Nebraska 28, Iowa State 14: The Recap Edition (Angry Rant Time)

I'm feeling slightly better today, so, for some reason, I'm going to discuss Saturday night's game.

Cutting immediately to the chase, and the play everyone loved:

I 2-15 I18 Meyer,Bret rush for loss of 2 yards to the IS16 (Suh, Ndamukong).
I 3-17 I16 Timeout Nebraska, clock 01:35.

Let's have a list of reasons why this play made no sense:

1. The Cyclones are down by seven right here. Driving down the field, as opposed to playing for halftime, could have tied the game up.
2. When is the last time the draw/option actually worked, especially when trying to gain 15 yards?
3. If just trying to reduce the distance to go on third down, why not throw to the tight ends, who catch everything?
4. Nebraska had two timeouts. Essentially a wasted play.
5. Why run on 2nd if you are going to pass on 3rd?
6. Todd Blythe.
7. Bret Meyer's sudden apparent lack of scrambling ability.
8. The overall lack of ability in running the ball at all against Nebraska.
9. HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO GET BURNT BEFORE HALFTIME? Essentially the same scenario as going into the half against Iowa. Who cares if Nebraska gets the ball with two timeouts? It's not like the defense had done a damn thing up to that point.
10. I called the exact play before it happened. And that shouldn't happen.

Therea are only a couple of ways I can shove that play through my head. One is that the coaching staff thought that Nebraska would have been sold on the pass, and the Meyer could at least cut the yardage needed in half. (Refer to points 7-8). The other is we were actually playing for the break, which has worked so well.

Another thing.......YOU SIMPLY DON'T WIN GAMES AGAINST TEAMS LIKE NEBRASKA WHEN TODD BLYTHE GETS NO TOUCHES IN THE FIRST HALF. I don't know how much of it involves Meyer and how much of it involves Cotton, but, ya know what, the guy can still catch in double coverage. The duo of Blythe and Jon Davis had to have been a full four feet taller than the cornerbacks covering them.

I'm also glad we seemingly have no faith in our kicking game. The fake field goal call was something I again called, which, again, shouldn't happen. If Shaggy is allowed to put three points on the board, maybe a couple of the drives that fizzled out in Nebraska territory could have been ended with three more points on the board. Unfortunately, we played/coached ourselves into situations where we had to go for it. It's a real shame that what ended up being a really nice effort by the Cyclone defense in the second half was wasted.

If I was in the practice of handing out game balls, which I'm not, you'd have to think that the players awarded Saturday night would have been Todd Blythe (who I hear is pretty good), the linebackers (Bowen, Banks and McKenzie) and Mike Brandtner. We all know about Blythe, but we saw some improvements from Banks up at LB, while Bowen and McKenzie keep racking up tackles. Brandtner was just plain silly punting. An average of over 43 yards, with 3 kicks into a rather stiff wind, including killing a punt inside the five - that's three and a half more years that we should have of solid punting. So solid, hopefully we don't need to worry about the punter until 2010.

Overall, it was tough coming away from this game with a loss. Nebraska recieved 7 point before halftime, courtesy of the ISU coaching staff and secondary, while Iowa State had two touchdowns called back, and a field goal not happen. The defense played as well as they have all season in the second half, up until the final six minutes. It was all wasted.

Jamie Pollard will have to take a serious look at the coaching staff after the season, because with a 3-3 record, and games still left against Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Missouri, a winning record may not be attainable. The worst part is, we know we can hang with these guys, but it's almost like expecting something to go wrong at this point.

Speaking of things going wrong, Andre McFarland just committed to Idaho.

Iowa State used to be the team where praise was showered down on the coaching staff, as ISU "did the most with the talent available." Now, we're left to wonder why we can do so little with such good talent. Dan McCarney is a nice guy and all, and he accomplished something astounding when he brought a 9-win season to Ames. However, the world is college football is one of "what have you done for me lately," and the answer to the question isn't a pretty one.