Week 9 v Northwestern: Game Notes, Depth Chart, Etc

[dom91932]

lol I hope we never change as Husker fans.

An hour ago: Spindler may never play again, nearly had to amputate his finger

Now: cleared to play this week

 

[Irv]

By all accounts, that was far and away Rhule's best presser since being here. Genuinely came across as pissed off and disappointed in the entire operation from the Water boy all the way up to himself. He's holding everyone accountable.

Water boy catching strays again. He just delivers the news, people.

 

[Pipe Line]

Ummm……. Wow

Frost quote

 

[Seaofred92]

Full Rhule presser from today… a must watch IMO

 

[jfrommer]

Matt Rhule: Nebraska must take ownership of 'ridiculous' performance at Minnesota to make fixes vs Northwestern

LINCOLN — Throughout the course of last week’s practices, film sessions and meetings, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule felt he did enough to stress how good of a team Minnesota

www.hastingstribune.com

 

[Dell Husker]

Matt Rhule: Nebraska must take ownership of 'ridiculous' performance at Minnesota to make fixes vs Northwestern

LINCOLN — Throughout the course of last week’s practices, film sessions and meetings, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule felt he did enough to stress how good of a team Minnesota

www.hastingstribune.com

Here’s the article for those who don’t want to click.

LINCOLN — Throughout the course of last week’s practices, film sessions and meetings, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule felt he did enough to stress how good of a team Minnesota was.
How well the Golden Gophers tackle and play defense. How strong they can be in running the ball and getting to the quarterback if you aren’t prepared. How horribly wrong things can go for opposing teams inside Huntington Bank Stadium, when you aren’t focused.
By evidence of the Huskers’ 24-6 loss on Friday, what he said wasn’t


“I’m pissed off at the coaches, myself,” Rhule said Monday speaking to the media for the first time since after Nebraska’s second loss of the season. “Im mad. I don't know how to say anything other than that…You can't give up nine sacks. You have to run the football. You have to convert third downs and if they are going to blitz you, you have to get the ball out. It was not any one thing. It was just bad football.”


Rhule, speaking ahead of Nebraska’s home game this Saturday against Northwestern, used his annual Monday press conference time to emphasize his message to not only everyone inside the Huskers’ football building, but in the fanbase, too: that performance on Friday was unacceptable.
Nebraska, in losing to Minnesota for a sixth-straight time, did just about everything wrong.
On offense, the Huskers failed to score a touchdown for the first time in Rhule’s tenure. They couldn’t protect quarterback Dylan Raiola throughout the night, but especially after losing two starting offensive linemen. They never found the running game — or attempted to establish it — the same way they did in their win at Maryland.
Defensively, the Huskers didn’t create havoc in the backfield. Didn’t stop the run. Didn’t tackle at the line of scrimmage or in the second level. And had self-inflicted penalties that extended Minnesota drives.


The only group that received any sort of praise on Monday for their performance was special teams. But to win a game like Friday’s — or any game period — Nebraska needs a lot more than that.
“It was just not good enough, at all,” Rhule said. “That rests on my shoulders and if our players are who they say they are, it rests on their shoulders, too…We didn't play nearly good enough.”
Monday’s message from Rhule was about ownership. From the top with his own responsibilities, down to coordinators, position coaches and players, the Huskers have to accept that they are only as good as their last performance. And accept that to be able to make positive steps over the next five weeks, a showing like that can’t occur again.
“It doesn’t carry over into this game unless we let it,” Rhule said. “Our team has every opportunity to come back this week. I'm not mad at the guys. I'm mad at myself and the coaches. I blame us.”


Rhule wasn't one to shy away from his team’s performances being under his responsibility. If the Huskers look good, it falls on him. If they look bad, it falls on him, too.
“We preach ownership,” Rhule said. “I did not have the team prepared to be the more physical team.”
That was the most glaring issue when it came to Friday’s loss to Minnesota. Nebraska wasn’t ready to compete on either side of the trenches.

The nine sacks Nebraska allowed were a culmination of everything going wrong. Rocco Spindler got hurt and Elijah Pritchett got ejected for targeting. There were three instances where whichever running back was in the game missed an assignment. Raiola was holding on to the ball for too long and in some cases, nothing was open downfield.
Could a more balanced offensive game plan have helped? Sure. But the Huskers didn’t run the ball well enough, either.


“The coaching staff has to figure out, not what we want to do, but what we can do (offensively),” Rhule said. “It’s purely on us.”
When Nebraska’s defense was on the field, Minnesota took control of the line of scrimmage then, too. And the Huskers’ tackling in the back end wasn’t good enough to limit the damage.
Rhule said it doesn’t matter how many tackling drills the Huskers do over the course of the year in practice. If it doesn’t translate into games, their issues will remain in place.
“You don't get to just dive at people's feet and think good things are going to happen,” Rhule said. “Stay on your feet, strike, get off blocks, make tackles…I will take ownership of it, but I am looking for some players that want to take ownership of it because at the end of the day, that wasn’t good enough.”


In some cases, a year ago when the Huskers were in a similar position coming off an embarrassing loss at Indiana, that’s exactly what happened. In a hard-fought loss at Ohio State, Nebraska’s players were able to whittle the game back down to I being themselves against the opponent in front of them.
For a large portion of that game, Nebraska was able to win its one-on-ones, giving the eventual national champions a four-quarter fight. The Buckeyes were just the better team.
On Saturday, the Huskers should be the better team when they play Northwestern. But if they overlook the Wildcats like Rhule felt like they did with Minnesota, a similar outcome could happen.
Northwestern, since its home loss to Oregon, have rattled off four-straight victories behind a rushing attack that ranks sixth in the Big Ten, averaging 190 yards per game on the ground. The Wildcats will have the goal of pushing Nebraska around, just like Minnesota did.


“They are really physical and play really hard,” Rhule said of the Wildcats. “They run the football at a high level. Do you know how hard it is to shutout people in college football? They did that to Purdue last week. They play really sound defense and have a great pass rush. They are physical up front and are sixth in the Big Ten in rushing. They got a wideout (Griffin Wilde) who nobody can cover and gets most of their targets. They don't beat themselves, so it is a repeat of the type of team we played last week. We will find out about ourselves this week.”
What does Rhule exactly want to find out? Who within his team is ready to stand up and say that enough is enough.
Rhule seemed to have reached that point on Monday. Only time will tell if the rest of the Huskers follow suit.


“We are coming home, playing at home against a good team,” Rhule said. “I sure hope we show up.
“If Northwestern is just better than us, so be it. But if fans spend their money this week and watch a team diving on the ground to make tackles and being pushed back into the quarterback, then I would boo us. We better show up. We will show.”

 

[vailhusker]

So, for those who have been watching what areas has Northwestern been struggling with? So we will know what is going to work against Nebraska.

As soon as you heard Minnesota was struggling running the ball, you knew they were going to have a night. Same with Underwood not being a very ile QB etc...

 

[Dr.DrakeRamoray]

So, for those who have been watching what areas has Northwestern been struggling with? So we will know what is going to work against Nebraska.

As soon as you heard Minnesota was struggling running the ball, you knew they were going to have a night. Same with Underwood not being a very ile QB etc...

I don’t think anyone said underwood isn’t ile, he just hadn’t scrambled much to that point

 

[Baron Winnebago]

I don’t think anyone said underwood isn’t ile, he just hadn’t scrambled much to that point

Same with Washington. Becoming very clear that any QB with reasonable athleticism will run against the ButtFense

 

[vailhusker]

I don’t think anyone said underwood isn’t ile, he just hadn’t scrambled much to that point

Butler expected him to stay in the pocket more like a pro-style QB but Poggi turned him loose. Just saying whatever we think some of these teams were going to do they have done something different.

Fat Sam said this morning that Northwestern's offense isn't very good so now I'm expecting that they will have a good game against Nebraska 🤣.

 

[Sous Chef]

Butler expected him to stay in the pocket more like a pro-style QB but Poggi turned him loose. Just saying whatever we think some of these teams were going to do they have done something different.

Fat Sam said this morning that Northwestern's offense isn't very good so now I'm expecting that they will have a good game against Nebraska 🤣.