Sparty +4.5 at Nebraska (ov/un 49.5) Sat noon ET, ESPN

[BB73]

Can tailgates OD on good feelings?

If that's possible, the Sparty fans flying high with wins over tOSU, TSUN, and a last-second Hail Mary conquering of Wisconsin - combined with the overwhelming good nature of the fans in Lincoln - will test those limits.

 

[ant80]

Can tailgates OD on good feelings?

If that's possible, the Sparty fans flying high with wins over tOSU, TSUN, and a last-second Hail Mary conquering of Wisconsin - combined with the overwhelming good nature of the fans in Lincoln - will test those limits.

I say Sparty becomes Sparty again. They'll be good against Nebraska for the first half, but will commit gut wrenching errors the second half to lose the game by 10 points.

 

[Taosman]

We're all waiting for "Sparty to be Sparty".
Is this the week?
How much emotion can they have left?

 

[BigWoof31]

Huskers win and cover!

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

So the team that beat Wisconsin is a road dog to a team that get ape-fucked by Wisconsin?

 

[BB73]

So the team that beat Wisconsin is a road dog to a team that get ape-fucked by Wisconsin?

Sure. Sparty beat tOSU by 3, and Nebraska beat tOSU by 7. Do we need to explain the transitive property of football to you?

 

[DubCoffman62]

Sparty wouldn't be Sparty if they were to pull out this road victory. They'll Sparty it up somehow.

 

[knapplc]

I have very little confidence that Nebraska will win this game. I have never attended a Husker loss. This will likely be my first.

We are still learning a new offense, only seven games into it so far. Our defense has been amazingly bad, considering how great everyone thought it would be. I see us putting very little pressure on Cousins and them having time to pick apart our secondary. I see Sparty blitzing the hell out of our line, effectively, and watching our offense implode.

We seem unwilling or unable to modify what we're doing based on the defenses we see. We don't max-protect our QB, even in the face of obvious blitzes, and we don't have the kind of passing QB that can effectively make a team pay for loading the box with a high-pressure blitz package.

Unless Michigan State absolutely lays an egg, I don't see us winning this game.

 

[DubCoffman62]

I have very little confidence that Nebraska will win this game. I have never attended a Husker loss. This will likely be my first.

We are still learning a new offense, only seven games into it so far. Our defense has been amazingly bad, considering how great everyone thought it would be. I see us putting very little pressure on Cousins and them having time to pick apart our secondary. I see Sparty blitzing the hell out of our line, effectively, and watching our offense implode.

We seem unwilling or unable to modify what we're doing based on the defenses we see. We don't max-protect our QB, even in the face of obvious blitzes, and we don't have the kind of passing QB that can effectively make a team pay for loading the box with a high-pressure blitz package.

Unless Michigan State absolutely lays an egg, I don't see us winning this game.

So is Sparty's offense. Trust me, you'll win.

 

[alexhortdog95]

Huskers are gonna have big problems. Our quarterback is opening his mouth and hot garbage is coming out.

Not to mention, Chris Spielman is on 1620 The Zone here in Omaha talking about the game (as he and Urban Meyer are doing the game Saturday). He's pretty much saying

Love this guy. Loved him as a pro player as well.

 

[alexhortdog95]

Our defense has been amazingly bad, considering how great everyone thought it would be.

I still don't understand why people didn't see how bad the defense would be this year. Losing all those guys in the secondary and on the line never really gave me a warm fuzzy.

 

[knapplc]

I still don't understand why people didn't see how bad the defense would be this year. Losing all those guys in the secondary and on the line never really gave me a warm fuzzy.

Because we were supposed to have this great, all-world D Line. Crick, the All-American candidate, along with Steinkuhler, were supposed to be fantastic in the middle. Camstache was supposed to be this great DE. We were supposed to have our pick of any other great DEs, from Eric Martin to Jason Ankrah to Josh Williams to Joe Carter.

But none of them have panned out. Crick was nearly a ghost the first half of the season, and now he's gone completely. Stein has been underwhelming at best. Camstache was fine early but has lately been gone from the stats pages. Neither Ankrah nor EMart have done anything, and EMart is barely seeing the field. Our front four, depth galore, was supposed to be a huge solid wall. Instead, it's been a sieve.

Behind them you have Lavonte David, yet another All-American candidate. David is legit and cannot be complained about. I would love another four David clones out there. Fisher and Compton were supposed to be both fully healed after last year's injuries and ready to go full-bore. Instead, Fisher has been a huge disappointment, whiffing on so many blocks I've given up trying to count. Compton has been OK but definitely not flashy. Not at all.

The secondary was where we were really shelled by the Draft, but that's barely an excuse. Every team loses good players to graduation. You cannot say we lost Amukamara, Hagg and Gomes and say we expected to be bad. That just puts you on par with every other team in America.

What really baffles me about the secondary is this:

P.J. Smith - four years in the system, not even starting
Ciante Evans - two years in the system, started games last year, getting burned this year
Courtney Osborne - four years in the system, not even starting
Austin Cassidy - four years in the system, making many errors
Andrew Green - third year in the system, responsible for about half of all TDs caught against us
Lance Thorell - four years in the system, making many errors

How can these guys have this much time in the system, yet be this bad? Bo recruited every one of them, I believe. They've been around long enough to know his defense backwards and forwards, yet all we see is bumbling and stumbling. That is NOT on these players - that is on Bo, and his defensive coaches.

If you recruit these guys and you don't get solid production out of them by their Junior year (after a redshirt), then you failed, either as a coach or as a recruiter, because that guy shouldn't be on your team anyway.

The fact that we had to convert Stanley Jean-Baptiste to a CB in an emergency - and that he's now starting - says that something is VERY WRONG.

Lance Thorell cannot be the best guy we have to put out there.
Justin Blatchford cannot be the best guy we have to put out there.
Austin Cassidy cannot be the best guy we have to put out there.
Andrew Green cannot be the best guy we have to put out there.

If they are, then our coaches have failed. Not this year, but last year, the year before that and the year before that, when they should have been getting these guys ready to go seamlessly. You cannot have a rebuilding year when you've had guys in your system for more than half of their careers.

Anyway. End rant.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Sure. Sparty beat tOSU by 3, and Nebraska beat tOSU by 7. Do we need to explain the transitive property of football to you?

Sparty beat us by 3 at home, and since homefield advantage is worth 3 points, they essentially beat us by 6. Conversely, Nebraska's homefield advantage of 3 points results in their 7-point victory only being a win by a net margin of 4 points.

MSU 6, Nebraska 4.

 

[BB73]

Sparty beat us by 3 at home, and since homefield advantage is worth 3 points, they essentially beat us by 6. Conversely, Nebraska's homefield advantage of 3 points results in their 7-point victory only being a win by a net margin of 4 points.

MSU 6, Nebraska 4.

So we were at home against Sparty, and then Nebraska was the home team against us.

So can those games be called a "home-and-home" series? :tongue2:

I couldn't find this as a smiley.

 

[alexhortdog95]

The secondary was where we were really shelled by the Draft, but that's barely an excuse. Every team loses good players to graduation. You cannot say we lost Amukamara, Hagg and Gomes and say we expected to be bad. That just puts you on par with every other team in America.

So here's how I see this one...

Bad defense can be summed up two ways, in my opinion:

1. Poor pressure by the front seven. This ratchets up pressure on your secondary.

2. Poor coverage by the secondary. This lowers coverage sacks.

Irregardless, if people don't have a killer instinct when they come to knock the hell out of a ball carrier, they won't play their best.

I think that we were the beneficiary of some extrordinary circumstances two years in a row.

In year two of the Pelini regime, he had good coverage his secondary, which created sacks and generated pressure for the front seven. This is evident becuase Nebraska was in the top 5 in the country in sacks (averaging 3 1/2 a game).

In year three, he had an excellent secondary, but an average at best front seven (other than David). This is also evident when you look at where they ranked in sacks in 2010 (45th in the country).

This is year four. Now, the defense isn't generating pressure up front, which exposes a very young secondary. Evident when you look at how poor they are at generating pressure (101st in the country in sacks).

Statistically makes for the perfect storm.

Look at LSU. It's not a coinscidence that they're #1 in the country right now. They don't have an offense that is stellar. But they do have a front seven that generates tons of pressure without having to blitz - and they've got a secondary that is one of, if not the best in the country right now.

I also understand that some of these guys have been in the system for two years. But another thing you have to take into consideration is the fact that you not only have newer players at the positions - but you also have a new position coach in Corey Raymond. Marvin Sanders was known to be a very excellent position coach, not to mention the assistant head coach while he was here, and a well liked guy. You can't just replace that kind of experiece overnight, it takes time.