Jay and Bob analyze what went wrong for the Huskers in East Lansing.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Welcome to Sunday Morning Quarterback with Jay Stockwell and Bob Frady.
00:13 Uh.
00:15 Exactly.
00:17 What a missed opportunity.
00:19 Not an ideal game for sure.
00:25 And just about any way you look at it, we lost that game.
00:30 Offense defense special teams and coaching.
00:32 I think you guys were out coached.
00:33 Let me just cover a few things.
00:35 Oh, a fifth dimension.
00:36 The officiating.
00:37 You know, if the Big Ten officials would just get two calls right, we're seven and two.
00:43 The Minnesota touchdown, that was not a touchdown, the last touchdown that they scored.
00:47 And then there was the unbelievably crucial interference that didn't get called.
00:51 Yeah, he threw a block in the open field.
00:54 Yeah.
00:55 It's like you call this tiki tac pass interference on the other side and you miss that one.
01:00 But listen, we're not here to complain about the officiating.
01:03 You know, that's a variable just like the wind or the weather.
01:07 Even as terrible as it seemed, I'm sure there were other calls where the other side would
01:10 go, "It was just as terrible as it was saying too."
01:14 So we don't want to be those people.
01:16 That is true.
01:17 So let's go over a few things.
01:18 First of all, credit to Michigan State.
01:20 Their special teams, their punter, put us at a massive disadvantage the whole game.
01:25 He had like robo leg.
01:27 He was pounding the ball.
01:30 We're fair catching it inside the 10 yard line.
01:32 No, that one was, it's honestly like one of the first times I'm like, "Matt Rule, what
01:36 the hell are you doing?"
01:38 Because when you put a guy out there, you want a hands guy that can catch the ball.
01:42 Okay, get that.
01:43 But don't do it inside the 10 yard line repeatedly.
01:46 You know?
01:47 So you're just seeding the special teams field position battle.
01:50 It's giving it to them.
01:53 Just put everybody up there on the line and go for the block.
01:56 If that's what you're going to do, just let the ball go.
02:00 But hey, listen, what it seems to come down to for me is I wonder if they coach this team
02:09 on offense for the players that they think they would like to have or the players that
02:16 they actually have.
02:18 And I would say that they're coaching for players they don't have on their team.
02:24 And that's mystifying to me.
02:28 And in part their own fault again, because they kind of ran Casey Thompson out of town
02:33 in favor of Jeff Sims.
02:36 And we'd be a better team with Casey Thompson still here.
02:39 But here's the thing, that's a pretty big bet to make.
02:44 It's like putting all your chips on red and it turns out red's not the color.
02:49 You know, that's a tough blow.
02:53 They had overcome it for the most part.
02:56 They're in great shape going into this game.
02:58 But the play calling mystifies me sometimes.
03:02 It's like, you know, the best score that they had, or not quite score, but close to a score,
03:08 was when Heiberg finally ran.
03:11 I don't know if he was injured.
03:13 I don't know if he was insecure.
03:14 I don't know if they were trying to get him to do things he didn't want to do.
03:18 But it just seemed super hesitant, didn't it?
03:20 It seemed really hesitant and really out of sorts for the longest part of the game.
03:27 To the point where we're sitting there saying, okay, it's probably time to make a change
03:30 up.
03:31 And yeah, they had a chance to tie it at the end.
03:33 But it was, you know, if you want to throw the ball more than 10 yards down the field,
03:41 Heinrich right now is not the guy to deliver you accuracy.
03:46 Dips his shoulder and the ball takes off high.
03:48 Time and time and time and time and time again.
03:52 And his long ball's not that accurate.
03:54 I'm sure he's a great kid.
03:55 He tries really hard.
03:56 He seems to be a real tough guy, which is great.
03:58 But if that's the kind of passer you have, then play to his strength.
04:02 You know, go to freaking wishbone and just get out there and run that damn ball and stop
04:08 with all these nonsensical plays that don't have much of a chance of success when the
04:15 weather's nasty.
04:16 And guess what?
04:17 This ain't the SEC.
04:19 The weather-
04:20 The weather wasn't actually as bad as we thought it was going to be.
04:23 Windy.
04:24 Windy.
04:25 Yeah.
04:26 It's the wind.
04:27 It's like-
04:28 But still, it was pretty benign, to be honest.
04:29 This isn't South Carolina in the middle of November where it's just beautiful.
04:32 This is the Midwest where it's miserable.
04:35 You know, the gray blanket rolls in and here comes its friend, the wind, rain, fog, and
04:39 snow and you got to deal with it.
04:41 And so I'm just a little mystified as to what was going on.
04:47 It just seemed like the game lacked a certain ... Maybe they listened to our podcast and
04:53 thought they were going to win 35 to 7 and just kind of rolled up their footballs and
04:58 said, "Yeah, we got this one."
05:02 Don't listen to us.
05:03 Don't listen to us.
05:04 We're fans.
05:05 Don't listen to us.
05:06 So the first time, the defense was a little disappointing.
05:07 They did a good job on the run, only according to the stats here, you know, we got Carter,
05:13 right?
05:14 It was Carter in the back.
05:15 Yeah.
05:16 And they had 63 yards on 31 carries.
05:17 Yeah, but when you throw the ball all over the place, you don't need to run.
05:20 But where we got absolutely gashed was on passing, 232 yards of passing, and they just
05:27 couldn't seem to stop it.
05:28 And they were running down the seams and attacking the zone.
05:32 I think we played a little better when we were on man to man, but they just tore apart
05:35 the zone.
05:36 Well, listen, you know what?
05:38 Nobody said this was going to be easy.
05:40 Nobody said it was going to be a bed of roses.
05:43 And so when we find out that there's a thorn in that bed of roses there somewhere, still
05:48 optimistic.
05:49 My only point is it didn't have to be this game.
05:51 Just like Minnesota was winnable, there were just multiple dimensions where we gave it
05:55 away.
05:56 And then three turnovers again, three turnovers.
05:59 This team spots the other team, three turnovers every game.
06:02 That's a tough hole to dig yourself out of.
06:04 And if you were taking the ball away three times a game, that'd be cool, but you're not.
06:08 So it's tough to watch the team do that.
06:11 And then they have a chance to...
06:13 I also thought the clock management in the fourth quarter was relatively awful.
06:18 It's like they felt like they had an...
06:20 Almost like they felt like they had another quarter.
06:22 And they were leisurely with their play calling, seven minutes left, they're like dawdling
06:27 around up to the line, not using their timeouts effectively.
06:31 Everyone is like the knee jerk reaction is you save your timeouts to the end.
06:34 It's like 30 seconds with four minutes left is the same as 30 seconds with two minutes
06:37 left.
06:38 And you got to give your team time.
06:42 Because if you save that 30 seconds earlier, you have a bunch more options of plays.
06:47 You could run and spike a ball on a first down that you don't necessarily have the time
06:50 to do when the clock's ticking down towards zero.
06:54 And so I just thought offensively, the play calling was a mess.
07:02 But then again, I've been saying that since week one.
07:07 It's going to take time.
07:10 Hopefully Satterfield can correct the ship, but it's who?
07:16 It's a disappointment, but there's still a ton to play for.
07:19 I want to get to a nice warm bowl game somewhere.
07:22 I think maybe there was a lot more chatter about the bowl game and the potential of the
07:28 Big Ten West this week.
07:29 So that I think possibly could have been a little bit distracting, but Michigan State
07:32 was just ready to play.
07:33 Yeah, they may have a plan.
07:35 It was senior day, they're pumped up.
07:39 And they ran some good trick plays.
07:40 They kept the defense off balance.
07:43 Yep.
07:44 It was a, listen, hats off to Michigan State.
07:48 And I'm sure it was a long bus ride home.
07:52 You know what?
07:53 I hope they made them take the bus home.
07:54 That's what kind of loss this was.
07:56 Some losses you can fly home, other losses you need to take the bus and think about what
08:00 you've done there, Mr. This is a take the bus home game.
08:04 It's a long ride, 14 hours good.
08:07 You need 14 hours in the bus.
08:09 So I'm sure they flew.
08:11 But anyway.
08:12 Let's review some of the sentiment from the writers.
08:14 I know you hate this part Bob, but it's good to just get a sense of what people are saying.
08:19 Growing pains bit Nebraska hard, often on offense, but possibly the Huskers most disappointing
08:25 failures of the game on defense came on defense and in the kicking game.
08:30 Tad Stryker sparkles through the kitchen sink at Nebraska with tricks and obviously a lot
08:34 of fuel to have a last stand for its season.
08:37 Yeah, good for them.
08:38 Like still fighting at two and six.
08:40 I think that their coach seemed very focused and had a plan stuck to it and we were reacting
08:46 to that plan all day.
08:47 Did these Huskers strangers to this moment relax or does a team with flaws, a team that
08:52 lives each week with a small margin of error eventually take a spill off the wire?
08:58 I think that's a pretty good take right there.
09:00 You know, I don't think that's an either or question.
09:03 I think it's a both question.
09:04 It just seemed like a little bit of a lack of urgency.
09:07 I don't know.
09:08 I wasn't there.
09:09 It's hard to say.
09:10 Don't know.
09:11 Yeah, but it seemed like it was a little lack of urgency combined with the fact that, hey,
09:15 you live in on the knife's edge and yeah, you got a little full of yourself playing
09:19 at home and having a good winning streak.
09:21 It's a tough loss.
09:22 Let's just wrap it up at that.
09:23 It's a tough loss.
09:24 This is Joseph Mayer with the Daily Nebraska.
09:27 Nebraska's offense is simply not suited to overcome even an average day from an opposing
09:32 sideline.
09:33 I mean, it's just, it's, it's pretty sad.
09:36 The state of affairs on offense.
09:38 The one bright spot is, is I think a young Emmett Johnson is coming along.
09:44 Yeah.
09:45 It's like, hey, listen, it's, I, I, I understand that you want to show how smart you are by
09:51 throwing all sorts of fancy plays out there, but get out there, run the ball.
09:56 Yeah.
09:57 And if, and if then when they stop you like nine times in a row, then you start throwing
10:00 the ball.
10:01 It's like, get out there and exert your will.
10:03 That's how you have to win the game.
10:05 And don't give a Harvard so many decisions, like the handoff, I hate that where he holds
10:10 the ball in the belly till the last second.
10:13 Just like pick a direction and run.
10:14 You're the fastest guy on the field.
10:16 Yeah.
10:17 You know?
10:18 Just run.
10:19 Run the option.
10:20 Like a real option.
10:21 Yeah.
10:22 None of that arcane old crap, but run a real option.
10:23 Like, like get the big boys running down field and run people over.
10:25 Yeah.
10:26 Then again, that might be the old guy in me looking for the glory days of, you know, everybody
10:32 out running and knocking people over.
10:34 But, and the worst thing about this is that he didn't pass on first down.
10:40 I attribute the loss to that.
10:42 He should have passed on first down because he, because they didn't pass on first down.
10:46 I had to do 20 pushups and I knocked him right out.
10:49 It was no big deal, but still I didn't like having to, I was, I was looking forward to
10:53 seeing Stockwell try to do 20 pushups.
10:55 I know.
10:56 I wish I could be what, 60 man.
10:59 Yeah.
11:00 I had 20 more of the tank.
11:01 So I was ready.
11:02 Anyway.
11:03 Give me the grades on the pregame meal and the during game meal.
11:09 Give what scale of 10.
11:10 I went home and I fell asleep because I had so much food in me.
11:15 You got to understand something.
11:21 I have adopted Nebraska.
11:24 Nebraska is my adopted child of college football.
11:29 My child eats like nobody's business and I have, I struggled to keep up with the eating
11:35 frenzy that is Nebraska football.
11:36 It's like you go to a tailgate in Nebraska, there's like food everywhere.
11:39 It's like, man, we got the, we got, we have the cows, you know, we grow them and we bring
11:44 them, the whole thing.
11:49 I think that's, I think that's the fun part though.
11:51 I can't keep up.
11:52 Like listen, it's fun as long as you have time for a nap that afternoon.
11:56 Yeah.
11:57 So next year we're going to get ahead of this and have a plan because we're going to
12:01 show up with a vehicle, a Sunday morning quarterback vehicle.
12:06 Some couple of easy chairs in the back.
12:11 So as funny as the game ended.
12:15 So for our fans at home, we watched this together in Jay's basement and game ended.
12:20 We were both a little disappointed because he's like, let's watch a war movie.
12:24 I'm like, okay.
12:25 I'm like, which one?
12:26 He's like the outpost.
12:27 I'm like, of course for the 15th time we're watching this movie and five minutes into
12:32 the movie I turn to the side and there's Stockwell, he's out.
12:34 I'm like, make my escape.
12:37 So I saw the opening credits and I was back in the house down the street.
12:41 So that was a nice nap too, by the way, because I woke up probably midway through the movie.
12:48 Yeah.
12:49 I went home.
12:50 It's like, oh, nothing.
12:51 I turned it out.
12:52 So listen, this, no one said it was going to be easy.
12:55 No one said it was going to be a process.
12:57 Everyone was prepared for that rule.
12:58 It was terrible for seasons and you have games like this.
13:02 Sometimes you just poop in the punch bowl and that's what they did.
13:07 They laid a turd and it happens.
13:10 It happens.
13:11 Now hopefully they rally, but maybe we shouldn't get so optimistic with our 30.
13:16 Every time we predict like 35 to seven, which I think we also predicted for Gershkin, bad
13:20 things happen.
13:21 I think we ought to go with like the three to two scores and, or the 14 to 13 last minute
13:31 field goal.
13:32 What does the Japanese say?
13:34 Failure is a gift.
13:35 I don't know who says that, but failure is a gift to a point.
13:39 Like if you're flying an airplane and you crash into the ground, that's not necessarily
13:42 a gift.
13:43 That's a failure.
13:45 So if you live to see another day, then yeah, moderate failure is a gift.
13:54 I'll give you that.
13:55 Total failure.
13:56 I think Matt Ruhl is a good coach and I think they're going to learn a lot from this game.
14:00 I think the coaching, I like in the post game sometimes it refers to like, you know, we
14:06 coach our, we grade ourselves too.
14:08 We're not just grading the players and the game.
14:11 We grade ourselves.
14:12 And I think the coaches, they just had some missed opportunities.
14:14 The whole, the whole Billy Kemp thing, just bizarre.
14:19 I get it.
14:20 Clock bears, but we may.
14:22 You want somebody to catch the ball, but at the same time, if you're not going to run,
14:29 then you know, let it, just let it go.
14:33 Just let it go.
14:34 You're inside the 20 yard line.
14:35 Just let it go.
14:36 Inside the 10 yard line, always let it go.
14:39 Yeah.
14:40 If they just did that, they'd have proved their field position by like 70 yards probably.
14:44 Yeah.
14:45 But you know what?
14:46 It's hard.
14:47 You're looking up at the sky.
14:48 You don't necessarily know where your feet are.
14:49 It's like, it's, it's, it's again, these aren't pros.
14:51 These are guys who have been playing football for a long time, you know, most of their lives,
14:55 but their lives aren't very long, so they're going to make mistakes.
14:59 So hopefully they rectify those mistakes and come back strong in the next couple of weeks.
15:04 But the road gets a little bit rougher.
15:06 It gets a little bit rougher.
15:08 Yeah.
15:09 So we're going to Wisconsin, right?
15:11 I don't know about that.
15:12 This is, I will consider it.
15:15 It's far, it's far and it's cold.
15:20 So you know, we'll see.
15:22 We'll see.
15:23 We'll get the ladies to come.
15:24 It'll be fun.
15:25 Oh yeah.
15:26 They're going to love that.
15:27 How about you come to another football game with us where we may possibly get into fisticuffs
15:29 with the crowd and then drive home five hours in the cold.
15:35 Impossible scrim.
15:36 We could fly.
15:37 No.
15:38 It's an hour.
15:39 It's like a 20 minute flight.
15:40 It's like, get up and go to Adams.
15:44 Anyway, we'll see.
15:46 We'll check in on that.
15:48 All I could say is it's a disappointing loss and hopefully they learn from it and take
15:54 the tape out back and throw it in the river.
15:56 Just move on, play better.
16:00 But you know, Harburg, as much as he was a bit of a savior at the beginning, teams are
16:05 getting wise to what he's good at and what he's not.
16:08 And they're sticking to what he's good at and they're making him do what he's not, which
16:11 is throw the ball deep or throw the ball in general.
16:14 And even worse, throw the ball when he's running.
16:17 Yeah.
16:18 It's like, set your feet.
16:19 I don't understand that.
16:20 You know, listen, I've never played big time football.
16:24 I don't know what it's like.
16:25 But one of the first things they teach you when you're throwing is to set your feet.
16:30 And you can't throw on the run with your arm shoulder throw here.
16:34 Well, some people can.
16:35 Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes.
16:37 Yeah, yeah.
16:38 Super Bowl champions can do that.
16:39 Set your feet and throw the ball.
16:40 They were lucky they got the interception called back in the end zone.
16:46 That was just a horror.
16:47 That was an early season throw.
16:50 That was a Minnesota throw.
16:51 Yeah.
16:52 That was exactly what he did in Minnesota.
16:53 Yeah.
16:54 Or Singh did that in Minnesota.
16:57 But you know, I like Harburg though.
16:59 I like where you summed it up earlier.
17:01 The guy's a tough, good kid.
17:04 And he's just got a terrible throwing mechanics.
17:07 I don't know these kids personally.
17:08 I don't know what they're like.
17:09 They seem like good kids, you know.
17:11 And that's what they are though.
17:12 They're kids, you know.
17:13 We're expecting perfection.
17:15 Like this is all they have to do.
17:16 It's like, they got to go to school too.
17:17 You know, it's not just foosball all the time.
17:21 It's they got to do some school and they're traveling and it's tough.
17:25 So they're at home this week.
17:26 We'll see what happens.
17:27 But it's a blow.
17:30 It's a blow, but it's only as much of a blow as you make it.
17:34 Come back strong, come back tough.
17:36 Offensively, they need to think about what they think about.
17:40 Design the plays for the players you have, not the players you think you have.
17:44 Yeah, we don't have them.
17:46 That's for sure.
17:47 Well, failure is a gift and we got the opportunity to learn from this and there's a lot to learn
17:52 on every phase of the game on coaching decisions.
17:55 So let's learn from them.
17:57 And I like what you said earlier about throwing the tape in the river when you're done.
18:00 So let's move on and let's get ready for the Maryland Terrapins.
18:07 And how do we end it, Jay Stockwell?
18:09 Take us out, Bob Fraley.
18:11 Go Big Red!