And focused on the offense.
Houston does well with sideline passes. Out of the 4 completions, his best 2 were sideline passes that were of the catch and run variety. He had short pass up the middle to Fumagalli for a 1st down and another on a bubble screen to Wheelright. He also had an incompletion to Steffes that was almost intercepted. Steffes did a good job of breaking it up.
Obviously the INT was egregious as it was a one read play and he forced the ball into double coverage even though he had some room to run. A 5th year senior shouldn't be making mistakes when given a single read. Either run it or throw it away if the receiver is covered. Not surprisingly he got an earful from Chryst when he got to the sidelines. He was sacked twice. I was expecting that he'd keep the ball on some of the draw plays but it never came.
Hornibrook seemed to be under pressure a lot. Sometimes it's because his lack of pocket presence. Other times it was just poor protection. Dietzen was particularly bad, probably due to his youth and injury. The TD pass was well designed. Horni was backing up into pressure (poor pocket presence) but Wheelright was wide open and the pass was on the money.
Horni's 2nd pass of the game was a thing of beauty. Fumagalli ran a wheel route and Horni just dropped the ball into his hands. It resulted in the Shaw TD run. Another was the 1st down conversion to Wheelwright between two defenders. Horni was again, under pressure.
PC called two screen plays and they were completed but blocking was out of sync (or see it another way, Nebraska defenders made great plays) so the receivers were tackled at the LOS. One was a Kapoi whiff and the other one I believe was Dieter. They need to rep the screen passes more to get the linemen in position to shield off defenders.
The INT happened when Horni locked on to Fumagalli. He also had some pressure as a blitzer was diving at his legs. As previously mentioned, Clement was wide open as a checkdown.
Huge kudos to Chryst for recognizing that the draw play would work against Nebraska's scheme. It was our most successful play. PC kept running it and we kept getting huge yardage from it. Draw to the right, draw to the left, draw up the middle. And to think that many fans want Dare to sit so that other backs can get more carries. Sometimes it's not about the speed or power that brings a team success. It's situational awareness and vision. Dare juked and changed directions just enough to keep the tacklers flat footed. Good thing Chryst doesn't read fan forums.
Houston finished the game was not a surprise. After his INT, Chryst did not call anymore passes for the rest of the game. If we were not going to pass the ball, Houston would be the obvious choice. He can at least run the ball a bit. It has no implication on the depth chart.
Houston does well with sideline passes. Out of the 4 completions, his best 2 were sideline passes that were of the catch and run variety. He had short pass up the middle to Fumagalli for a 1st down and another on a bubble screen to Wheelright. He also had an incompletion to Steffes that was almost intercepted. Steffes did a good job of breaking it up.
Obviously the INT was egregious as it was a one read play and he forced the ball into double coverage even though he had some room to run. A 5th year senior shouldn't be making mistakes when given a single read. Either run it or throw it away if the receiver is covered. Not surprisingly he got an earful from Chryst when he got to the sidelines. He was sacked twice. I was expecting that he'd keep the ball on some of the draw plays but it never came.
Hornibrook seemed to be under pressure a lot. Sometimes it's because his lack of pocket presence. Other times it was just poor protection. Dietzen was particularly bad, probably due to his youth and injury. The TD pass was well designed. Horni was backing up into pressure (poor pocket presence) but Wheelright was wide open and the pass was on the money.
Horni's 2nd pass of the game was a thing of beauty. Fumagalli ran a wheel route and Horni just dropped the ball into his hands. It resulted in the Shaw TD run. Another was the 1st down conversion to Wheelwright between two defenders. Horni was again, under pressure.
PC called two screen plays and they were completed but blocking was out of sync (or see it another way, Nebraska defenders made great plays) so the receivers were tackled at the LOS. One was a Kapoi whiff and the other one I believe was Dieter. They need to rep the screen passes more to get the linemen in position to shield off defenders.
The INT happened when Horni locked on to Fumagalli. He also had some pressure as a blitzer was diving at his legs. As previously mentioned, Clement was wide open as a checkdown.
Huge kudos to Chryst for recognizing that the draw play would work against Nebraska's scheme. It was our most successful play. PC kept running it and we kept getting huge yardage from it. Draw to the right, draw to the left, draw up the middle. And to think that many fans want Dare to sit so that other backs can get more carries. Sometimes it's not about the speed or power that brings a team success. It's situational awareness and vision. Dare juked and changed directions just enough to keep the tacklers flat footed. Good thing Chryst doesn't read fan forums.
Houston finished the game was not a surprise. After his INT, Chryst did not call anymore passes for the rest of the game. If we were not going to pass the ball, Houston would be the obvious choice. He can at least run the ball a bit. It has no implication on the depth chart.
