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Thursday, November 26, 2020

Red Report: Huskers can't be 'loose' with the ball; take what you can get; how the QB decision is made - HuskerExtra.com

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Nebraska at Ohio St., 10.24

Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez (2) loses the ball in the third quarter on Oct. 24 against Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes recovered the fumble and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown.

KIRK IRWIN, POOL VIA OHIO STATE ATHLETICS

Nebraska had its worst outing of the season last week against Illinois in multiple departments but maybe most strikingly on the turnover front.

The Huskers turned it over five times — three interceptions and two lost fumbles — and didn’t force one.

NU junior wide receiver Kade Warner on Monday called it “the biggest thing” amiss with the offense at this stage in the season.

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“I think we’re too loose with the football,” he said. “We stress it in practice and we stress it right before the game, too. We have too many turnovers and too many self-inflicted negatives, what we call ‘sins.’

“So I think we’ve got to stop beating ourselves and giving the defense short fields and giving the other offense the opportunity to score, and I think if we fix those and just play our game and play the way we're supposed to play and quit those sins, I think it will turn around for us. We’re stressing that again in practice, just going back to the fundamentals and the details.”

The Huskers won the turnover battle 2-1 against Penn State in their only win of the season. They were even with Northwestern (2-2) and went minus-1 against Ohio State in the season opener.

NU would have challenged first play vs. Illinois: Offensive coordinator Matt Lubick said Tuesday that Nebraska would have challenged the ruling on the field that Luke McCaffrey threw the first pass of the game backward, but the officials told the coaching staff that there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn it.

“We have access to video like all staffs do in the (coaches) box,” Lubick said. “It wasn’t close. I mean, it was close, but they reviewed it, supposedly, and the referees told us they reviewed it is what it is.

“We were going to challenge. In that situation, it’s definitely worth a challenge. We had it in the box, the box was kind of unclear cut, but we were told by the officials that they looked at it.”

Take what you can get: Not every play in the passing game is going to be an explosive one, but Lubick said Tuesday that the Huskers have to do a better job making life simpler for themselves when the defense essentially allows short or underneath passes to be available.

That’s been an issue for more than just the loss to Illinois, but it popped up multiple times on Saturday.

“They did make it challenging throwing the ball down the field, especially in long-yardage situations, especially because the safeties are 20 yards deep and everyone is dropping,” Lubick said. “They kind of force you to lay it off. But when they do force you to lay it off, we’ve got to convert those and run for first downs. We had a couple of those where the guy might not be in the right position or the throw is a little bit off.

“Those layoffs, you’ve got to be 100% on those because those are easy throws, then the guy catching the ball has to do a good job with ball security and getting the first down.”

Frost makes the QB call: Nebraska will have a decision to make again this week whether redshirt freshman Luke McCaffrey or junior Adrian Martinez starts Friday against Iowa.

Martinez started NU’s first two games and McCaffrey has started the last two. Neither did enough in his time at the helm to lock up the job full-time going forward into the final three weeks.

So how does the decision get made during the week?

“As a staff, we scrutinize every play at every position, including the quarterbacks, and we talk about it,” Lubick said Tuesday. “If he made a bad read or the throw was a little off, why did that happen? What can we do as coaches to help fix that? Then, it follows into practice. This week, again, it’s an open competition, they’re very close, so we evaluate every day and we really discuss it every day.

“The whole offensive staff is seeing everything the quarterback does and we talk about it. What did he do well and what can he do better? At the end of the day, the decision will be made by Coach Frost, but he does listen to everybody.”

Lubick said McCaffrey and Martinez know where they stand on a week-to-week basis.

“We’ve been really straightforward with the quarterbacks. ‘Hey, these are the expectations, you did some good things, these are the things you need to do better.’ Just like every other position. We’ve basically said whoever practices the best this week will be the starter on (Friday).”

— Parker Gabriel

Contact the writer at pgabriel@journalstar.com or 402-473-7439. On Twitter @HuskerExtraPG.

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November 26, 2020 at 11:00PM
https://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/football/red-report-huskers-cant-be-loose-with-the-ball-take-what-you-can-get-how/article_39cc1e75-ac32-5333-b08c-484a4633d111.html

Red Report: Huskers can't be 'loose' with the ball; take what you can get; how the QB decision is made - HuskerExtra.com

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