«I kind of like our guys to think we’re kind of a gritty, tough team,» said the Husker head coach.
What is the most honest thing in America? And it’s not Hallmark Christmas movies that are for some reason playing in October. My hunch is the prince doesn’t end up in small-town America cafes while clearing his head near as much as it is led on.
Turn the channel instead to football coaches for a suggested answer to the question posed. The most honest thing we’ve got going is the tape the day after happiness or disappointment was settled on the gridiron. You may have went to bed the night before thinking the performance was A-OK. You might have hardly slept at all because it was one of those games where the scoreboard suggested your team might never win again.
The tape offers all the little things not seen, truth that can be slowed down and paused by you. And, to raise the stakes, by Spartans about to play you in five days.
It’s truth of the tape obviously much appreciated by Matt Rhule.
For instance, Nebraska beat Purdue on 31-14 and held the Boilermakers to 195 yards. Pretty dominant, everyone concurred.
Well, there was a lot of good. Has to be when you hold a team to less than 100 yards passing and less than 100 rushing. But the tape is your most honest friend – the one who doesn’t pretend your slicing drive off the tee stayed inbounds when it’s clearly in someone’s yard.
«I think our guys watched the tape and I think defensively they knew it wasn’t nearly as good as we thought it was,» Rhule said of the most recent dose of honesty inside the Husker walls. «A lot of things that could’ve happen didn’t happen. We weren’t at our depths in the secondary. Even the touchdown, we give up a touchdown on third and 15. Scrambles have really hurt us this year. If there’s one thing on defense we have to improve on, it’s our scramble defense.»
Rhule liked the takeaways but didn’t think the Huskers tackled at the level they can either, and said Nebraska will need to be on point with that when it deals on Saturday with Michigan State’s 5-10, 200-pound Nate Carter, who played for Husker running backs coach E.J. Barthel while both were at UConn.
Carter has 609 yards on 141 carries and will test a Blackshirts unit playing well. But there is always a better. The tape told them so.
«We didn’t play nearly as well on defense as the stats denoted,» Rhule said. «In fairness to me, when we’ve lost I’ve said … ‘Hey, this was better than I thought.’ We came in and I think the guys, all of us, were kind of like, ‘Hey, that really wasn’t the level of defense we thought we were playing.'»
Rhule pointed out Purdue got behind the Huskers a couple times, including the ball that Tommi Hill picked off, a ball that hung in the wind and allowed the defensive back to be in position for the pick even if the Boilermaker receiver maybe had a step or two on him.
On the other hand, Rhule also appreciates positivity inside your program walls after a 31-14 win, a third straight win, even if some attach the word «ugly» to it.
«I want them to have positivity. I think when you come to a place like Nebraska, Nebraska has won so much in history that if it doesn’t look like the ’97 team, all I hear people tell me is, ‘Well, it was ugly.’ I’m like, ‘Well, OK, 31- 14 wasn’t too ugly to me,'» Rhule said. «And I understand it. I’m not complaining about it. When I say these things, I’m saying it for the players. Everyone has to have a take. …
«I thought we did a lot of positive things in the game. And I thought we did a lot of negative things in the game. So the truth is always there. Let the tape be the truth. It’s always the same process on Sundays.»
With the Husker offense, for example, it wasn’t all messy to Rhule either.
He told the offensive staff going into that Purdue game he wanted 24 points, 40 percent success rate on third down and to win turnover battle.
The Huskers achieved two of the three: Scored 24, were 43 percent on third down, but lost the turnover battle.
«We’re last in the nation right now in fumbles. We’re last in the nation right now in fumbles lost. That falls squarely on my head,» the coach said. «But a lot of the other things, with the amount of guys down, to go out there and score 24 points against Purdue, that’s not easy to do.»
He thinks his team has overcome the turnover margin by being first in the Big Ten in rushing offense (190.5 yards per game) and fifth nationally in rushing defense (79.0), while doing well with time of possession and playing solid special teams.
He pointed out the blocked punt against Illinois, which also included a fumble recovery on kick coverage. Then a blocked field goal for a touchdown against Purdue.
The tape tells a team its share of good stuff when you’ve won five of the last six too.
«What people say is ugly I think is tough. Whereas people might say, ‘Hey, you guys are winning ugly.’ Trust me, I do know it’s ugly. So I’m not saying that. … But the flip side of it is I just think we’re kind of a tough team,» Rhule said. «I kind of like our guys to think we’re kind of a gritty, tough team. I kind of like running the ball and stopping the run. I kind of think that’s pretty cool, you know what I mean.»
