Playing with a lead

[Blakejc]

Wanted to get some opinions on why this team is good at building leads, but poor at keeping or extending the lead? Offense seems to sputter and defense seems to leak once we’re ahead by double digits. The good news is we’ve pulled out the win in all these games, but it’s way more stressful than need be.

Up 20-10 vs. Cincy with 10:46 left in the 4th quarter. Final 20-17

Up 14-0 vs. Michigan st. In 1st quarter, then MSU was up 21-14 late in the 3Q. Final 38-27

Up 24-14 vs. Maryland towards end of 2nd Q. Maryland up 31-24 at start of 4Q. Final 34-31.

Up 21-6 vs. northwestern with 6 minutes left in the 3Q. Northwestern tied 21-21 with 11 minutes left in the 4Q. Final 28-21

Up 14-6 vs. USC but won’t count that one due to losing Dylan.

Up 28-7 vs. UCLA with 11:37 left in the 3Q. UCLA pulls it to 28-21 with 4 minutes left in the 4Q. Final 28-21.

So why is this happening pretty consistently? Is it a mindset shift where we left off the gas? a schematic shift where we call the game differently up two scores? or simply we’re just not that good yet to be building on the lead and closing the door/beating these teams by 2+ scores?

 

[RedSavage]

A combination of not being good enough to put them away and being terrified of beating ourselves

 

[Baron Winnebago]

I think Butler has a tendency to go conservative on defense and that works out predictably.

And couple that bad boy with consistent red zone execution issues on offense

Here we are

 

[Alcaus]

Nebraska doesn't get a ton of snaps during games. I think the UCLA game they ran ~50 plays that weren't clock management oriented. So, not a ton of opportunity to put up a lot of points. Nebraska is ranked 103rd in plays per game. Down 8% from 2024. That said, they're ~top-30 offense this year in most statistical categories.

On defense, bad angles in the secondary have led to big plays this year in the running game. Think that's led to the major percentage of opponent points this season.

So, not sure if that's mental breakdowns from a young roster or scheme changes late in games.

 

[realbp]

I think it's a carryover from the NFL coaching style.

Last Saturday, I think it was being up 21 and knowing they didn't need to score anymore. The only way UCLA threatens to win that game is through turnovers.

 

[Huskers633]

I think we get very conservative and Rhule is more concerned about keeping the lead and running clock instead of stomping on someone's throat and trying to put them away. It's his NFL mentality that I cannot stand.

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

Playing with a lead can be difficult because lead is one of the heaviest elements & really slows you down.

 

[Jim14510]

I think it's a carryover from the NFL coaching style.

Last Saturday, I think it was being up 21 and knowing they didn't need to score anymore. The only way UCLA threatens to win that game is through turnovers.

And we won all but one of opees games so idgaf

 

[Cavalot]

Wanted to get some opinions on why this team is good at building leads, but poor at keeping or extending the lead? Offense seems to sputter and defense seems to leak once we’re ahead by double digits. The good news is we’ve pulled out the win in all these games, but it’s way more stressful than need be.

Up 20-10 vs. Cincy with 10:46 left in the 4th quarter. Final 20-17

Up 14-0 vs. Michigan st. In 1st quarter, then MSU was up 21-14 late in the 3Q. Final 38-27

Up 24-14 vs. Maryland towards end of 2nd Q. Maryland up 31-24 at start of 4Q. Final 34-31.

Up 21-6 vs. northwestern with 6 minutes left in the 3Q. Northwestern tied 21-21 with 11 minutes left in the 4Q. Final 28-21

Up 14-6 vs. USC but won’t count that one due to losing Dylan.

Up 28-7 vs. UCLA with 11:37 left in the 3Q. UCLA pulls it to 28-21 with 4 minutes left in the 4Q. Final 28-21.

So why is this happening pretty consistently? Is it a mindset shift where we left off the gas? a schematic shift where we call the game differently up two scores? or simply we’re just not that good yet to be building on the lead and closing the door/beating these teams by 2+ scores?

Offensively we become overly conservative. Defensively we tighten up. A mediocre program trying to learn how to play like champions. We have a ways to go. But for 3 quarters each game its promising.

 

[herbsinator]

Offensively we become overly conservative. Defensively we tighten up. A mediocre program trying to learn how to play like champions. We have a ways to go. But for 3 quarters each game its promising.

Some of it I think is intentional due to Rhule’s preferences in game management, but I also think the team is still learning how to win. Definitely improving in this area though given where we’ve been.

 

[biscuitgaze01]

Something to keep in mind regarding the UCLA game is we burned clock on non-scoring drives and even though UCLA ended up scoring touchdowns, on 2 of their 3 scoring drives they burned extensive fractions of the clock. The pts/min ratio played in our favor at the end of the game.

I would be more concerned if we gave up massive easy scores against UCLA.

 

[herbsinator]

Something to keep in mind regarding the UCLA game is we burned clock on non-scoring drives and even though UCLA ended up scoring touchdowns, on 2 of their 3 scoring drives they burned extensive fractions of the clock. The pts/min ratio played in our favor at the end of the game.

I would be more concerned if we gave up massive easy scores against UCLA.

The 4 minute drill at the end of the game was big boy football too. 95% of the time in past seasons that would have been a quick 3 and out or a turnover, with UCLA marching down to score after and tie the game.

 

[skersker]

teams who suck lose games, especially close ones like weve seen for a decade

eventually if they figure it out, these teams start to learn how to win close games and change their mentality and have more confidence. its decently clear that they are getting better at this portion and its where theyre at right now

the next step for them is now learning how to play with a lead and put teams away, which takes time just like the process of learning how to win close games

to me its just the natural evolution of changing a losing program into a potential winning program

 

[huskerj12]

I think it's a carryover from the NFL coaching style.

I think we get very conservative and Rhule is more concerned about keeping the lead and running clock instead of stomping on someone's throat and trying to put them away. It's his NFL mentality that I cannot stand.

Yeah I have no idea how to find the quote I'm thinking of, but I'm pretty sure Rhule has literally said early on in his tenure that he prefers games to go that way. It's kinda bizarre and makes things more difficult than they need to be.

 

[gtlacey]

He did say in his press conference that when you're up like that, the easiest way to blow a team out is to get a takeaway. Which we don't get a ton of takeaways. But he did say that's the next step in our program's progession.

Starts at about the 15:10 mark.

 

[Poor_and_Stupid]

I won’t say this verbatim, but Rhule has basically said most of our conference games are going to be close. It’s annoying considering a lot of them don’t need to be this way.

I envy the Cignetti’s ability to instill the will to crush the opponent. He expects to destroy the other team. Our coach expects a tight game. Not saying that are issues are as simple as adjusting our mentality, but it would be a start.

 

[whoboppin]

Relapse is apart of recovery

Instead of losing every game by 1 score, we are stating to win a good amount of games by 1 score. Next step is to not even have close games.

Lose Big
Lose Small
Win Small
Win Big

 

[Huskersballz]

I think we get very conservative and Rhule is more concerned about keeping the lead and running clock instead of stomping on someone's throat and trying to put them away. It's his NFL mentality that I cannot stand.

And that’s why he didn’t last in the NFL.

NFL coaches absolutely want to stomp on peoples throat and run it up with no regard but you just don’t see it as much since there is more parity.

There’s always a game or two a year where the Lions will get up big and Dan Campbell will be calling halfback passes and ridiculous stuff like that even when up multiple touchdowns.

 

[redzoner]

Some additional reasons I think we have struggled with this.

OL Depth and Injuries
- We have been struggling with losing guys and not being able to really lean on defenses when needed.

RB Depth
- Emmett is great but if we still had Dowdell or another physical back to help pound away at teams it would help.

Pass Rush
- When teams are down they have to throw more. If we had a better pass rush to get more Sacks and Turnovers it makes it easier to break open a game.

 

[Quint]

I think it's a carryover from the NFL coaching style.

Last Saturday, I think it was being up 21 and knowing they didn't need to score anymore. The only way UCLA threatens to win that game is through turnovers.

The bolded is at least part of it. We’re ahead and the traditional mindset was ‘Don’t do anything to screw it up’. Slightly less aggressive play calling on both sides of the ball and more of a ’shorten the game’ attitude.

Combine that with a team that is still learning what the killer instinct looks like and how to win/close out games, and you get strange things happening. Young players feed off the energy of the game. Slow it down and they slow down.

It’s not like it was last year or the year before, but it’s still there. That said, I’ll take it 10 out of 10 times over the dumbfuckery displayed during the Frost era and the new and exciting ways we could find to lose football games.