Shatel: It’s time for reassessments

Honest, I didn’t breathe on Bo Pelini or the Huskers this week.

While your faithful correspondent is on the mend, the bug has suddenly hit your favorite football team. Nebraska coached and played sick — and not in a good way — in that 31-10 stinker, the most stunning performance of the Pelini era.

Memorial Stadium should be quarantined and sprayed.

Last week in this space I wrote of possibilities and realities. Well, the realities reared their ugly head on Saturday. And while the possibilities still include a Big 12 North title, they also include a 2-4 and 6-6 finish.

A loss to Iowa State, Colorado or Kansas State? No predictions yet. Let me know if Shawn Watson finds Roy Helu or Mike McNeill first.

Look, I thought NU would start 4-2. But I figured the Huskers would lose road tests at Virginia Tech and Missouri but come home and solve Mad Mike Leach’s team at home.

Well, they could have won both on the road. And then they get outclassed by the Red Raiders at home. Go figure.

What we saw in the rain in the fourth quarter at Missouri turned out to be a mirage when the sun came out over a Memorial Stadium crowd ready to pump up the season.

Instead, all the air went out as soon as Niles Paul’s ill-timed failure to recognize — not to mention catch — a lateral. Thus began an afternoon of gaffes, penalties, slapstick and a “comedy of errors,’’ as Pelini told ABC at halftime. He wasn’t laughing.

One step forward, two steps back. This was one brutal reminder that this is still a program learning how to win, learning how to handle success and learning how to execute. And a head coach and his staff are still learning on the run, too.

Pelini isn’t quite the genius some, starting here, have made him out to be. That bunch looked uncoached and undisciplined. This team entered the season with flaws and question marks. But we really thought we had gotten beyond what spilled out onto the field on Saturday.

Guess what? Pelini is another young head coach figuring out how to get his team to obey each Saturday. As hundreds of sad Husker fans trudged over the 10th Street bridge back to their cars, Pelini was headed back to the drawing board.

This is not the time to panic or overreact. But it is the time for smart, tough and swift decisions by the head coach.

Starting with Pelini’s offensive philosophy, offensive coordinator, offensive line coach and quarterback.

Ÿ Pelini came back to NU last year saying he wanted a physical, power run game. He needs to break the news to Watson, the offensive coordinator Pelini still stands behind.

Nebraska’s lack of running game, and lack of commitment, is embarrassing. Helu is the best running back in the Big 12, yet he’s a non-factor before exiting in the fourth quarter with a stinger.

It was painfully evident late in the first half as NU faced a fourth and goal inside the 3. While ABC’s Mike Patrick and Craig James debated whether Pelini should have gone for the touchdown, the message to this viewer was that the head coach doesn’t even trust his offense to run for 2 yards against Texas Tech at home.

Ÿ Maybe you can’t run because an underachieving offensive line won’t block. Does this group lack the nasty attitude for smash-mouth? Is something lost in line coach Barney Cotton’s translation?

Then again, run blocking is an art learned through repetition and commitment. I’m not feeling the commitment to run from Watson.

Ÿ I’m not a big fan of the West Coast offense. I was reminded why Saturday. When nothing’s working, you don’t have a security blanket. No bread-and-butter. No identity.

Pelini defended Watson’s play-calling, saying it was the execution.

There’s something to that. But, goodness, give these guys something they can execute. Identify your play-makers and ride them.

From my seat on the couch, those top play-makers remain Helu and McNeill. For some reason, Watson can’t find either one of them. Maybe he needs a program.

Maybe Nebraska needs a whole new approach.

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

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