Checking In

Well, football season is back in full swing, so Saturdays are pretty interesting for me. This is a quick recap of the last three Husker games from my bleacher seat:

"Niles Paul you are breaking my heart . . . "

That was the wail that went up from a very nice Husker fan at he Union Pub 3 weeks ago when the Huskers didn't do so well against Texas. Setting the scene: The Huskers seem to finally be back from the bill callahan oblivion and have had a couple of good seasons with Bo Pelini at the helm. The one constant thorn in the Husker's side has been Mack Brown and his team from Texas. This year was going to be different, or so the 2 million or so Husker faithful thought. The Blackshirts were more than Ndamakung Suh, our newly found QB was racking up the yards at a blazingly fast pace, and the game was in Lincoln. We were going to win, no questions asked. Well, after dropping three passes that would have changed the game, our faithful senior wide receiver, one of the cornerstones of the offense that had suffered under Callahan and been redeemed under Pelini, dropped another one. When that happened, the air went out of the Union Pub and the devil cashed in another win for Texas. All told, there were 4 clear TD passes dropped that were right on the numbers or catches a wide receiver probably should have made. Good game by Texas, but dang.

Union Pub notes: A few years ago, I discovered the gathering place for the Husker faithful in DC: the Union Pub, near Union Station. I regularly went there if I was in town to catch the Huskers in a friendly environment. It is a pretty good place to watch the Huskers, standard bar food, beer and folks from Nebraska. Over the years though, a few cracks in the institution have started to show. First of all, the owner sells/pushes raffle tickets during the game, the story behind the raffle tickets has changed a few times - - it is either to donate to a scholarship, or to fund the cable reception of the game. He gets a little pushy about the tickets, which naturally annoys me, and if it is to fund the reception of the game, I would just like to remind him that I wouldn't be buying his 6 dollar beer and 9 dollar hot dog combo at his fine establishment if the Huskers weren't on the screen. I can do that at Applebees.

The second thing that struck me during the Texas loss was Husker fans may have lost their perspective, and that wearing a red shirt gives them certain liberties. For example, when Niles Paul and Bryant Kinnie dropped the last of their certain TD passes, a few folks called them idiots or other such names. First of all, they aren't the ones watching a football game in a bar, they are on the field, probably trying as hard as they can to win the game for the Husker faithful. Second, the idiot is the one guzzling beer and yelling at the TV. My perspective over the years have changed, I just like to watch the Huskers play, if one of them makes a mistake, I try to remember that they are in the 19-22 year old range and are trying their hardest and I appreciate their effort, I know they feel bad, and will feel worse when they see the film after the game. When I saw Bryant Kinnie with his head hung low on the bench after a TD pass went in and out of his hands, I felt bad for him, but it is only a game.

Enough about the Horns, bring on the Cowboys.

For some reason, Nebraska has had problems playing home games. I am not sure if the kids feel more pressure with 85,000 faithful in the stands or what, but sometimes they aren't sharp. On the road, different story. The Big Red Machine traveled down to Oklahoma City to face the Cowboys for the last time. The Cowboys have been up and comers in the Big 12 South for a few years, but haven't quite turned the corner against the Sooners, maybe this is the year, but they didn't turn the corner against the Huskers. From the start, this was a track meet - - when you spell NU and OSU or Nebraska and Oklahoma State, you will notice there are no D's there; last saturday, there was no D (defense) until the second half. The first half of the game, Taylor Martinez (the second coming of Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier combined) ran wild on the Cowboys and threw like Peyton Manning. Niles Paul and Bryant Kinnie redeemed themselves, and Niles Paul even threw in a 100 yard punt return for a TD as an apology to the Husker faithful. The second half, the Blackshirt defensive backs completely shut down the OSU air game, and the game was over.

Over the past years, Bo and Carl Pelini have built a defense that is specifically designed to stop the spread offenses that have sprung up in college football. The spread offense used to be the offense that would allow a smaller team use it's size and speed to knock off a more powerful team. A lot of more powerful teams adopted it, especially in the Big 12. Nebraska built a defense that was built on the same speed principles. Very small, quick linebackers and a lot of fast defensive backs. This goes back to Tom Osborne's transformation to speed in the early 90s. Nebraska could whip up on other teams with it's size and power in the 80s, but when we stepped out of the Big 8 and played other teams, they ran right past us. Now, Bo and Carl have built a defense that will stop a fast, spread offense, specifically Missouri.

Gary Pinkel took over at Missouri several years ago, and he brought a spread style offense to the Big 12 North, and Nebraska couldn't deal with it. They beat Nebraska a few times, and it seemed that Nebraska couldn't stop it, so other North teams adopted it: Colorado, Kansas and a few others. Nebraska suffered through a few 50, 60 70 point beat downs against those teams, especially in the callahan era.

This year, Missouri came to Lincoln for the last time, ranked number 6, with a Gary Pinkel developed spread offense that ran all over Oklahoma last week. This week was a difference story, the Blackshirt defensive backs shut down Missouri's receivers and Blaine Gabbert had nowhere to throw it. It did help that Roy Helu ran three long touchdowns and racked up 307 yards on the ground and Nebraska's offense pounded Missouri's defense on the ground. Taylor Martinez was injured in the 1st half, but Zac Lee (one of my favorites) came in and ran things just fine during the second half. The defense looked very good, the best they have looked this year and the offense hearkened back to the Husker great offenses where every play could go for a touchdown. It will be interesting over the rest of the year.

I watched the Missouri game at home, instead of at the Union Pub, it was much more pleasant - - I didn't have to travel there and had a great seat on my couch for the game.

Fantasy Football update

I fell out of the King of the Hill pool: The Saints didn't win, so that's that.

In the Tim's Fantasy Football League I passed Wade up this week, but he has two trades left, so I am not sure if it will last. But, it was nice to come out of the basement and move past him into 7th place for a week. We'll see how it goes. Next year, I will have better wide receivers, which is what I say every year . . . .