Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 43

Lincoln Journal Star Sunday, October 5, 2008 3F Brian Rosenthal breaks down the Huskers' performance ft HUSKER EXTRA Nebraska had been doing a decent job of defending the run until Derrick Washington's 43-yard touchdown burst in the third quarter. That sent a lot of Huskers fans to the exits. Considering the competition, Nebraska did an OK job, really. Early in the game, Nebraska hit Chase Daniel, and hit him hard. Give Daniel and the Tigers credit, though.

This is a high-powered outfit, and Missouri seemed to adjust nicely to the one shifting defensive lineman. Hard to understand why Adi Kunalic squibbed the opening kickoff when he had a 20-mph wind behind him. That 3yard punt in the third quarter sure was a stinker. At least the Alex Henery field goal was positive. (Henery, by the way, made a pregame kick from 60 yards).

The game plan was sound. Nebraska did what it needed to do early to stay in the game. A nice mix of runs and short passes to keep the chains moving. The Huskers had the ball for 9:50 in the first quarter. Execution, of course, was another story.

That can't affect this grade, though. Coaches and players keep saying the running game "will be fine," but it's looking more and more like it wont be. You could argue it makes no difference which player is in the backfield, given the lack of running room, but it's also hard to understand this running back rotation. Would sticking with one player make that much of a Another critical ception, this one leading to a Missouri touchdown before halftime. That's five for Joe Ganz this season.

Also, he would've been best served by throwing the ball out of bounds rather than taking a costly sack on Nebraska's second series. Ganz, though, made some nice throws on the run. Protection wasn't the greatest. This team isn't very disciplined. How else do you explain the growing number of penalties? Just when the offense got going, it went backward.

And Missouri's offense doesn't need an extra 15 yards here and there. What's with all the timeouts on defense? I'm sure Shawn Watson would've liked to have at least one in his pocket on the drive before You can't question the effort or desire of this team. Bo Pelini has this group playing hard. The mistakes, though, are glaring, especially against a top-five team. Missouri didn't make any, and Nebraska had a long list.

An interception. A shanked punt. A fumble. Missed blocks. And, oh, those penalties.

We knew Pelini had a project on his hands, but was it really going to be this bad? life in the red Our bloggers take iinni' tuoetirino onrl jjuui uiouuiio turn mi get some answers 1. It's obvious we cannot block with what we are trying. Can you tell me what kind 'Mr of blocking we are using and what we could try differently? I hear about zone blocking and assignment blocking. You're right about the zone and assignment blocking, which requires linemen to be responsi- i ble for their lot of real estate. It's primarily a product of Nebraska's offense and the fact that these guys are really big and perhaps not athletic enough to get too cute.

For instance, it probably wouldn't be very realistic for NU to emphasize pull blocking. First off, like most blocking, there's a lot of footwork involved and you could expect to see a lot of people bumping into each other. Beyond that, Nebraska has a hard enough time running the ball now. This is a really thoughtful question and one that deserves a more detailed answer from the coaches. Look for it to be addressed soon.

2. Why are our comers 4 yards away from every receiver? You mean after the catch, right? With Missouri's speed at the receiver spots and count tight end Chase Coffman among that group the Nebraska secondary looked like it took an outfielder's mentality of keeping everything coming their way in front of them. If the Huskers had wanted to play more bump coverage, Jeremy Maclin's 58-yard catch and run for a touchdown on the game's third play would have had any defensive coordinator thinking twice about that. in am ii1 ERIC GREGORYUncoln Journal Star Missouri's Derrick Washington (right) pulls away from Nebraska linebacker Phillip Dillard (52) to score a touchdown in the third quarter of Saturday's gams. Washington had 14 carries for 139 yards and a TD and caught 2 passes for 13 yards and a score.

Mental mistakes doom NU Based on stats, Huskers played Tigers nearly even but it doesn't show on scoreboard 3. We aren't fighting with Are and going with our vertical passing game in a hurry-up offense. Why? Joe Ganz was feeling a lot more heat than Chase Daniel, thus he had to make a lot of throws on the run. It's not easy to spot a guy running 25 yards down- field in that scenario. As for running hurry-up a majority of the time, that's a big load to put on receivers and linemen who aren't used OP 1 V1 I- i I 7 i to doing it.

second quarter. "That was kind of the turning point," Ganz said. Down 31-7, Nebraska, with no timeouts, drove to the Missouri 11 -yard line in the final minute before halftime. But Ganz threw three straight incompletions, and the Huskers had to settle for an Alex Henery field goal. The mistakes really began to mount in the third quarter.

Nebraska took the opening kickoff and drove near midfield when a holding penalty set back the Huskers. It looked as if NU had converted a third-and-7, when Ganz hit Mene-lik Holt with a pass into Missouri territory. But Holt was called for illegal touching, as he was out of bounds and came back into play to catch the pass. Nebraska punted. Dan Titchener's kick went off his foot and flew all of 3 yards.

Even Nebraska's most impressive drive of the night the Huskers' first of the game, which covered 60 yards in seven plays and resulted in va touchdown included a false-start penalty. "Having a great drive against a team like Missouri, you're driving down and then, and you get a penalty there, a penalty there," senior receiver Nate Swift said. "It's tough when things like that happen. We've just got to go back and fix those mistakes." Nebraska drove to the Missouri 18 on its next possession of the third quarter. That drive, too, went backward when senior lineman Matt Slau-son was called for a personal foul.

Ganz was 26-of-38 passing for 290 yards and two touchdowns, but Nebraska's running game sputtered for the fourth time in five games. The Huskers managed a mere 79 yards on 38 carries. Again, coaches rotated three backs, with Marlon Lucky getting 14 carries for 46 yards. Castille had 26 yards on 12 carries, and Roy Helu had five runs for 11 yards. "If we can't run it, we should be able to throw it," Ganz said.

"We just didnt have enough. We didn't do enough offensively. We left too many points on the field. "I'm just sick to my stomach after this game We better rebound fast otherwise we're going to get killed again next week." Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7438 or brosenthaljoumalstar.com. BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL Lincoln Journal Star With 3 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in the third quarter Saturday night, the scoreboard on the north end of Memorial Stadium looked like this: Total yards: Missouri 314, Nebraska 258.

Many of the 85,372 fans, had they been told of those numbers before the game, would've probably been very encouraged. The mere difference of 56 yards, though, wasn't very reflective of the most important statistic. The score: Missouri 38, Nebraska 10. The vast difference of 28 points was quite re- flective of Nebraska's mistake-prone performance against the nation's No. 4 team.

Missouri was nearly flawless, and Nebraska, especially on offense, was sloppy. Very sloppy. Hence, the Tigers' lopsided 52-17 victory that ended Missouri's 30-year drought in Lincoln. Topping the list of Husker errors: A mind-boggling 14 penalties for 101 yards. Adding to the problems were a 3-yard punt, a Joe Ganz interception returned for a touchdown, and a Quentin Castille fumble in Nebraska territory that set up another Missouri touchdown.

It didn't matter, then, that Nebraska ran 73 plays, to Missouri's 58, and was outgained in total yardage by a modest 93 yards. "We're not about statistics, we're about winning football games," Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. "We got our butts kicks, and that's my problems began on its second drive, when the Huskers, down 14-7, were driv-ing and trying to answer a Missouri touchdown. Facing second-and-7 from the Missouri 26-yard line, Ganz scrambled near the sideline. He couldn't find an open receiver, but instead of throwing the ball out of bounds, he took a 7-yardsack.

"I need to be smarter than that," Ganz said. "I need to get rid of the ball. That was dumb." Missouri followed with another sack, forcing i Nebraska out of field-goal range. The Tigers led 24-7 when Ganz threw his fifth Interception of the seasoa Brock Christopher returned it 17 yards for a touchdown late in the The schedule GWYNETH ROBERTSLincorn Journal Star Husker quarterback Joe Ganz talks to coach Bo Pelini after a third-quarter drive was stopped by the Missouri defense. 'If we cant ran it, we should be able to throw it We just didnt have enough.

We didnt do enough offensively. I'm just sick to my stomach after this game.1 Husker QB Joe Ganz To participate in Out of the Blog, log on to HuskerExtra.com and submit your questions to Curt McKeever in the Life in the Red staff blog. 3 .0, Cv Qs N.MexicoSt Virginia Tech Missouri Texas Tech Iowa St Baylor Oklahoma Kansas Kansas St T': tV Oct 11. 0ctl8 Oct.25 Nov.l Nov. 8 Nov.

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