killmar

I agree. I actually DVR'd the Wisconsin-Michigan State game, and went
back and watched part of it.  To me, a sports fan and not an X's and
O's guy, Wisconsin had what you could call an "off" night.  It was
played at Michigan State, and I believe it was Wisconsin's first road
game (not counting a neutral site (Soldiers Field in Chicago) victory
against Northern Illinois.  I can't image playing 6 games without a
true road test, but they did and I think that played into it.
Wisconsin just sort of managed to score 31 in that game, but really
looked quite unimpressive.  They didn't look like the team that took
apart the Huskers.

Michigan State played probably as well as they had all year that
evening.  They had some offense (their best series was a long scoring
drive at the end of the 3rd and start of the 4th quarters), but mainly
they struggled against Wisconsin for much of the game.  The game
turned (with Wisconsin up by 14) when MSU scored off of a blocked
punt, later an interception for a score, and then for the game
recorded a blocked Wisconsin field goal attempt and a second
interception.  So, defense added 14 points to their total and took
away potential points for Wisconsin.  Good defense and reasonably good
offense has worked for them.

So, I'm less worried about our defense because Cousins is not terribly
mobile (he can move but he doesn't like to), I'm more worried about
what they propose to do about our offense.  If we can keep them on
their heels, trying to figure out where its coming from next, we'll
have great success.  But we have to be prepared for blitzes on nearly
every play, from nearly every position on the field.  Because they are
going to try and rattle Martinez.  They've seen that that has worked
in the past, so Taylor is going to see "green" every play.  He has to
play a pretty clean game - make his reads, not get distracted, make
the correct calls.

I see that as a problem, but I'm hoping that we finally play that
complete game that we haven't seen yet this year.  If we play 4
quarters like we did for a quarter and a half against Ohio State, we
win going away.  And I don't mean the first quarter and a half of that
game either.

Nick
-- 
"If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
Anatole France