• last year
Transcript
00:00 Welcome to the Carriker Chronicles, the people's show, checking the pulse of Husker Nation,
00:14 brought to you by DPS Construction.
00:17 Check them out at dpsconstruction.net.
00:19 Couple things real quick, Nebraska falls to Michigan State in East Lansing today, 20-17,
00:24 so Nebraska is technically still not bowl eligible.
00:27 Yes, there were some questionable calls throughout the game.
00:31 It's part of the game, it sucks, I'm not going to say anything more about that.
00:34 Feel free to comment below if you'd like to on that particular subject.
00:37 Yes, Heinrich Harburg had a bit of a rough day today.
00:40 He was not the only one, but I will dive into that just a little bit later.
00:43 For me personally, this was disappointing because yes, we are young, we are inexperienced,
00:51 we are in year one of Matt Rule.
00:53 We have 40,894,000 injuries up front and I'm rounding down on the offensive side of the
00:59 ball, I mean.
01:00 I get all of that.
01:02 Michigan State is not a good football team.
01:05 They haven't beaten anyone who's halfway decent to slightly below average yet this year.
01:10 The two teams they beat were the first two games of the year and those teams, I could
01:13 say their names, you probably wouldn't even know who they are.
01:15 They've lost six in a row, they're not a good team, their program's in disarray, okay.
01:20 They have no reason to be motivated to come out and beat Nebraska today.
01:23 We have every reason to be motivated to come out and, I don't know, become bowl eligible
01:27 for the first time in half a decade or so.
01:29 Hey, we're actually, we were in control of our destiny in the Big Ten West because I
01:35 do believe Ohio State's going to beat Minnesota, but that's out the window.
01:39 I felt like Michigan State had more passion, they had more energy.
01:44 That's why it's so disappointing for me.
01:46 I can handle losing.
01:47 I can handle losing ugly.
01:49 I can handle losing to not great teams right now because we got a long way to go.
01:54 But everything I just laid out, that's why this is so frustrating and disappointing and
01:58 gobsmacking in my head for me that I can't figure out.
02:02 Alright, as disappointing as today was, if you're like me and you believe Nebraska will
02:09 still make a bowl game, we got three games left this year, just gotta win one, okay,
02:15 smash the like button.
02:16 Also, I want to give a shout out to my daughter, Addison.
02:19 Okay, she comes on the show all the time.
02:22 I have people who work for me and we had some things go on today, so she's filling in behind
02:28 the camera right now, helping me record, so shout out to Addie.
02:31 Alright, coming into this game, as you know, I go pre-game, I go throughout the game, and
02:35 then I get my final post-game reactions at the end of this video.
02:38 That's how my gut reactions work.
02:39 Coming in to this game, Michigan State had not scored a touchdown in their last eight
02:44 quarters.
02:45 Four field goals versus Minnesota, and then they got shut out versus Michigan State.
02:48 Alright, Heinrich Harburg coming into this game was completing 52% of his passes, averaging
02:53 120 pass yards a game, he had seven total passing touchdowns on the year, so easy for
03:01 me to say.
03:02 Alright, four interceptions coming into today, 446 rush yards and four rushing touchdowns.
03:07 Now, our four captains for today's game, I thought this was interesting, was Heinrich
03:10 Harburg, Marquise Buford, Isaac Gifford, and Bryce Benhart.
03:14 That guy's come a long way, alright, on an individual level.
03:19 And it was interesting, on TV, there are three key players to watch on Nebraska's offense.
03:23 Okay, one of them was Anthony Grant, who wasn't one of the two running backs on the field
03:27 to start the game.
03:28 I wonder if there's more to that than the fumbling thing.
03:30 I don't know.
03:31 But now, is Joshua Fleeks ahead of him too?
03:34 He got the first carry of the game, I don't know, because we know Emmitt Johnson is.
03:38 Okay, but Bryce Benhart was actually one of those three guys that they put on TV as three
03:42 guys to watch on Nebraska's offense.
03:43 It just never happens for O'Leidman, let alone someone who has obviously improved a lot,
03:48 but struggled a lot early on in his career.
03:49 I just thought that was fascinating.
03:50 Alright, Joshua Fleeks started running back along with Emmitt Johnson.
03:53 Okay, it was a two-back set to start the game, and as I mentioned, Fleeks got the first carry
03:56 of the game.
03:57 And I just wrote "Anthony Grant?"
04:00 I'm just curious, is there more to this than just the fumbling thing?
04:02 I don't know.
04:03 Alright, rather ugly first quarter was my notes.
04:06 Michigan State led 3-0 at the end of it.
04:10 There was a couple of things that I noticed in the stands, and you may have noticed them
04:14 as well.
04:15 There was a guy dressed as a Michigan Scout, you know, the whole sign-stealing thing in
04:19 the stands.
04:20 But I should mention, today's coin toss, okay this came on the Jumbotron, it said, "Today's
04:25 coin toss will feature the commemorative Sam Fulton/Mike Sadler coin flip in honor and
04:30 remembrance of the former Nebraska and Michigan State punters who unfortunately passed away
04:35 a few years ago."
04:36 Also, there was a Michigan State fan that had a Sam Fulton/Mike Sadler jersey draped
04:42 over the railing in the stands in honor of Mike and Sam as well.
04:46 I just thought that that was pretty cool, and I thought I would mention that.
04:49 Regardless of the outcome of this game, some things I still think are pretty cool.
04:53 Alright, 12.45 left in the second quarter.
04:55 An option run by Henrik Harburg, puts Nebraska up 7-3 over Michigan State.
05:00 Good ol' spottay.
05:01 Alright, now there was a jet sweep motion, which created an extra blocker, and a backside
05:06 puller.
05:07 So there was two extra blockers, okay, placed on that play which helped contribute to the
05:11 touchdown.
05:12 Now here's what I noticed.
05:13 I went back and I watched the play before, and I was like, "That looked awfully similar
05:16 to the play they just ran."
05:17 Okay, I noticed they ran the same exact play, puller, motion, everything the play before.
05:24 But they gave it to the running back the first time, and on the second time they ran it,
05:28 Harburg keeps it on the option, on the decision, runs it in for a touchdown.
05:32 9.15 left in the second quarter.
05:33 Michigan State, short, skinny, post route for a touchdown.
05:37 Michigan State goes up 10-7.
05:39 Now Spartans earlier in the drive, converted on a 50-yard, give or take 50-yard, approximately
05:45 double pass.
05:46 Got it to about the Huskers' 12-yard line, which set up the Spartys' touchdown.
05:50 Now this was a six-play, 75-yard drive, took 3.26 off the clock.
05:54 Michigan State really didn't control the ball consistently throughout this game.
05:58 They kind of relied on big plays, more so than anything else on offense.
06:02 Now this was a bit of a dagger.
06:04 It was former Husker and high school quarterback Elante Brown, who was the player for Michigan
06:10 State who converted the throw on the double pass.
06:12 He caught the pass, he threw it downfield, he's the one to help Michigan State get that
06:16 big game.
06:17 Now Nebraska's first touchdown drive, just going back to when Nebraska scored, okay,
06:22 I uncovered this after Michigan State scored again.
06:25 It was a 10-play, 59-yard drive, spanning 4 minutes and 31 seconds.
06:29 Now Nebraska's first three drives resulted in a punt, interception, touchdown.
06:34 To that point in the game.
06:36 Now the interception could have been, it was a deep pass that went awry.
06:41 It was an interception that could have honestly gone for a touchdown, had it been a little
06:45 bit more accurate.
06:46 Because the receiver was open.
06:51 Now Tristan Alvano hits a field goal, ties the score 10-10 at halftime.
06:55 Michigan State, here's what I wrote, I even put it out on social media, Facebook and Twitter.
07:00 Go give me a follow if you like, #GPLUG.
07:03 I said Michigan State playing better than I thought.
07:06 They have great energy.
07:07 They're really killing themselves with penalties.
07:11 Our offense not playing well, missed opportunities, struggling to block.
07:15 I was not personally a fan of some of the play calling at times.
07:19 But then other times we had guys wide open and we just weren't hitting them.
07:23 We don't run a fancy offense.
07:25 It's really one of the most basic, simple offenses you can run in college football.
07:28 And I get it, when you've got the injuries, the inexperience, and you're just trying to
07:32 get something going, and you're really relying on your defense to kind of carry the team,
07:36 okay, and your offense is kind of doing its thing in addition to the defense.
07:39 I get it, I got no problem with that theory.
07:41 But here's my point, we don't run a fancy scheme on offense.
07:44 Even the backups have to be able to execute the little things, at least a little, to a
07:50 smidge, to a whole lot better than they did today.
07:54 And we never really did match Michigan State's energy throughout the game either.
07:59 We've also ran a decent amount of plays out of the empty formation so far.
08:07 And I know people, because we went shotgun and the fourth down, and things of that nature,
08:12 and I know people are going to, I'm sure they're going to have a lot of thoughts on that as
08:15 well.
08:16 Now, if you start to look at the halftime stats, all right, we had 12 first downs, they
08:21 had five.
08:22 We were four and nine on third down, they were one of five on third down.
08:25 Okay, look at total yards, they had more total yards than we did.
08:28 All right, they had 141 pass yards, we had 61.
08:31 Rushing, we had 90 rush yards, they had 41.
08:34 We also had 23 rushing attempts at halftime, they only had 13.
08:38 Penalties, we had zero.
08:40 They had six for 60 yards.
08:42 They were kind of shooting themselves in the foot a little bit.
08:45 And we had the time of possession advantage, 18.05 to 11.55.
08:48 Again, Michigan State was kind of relying on the big plays, so to speak.
08:53 Real quick, as you know, this show is brought to you by DPS Concrete Construction.
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09:02 All right, at halftime, Heinrich Harburg was 7 of 16 for 61 yards passing, averaging 4.1
09:08 yards per completion, and had an interception at that point in time.
09:13 Now our top three rushers, Emmitt Johnson, Heinrich Harburg, Joshua Fleet, Anthony Grant
09:16 was fourth.
09:17 All right, Emmitt Johnson led us in rushing at halftime, and Heinrich Harburg was number
09:22 two.
09:23 All right, Thomas Fedoni led our pass catchers at that point in time, three receptions, 43
09:28 yards, 14.3 yards per reception, with a long reception of 27 yards.
09:32 And Jamari Butler led our defense at halftime with five tackles.
09:36 Now, it's year one.
09:41 There's a lot that goes into this.
09:42 This is a process.
09:46 And even before Matt Rule had said this, I thought this to myself, because this is not
09:49 where Temple was.
09:51 This is not where Baylor was when he took over.
09:53 But Matt Rule had talked about how he thinks they can accomplish in year one at Nebraska
09:58 what he did in year two at Temple and Baylor, because of the already existing infrastructure,
10:02 support, and talent on the roster.
10:04 And he can still accomplish that yet this year.
10:07 I just don't know that I pointed that out on the Carriker Chronicles yet to this point
10:12 of the season, so I thought that I would, because I agree with him, despite what happened
10:16 today.
10:17 All right, 5.11 left in the third quarter.
10:18 Michigan State, 51-yard field goal to go up 13-10.
10:22 They make the field goal.
10:23 All right, the Spartans kicker's pretty good, man.
10:25 He's 3-of-5 on 50-plus-yard field goals this year, including a 58-yard field goal that
10:31 he had already made as well in the season.
10:34 Now Michigan State's defense going into the fourth quarter, man, it's one of those games
10:38 where they had a lot of fun, unfortunately, at our expense.
10:42 All right, going in, and they had way more than this by the end of the fourth quarter.
10:46 I've got to go check out the stats.
10:47 But going into the fourth quarter, they had three sacks, eight TFLs, and one takeaway.
10:51 All right, of the 11 forced negative plays, it totaled 39 yards lost for the Huskers.
10:56 Again, that's just entering the fourth quarter.
10:58 I swear to God they had like five more sacks in the fourth quarter, and who knows what
11:02 else, okay, because they really took over the fourth quarter.
11:05 All right, they'd been in the back, they were in the backfield a lot today, our backfield.
11:09 Now the good news, I wrote this going into the fourth quarter.
11:14 The good news, going into the fourth quarter, the Spartans have been outscored this year
11:17 46-7 in fourth quarters so far this year.
11:23 All right, our first possession of the fourth quarter wasn't very pretty.
11:26 It ended in another sack.
11:28 All right, and I even tweeted again, "Our defensive special teams may have to score
11:32 for us to win this game."
11:33 All right, Brian Buccini, and again, we were on our own end of the field pretty deep.
11:37 He didn't have the best punt.
11:38 It helped give Michigan State a short field.
11:39 They capitalized.
11:41 Another touchdown pass.
11:42 Spartans go up 20-10.
11:43 Now, I wrote here, "Our offensive line has really struggled to pick up Michigan State's
11:47 fronts, stunts up front defensively."
11:50 That's a vast understatement.
11:51 "Our wide receivers didn't play well.
11:53 They missed a lot of catchable balls."
11:55 That's being kind.
11:56 All right, the announcers on TV, every time we go back to punt, they point out we rarely
12:01 return punts, and they're correct when they made this statement.
12:04 They basically said Billy Kemp is our designated fair catch guy.
12:08 I know we tried something else later on, but...
12:10 All right, I kept waiting.
12:11 I kept waiting for our coaches, because we do have good coaches.
12:15 I have a lot of faith in Matt Rowe, a lot of faith in Tony White.
12:18 Marcus Satterfield still has to prove himself to me.
12:20 He just does.
12:21 Okay, I kept waiting for our coaches to make the adjustments that would give us the edge
12:25 in this game, and it just never happened.
12:29 At least not with the results on the field.
12:31 6.30 left in the fourth quarter.
12:32 Heinrich Harburg goes his second interception of the game.
12:36 Now, this was Michigan State's interim head coaches.
12:40 His first win since he became their interim head coach.
12:43 Michigan State's program has really been tumultuous all year long.
12:48 This snaps their sixth game losing streak.
12:50 My papers are flying.
12:51 I might as well contribute to that.
12:52 Heinrich Harburg kept fighting.
12:55 He did keep fighting.
12:56 You've got to give him that.
12:57 A long run where Michigan State's defenders, it looked like it was two hand touch, and
13:01 I didn't understand what they were doing, but I'll take it.
13:04 It set up an eight yard touchdown run for Emmitt Johnson, cut the lead to 20-17, cut
13:08 it to a one possession game.
13:09 Now unfortunately, in one possession games, the Huskers have the worst winning possession
13:15 in the entire Big Ten Conference in the last five years when it comes to one possession
13:18 games at a winning percentage of 235.
13:21 Michigan State, however, is the best in the Big Ten Conference, winning percentage wise
13:25 in one possession games at 7-14.
13:28 Now, Nebraska got the ball back with 2-30 left in the fourth quarter.
13:32 Okay, at our 22 yard line with a chance to do something, and Harburg was sacked again
13:37 on third down.
13:38 He fumbled.
13:39 Michigan State recovered to essentially seal the win, and we, by the way, are 111th in
13:44 the country in turnover margin, in case you were wondering.
13:47 Alright, now the Huskers did get one more chance with the ball.
13:51 It didn't really go anywhere.
13:52 Michigan State wins 20-17.
13:53 Alright, ladies and gentlemen, losing isn't what frustrates me.
14:05 We're going to have some ugly games, and eventually one's not going to go our way.
14:08 Losing to teams that aren't great doesn't thrill me.
14:13 I don't think I could find another Power Five program in the country that's had more rocky
14:20 waters than Michigan State this year.
14:22 We had every reason to be motivated.
14:24 They had every reason to phone it in.
14:26 And I'm not saying the Huskers just came out with no effort whatsoever.
14:29 You could argue they kept fighting and got the game back to within 20-17.
14:34 I don't know.
14:35 Alright, questions, let me know your thoughts.
14:37 The offense severely struggled.
14:38 Do you blame the play calling or the execution more?
14:40 Alright, number two, were you surprised, shocked, or not surprised at all the Huskers lost?
14:44 Number three, the Blackshirts have only allowed 20 points, or they hadn't allowed 20 points,
14:50 they hadn't allowed double digits defensively in a game in over a month.
14:53 How do you think the Blackshirts played today?
14:55 Check out CarrikerChronicles.com.
14:57 This one was easy for me to record.
14:58 Go Big Red and always remember to throw the bones.