Nebraska started out strong on defense block a punt on Baylor’s opening drive and running it back for a touchdown. But the story of the game was freshman Cody Green getting the starting nod. I’d grade his start out at a C+, he adds an explosive element to the offense in his rushing ability but a fumble and an interception for a pick-six kept Baylor in the game.

Notably, Baylor outgained Nebraska in offensive yards 276-274. But the Blackshirts came to play as Jared Crick set a new Husker record for sacks.

The Nebraska offense continues to struggle and as I said last week, the problem isn’t the Husker quarterback, but rather Shawn Watson. This guy has continually proven he has no clue what he is doing with play calling. When Nebraska can’t even put together a time-killing drive to end the game, something is wrong. something bigger than one position on the field. Less than 15 plays in this game were called to move the ball in the middle of the field. I’m convinced the rest were designed to maximize the number of yards Nebraska can gain moving from sideline to sideline. There is no attack in what Shawn Watson calls. Nebraska had the opportunity to put their foot on Baylor’s throat to start the second half and sputtered.

If Nebraska Shawn Watson can’t find a way to get this offense to move the ball the Oklahoma game, 7 days from today, will be an absolute debacle that could send the rest of the season spiraling out of control.

You chance to sound off, Zac Lee or Cody Green as starter for the rest of the season.
Name the starting QB:n

Nebraska had more turnovers than points. Ugly.

It’s going to be a long night in the Red tonight. Nebraska squandered opportunity after opportunity due to turnovers. Four trips inside the 5 ended with turnovers, 2 other interceptions late in the game and 2 other fumbles. Yet the Husker defense kept Nebraska in the game.

Nebraska is now 4-3 on the season, 1-2 in the Big 12 and is clearly at a crossroad. The Offense is anemic at best. While today’s loss can’t be pinned on Zac Lee, it is clear that fundamentaly something is wrong with the gameplan. As Robert pointed out in the comments, SI.com’s Stewart Mandel said, “what a waste of an elite defense…what a joke on offense.”

Is Cody Green the future. I don’t know, but I think a future without Shawn Watson should be in the cards. In fact, I’ll say it now, Fire Shawn Watson. The West Coast Offense, even as the bastardized spread-with-west-coast-reads version Nebraska is currently running is too complicated for the college game. An offense that takes 3 years to learn and culminates with one – maybe two – years for a starting QB isn’t something can be run in a college game.

I shudder to think what will happen next year when Ndamakong Suh moves on, and there better be a plan in place to deal with the 2010 defense when it is weakened in the off-season. Do they play to make it up with offense?

If 2009 becomes a throwaway season for Nebraska, then perhaps it is time to bring Cody Green into the fold as starting QB, change the offense to work with the talent Nebraska has, and quit trying to stick square pegs into round holes.

By the numbers
Iowa State had 231 total yards of offense, 130 rushing, 101 passing. 5-18 on third down conversions. Nine punts and 8 penalties.

Nebraska had 355 total yards of offense, 114 rushing, 241 passing. 5-13 on third down conversions, 4 punts and 3 penalties.

-I’m working on the recap, but feel free to start your comments-

I’m always interested to hear what Samuel McKewon of Nebraska StatePaper has to say about the state of affairs in and around Memorial Stadium.

Head coach Bo Pelini preaches high standards. That’s good. He’s not satisfied with nine-win seasons. He asks for perfection because, in his words, “you get what you ask for.” He coaches a tenacious, active game in search of execution and mental toughness. And he’s good after a loss – better, maybe, than after a win.

The man was in his element this week. He’s got his team buying into an us-against-the-world mentality…Fans may perceive Pelini as angry. Not precisely. He’s trying to use a difficult loss – a stunning loss, really – as a rallying point to quickly reverse course.

Pelini doesn’t believe in a panic button. It doesn’t mean he isn’t pushing some other buttons.

It wasn’t a “stunning loss.” Texas Tech owns us. Period. That’s what’s stunning to me. In fact, it’s so stunning I’ve been in a foul mood all week (as far as football goes), angry even.

As I compose this, I’m listening to the radio feed of today’s game against Iowa State. Helu fumbles on his first carry and ISU recovers deep in our territory. WTF?

ISU 3 – NU 0 in the first. And the saga continues…

Go Big Red!

Nebraska’s game against Baylor on October 31 has been picked up by Versus and will be broadcasted with a start time of 11:30 am Central Time.

Nebraska’s next game – with Iowa State coming to town on October 24 – will be televised. Game time is set for 11:30 AM Central Time with television coverage on Fox Sports.

On the heels of Nebraska’s loss to Texas Tech, the Huskers have dropped off both the AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll.

Based on vote totals, Nebraska would be ranked #26 in both polls – outside of the official Top 25.

Other Big 12 Teams in Rankings (Team: AP, USAToday):
Texas: #3, #3
Oklahoma State: #14, #12
Texas Tech: #21, #24
Kansas: #24, #21
Oklahoma: #25, NR

Texas Tech defensive end Daniel Howard scooped up a dropped lateral from Zac Lee to Niles Paul and returned it for a touchdown in the first quarter today. It was a play that should not have happened. Paul or Mike Smith could have tackled him, but they didn’t “play ’til the whistle” and Tech took a 14-0 lead and all the momentum in the world to the house.

The Red Raiders are scrappy football players. They hustle and they get it done. Where was our hustle today? It looked like our Adidas were glued to the Memorial Stadium turf.

I think most Husker fans can take a loss. What we can not tolerate is a lack of effort, or a lack of mental and physical toughness. But these key factors were not present today. Killer penalty after dropped pass, that’s what today was.

Personally, I’m disgusted by our performance against Big 12 South teams. Until that riddle is solved, nothing is solved and the Pelini brothers are going to need to dig deeper than they’ve ever dug to solve it.

Given the play of the offense this season, the game many of us expected, but hoped didn’t happen, happened. Another dismal offensive performance that was unable to be offset by the defense, and Nebraska falls to Texas Tech by a 21-point margin.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you want to term it, I managed to miss the first half in favor of my daughter’s 3rd birthday party, but the DVR was running and I’ll run through the first half tonight to see just how bad the emails I’ve already received have said it was.

From what I saw in the second half, this offense needs a spark, and I’m not sure that a quarterback switch is what will trigger it. In fairness to both Green and Lee, the trend continues with conservative, and predictable, play calling. But play calling is only the first part of the equation, followed by execution – and the execution is lacking. Both QBs seem too slow in the pocket and lock in to their target, ignoring reads and a general lack of throwing off the secondary.

I’ll be back later tonight after watching the first half, but I’d like to hear your comments, so fire away.

–more to come, but add your thoughts in the comments–

According to Jon Nyatawa of Omaha World Herald, “the Huskers aren’t just tweaking their attack plan every week, they’re overhauling it.”

(Offensive Coordinator) Watson wants his unit to execute every aspect of its playbook. That way, when defenses craft their scheme around one concept, Nebraska can pinpoint the exposed weaknesses and capitalize.

The Huskers’ objective revolves around this overused expression: They take what the defense gives them. But it’s as simple as that, Watson says.

One overhaul in the works for Saturday is the search for a number two running back after true freshman Rex Burkhead broke a bone in his foot during practice earlier this week.

According to Lincoln Journal Star, another true freshman Dontrayevous Robinson from Euless, Texas has preserved a redshirt thus far but is now in the mix to play. We may also see Lester Ward, Austin Jones, Marcus Mendoza and Collins Okafor in the backfield against Texas Tech.

“I told them all today we’re starting from scratch, and whoever earns it is going to be the guy getting the opportunity,” running backs coach Tim Beck said.