Yeah, well, if Husker nation could not figure out why we called him 'Short Buss Shawn' then you get what you deserve.
BTW, great pics of the kids. They are growing like weeds!!
They're figuring it out.:lol:
From today's Omaha paper:
Chatelain: Woeful offense sabotaging breakout season
Column by Dirk Chatelain
World-Herald Staff Writer
“I know this: Our offense is in extremely capable hands. I know that. I have confidence in them. You hire good people and you let them do their job and it's been getting done very well.” — Bo Pelini on Tuesday
LINCOLN — I know this: Two years ago, Tom Osborne hired Bo Pelini instead of Turner Gill primarily because Nebraska desperately needed help on defense, not offense.
http://omaha.adbureau.net/accipiter...0/position=21/acc_random=930012/pageid=818366
Well, here we are in Pelini's second season and the program is upside down.
The defense has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. Saturday the Huskers held mighty Mike Leach to 259 total yards, Texas Tech's lowest output in three years.
But that offense that seemed in good hands with Bill Callahan's right-hand man?
It just fumbled away Loss No. 2, inviting several verses of boos from Memorial Stadium's second-largest crowd in history.
Shawn Watson's slump hasn't reached Cosgrovian depths, but it's approaching the point at which Pelini must make dramatic philosophical or personnel changes before next season.
Take away the fourth quarter at Missouri, and Nebraska has scored one touchdown in 11 quarters against non-Sun Belt defenses.
Last week, Husker fans and sports columnists argued about Nebraska's game plan against Missouri.
Well, forget all that.
Those are petty details compared to the systematic offensive problems sabotaging what could've been — no, should've been — a breakout season for Nebraska.
Look around the Big 12. Look around the country. The glory is there for the taking. Nobody dominates, not even Florida and Texas.
Yet Watson's offense keeps blocking the door.
It's one thing to stumble at Missouri in a monsoon, it's quite another to fall apart on your home turf on a still, 46-degree day against Texas Tech.
Acceptable offense against Virginia Tech and Texas Tech and the Huskers are 6-0. Instead, they're 4-2 without a quarterback or a plan.
“We've got to get some things fixed,” Watson said. “It's that plain, that simple. We don't beg off from it. We're full-grown men.”
Let's run down the laundry list of offensive ills:
Ÿ Nebraska has no strengths. None. This isn't about being a run team or a pass team. That's too simple.
This is about finding something you can do well.
“On offense, we didn't come off the ball, we didn't catch the ball, we didn't make the right reads at quarterback, we didn't run the ball effectively,” Pelini said.
Watson is like the guy who visits his closet the night of the company Christmas party and can't find a single thing to wear.
“In every game, it's like, all right, if we're having trouble, we're going to this play, we're going to this set of plays,” senior center Jacob Hickman said.
“We obviously don't have that yet, for whatever reason. But we need to find our identity and we need to find it fast.”
Ÿ Nebraska still can't run the ball. Apparently, this is a touchy subject with Pelini.
“First thing I want to see is … us being able to run the football consistently and knock somebody off the football,” Pelini said.
Did Nebraska try to do that Saturday?
“You watched the game, what do you think?” Pelini said. “What do you think?”
Ÿ Penalties. Stupid, stupid penalties.
Ricky Henry's personal foul that took Nebraska out of first-and-goal at the 7 in the fourth quarter? That one takes the cake.
Ÿ Big-play capability.
Watson has designed a nickel-and-dime offense. Control the clock. Move the ball in increments, not chunks.
But the margin for error is too small.
One penalty ruins a drive because the Huskers don't have sufficient athletes on the perimeter.
Ted Gilmore still can't find someone capable of making a tackler miss, someone who sends so much as a shiver down a defensive coordinator's back.
When a ball does hit a wideout in the hands, that receiver stands a pretty good chance of dropping it.
Ÿ Last but not least: Quarterback play.
Zac Lee resembled Brett Favre in the Sears commercial Saturday. He stood and stood and stood in the pocket and couldn't release the ball.
“I just don't think he was seeing it well,” Watson said, “maybe over analyzed it a little bit.”
Cody Green entered the game in the second half. He showed a little potential, but couldn't mount a rally.
“I'm not the guy,” Green said after the game. “Zac's the guy.”
It's not Green's decision.
Pelini and Watson can sit Lee, hand the reins to the rookie, perhaps sacrifice a win or two this season and build him up for 2010 and beyond.
Or they can try to win the Big 12 North with Lee, who seems to lose confidence by the week. Chances are they play it safe and stay with Lee.
They shouldn't. Lee failed his test. And Green has the higher ceiling.
Watson wasn't prepared to choose Saturday night. Pelini wasn't in the mood.
Behind the lectern after the 31-10 spanking, his voice amplified as he fielded questions he didn't have answers to. He scowled. He cursed.
Not 50 feet away stood a lanky, genteel man in a red blazer, one of the great offensive minds of his generation, a 72-year-old wizard with 255 wins, three national championship rings — and a legacy tethered to what happens next.
At that moment, what do you think Tom Osborne was thinking?
