• 2 years ago
Transcript
00:00 Welcome to the Character Chronicles, the people's show, check out the Pulse of Esplanade brought
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00:17 This is my gut reaction to Nebraska's 45-7 loss to Michigan.
00:23 Alright, so my initial reaction is Michigan's one of the best teams in the country.
00:27 That's what they look like, and we look like a team that has a long way to go.
00:32 This is what happens when one of the best teams in the country plays a team with a long
00:35 ways to go.
00:36 So I've got some other thoughts.
00:37 Alright, real quick.
00:38 This was kind of a rough game.
00:39 I don't know if it's shocking, it's not what we wanted.
00:43 I was hoping it would be closer, I was hoping the defense would play better, I was hoping
00:46 we could get it to the second half.
00:47 None of that really happened.
00:49 But if you still bleed Husker red through and through, hit the like button.
00:53 Michigan starts with the ball, they go right down the field, they score, and I'm standing
00:58 on the sideline with a bunch of former players.
00:59 There's a bunch of former guys here.
01:00 And I'm like, the last thing we can have is a 3 and out.
01:03 We didn't have a 3 and out.
01:05 Instead what we had was a ball batted into the air and unfortunately it was intercepted.
01:08 Gives Michigan a short field, they go in, make it 14, it's a nothing real quick.
01:13 Now, Nebraska did drive down into Michigan territory.
01:16 Okay, a little bit later on we had a fourth and short.
01:19 And who knows?
01:20 Maybe this is the turning point in the game, probably realistically not if we're being
01:25 honest.
01:26 But a fourth and short, I would have loved had we gone quick and ran something quick
01:30 with all the timeout, we needed to get organized.
01:33 When I saw them in shotgun, I didn't know what was going to happen in the play, I didn't
01:37 know the play call, but I said I don't like it already.
01:39 Okay, I would have preferred one of two things.
01:42 Get under center, have about 84 running backs behind the quarterback, do a quarterback sneak
01:46 and push.
01:47 It's almost impossible to stop that play.
01:49 Have you watched other teams run it?
01:51 Or, if you watch film and you're not confident you can do that if you're Nebraska, because
01:55 you're prepared and you're like I don't know, do what Oregon State did to Utah Friday night.
02:00 Bunch everyone in and then pitch it outside to the running back and Oregon State ran for
02:04 like a 40 plus yard touchdown on a pretty good Utah defense.
02:07 I know Utah got their butts kicked, but they're hurting at the quarterback position without
02:11 Cam rising.
02:12 Okay, so for me, not a turning point in the game, I'd like to think it was, but it was
02:17 something I would have liked to have seen done differently.
02:19 Okay, you can analyze 20/20 hindsight, all that stuff is pretty easy.
02:23 Alright, a few minutes later, JJ McCarthy scrambled for a 21 yard touchdown run.
02:27 The guy is faster than people realize.
02:29 Michigan goes up 21 to 0.
02:31 Now at this point, I wrote it down, Michigan had 192 total yards, okay, in just their first
02:38 couple of drives, but what they were doing is they were running zone runnings and they
02:42 were putting 84,000 tight ends on the field because that's what Jim Harbaugh does, it's
02:46 what he did at Stanford, it's what he did with the Niners, and then they were just running
02:50 zone running plays and the running backs were hitting cutback lanes all day, okay.
02:54 And Harbaugh, I'll have to look at the film, it's hard to see from the sideline, he has
02:58 a history of also putting linemen at tight ends in those extra tight end formations,
03:02 but that's hard to see when I'm on the sideline, I'll look at that a little bit more later
03:07 on.
03:08 Alright, they had over 100 rush yards at that point in the game.
03:12 Now, as I look at the scoreboard right now, they ended up with 249 rush yards, okay, which
03:16 is obviously way more than Nebraska's given up all year, maybe even all the other games
03:21 combined.
03:22 We were just sloppy today.
03:23 We had ill-timed snaps, we had snaps that weren't good, we had balls on the ground,
03:27 it was just a little bit of sloppy play.
03:29 We didn't have as many turnovers as honestly we could have because there was balls on the
03:32 ground that we happened to recover, but we still had too many turnovers and I said coming
03:37 in, we had to win the turnover battle to have a chance, just a chance by at least two.
03:41 We obviously did not do that.
03:44 Alright, the defense did not play anywhere near as well as I had hoped, and this is the
03:49 best Michigan's looked all year.
03:51 I've got to imagine that they, and again, it's easier for me to see when I look, when
03:56 I watch the game again.
03:57 What I saw initially was zone running schemes, getting J.J. McCarthy the ability to throw,
04:01 the ability to run, and he did those things really, really well.
04:04 He showed you today why he was a highly recruited quarterback coming out of high school.
04:08 And I thought, okay, because J.J. McCarthy, Michigan's quarterback, played really well.
04:12 I mean at halftime, here's some of the stats that stood out to me.
04:15 It was I believe 28 to nothing at halftime.
04:17 They had 13 first downs, we had four.
04:19 They had 247 total yards, we had 121.
04:22 We were 8 of 10 passing, they were 9 of 12.
04:24 Arberg was, you know, in that first half, he was fairly accurate.
04:27 We just can't stretch the field very well.
04:29 We don't have a vertical passing threat, and so people just jam the box, they run blitz,
04:33 things of that nature, but he was fairly accurate, at least in the first half.
04:37 We only had 37 yards rushing.
04:39 They had 131.
04:40 We were averaging 2.8 yards per carry.
04:42 They were averaging 6 yards per carry.
04:45 Okay, you just can't play like this versus the number two team in the country.
04:49 And again, this is, it's one game that sucked.
04:53 It's one game that we were big time underdogs for a reason.
04:57 It's one game that I was hoping we could be competitive, the defense would play well,
05:01 maybe get us to the second half, maybe don't be sloppy.
05:04 What you saw was the Michigan team that, I don't even know if they had any penalties today.
05:08 Zero penalties today.
05:10 Okay, not only are they talented, they're disciplined.
05:12 Zero penalties, okay, and I don't remember a turnover.
05:15 I'll have to go back and look and double check, but I don't remember a turnover, a penalty.
05:19 Talented, you saw what a top five team looks like, top two team looks like versus a team
05:23 that needs to get better in year one under Matt Rule.
05:26 Alright, we opened the second half with a 56-yard post-up.
05:30 From Harvard to Marcus Washington, okay, we get Michigan's territory.
05:34 We get the opportunity to kick a 40-yard field goal, Tristan Albano, the freshman,
05:38 misses, he's one for four on the year.
05:40 He's a talented guy with a bright future, but I do think Rule has to evaluate the kicking position
05:45 just a little bit, okay.
05:47 And here's the deal, midway through the third quarter, Michigan put their backups in.
05:51 So I'm like, you know what, first of all, I hope we don't get shut out.
05:54 It would have been the first shutout since 1996 versus Arizona State.
05:57 It would have been the first shutout at home for Nebraska,
05:59 but I believe since 1968, if I'm wrong on that, I'm going to throw Keith Mann under the bus
06:03 because he's the one who told me that on the sideline, but I'm like,
06:06 are we going to get outscored by their backups?
06:08 So I did, I kept track, and the rest of the game, Michigan's backups outscored our starters
06:12 or whoever was in the game for it, which was our starters 10-7.
06:15 Okay, take that for whatever it's worth.
06:17 Now, year ones under Matt Rule tend to be rather rough, okay,
06:21 but years two and three tend to be a lot better.
06:23 There's a building process to this, okay.
06:28 I will say this, there are winnable games going forward, okay.
06:32 This was a crappy game.
06:33 It was worse than I hoped it would be, thought it would be, predicted it would be, okay,
06:37 but, you know, Illinois is winnable, Purdue is winnable, Northwestern is winnable.
06:41 There is no excuse for us not to get to a bowl game this year and get to 6-6,
06:45 and the schedule every year going forward after this, this is the easiest Matt Rule is ever going to have it
06:49 because we got Washington, Oregon, USC, UCLA.
06:53 No disrespect, but we're not bringing in the cows in those teams of the world, with all due respect.
06:57 It's only going to get harder, okay.
06:59 So I think we can get to a bowl game.
07:01 I think there's winnable games.
07:02 We obviously have a long way to go, to put it mildly, okay.
07:06 I mean, some of the game stats, I mean, we can look at them if we want.
07:09 Michigan had 26 first downs.
07:10 We had 10, okay, time of possession.
07:13 They had it 17 more minutes than we did.
07:15 At one point, they had more rushing yards than we did, total yards, but they had 249 rushing yards.
07:21 We had 305 total yards.
07:22 They had 436 total yards, okay.
07:24 It is what it is.
07:25 They ran almost 30 more plays than we did, 74 to 46, or 28 to be exact.
07:30 All right, it is what it is.
07:31 All right, let me know in the comments below, how much do you read into this game?
07:35 Is this just, "Hey, Michigan's really good.
07:36 We got a long way to go," or, "Adam, you're undervaluing how big this deal, how big this game is."
07:41 Let me know in the comments below.
07:42 I'm Rick Harbert.
07:43 How do you think we played today?
07:45 Okay, I couldn't help but notice that I felt like Michigan's backup defensive players were getting to Harvard
07:51 almost sometimes easier than their starters.
07:53 I hope that's not because we gave up.
07:55 I hope that's not the case.
07:56 I don't know.
07:57 How do you feel like Rick Harbert played?
07:59 Also, I'm just going to say, do you feel like our defense got exposed today on Michigan's team?
08:04 Just really, really good.
08:05 All right, let me know in the comments below.
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