[Husker] tracking stats

[Aaron Wolfson]

I think it's weird how relatively little talk there is about Martinez, at
least here. I realize we have a loss and it's more natural or interesting
to talk about the problems on defense, but to me this is easily the most
fascinating aspect of Nebraska 2012: will he keep it up?

I think it might be fair to say that literally nobody saw this coming --
anyone want to dispute that? He was so terrible at the end of last year. I
know I had given up hope. I did still have occasional visions of how great
he had been pre-Missouri 2010, but I figured him for zero chance of ever
reaching that level again. And really, at Oklahoma State is the only
passing game he ever had that was like what he's doing this year. The
unique thing about Taylor is that, 1) unlike most raw quarterbacks I can
remember, his biggest problems, such as pocket presence and throwing
mechanics, happen to be absolutely fundamental to being a good quarterback,
and 2) he seemed to have regressed so much in those areas.

Now he has a chance to reach that level again, and exceed it, but I won't
consider it done until he displays this kind of form against a real
defense. The most (only?) pressure he's been under this year was the second
half against UCLA, and we can't forget what happened there. What it showed
me is that when it goes bad for Taylor, it can still go really, really bad.
On the other hand, there's a lot to be said about the improvement at WR and
RB making things a little easier for him.

I think he stands a very good chance of succeeding, though. Assuming for
the sake of argument that he plays well against Idaho State, he'll go into
Wisconsin with a lot of reps and a lot of confidence. He'll also have a
healthy Rex Burkhead and stands a good chance of getting an early lead.
Interestingly enough I think completion percentage will be a good gauge of
his performance in that game. He and the coaches are going to want closer
to 13/14 than 17/31.

Aaron


On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 11:17 AM, Nick Chevance <nickchevance at gmail.com>wrote:

> Just in case anyone was interested, remember Martinez set the press corps
> (and quite a few fans) all a-twitter (literally) when he said he was
> planning on a 70% completion rate this year.
>
> Then he went out and completed 76% against Southern Miss.  Reality settled
> in against UCLA, where he completed 'only' 55% of his throws, leaving him
> at about 66% for the first two games.
>
> Well, completing 93% in this last game helps, and now stands at about 71%
> for the season.  I would expect that number to rise again against Idaho
> St.; another game like the last and he'll be in the mid-70's again.
>
> So far, a man of his word.
>
> Nick
> --
> "In politics stupidity is not a handicap."
> Napoleon Bonaparte
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