Well any of you out there that scan the Internet regularly sure had one hell of a scare last night. It was definitely a tense couple of hours for me.
To those of you who aren’t aware, rumors started circulating very quickly that freshman QB Taylor Martinez had quit the team, apparently in reaction to Bo Pelini chewing him out on the sideline.
The word on the street is that Bo was pissed about T-Mart texting his dad while he was in the locker room getting his injured ankle taped up. No idea if this is a true story, it’s just what I’ve heard.
I don’t really understand why that would upset Bo so much, but I would assume he was just overreacting to anything and everything presented in front of him because of what was happening in the game. And if you’re unaware of that, read this.
I will now be moving on from the officiating travesty, the conspiracy theories (until next week!), and the Martinez quitting the team rumors. There’s a big game this week that deserves my complete and undivided attention.
Alright, professor monocle is now on…..
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Rushing Offense: Rex Burkhead ran really hard, and became the featured back over Roy Helu for most of the game, receiving 13 carries to Helu’s 9. Neither were very effective on stretch runs around the perimeter of the Aggies defense, who was getting penetration from their outside linebackers all night. Some success was found runnin straight ahead out of the heavy formation. Despite Helu and Burkhead both averaging over 5 yards per carry, the Huskers ground game was still held nearly 150 yards below their season average. T-Mobile and his injured ankle were largely ineffective running the ball. And why was I led to believe Cody Green had the ability to run? Seems 100% false to me. Grade C-
Passing Offense: The dropsies made a semi-return on Saturday night as Brandon Kinnie and Niles Paul both muffed a couple in their hands. The biggest miss of the night came from Martinez’s inability to wait a half second longer for Kyler Reed to break wide open on a post route in the 3rd quarter. The pass was intercepted. It confuses me why the coaches would look to Cody Green over The Wildman Zac Lee. Pelini said in his Monday press conference that Lee was available to play, but he chose to go with Green. This bothers me. Simply put, Lee is better than Green. Hell, I’d rather see The Wildman out there over a hobbled Martinez, who couldn’t plant his foot to throw the ball accurately. 5-15 on 3rd downs and poor execution on the final drive (get rid of the ball T-Mart!) drop this grade significantly. Grade D
Rushing Defense: The defense as a whole played well. However, Texas A&M really started opening up holes in the 2nd half, leading to Cyrus Gray’s 137 rushing yards. His longest run of the night was only 18 yards though. You can’t blame Saturday night’s loss on the defense, that’s for sure. Grade B-
Passing Defense: I’d like to hand out props to a handful of players who I thought had excellent games on Saturday. Jared Crick was all over the Aggie backfield with a hand in on two sacks. Eric Hagg was breaking up passes left and right, and was called “one of the best defenders in the country” by Kirk Herbstreit. Courtney Osborne, Dr. Tom’s third cousin, made play after play, most of which were legal. And Pierre Allen, who I’ve called out with my words before, stepped up and played big. The pass defense was once again on lockdown, but didn’t come up with any turnovers. It’s always hard to grade this unit because of such high expectation. Grade B+
Specialty Teams: What happened to Adi’s leg? Only one of his three kickoffs reached the end zone, a grave disappointment to me. With little else to say, isn’t it fun watching Alex Henery kick field goals? I’ve said it here before, but I’m almost disappointed when he doesn’t split the uprights perfectly down the middle. He didn’t disappoint on his first field goal, placing it in the precise mathematical center. Twice. Lou Groza!!! Grade: B