Our 5 opponents have a combined record of 21-6...our two road games against teams with a record of 9-2...with 1 of the losses a one score loss to a top 5 team. Everyone knew this schedule would be brutal but Troy is 5-1, and Colorado is 5-0! They were not the walk overs that people expected. And Purdue is much improved. Our team may be bad, hit rock bottom, but the schedule has been as difficult as any season. Obviously any of Bo's teams would have at least 2 losses right now maybe 3.
Opponents Record....
- Thread starter Solana Beach Husker
- Start date
Yep, but it seems as though some are forgetting that.
21-6 is objective truth, not kool-aid, ...2 road games against top 15 teams is rare...we have had 2 of them in 5 weeks...we've already played 3 ranked teams.....and will likely play 6...and it really sucks because had we had a schedule like 2016 this team makes a bowl game and gets the extra work and exposure, and people would think we were "improving"...
So it turns out that it was even tougher than it looked going in. We could have won some of those (except MI) if it wasn't for bonehead errors.
I agree. The only thing I’d say is if Nebraska was 5-0, our opponents record would be 17-11, so we help out the case. I will say that Nebraska is looking better each week since the Michigan debacle. I think once this team gets a win under their belt they will turn a big corner. When that is, though, is anyone’s guess.
i see martinez and others like spielman, and washington and that gives me hope.
To put it another way, those opponents are 16-6 against the non-Nebraska teams on their schedules.
CU is undefeated. (They're a ranked team that may be in the Pac-12 title game.)
Troy lost to Boise State badly. (Troy is a very good Group of 5 team, but not a great one; hence, they lose badly to Boise.)
Purdue has lost to Northwestern, Eastern Michigan and Missouri by a combined eight points. They've won their last two. (Purdue likely will go 6-6 again if they win their home games).
Michigan has lost only to Notre Dame, a top 5 team with a legitimate shot at 12-0 and the playoffs.
Wisconsin is the best team in the B1G West, but they have an inexplicable home loss to a mediocre-at-best BYU team.
In any regular season, a program like Nebraska would be 3-2 against a slate like that. In a good year, 4-1. In a bad year, 2-3 or 1-4.
Unfortunately, we seem to be the gang who can't shoot straight, so we're 0-5.
Aside from OSU, we could win ANY of the other six remaining games (Iowa is a long, longshot, of course, but that's still a long way away, and anything can happen between now and then), but we're likely to win 1-3, based on playing more fundamentally sound football.
Northwestern: Probably about a 30 percent shot at a victory.
Minnesota: I give us a slight edge, but it's probably a virtual tossup.
Bethune: If we lose, I'll .... I just don't know.
OSU: Zero chance.
Illinois: See "Minnesota" entry.
MSU: They're not that damned good, and if we improve between now and then, it's probably another tossup.
Iowa: See note above about anything can happen, but it's probably about a 5-10 percent chance at a win.
CU is undefeated. (They're a ranked team that may be in the Pac-12 title game.)
Troy lost to Boise State badly. (Troy is a very good Group of 5 team, but not a great one; hence, they lose badly to Boise.)
Purdue has lost to Northwestern, Eastern Michigan and Missouri by a combined eight points. They've won their last two. (Purdue likely will go 6-6 again if they win their home games).
Michigan has lost only to Notre Dame, a top 5 team with a legitimate shot at 12-0 and the playoffs.
Wisconsin is the best team in the B1G West, but they have an inexplicable home loss to a mediocre-at-best BYU team.
In any regular season, a program like Nebraska would be 3-2 against a slate like that. In a good year, 4-1. In a bad year, 2-3 or 1-4.
Unfortunately, we seem to be the gang who can't shoot straight, so we're 0-5.
Aside from OSU, we could win ANY of the other six remaining games (Iowa is a long, longshot, of course, but that's still a long way away, and anything can happen between now and then), but we're likely to win 1-3, based on playing more fundamentally sound football.
Northwestern: Probably about a 30 percent shot at a victory.
Minnesota: I give us a slight edge, but it's probably a virtual tossup.
Bethune: If we lose, I'll .... I just don't know.
OSU: Zero chance.
Illinois: See "Minnesota" entry.
MSU: They're not that damned good, and if we improve between now and then, it's probably another tossup.
Iowa: See note above about anything can happen, but it's probably about a 5-10 percent chance at a win.
We also allowed a tie for the 4th most points to Wisconsin in the last 2 years. Their offense is typically more like Iowa's, until they play someone like us.
It is okay! It is fine to just state a fact and say that right now Nebraska is not a good team. Your nose won't fall off and no one from the university is going to come and confiscate all of your Husker gear. Actually you could say that Nebraska is one of the worst teams in FBS right now. They currently have the second longest losing streak in FBS. They are currently 114th in scoring offense, 120th in scoring defense, 129th in penalty yards per game, 122nd in turnover margin and they are 0-5.
The first step to recovery is acceptance. Frost is only 2.5 years in to his coaching career. He will get better, this team will get better, but right now this team is a hot mess.
Agree that is a fact that has been heavily over looked. I believe last year at this point our opponents had something like 11 wins. I believe we are 0-5 or 1-4 with Riley here. Probably 2-3 or 3-2 with Bo Bo.
But part of that is we do not have a couple games against garbage opponents...and only had our starting qb for two full games....anybody who goes on the road against Michigan and Wisky in 2 of the first 5 games is going to struggle offensively...even our "garbage" game was against a 5-1 team...instead of a 1-5 sunbelt team...and against Purdue we had 600 yards of total offense... so we are closer than it looks...I am glad for the 0-5, it will humble the staff...force them to look in the mirror as it will the players. It will end this fantasy that every Scott touches turns to gold, and remind everyone that hard and smart work is the only way.
In my years of analyzing football stats, I developed a simple little spreadsheet that breaks down how teams do against their opponents as compared to how the rest of the opponent's opponents did. That's a mouthful.
As an example,
Against the other 4 teams that Colorado has played, they average 236 yards per game on the ground. We held them to 44 or about 18% of their average. That looks really good. On the flip side, Michigan averaged 142 ypg against everyone not named Nebraska. Against the Huskers, they ran for 284 or 200% of that average.
Here are the numbers, in some cases they look ok, and in some cases, not so much. Draw your own conclusions.
Colorado rush 44 vs Nebraska - 236 ave against others - 18% of ave
pass 351 - 278 - 126%
total 395 - 513 - 77%
Troy - rush 143 - 190 - 75%
pass 110 - 191 - 58%
total 253 - 382 - 66%
Mich rush 285 - 142 - 200%
pass 206 - 178 - 115%
total 491 - 321 - 153%
Purdue rush 188 - 165 - 113%
pass 328 - 318 - 103%
total 516 - 483 - 106%
Wisconsin rush 370 - 266 - 139%
pass 163 - 200 - 81%
total 533 - 466 - 114%
As an example,
Against the other 4 teams that Colorado has played, they average 236 yards per game on the ground. We held them to 44 or about 18% of their average. That looks really good. On the flip side, Michigan averaged 142 ypg against everyone not named Nebraska. Against the Huskers, they ran for 284 or 200% of that average.
Here are the numbers, in some cases they look ok, and in some cases, not so much. Draw your own conclusions.
Colorado rush 44 vs Nebraska - 236 ave against others - 18% of ave
pass 351 - 278 - 126%
total 395 - 513 - 77%
Troy - rush 143 - 190 - 75%
pass 110 - 191 - 58%
total 253 - 382 - 66%
Mich rush 285 - 142 - 200%
pass 206 - 178 - 115%
total 491 - 321 - 153%
Purdue rush 188 - 165 - 113%
pass 328 - 318 - 103%
total 516 - 483 - 106%
Wisconsin rush 370 - 266 - 139%
pass 163 - 200 - 81%
total 533 - 466 - 114%
We appear to have played good enough defense to win the first two games, but not the last three.
Well done. Great system.
1931 is the only time Nebraska has lost at Northwestern. Coach Bible just didn't have the boys ready to play.
Home team is 1-6. And we won that on a last second play
I noticed you didn't mention any OL. I'm not faulting you, its the nature of most fans to concentrate on the so-called "skill players". However, the success of those players is dependent, in large part, on the performance of the linemen that protect the QB and block for the RBs.
You mentioned players on offense. It seems obvious to me that hope for a better future at Nebraska is much more dependent on an improved defense. You can't repeatedly surrender 40 or more points and expect to win because most B10 defenses are too good to allow that many or more.
What they tell me is that we've been inconsistent. It also would seem that Troy exposed the weaknesses in our D that other teams have been able to exploit. Having our starting NT at less than full speed and then losing him completely may be a factor? With our fast paced offense and then our offense's inability at times to sustain drives I would assume that teams like Wisconsin and Purdue also got more possessions against our D than some of the other teams they played leading to more yards. So without context, pure defensive stats alone don't tell the whole story IMO.
That’s because those are the guys that are killing it.
Of course, you are correct about needing better line play and improvement on defense, but when identifying the things that give hope, look no further than those 3...
I forget that we’re only 4-3 against NW. Smh. Some of our records against B1G teams are pathetic. I would’ve lost a lot of money if you would’ve told me 10 years ago what these records would be.
Troy exposed what? They were literally the only team the defense held below their averages in all 3 categories.
No offense but Mick Stoltenberg isn’t that good of a NT to be that much of a factor.
The teams that Michigan played outside of Nebraska, Notre Dame, Western Michigan, SMU, Northwestern, Maryland. And Nebraska allowed twice as many rush yards than those other 5 teams have averaged and more than 1.5 times total yards.
What is shows me is that Troy is by far the weakest offense we have faced this year, that we can’t stop the run, if a team wants to run the ball on us. And that our pass defense is only slightly better than the run D.
of course defense needs to improve to get anywhere.
otherwise, i've focused on the most obvious positives.