[Husker] Bowl and Year

[Theodore Heise]

>> I took my two oldest boys to Orlando and we had a good time.
>
> Wish I could have done the same, Doug.  Even the miserable game 
> would have been tolerable if I could have spent a couple of days 
> at Disney or Universal.

I went with my wife.  It was a beautiful day, at a decent venue. 
Orlando was nice, though the traffic was terrible at times.  Overall 
we had a terrific time.


>      ...SC has a couple of very good ends - not really big (tall 
> but not massive) but they have a long reaches and that helps them 
> getting up field against an offensive tackle...  in the fourth, 
> when they knew we were throwing, the ends just teed off.

This is so true.


>> I was disappointed at the lack of blitz packages.  I was waiting 
>> for the corner blitz and never saw it.  I suppose that having #1 
>> on the field until he got ejected had something to do with that. 
>>  Having said that, when we did send everybody on the one play we 
>> got burned badly.

We did blitz at least once (resulting in a sack) before the play 
that burned us, but that SC quarterback was a hard player to bring 
down!

>    ...And as far a rushing a mobile quarterback, the only advice I 
> have is to try it and see how hard that is.  When we did sack the 
> QB (four times), it took at least two if not more to corral him 
> and knock him down.

You're exactly right, he was darn elusive!  Dodged a number of 
rushers quite effectively.


>    ...I can agree that the offense lacks cohesion - there's just 
> no excuse for that many penalties - 9 for 53 yards in the second 
> half.  Really no excuse for the motion penalties at this point in 
> the season.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the crowd.  That USC crowd was 
incredibly loud.  They quieted down quite a lot as the Cornhuskers 
moved the ball in the first half, but after the stalled drive and 
missed field goal to start the second half they got extremely loud 
again, and each time Nebraska committed an error it only increased 
in intensity.

Sitting on the Nebraska side I had to turn off my hearing aids to 
deal with it.  I can only imagine what it must have been like on the 
field--with the good ears of the young.  The noise had to be a 
contributor to some of the false starts, but on top of that was the 
sheer energy that was projected with it.  Unbelieveably intense.  I 
suppose the players are coached to be disciplined in withstanding 
that, but it's hard to believe that can be done with complete 
effectiveness.

Anyway, I was glad to be at the game, and be a part of the event.
Thanks to all the players who put so much effort into the season!

-- 
Theodore (Ted) Heise     <theo at heise.nu>     Bloomington, IN, USA