Tommy Needs a Week Off!

Jordan Thanks for the Memorial Stadium Memories

Nebraska rebounded after a rough two week stretch to beat Minnesota in Lincoln and all but sew up a nine win season and probably a really good warm bowl game.  The offensive line was finally healthy with Jerald Foster making his season debut, Tanner Farmer, Nick Gates and the crew all playing together.  Then Tommy Armstrong willed his way into the end zone for the go ahead score.  What happened after that though may have tempted fate a little too much for a ten win regular season.

Armstrong strained a hamstring, and with it probably erased any chance of him playing against Maryland in his final game at Memorial Stadium.  This entire season, up until Ohio State, was a microcosm of Tommy’s career in 8 games.  A lot of ups, including an All American type performance against Oregon, and a few downs, including a gut punch inducing interception against Wyoming and some erratic passing against Wisconsin.  Then against Ohio State, Tommy hit the turf with his head and neck and the team basically was done.  It looked like there was no way Tommy would play against the Golden Gophers and yet, he managed to not only play in the game, but possibly play his best game of the season.

Looking back on 2016, it will have to be said that so goes Tommy, so have went the Huskers.  In every game that he has played well, Nebraska has won and the two games the Huskers lost, against Wisconsin, which was probably Tommy’s worst game of the season and against Ohio State, Tommy wasn’t enough to turn the tide.  Now against Ohio State, Tommie Frazier would have been overmatched, but against Wisconsin, Armstrong nearly rebounded to will the team to victory.  Either way, Tommy has taken the Huskers to an 8-2 mark, including a 5-2 in conference record.  I don’t think you would have found anyone but the most optimistic Husker fans that would have thought the Huskers would have more than 8 wins with two to go in the regular season.

And yet, here we are, about to have a chance to rebound from 6-7 last season to post 9 wins with two more, heck, possibly three more to play.  I think most fans would have taken that.  The problems with this weekend is, Tommy Armstrong is probably not going to play, and that puts Nebraska at a big disadvantage.  Not that we all don’t want Ryker Fyfe to do well, we do, but let’s face facts, in Ryker’s lone start in Big Ten play against a poor Purdue team, he did not fare well.  He alone accounted for four turnovers in West Lafayette last season in probably the worst loss I can remember in the last 15 years and that’s truly saying something.

On the flip side, let us look at the differences in Ryker this year from last season.  For one, this year’s defense is playing about 180 degrees different from the 2015 unit.  A team that was at the bottom of the Big Ten in virtually every defensive category that mattered last year, provided no back bone to stand up to the turnovers that Ryker committed and then when Fyfe had to try and lead a comeback, it allowed Purdue to pin their ears back and forced Fyfe into more turnovers. 

Second, there was no running the football last year against Purdue.  For some reason offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf must have thought Fyfe was Eli Manning light and put way too much of the game plan in Fyfe’s hands.  This year, I suspect Nebraska will try to establish the run if Fyfe is the starter.

Third, it was a road game, and let’s face it, we have all seen back up players play much better at home than on the road.  Who could forget Ron Kellogg III’s last second heroics against Northwestern a couple seasons ago?  Fyfe will be served well having a strong fan base cheering him on, even if he struggles.

Finally, Fyfe is a year older.  No matter what has happened in the past, Ryker has had an entire off season, fall camp and regular season to get more comfortable with what the Huskers will try to do against Maryland.  I expect the senior backup quarterback to have a memorable day that he will be able to tell his grand kids about someday, about the day that a walk on from Grand Island willed the Huskers to their ninth win of the season.

Carriker Chronicles

ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for Minnesota game was Nebraska 31 – Minnesota 21.  The actual score was 24-17 but the Gophers gave Nebraska all it had.  The fact of the matter is, Nebraska probably isn’t as good as they were at the beginning of the season, simply because injuries to key players, including Tommy Armstrong, Devine Ozigbo, Jordan Westerkamp, Cethan Carter, Brandon Reilly, not to mention. scoreless in the last two quarters.  I’ll be honest, I was pretty hopping mad when Nebraska consistently found ways to stub their toe on defense in the first half and I felt like they should have only given up one score.  As it is, they righted the ship in the second half and outside of a few penalties that didn’t end up being as costly as they could have been, they played as well as the probably could have.

Tommy Armstrong, delivers again.  If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I keep praising Tommy Armstrong, but let’s face it, without Tommy, this Husker squad would be lucky to win 6 games let alone be in position to finish 10-2.  Armstrong has been the difference maker in multiple games this season.  In my opinion, considering the surrounding cast, Tommy has been as successful as you could have hoped this season.  Through injuries and adversity he just keeps coming back and delivering.  It has been a great ride this season, hopefully if Tommy sits this weekend, he can cap it off with a big win in Iowa City.

NO Turnovers!  You can’t stress it enough, when you don’t turn the ball over, it’s much harder to beat you and Nebraska didn’t make any against Minnesota.  In this game it was a big difference maker.  Nebraska shot itself in the foot penalty wise plenty of times, but by holding onto the ball and playing a field position game, it gave Nebraska the chance to hang in a game that wasn’t going their way early on.  Kudos to the kids and the coaching staff that held on to the ball on a cold night on the plains.

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Score Prediction: Nebraska 24 – Maryland 10

As beat up as Nebraska is, Maryland has had it worse if you can believe it.  After a hot start to the season, the Big Ten schedule has not been kind to DJ Durkin and his crew.  After winning the first four games of the season, the Terrapins have been drilled as of late and come into the game with a 2-5 record in conference play.  They haven’t had consistency at quarterback all season and will be without their stud running back this weekend as well.  Nebraska will probably be playing with a backup quarterback, but the Blackshirts should be able to tee off on this offense on Senior Day in Lincoln.  Ryker Fyfe plays the game of his career and the Huskers finish undefeated at home.  As always, GBR!!