Bloody Wisconsin

Jordan is Back!!!

Since joining the Big Ten, Nebraska has had very little success against the Badgers.  It’s inconvenient to say the least, although four of those games have come with Bo Pelini at the helm.  Last year however, Nebraska had the Badgers at home and lost on a last minute field goal.  It was part of Coach Riley’s horrible first season.

Nebraska enters this weekend with a lot to gain, undefeated and ranked in the top ten.  Wisconsin has already faced the two brutes of the Big Ten, losing somewhat close games to Michigan and Ohio State.

Nebraska has an opportunity to make a big statement this week.  The biggest statement in the Riley era.  Nebraska is beat up, missing Cethan Carter and the offensive line is also suffering up and down he list.  If Nebraska is going to win this game, they need to do it with defense and not turning the ball over.  

Coach Riley has been known to be a giant killer in the past in the Pac-10.  Let’s hope this week falls under Riley’s spell.

ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for Purdue game was Nebraska 31 – Purdue 13.  The Huskers struggled against Purdue finally pulling away or a 27 - 14 win.  It wasn’t pretty, in fact is was pretty ugly.  Despite Nebraska not being able to establish a running game, Nebraska was able to keep the Boilers at bay, giving up a long TD pass, but not much else.  Let’s hope it was a let down, prior to the big game this week.

Cornhusker Memes Tees

Quick Notes:

Jordan Westerkamp is back!  Make no mistake, having Jordan back is a huge plus for the Huskers this week.  Think of all the games that Jordan has made a big catch or a big block.  He is a security blanket for Tommy and a leader for the offense.  I expect his presence to not only help the passing game, but to open up things for the run as well.

Offensive Line needs to step up.  For three and a half quarters, Tommy Armstrong and Terrell Newby had no holes and next to no time to even get back to the line of scrimmage…against Purdue.  That simply won’t be acceptable this weekend against Wisconsin and their monster front 7.  Nebraska will need a big game from the hog mollies up front if they are going to pull the upset on the road.

The Defense Continues to Play well..  Outside of a long pass that defensive coordinator Mark Banker said should have never happened, the Blackshirts continue to keep games close and have been the steady part of this 2016 team.  If the defense plays great this weekend in Madison, it will give the Huskers a chance.

The Cubs are in the World Series.  Sorry for the short blog this week.  For this life long Cubs fan, this has been one of the best weeks in a sports fans life…next week we should be back to our regular scheduled blog!

Score Prediction: Nebraska 19 – Wisconsin 17

Nebraska isn’t as healthy as they were 4 weeks ago, and neither is Wisconsin.  Nebraska has had NO success in Madison, and yet I feel like it’s time for the Huskers to get them.  Nebraska is playing with house money in a sense, because losing to Wisconsin doesn’t mean they still can’t win the West division, but a win would all but separate Nebraska for the rest of the season.  This game will be a slugfest, but I see Tommy Armstrong making the plays to win it and the defense collecting 3 turnovers.  I’ve been torn all week if I would pick the Huskers, but I feel in my heart it’s just time.  GBR!

Riley’s Winning Streak Brings Back Memories

Last season Nebraska went to West Lafayette, Indiana.  They left Lincoln without Tommy Armstrong and when they started playing they realized they left their desire to play defense in Lincoln as well.  What happened that day in October of 2015 was about as low as it could get for Huskers fans.  Purdue hadn’t beaten a conference opponent in a couple of seasons and now, Nebraska, a team in the top ten in all time wins in college football was the laughing stock of the Big Ten.

I shudder to remember the game.  Poor Ryker Fife looked as if he had never played football part of the time.  Defensive players gave about half effort and by times it wasn’t even that good.

Riley had a reputation for beating better teams, but he also had a reputation of laying some rotten potatoes on the table.  The Purdue loss smelled worse than any Husker loss since Bill Callahan roamed the sidelines.  Even our loss to Wisconsin when Melvin Gordon ran for over 400 yards seemed like just a bad day against a good team.  This was freakin’ Purdue!

My how things have changed.  The next week, Nebraska came back home to Lincoln, Tommy Armstrong started against Michigan State and the Huskers upset the Spartans.  At the time, it looked like one of Mike Riley’s signature wins.  That was great, but many felt and many still feel that Coach Riley wouldn’t be able to bring Nebraska back into National prominence.

Since that Purdue game, Nebraska has gone 9-1 with the lone loss being a Friday afternoon stinkfest to Iowa.  Even though Nebraska lost to Iowa, the game was close most of the way.  The other 9 games that Nebraska has won, one thing has been consistent, and that is great effort.  We have been in some close games and found ways to pull them out in the fourth quarter.  Riley has instilled a calmness in this team and it has shown especially when the tide has turned on Nebraska and they have rallied.

Now Purdue visits Nebraska.  They themselves, no strangers to turmoil, will be coming in with an interim head coach.  Purdue fired previous head coach Darrell Hazel last week.  While the Boilermakers have managed 3 wins on the season, their athletic director has seen enough half effort and half organization that he felt like a change was needed.  I don’t know if I would have done it prior to taking on the number eight ranked team in the country, but it’s done now.  

Nebraska is playing a game that they should win and win easily.  Purdue has multiple starters missing on a defense that can’t stop the run and they have had to throw the football often to keep up in most games.  It turns out, Nebraska’s strength on defense is their secondary and the Huskers plan on running the football a lot this weekend.

Nebraska isn’t without their own warts this season, especially when it comes to injuries.  On offense, big time players Cethan Carter and Jordan Westerkamp will sit out again this week and there are numerous injuries plaguing the offensive line.  It doesn’t matter though.  Nebraska is back to being Nebraska a little bit this season.  They simply have more talent than Purdue and should beat them on talent and coaching this weekend, even at less than full strength.

Against Indiana last week, Nebraska sprinted out to a 17-0 lead, but when more players went down with injuries on offense, the team started to sputter.  No worries though, Mike Riley continued to push the right buttons and when he needed to play a great hand, he pushed all the chips into the middle of the table in the fourth quarter and salted the game away.

Indiana is much improved from last season.  New defensive coordinator Tom Allen has Indiana playing the best defense they have played in recent history.  Head Coach Kevin Wilson has had the offense playing well since he got to Bloomington.  Credit the Nebraska Blackshirts for holding the fort down for a beat up offense.  The Huskers manage to hold the Hoosiers under 100 yards rushing and kept Nebraska in the lead the entire game.

I expect the Huskers defense to dominate Purdue this week.  I expect the offense to try and shorten the game and get out of this week without any major injuries if they can.  Nebraska is about to hit the most important stretch of games in this season, they can’t let Purdue hang around in this game.  Finally, it feels like Coach Riley has the ship headed in that direction.  All of that started last year against Purdue.  Go figure.

Carriker Chronicles

ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for Indiana game was Nebraska 27 – Indiana 24.  The actual score wound up 27-22, which was pretty close to our prediction.  Nebraska got out to such a big lead early, it looked like they would blow them out.  Unfortunately, with the injuries Nebraska has on offense, they weren’t able to step on the Hoosier throats.  Hopefully we won’t see a repeat this week.  Either way, Nebraska is 6-0 and I don’t know any Husker fans complaining about “how” they got there.

Cornhusker Memes Tees

Quick Notes:

Bowl eligible!  Nebraska has won more games that it did all of last regular season.  The Huskers wouldn’t have even went to a bowl last year, had there been enough 6 win teams to fill all the slots.   Nebraska won’t have to worry about that this year, they are already qualified.  Now it’s time to start figuring out what warm destination they will play in.  Each win from now on puts Nebraska in a better matchup to end the season.

Terrell Newby continues to be the man at running back.  Newby ran for over 100 yards on Indiana.  What continues to stand out is Newby’s ability to get yards when Nebraska needs them the most.  Newby basically carried the Huskers on their final scoring drive to push the lead to over a field goal.  Despite his oh so close fumble on the drive, Newby has stepped up to be the second best offensive player on the team so far this season.  Thank goodness for his play, or Nebraska could easily be 4-2.

Secondary rebounds from previous week.  Against Illinois, it seemed like Nebraska’s secondary couldn’t get it going.  Against Indiana, they made plays when they had too.  Chris Jones pick six to start the game along with Aaron Williams interception to end it were perfect bookends for a defense that played really well after an off week against the Illini.  

Nathan Gerry is starting to play awesome.  Nathan Gerry had eight tackles against Indiana, but it felt like a lot more.  Gerry made stops that were huge in changing momentum around.  Gerry was flying around and the rest of the defense seemed to feed off from that.  All of that and he was under the weather last week.  If Nebraska is going to have a chance to beat Wisconsin, Ohio State or Iowa, Gerry is going to need to have the best games of his career to make that happen.  It was a great start against a good Indiana team.

Tommy Armstrong just isn’t healthy.  It doesn’t matter if he is running bootleg action, sprint roll outs or running for his life behind a depleted line, Tommy just isn’t quite as agile as he was at the beginning of the year.  Let’s all hope that he doesn’t take a lot of hits this weekend.  Tommy will need to be the MVP of the games after Purdue.  

Introducing Cole Conrad.  Who?  Poor Cole, up until about 3 weeks ago the only people that knew the sophomore from Fremont were his teammates and his parents.  Now the kid is playing major minutes at Nebraska at tackle.  Cole stepped in after David Knevel went down on the first series for Nebraska.  While he didn’t dominate, he made some good solid plays.  He needs to cut down on missed assignments, but it’s nice that he has some experience now as Nebraska gets into the meat of their schedule.

Injuries.  We are all loving this season so far.  Nebraska has beaten all comers this year.  The thing that could derail that is injuries.  Before Nebraska goes into Madison, Wisconsin next week, the Huskers really need some luck with players coming back from injury or healing up of nagging injuries that have made a difference in play.  This Nebraska team may not blow anyone out yet, but when healthy, they are probably a top 8 team in the country.  I doubt any team outside of Alabama could continue with the amount of players missing time that Nebraska has had, and expect to come out undefeated.  The Huskers need a week of sound football for the stretch run but they need to stay healthy.

Score Prediction: Nebraska 31 – Purdue 13

This game would have been 50-14 if it was played four weeks ago, I have no doubt.  Now Nebraska just needs to play hard, smart football and get out of this game with few to no injuries.  I expect Nebraska to try and shorten the game as much as possible.  I don’t expect a lot of passing this week.  I think we will also see backup running backs get some time, so Newby can stay fresh for the upcoming schedule.  This week is about survive and advance.  Hopefully Nebraska can rest their starters in the fourth quarter.  GBR!!

The Husker Vacation is Over!

Huskers Get a Bye at the Perfect Time

If you would have told Husker Nation that the hometown Huskers would be 5-0 in the middle of October, with a chance to go on the road to Bloomington, Indiana to improve to 6-0 last July, I think most would have been pretty pleased with that.

The flip side of the conversation is, you will have multiple injuries to indispensable players, and have to take on the bulk of the Big Ten schedule wondering week to week who would be available.  Since we don’t have a crystal ball to determine the rest of the season for Nebraska, it seems as though every game from now on could be a guessing game about how the team will react.

Since we last blogged, Nebraska took on an Illinois team that many people probably thought the Huskers would walk over.  Unfortunately for Nebraska, the Illini gave the Huskers all they wanted for 3 quarters.  Nebraska did what they continue to do though and pulled away in the fourth.   Many of us would like to see Nebraska not need to pull away, but it’s nice to know that they can.

Illinois had a bye the week before they played Nebraska.  Make no mistake about it, head coach Lovie Smith used that time to prepare for the Huskers and did an admirable job in making sure Nebraska couldn’t run the ball the first three quarters.  Tommy Armstrong banged up his ankle midway through the first half.  When he wasn’t available for bootlegs and play action plays where he had the threat of a draw, Nebraska’s offense ground to a bit of a halt.  

The Huskers also didn’t do themselves any favors with a missed field goal, a few missed assignments on defense and a few dropped passes.

The biggest thing looking back at the tape was that the offensive line was filled with backup players, many playing big minutes for the first time this season.  Senior Corey Whitaker and Redshirt Sophomore Cole Conrad played large amounts of time in a game that Tanner Farmer sat out and David Knevel was unable to keep going.  Against the Illinois defensive line with multiple possible NFL draft picks, it took about 3 quarters for the line to gel and put the Illini on their heels.  

Terrell Newby finally busted a long run in the fourth quarter.  In my opinion that play was as much to do with the line playing better as it was for Illinois having busted coverage.  You just don’t get high quality blocking out the gate most of the time with offensive lineman playing in their first game, and it showed during some of the Illinois game.  It is a huge credit to line coach Mike Cavanaugh and the players, they made it work.

Nebraska really took the game over with a drive that started in the 3rd quarter and lasted for what felt like an eternity, going into a large chunk of the fourth quarter.  The drive included fourth down conversions and some stubborn running in the red zone that finally paid off.  Again, Nebraska was able to do that, because Whitaker and Conrad and the rest of the line started to crack the Illinois defensive line.

Where am I going with this?  Well I believe that if Nebraska is going to beat Indiana this weekend, the offensive line is going to have to dominate in the running game.  Both Farmer and Knevel are going to play this weekend, which should provide a spark in the running game.  Before his injury Farmer was starting to play like an all-conference lineman.  If healthy, I expect him to pick up where he left off.   This week’s problems won’t be in the offensive line, as both Whitaker and Conrad are available to play if needed, but the skill position group won’t quite be what we are used to seeing.

Devine Ozigbo, Jordan Westerkamp, and Cethan Carter are all either not traveling this weekend, or doubtful in the case of Ozigbo.  Those are three big weapons the Husker offense could really use in a game that they may need to score over 30 to win.  

Luckily, we saw Terrell Newby play like a seasoned vet against Illinois. We will need to see that again if the Huskers have a chance to win this coming weekend.  Tommy Armstrong will get Alonzo Moore back this week as well.  Alonzo stretches the field unlike any other wide receiver.  Hopefully Moore will offset the loss of Westerkamp and the offense will have the deep option that they didn’t really have against Illinois.

Defensively, Nebraska has survived fairly unscathed so far this season.  Mick Stoltenberg is probably the biggest beneficiary of the bye week, as he has yet to unleash the quickness that he displayed before re-injuring his knee in preseason camp.   Nebraska will continue with their bend but don’t break against the Hoosiers, but they will need to force a couple of turnovers in this game, to make up for the losses on offense.  The Huskers defense has held everyone not named Oregon under 17 points this season.  If they can come close to duplicating that effort against Indiana, the results of this game should continue to be the same as they have been up to this point in the season.

Cornhusker Memes Tees!

ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for Illinois was Nebraska 38, Illinois 14.  While the game ended up 31-16, it was much closer than many of us imagined.  I don’t think any of us could foresee all the injuries that happened in that game.  Give Illinois a lot of credit, they came into Memorial Stadium prepared and banged with the Huskers pretty good.

Quick Notes:

Terrell Newby was the man in the second half against Illinois.  Newby had touchdown runs of 3 yards to help break the game open and slammed it shut with a 63 yard run at the end of the fourth quarter.  The senior running back continues to run harder and play better each game.  It’s kind of nice to have a veteran in the backfield with Armstrong that continues to improve.

Secondary has a rough week.  For the first time this season, the Huskers secondary looked a little slow against the Illini.  While they looked to be trailing a lot more in coverage, they didn’t give up a big day, statistically.  Problem is, this wide receiver group wasn’t particularly strong and Indiana may give them more issues this week.

Tommy Armstrong needs his legs.  One thing is for certain, Illinois sold out for the run against Nebraska and it worked for three quarters.  Offensive Coordinator Danny Langsdorf took the running out of Tommy’s arsenal since he was banged up. This caused the line of scrimmage to be jammed up, sometimes with eight or nine defenders in the box.  When Tommy can bootleg away on the edge, it seems to relieve that congestion in the middle.  Nebraska will only be able to play like a top ten team if Tommy is healthy.  Let’s hope week off gave him the rest he needed.   

Guess who is in the top Ten!  Nebraska has cracked the top ten in both polls for the first time since 2011.  While it doesn’t seem like a big deal to some old timers, for a program trying to drag itself back to the top in recruiting, this ranking is a great thing to show high school kids.  It lets players know that the Huskers are on the way back.  A win this weekend and Nebraska will really have the hammer when they go out to talk to recruits.

Time for some young players to step up.  We are at the point in the season that some of the freshman and redshirt freshman and sophomores start to step up and make plays.  Some of those candidates, like Stanley Morgan and Aaron Williams have already done it.  Now it’s time for players like Mick Stoltenberg, Tanner Farmer, Alex Davis, Bryan Reimers and Antonio Reed to start playing like they are veterans instead of first time players.

Carriker Chronicles on Husker Maxx!

Score Prediction: Nebraska 27 – Indiana 24

I hate to think this game will be close, because on paper, Nebraska should roll, but games aren’t played on paper, they played on grass and we know that Nebraska shouldn’t roll that.  (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)  Nebraska comes out of its bye week, and they should be very prepared.  Indiana has come off of a big upset over what is now a suspect Michigan State team and having played Ohio State close for 3 quarters.  For some reason I think they will play Nebraska tough this week and then fall back to the pack after that.  That has been the pattern so far, as teams seem to give great effort against the Huskers and regress afterward.  Nothing would make me happier than to see that regression start this week, but its homecoming and the Hoosiers smell blood.  Too bad they won’t get the W.  GBR!!