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The straight scoop from
Colonel Mustard

Sept. 19, 2005

That was a very good defensive effort and we were able to pull out a win. The good news that we are 3-0, we have a stout defense and bye week to work on the offense. The bad news is that offense is terrible and has regressed from Bill’s first year. Our special teams were excellent except the missed FGs.

Our defensive front 7 had another big game. Carriker was almost unblockable. The only way they stopped him was to hold. Turner and Muhammad also applied great pressure. The secondary did a good job and Grixby staying between Lee and the goal line on his big catch saved the game. We must continue to blitz and apply pressure because we now have the personnel to do it and our corners still lack experience. We missed more tackles in the running game than we have previously this year. The biggest positive from this game defensively is that our corners held up against a passing team. We must continue to protect them by attacking with our front 7.

Nunn’s punt return was one of the finest runs that I have ever seen. He broke tackles, made people miss and waited for his blockers to catch and produced another 20 yards. Just a great run during which he was under control the whole time. Koch is a great punter. We sure can grow them in Nebraska. Potter and Ickes' FG blocks and Grixby’s play were the difference in the game. Congdon kicked like a freshman in his first pressure situations. As I said last year, Dyches rarely gets a chance, but when he does he makes his kicks. Overall we won the kicking game and this facet should be strong all year.

On offense the execution is terrible. We can’t get out of our own way or get lined up right. A neutral observer who didn’t know we had an offensive genius as a head coach would say this is a very poorly coached group. I like all the motion and shifting as long as you are not tricking yourself which is what we are doing. Also we are very predictable, 3 times Jackson lined up at fullback in the I he shifted to the left wing and we ran off right tackle. The play gained 13, 0, and -4 -- it appears that they figured out what was coming. Green is apparently the only one who can run the reverse pitch which is the only play he ran last year. We certainly have talent issues in the line and at TE, and the receivers have been disappointing. But you can’t blame unforced execution errors on talent. That is coaching. Ross gave us all he had on Saturday and he gets the most he can out of his rushes. I thought that the line looked much better in the 4th quarter when we went to smashmouth ball to preserve the win. Zac hung in there through some big hits. But he just hangs on to the ball too long and his inexperience shows on the goal line when he ran running plays into to the strength of the defense and ignored an uncovered nose. I believe that Zac will get better, we just have to be patient with him. The NFL uses yards per attempt as a judge of effectiveness of the passing game. In his first 3 starts Lord was 6.2 per attempt and Zac is 4.4.

The bottom line is we are 3-0 with a greatly improved defense and strong special teams. You can win with that formula, but the offense has got to figure out a way to move the ball or the defense will wear down. The most disturbing trend was the vast number of tickets for sale outside the game. Ticket Express advertised tickets at below face value. If you are a fan who always wanted to go to a game but couldn’t get tickets, now is your time.

Keep The Faith. GBR.
 
-- The Colonel

 

 
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