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HAMAR: Huskers show that they aren't back yet
COMMENTARY
By Bob Hamar
bob.hamar@theindependent.com
LINCOLN — No, the Huskers aren’t back.
That always seems to be the question whenever the Nebraska football team gets on a bit of a roll or after the Huskers win a big game like they did Oct. 8 at Missouri.
If people thought Bo Pelini’s team was back to where it could be a national contender, they were in for a rude awakening when unranked Texas Tech came into Memorial Stadium and handed NU a 31-10 loss on Saturday.
Pelini kept saying this is a work in progress. Now we know for sure that he’s not kidding.
The old Huskers — those of the 1990s — wouldn’t have lost this game. Those teams were too talented, too focused, too driven to lose to any unranked team, let alone one on their home field.
Maybe part of the problem was the distractions that came after Nebraska’s 27-12 come-from-behind victory over Missouri.
There was the Ndamukong Suh for Heisman talk. There was the talk about the Missouri comeback.
There was the talk about the Husker defense possibly getting the Blackshirts — something that happened very quietly on Friday.
Amid all that was a football game to get ready for, and the Huskers weren’t.
Pelini certainly didn’t want to talk about the Missouri game after watching his team get outplayed, outcoached and consequently outscored by the Red Raiders.
“Last week was last week,” Pelini said. “You guys wanted to keep talking about last week. I knew what we had coming up in Texas Tech. I knew the challenge we had and we didn’t meet the challenge. We got our butts kicked.”
Forget about pointing blame in one direction. There are those who will point at offensive coordinator Shawn Watson’s play-calling. Pelini isn’t one of those.
“I thought the play-calling wasn’t bad,” Pelini said. “Always on play-calling you want some things back and there are always some things you could change, but we didn’t execute. We missed some open receivers. We didn’t play well up front. We didn’t get the ground game going like the way we thought we could.
“When that doesn’t happen, it’s pretty hard to call plays when you’re not executing the calls. We missed some wide open receivers. They played better than us in every phase.”
Pelini remains solidly behind his offensive coordinator — and rightfully so — no matter what anyone else says.
“Shawn Watson is a good football coach,” Pelini said. “He’s stood the test of time. We don’t point fingers around here. It’s a team loss. I can tell you defensively we didn’t get it done either. We lost in every phase of the game. Shawn Watson is a good football coach. That hasn’t changed and that won’t change.”
It’s no secret that quarterback Zac Lee had his second straight sub-par game. Lee did complete 16-of-22 passes but for just 128 yards.
Some are going to put all the blame on Lee for the performance of the offense, but again it wasn’t all his fault.
“He didn’t execute the offense well enough,” Pelini said. “We didn’t help him as coaches well enough. Like I said, in a lot of different things we didn’t get the job done.”
Some might blame assistant coach Barney Cotton and the offensive line. That unit certainly will shoulder its share of the blame. Seventy yards rushing is not going to get it done and is something that will have to change and change soon regardless of who is or isn’t playing in the backfield.
“The first thing I want to see is us being able to run the football and consistently knock somebody off the football,” Pelini said. “We’re going back to work.”
It was just a bad day for the offense all around.
And don’t forget the defense. Sure, Nebraska held Texas Tech to 255 yards, its lowest output of the Mike Leach era since his first game as head coach back in 2000.
But plays were there to be made and they weren’t.
“On defense, we didn’t make plays. We had guys there, we didn’t make plays,” Pelini said. “We didn’t play well enough. You have to make plays in this game. You have to step up and make plays. We didn’t do it. It’s simple as that. You can sit there and ask all of the questions you want in the world. It comes down to we got beat because we didn’t make plays. We got outplayed and outcoached.”
Yes, you win as a team — like the Huskers did against Missouri — and you lose as a team, and more often than not it’s all about execution.
Winning teams execute and do the things they need to do to win — like Texas Tech did Saturday.
Losing teams come back on Monday and work on their execution.
That’s what the Huskers will be doing this week, because they definitely aren’t back yet.
Bob Hamar is sports editor for The Independent.
That always seems to be the question whenever the Nebraska football team gets on a bit of a roll or after the Huskers win a big game like they did Oct. 8 at Missouri.
If people thought Bo Pelini’s team was back to where it could be a national contender, they were in for a rude awakening when unranked Texas Tech came into Memorial Stadium and handed NU a 31-10 loss on Saturday.
Pelini kept saying this is a work in progress. Now we know for sure that he’s not kidding.
Maybe part of the problem was the distractions that came after Nebraska’s 27-12 come-from-behind victory over Missouri.
There was the Ndamukong Suh for Heisman talk. There was the talk about the Missouri comeback.
There was the talk about the Husker defense possibly getting the Blackshirts — something that happened very quietly on Friday.
Amid all that was a football game to get ready for, and the Huskers weren’t.
Pelini certainly didn’t want to talk about the Missouri game after watching his team get outplayed, outcoached and consequently outscored by the Red Raiders.
“Last week was last week,” Pelini said. “You guys wanted to keep talking about last week. I knew what we had coming up in Texas Tech. I knew the challenge we had and we didn’t meet the challenge. We got our butts kicked.”
Forget about pointing blame in one direction. There are those who will point at offensive coordinator Shawn Watson’s play-calling. Pelini isn’t one of those.
“I thought the play-calling wasn’t bad,” Pelini said. “Always on play-calling you want some things back and there are always some things you could change, but we didn’t execute. We missed some open receivers. We didn’t play well up front. We didn’t get the ground game going like the way we thought we could.
“When that doesn’t happen, it’s pretty hard to call plays when you’re not executing the calls. We missed some wide open receivers. They played better than us in every phase.”
Pelini remains solidly behind his offensive coordinator — and rightfully so — no matter what anyone else says.
“Shawn Watson is a good football coach,” Pelini said. “He’s stood the test of time. We don’t point fingers around here. It’s a team loss. I can tell you defensively we didn’t get it done either. We lost in every phase of the game. Shawn Watson is a good football coach. That hasn’t changed and that won’t change.”
It’s no secret that quarterback Zac Lee had his second straight sub-par game. Lee did complete 16-of-22 passes but for just 128 yards.
Some are going to put all the blame on Lee for the performance of the offense, but again it wasn’t all his fault.
“He didn’t execute the offense well enough,” Pelini said. “We didn’t help him as coaches well enough. Like I said, in a lot of different things we didn’t get the job done.”
Some might blame assistant coach Barney Cotton and the offensive line. That unit certainly will shoulder its share of the blame. Seventy yards rushing is not going to get it done and is something that will have to change and change soon regardless of who is or isn’t playing in the backfield.
“The first thing I want to see is us being able to run the football and consistently knock somebody off the football,” Pelini said. “We’re going back to work.”
It was just a bad day for the offense all around.
And don’t forget the defense. Sure, Nebraska held Texas Tech to 255 yards, its lowest output of the Mike Leach era since his first game as head coach back in 2000.
But plays were there to be made and they weren’t.
“On defense, we didn’t make plays. We had guys there, we didn’t make plays,” Pelini said. “We didn’t play well enough. You have to make plays in this game. You have to step up and make plays. We didn’t do it. It’s simple as that. You can sit there and ask all of the questions you want in the world. It comes down to we got beat because we didn’t make plays. We got outplayed and outcoached.”
Yes, you win as a team — like the Huskers did against Missouri — and you lose as a team, and more often than not it’s all about execution.
Winning teams execute and do the things they need to do to win — like Texas Tech did Saturday.
Losing teams come back on Monday and work on their execution.
That’s what the Huskers will be doing this week, because they definitely aren’t back yet.
Bob Hamar is sports editor for The Independent.
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