Nebraska 38 Wyoming 14

Tue Sep 27, 2011 6:17 pm

After starting 3-0 I didn't feel good at all. Now surprisingly after the first loss, I actually feel better about the team. I just watched the game a 2nd time and wrote down some notes. The Game Plan was great, but the players were understandably nervous. It was the mental errors that kept us out of the game. We couldn't keep our emotions in check. The game and the moment was just too big for some of them, but I believe we can learn from it and get better from it. Brett Smith played remarkable for a true Freshman and Tashaun Gipson made a lot of nice tackles and had his best game by far. But we needed to make them earn everything they got. Very first play of the game, Illegal Formation, 1st and 15.. First play actually run... Ol Z. Rushing pisses his pants and blocks like a kindergardener. 3 and out. 1st play on defense, anderson, nzeocha and biezuns missed a tackle on burkhead..... nerves.

McNeil had a huge dropped pass that stalled the next drive.
Martinez is a horrible, horrible passer and throws like a girl.
Then McNeil ruins another great drive with the stupid personal foul. 2 drives in a row ruined by mcneil.
Biezuns makes a nice hit and the crowd gets into the game... This is where Wyoming falls short. After the big hit by Biezuns, nebraska wakes up and takes it right in for a 14-0 lead. We really need to understand when the other team is waking up and rise to the occasion. Unfortunately we never do, they always seem to respond to everything we do. This game was never really a game for one reason: After a score, they always answer. Just one time in my life in a huge game, I want to see us get a TD AND FOLLOW IT UP WITH A DEFENSIVE STOP!!!!! This never happens. The other team always answers. Our TD seems to wake the other team up and they always respond. We score a nice TD, score is now 14-7. We must follow it up with a defensive stop. But instead on 3rd and 10 at the 50 yard line Martinez rolls right shot puts the ball about 4 yards and marqueston huff totally whiffs on the tackle,then Nzeocha gets carried the remaining 5 yards for a HUGE NEBRASKA 1st down. This play was huge and I can understand why Huff needs to be concerned about his job security now! Make the fvcking easy tackle and they are punting. Luckily the drive and the half ends in a "missed fg".

Now the most important series in the young lives of the Wyoming Cowboys Defense is the 1st series of the 3rd quarter. Can we get a stop?? If we get a stop to start the 3rd quarter and get the ball with a chance to tie the game, its GAME ON!

What happens?? We kick the ball to the 20 yard line, the runner isn't touched til he gets to the 40 yard line, tackled at the 45 yard line.. Then tack on 15 yards after a personal foul on DeAndre Jones. Nebraska lines up, tack on another 5 yards offsides on Nzeocha. Nebraska runs its first play of the 2nd half from the Wyoming 35 yard line. Instead of GAME ON! IT WAS GAME OVER! 21-7 Nebraska. Then our first drive stalls at the 50 yard line. Everyone in America (who was watching) knew to watch for the fake punt, it was the most obvious point in the game for a fake punt. From TV you could see the Nebraska coaches yelling fake punt, fake punt... It fooled no one. Nebraska starts its 2nd series of the 2nd half at the 50 yard line.. 24-7 Nebraska Game Over.

Then what happens as we continue to implode in the 3rd quarter? Ogbonna drops a deep TD pass. Then we miss a 32 yard field goal. Nebraska gets the ball back and what was a good 14-7 game at halftime turned into 31-7 rout just 1 minute into the 4th quarter. By this time the defense is just about out of gas.
We put together a nice drive to please the crowd and make the score 31-14, but can we follow it up with a stop? HELL NO. And then came the play that absolutely pissed me off the worst. 5:25 left in the game.. Nebraska running down our throat, we just scored to make it 31-14 and we force a 3rd and 3 at our 15 yard line..... Lets just hold em to a FG PLEEZ. Nooo. Martinez JOGS to the left all the way back to the 20 yard line and it looks as if theres no way he can make the 12 yard line. BRIAN FVCKIN HENDRICKS gives up on the play and walks into a blocker and allows himself to be blocked and Martinez inexplicably jogs for a first down. Hendricks didn't even attempt to make a tackle. Couple plays later....38-14.

Utah State is the biggest game of the season. There are a ton of positives to take away from the Nebraska game. It'll be interesting to see how this team responds mentally. I'm glad they have 2 weeks.

Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:01 pm

Do you want to explain the positives, instead of bash the team for everything they did wrong?

Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:07 pm

McNeill's PF was in the 3rd quarter, which was after Nebraska went up 14-0.

Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:39 pm

Mcneils PF was not in the 3rd

Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:01 pm

gopokes1399 wrote:Mcneils PF was not in the 3rd

Did Anderson have the PF right after the half or was it McNeill? It was in my head that McNeill was after the half, but I could be wrong.. it's happened before.

Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:37 pm

I don't know who the penalty in the 3rd was on, but McNeil's did happen in the 1st quarter when he blindsided some dude 500 yds away from the play.

Tue Sep 27, 2011 9:57 pm

MrTitleist wrote:
gopokes1399 wrote:Mcneils PF was not in the 3rd
Did Anderson have the PF right after the half or was it McNeill? It was in my head that McNeill was after the half, but I could be wrong.. it's happened before.

The PF to start the 3rd quarter was on DeAndre Jones. I was off however by 5 yards on how the 2nd half started. The kickoff landed at the 20, the runner wasn't tackled until he got to the 45, add 15 for DeAndre's PF, then add 5 for offsides on Nzeocha. Nebraska runs their first play in the 3rd quarter from the Wyoming 35 yard line. Game Over. Not to mention their next drive started at the 50 after the failed fake punt.

It would of been nice to just kick the damn ball out of the endzone!!

Tue Sep 27, 2011 10:28 pm

kansasCowboy wrote:Do you want to explain the positives, instead of bash the team for everything they did wrong?

Of course. True Freshman QB Brett Smith showed great poise and played great. Outside of the bad INT in the 4th quarter he played great. Tashaun Gipson had a lot of nice tackles saving quite a bit of yardage, not to mention a forced fumble and recovery. The Game Plan was perfect. Run the clock, Run up the middle. Force Martinez to throw. Unfortunately Burkhead had a career game. I was pleasantly surprised at how well we were running the ball on them.
Biezuns had another good game, outside of 1 or 2 missed tackles. We actually have some Wide Receivers!! I felt sorry for ACS and Karsten Sween who had nobody to throw to. I liked what I saw out of Doctson, Herron, and Ogbanna outside of the Dropped TD. This team really needs to gain a bunch of confidence from this game. Nebraska is suppose to be the 2nd best team in the big 10 and outside of their running game I'm not that impressed. I'm way way way more afraid of Boise with Kellen Moore and even some other more balanced teams. If this team takes the approach that they expect to win, I now see this team able to go bowling. If we can cut out the stupid penalties, work on the kickoffs and FG's and improve the defense, I like where this team is headed. This team just needs to get some confidence and start to expect to win.

Wed Sep 28, 2011 1:41 am

the man, i've given you grief before, but i can't here. You're right. The Pokes gave this one away. At half I felt very good about the situation. We had really held Neb in check on offense, the first TD being the result of good field position and a missed tackle. So i thought, start the second half, get a stop and start letting the nerves, altitude work for us. But the bad kick, and penalties just gave Neb a TD right out of the gate. The game was never the same since. Also, the fake punt was dumb in my opinion. Just kick the ball. The defense was playing well and was rested at that point. Trust them. Just a bad gamble i think.

In defense of the pokes i'll say this: our guys on the line were over matched but didnt give an inch. And i heard more than one Nebraska fan say they woudl gladly trade QB's with us. Clean up the mistakes and all the remaining games are winnable. Boise St , not likely, but TCU is possible. I get a sense that people are interested in the Pokes again, lets encourage that, get your friends together, people that wouldnt normally go to a game and the get them there for homecoming.

Wed Sep 28, 2011 7:52 am

Can somebody check their recording of the game? I watched the game at a Bar since I don't get Versus at home. When the Cowboys came out in the second half, it looked as though they were kicking off from the wrong line. Once the ball was kicked and landed at the 20, I thought that must have been the case. I was waiting for the announcers to explain that there was some sort of unsportsmanlike penalty or some sort of bench penalty that moved the ball back on the kickoff. I never heard a thing and I didn't have the ability to go back and look.

Wed Sep 28, 2011 8:07 am

Charpy wrote:Can somebody check their recording of the game? I watched the game at a Bar since I don't get Versus at home. When the Cowboys came out in the second half, it looked as though they were kicking off from the wrong line. Once the ball was kicked and landed at the 20, I thought that must have been the case. I was waiting for the announcers to explain that there was some sort of unsportsmanlike penalty or some sort of bench penalty that moved the ball back on the kickoff. I never heard a thing and I didn't have the ability to go back and look.

UW kicked off from the 30. If we could've kicked it thru the endzone the game may have been totally different. It was a bad deal that they scored a TD 1 minute into the 3rd quarter.