These reflection posts are becoming more and more difficult to write as the season trudges on. Nebraska loves to make each week more painful than the last, which means I have to relive it all as I write my reflections. Nonetheless, this post has my break down and analysis of the Huskers' loss at Purdue as well as the other happenings around college football, including my reactions to the first CFB Playoff Rankings of 2019! Read on, relax because Nebraska will be on BYE again and enjoy.
I'm not entirely sure why I deviated from my original season prediction of Nebraska losing on the road to Purdue, but I'm guessing most of it was based off of sheer hope on the Huskers reaching a bowl game this season. Regardless, I mistakenly believed the Huskers would show up to play football this past Saturday in West Lafayette, and soon realized this was not the case. Yet another 4th quarter lead was lost to a team playing with not one, but two back up QBs, and there's just no good way to explain how bad the offense has gotten. I have my GOOD, EXPECTED and BAD categories broken down below. Beware, there wasn't much good to say about this one.
GOOD- Barrett Pickering made all of his kicks and Jack Stoll and Kade Warner are great route runners. To be honest, that's about all the good I could squeeze out from that pitiful performance at Purdue. Pickering was 2/2 on field goals and made all three extra points, the special teams unit is progressing! Jumping to the wideouts, even though they did not get the ball as much as they should have in this game, Jack Stoll and Kade Warner were almost alway wide open. Scheme plays a role in that, but true separation comes from running crisp routes, unfortunately Adrian doesn't know they exist or that their existence is a substantial benefit to him and the team. Again, not much good to say about this performance, but JD Spielman did have 6 catches for 123 yards. It's nice someone finally decided to get him more involved downfield.
EXPECTED- Adrain's struggles in executing the offense. We've seen it all year, but for one reason or another, Adrian Martinez does not have it right now. There is no quick decision making ability with Martinez, and his throws are either too high or easily falling into the hands of the opponent after telegraphing where it's going. There's no progression with his reads downfield on the defense and when running the ball, he looks hesitant. I'm not doubting this kid's athletic ability by any means, but it's clear there's a significant gap in his development, and the coaches need to address this sooner rather than later. I had a bad feeling the offense would struggle in this game, even against a "undermanned and undersized" Purdue defense. Martinez finished the game with 247 passing yards, an interception and just over 56% completion rating adding another 58 rushing yards and two TDs on the ground. Overall, his performance isn't statistically bad, but watching his performance gives a bit more context to the story. He threw at least 3 bubble screen passes into the dirt and should've had at least one, probably two more interceptions. This offense is supposed to run through Martinez, but he's really struggling this season. I expected a poor performance, which is upsetting in it's own right, but I also expected Frost to stick it out with Adrian even when Vedral could have been and should have been an option. I wouldn't expect much from the offense in the final three games of the season.
BAD- I don't like to criticize the athletes very much, but the BAD from the Purdue game is the lack of effort of players, especially on defense. There were multiple plays last weekend where experienced players like Lamar Jackson or Carlos Davis would be standing around watching as the play continued on without them. One play in particular come to mind with Lamar Jackson, as he simply watched Purdue Tightend Payne Durham walk into the end zone with 14 seconds remaining before halftime. It's clear there's still an issue of effort levels given by the players, and that again falls back on the coaching staff. If there are players who aren't going to give their best efforts and fight to win the game, then they should not be on the field. The defense has plenty of issues aside from players giving up on the play, this is not a good look for Frost right now.
Overall, the Purdue loss has a bit more sting to it than does Indiana. Nebraska had opportunities to win both, but Purdue has a tremendous amount of injuries to a majority of their best players, yet their back up QB and third string QB were able to consistently move the ball down the field on the Blackshirts while the Boilermaker defense simply let Nebraska's offense implode on itself while capitalizing on a couple of key mistakes. I don't think Nebraska is going bowling this season, and this team looks worse than last year, and there's still Wisconsin and Iowa left on the schedule. Very disappointing and frustrating if you're a Husker fan.
Now for some highlights of other news and happenings around college football:
- Baylor edged out West Virginia at home to remain unbeaten on the season thus far. They're on the road against the rival Horned Frogs this week followed by two home stands against Oklahoma and Texas. We'll see how long that 0 stays up on their record.
- Both Appalachian State and SMU lost their first games of the season to tough conference opponents.
- Memphis was able to pull off the big win against the Mustangs, now looking to fight for that top G5 spot in the polls as we move through November.
- Georgia edged out the Gators in a tough game thanks to Fromm completing 67% of his passes for 279 and 2 TDs. The Dawgs have the inside track to the SEC Championship yet again in the East.
- Oregon trying to make some statements out West by beating the Trojans by 32 on the road. They're on a likely collision course with the Utes and the winner has an outside shot at a College Football Playoff spot!
- Speaking of the Utes, they held off a dangerous Washington team despite Jacob Eason's 4 TDs. Fortunately for Kyle Wittingham, Eason's 5th passing TD of the game went to the boys in red.
- Notre Dame snuck by Virginia Tech by scoring a late TD with 29 seconds left.
- Wake Forest is proving to everyone why their offense is ranked #7... unfortunately they have Clemson in two weeks. We'll see how that goes.
- Miami knocked off the 'Noles for the third straight year and Willie Taggert was fired because of that... not even two seasons in as Head Coach. I'm sure he's not upset about the $117 million though.
- Don't look now, but UCLA "controls their own destiny" in the PAC-12 South! Their next two games are on the road at Utah and USC, so conference title hopes could be diminished. Nonetheless, watch out for Chip Kelley and his Bruins.
CFB Playoff Rankings Reactions:
I was quite surprised by the committee placing Penn State in the 4th place spot with the first Playoff Rankings of 2019. Only two conferences are represented in the opening rankings, and more interestingly is that only two divisions of the two conferences are represented. A lot is still to be told as Bama and LSU play this week followed by Ohio State and Penn State in a couple weeks. This could play a factor in how far they drop after one of them loses though. Very excited for the next couple of weeks and you all should be too!
Thank you for reading my Week 10 Reflections and be sure to check out the latest episode of my podcast with my good friend and roommate Nate Muhlbach. The 2nd String is your best source for College Football news and analysis, so share with your friends!
#CFBKnowItAll
Alex Fernando
No comments:
Post a Comment