Best thread in a month. We have excess talent at some areas like wide receiver but our defensive interior is still pathetic considering our heritage at that position and where we need to be. Those 5 championships and all the near misses wouldn't exist without all the freak defensive tackles we fielded. In particular it's laughable to ignore how pivotal those players were in penetrating and disrupting the run oriented and option offenses.
When your interior guys are moderate it exposes the weakness nearby. Pierre was a disaster in that first half. I kept watching him get turned and abused. I was shouting to get #91 off the field. No effort at all when Nebraska ran straight at him. Finally the announcers emphasized that the Miami coaches were yelling at Pierre.
It's amusing that we judge Nebraska based on McNeese State while having no trouble basing our opinion on our defensive linemen on games against Florida A&M and Arkansas State.
BTW, does anyone realize Nebraska would have been a 30 point favorite against McNeese State if they lined up a week later? I have no idea how that practice is accepted and thrives on boards like this, to watch a snippet of a game against a future opponent and then happy adjust to the extreme based on that sample. If the team plays lousy for a quarter or half then they suck and we should kill them. Absolutely priceless. No concept at all of the big picture. It's pure bar stool simpleton analysis, the type that shouldn't exist on this site.
Nebraska shattered Fresno State on the road a week before we played them, gaining more than 560 yards and covering the spread by more than 3 touchdowns. Warren Buffett, into his 80s, made the first sports wager of his life on that game. I don't know the rationale but maybe he realized that Nebraska had become undervalued based on the McNeese State game. All my angles indicated that. I had Nebraska -12 also. But on this site we happily ignore than game while happy adjusting every opinion of Nebraska based on McNeese State. And let me guess, when Nebraska has trouble on the road against Michigan State we'll scream that Nebraska is awful, instead of recognizing that Michigan State is a different level than where we currently are.
When we leave the Orange Bowl, the big picture applies. That's a forfeit of 2 to 2.5 points per game, based on data since 1966. When we fail to land one prized defensive tackle recruit after another several years in a row, the big picture also applies. It's inane to pretend the guys we scoop us as substitute are similar caliber and we won't be vulnerable there.