Football is BACK! At least that is how I felt going into last Saturday. Nebraska was taking the field for a night game against an opponent that they should be able to put away and I was looking forward to watching Tanner Lee play his first game for the Big Red. At the end of the game, my palms were sweaty, my voice was gone, half the stadium was empty and the Arkansas State fan in front of me looked like he was about to float out of the stadium he was so high.
“Whew”, is all I felt as the Blackshirts held on the final drive and an overthrown pass sailed into the back of the endzone. It felt more like relief than victory at that point. Special teams play, a big problem in 2016, almost came back to bite the Huskers in the butt. It’s hard to reconcile the great kickoff return from JD Spielman when the Huskers gave up a punt return touchdown and a looked like a peewee team trying to cover onside kicks. I expect some first game issues, but man, that was a bit disheartening.
On the flip side though, I felt like the offense looked really good. There were some cleanup moments, some whiffs by the offensive line and some hurried throws, but when you can run and pass for 463 yards and keep the rushing and passing even, in my book it’s a good game. Nebraska put up 43 points and it didn’t feel like they were scoring often. In fact it almost felt like they left a lot of points on the board, especially in the 4th quarter when it felt like they could put the game on ice.
On the problem side, the defense gave up 497 yards including 415 through the air. I’m not going to belabor the fact that Nebraska was in a bend but don’t break coverage for the entire game, but it was disconcerting that Nebraska wasn’t able to get any pressure on the quarterback, until almost the final drive of the game. Quick passing teams will dink and dunk you all the way up the field if they can, which from the sounds of it, was what new defensive coordinator Bob Diaco planned on. The issue became that no sacks or dropped passes made the game much closer than it needed to be.
I understand that with a quick throw it’s hard to put pressure on the QB. On the flip side, it would be nice to see some disruption plays every series that makes what the defense is doing seem like you can stop the offense. I expect that we kept it pretty vanilla, just to get the players more time in the base defense, but it almost put Nebraska in the ugly position to have to worry about overtime. Arkansas State will probably have a very good season, but Nebraska gave them confidence that they didn’t need.
ON WITH THE REWIND…
Our previous score prediction for the Arkansas State game was Nebraska 35 – Arkansas St. 21. The actual score was 43-36 and while the offense put plenty of points on the board, the game was too close for comfort. Nebraska, to my surprise, only changed up coverage a few times to these untrained eyes and I felt coaches left the outside linebackers susceptible to break downs. When the outside linebackers have to cover passes after making sure it’s not a run, it makes them reactionary, rather than aggressive. I have never liked that kind of play, I like aggressive downhill defense, but maybe in the modern day game of pitch and catch, that defense simply won’t work anymore. A win is a win, and that is what is most important.
Quick Notes:
Young Players Step up. You start naming names of players that we aren’t used to seeing on Saturday and there were a lot! JD Spielman got the Huskers off to rocking with a 99 yard kick return and Tanner Lee played turnover free football. Tyjon Lindsey, Avery Roberts and Deontre Thomas all played as true freshman. Luke Gifford looked like he will be the leader at linebacker. All in all, with Nebraska fielding a younger team, it was nice to see those young players step up right away.
Offensive Line Gets a C+… I might be a little generous on this. They didn’t block well on the goal line carry that resulted in a safety and there were too many times when Arkansas State send multiple defenders up the same gap and the O-Line simply missed them both. That’s unacceptable, and should be fixed at Oregon. If not, it could be a long season and I hope Tanner Lee has good health insurance. I say all of that, but Tre Bryant had plenty of room to roam, in fact he looked like he could be a huge weapon for the Huskers. If the line continues to give him that many holes, this grade will be adjusted easily from last week.
Tanner Lee, the Myth Finally Comes Alive! I finally had to pump the brakes myself on the Tanner Lee hype train. Lee looked relatively good, he throws the most beautiful deep ball I have ever seen a Husker quarterback throw. On the flip side, I thought he was a bit tentative and maybe relies on his arm strength too much at times. He was under pressure quite a bit, so hopefully it was first game rust and with better blocking he will up that completion percentage. He didn’t turn the ball over and to me, was the best part about his day. I’m still excited about his potential, we need him to have a big game this weekend.
Defense Will Play Better… No matter how you slice it, the defense wasn’t entirely at fault for the close game last week. Bonehead special teams and a safety made the game way too close. I imagine the defense will get better each week. I guess what I’m saying is, hang tight, there will be some growing pains, but I think it will all pay off in the end.
Tre Bryant may be a stud… Coming into the game the coaches were pretty coy about who would start at running back, but most felt, and still feel like Bryant would be the man. He did nothing to disappoint as he ran for a career high 192 yards on 31 carries. My only hope is that he can hold up to that type of workload. So far, so good.
Score Prediction: Nebraska 31 – Oregon 34
Yeah, I’m doing it, I’m picking Oregon. I originally thought this game may be two touchdowns (that’s what Vegas has the spread listed) but the more I thought about it, I think Nebraska will be in this game until the end. Last year, I really felt like the home field advantage would propel Nebraska to beat Oregon, and unfortunately, I think home field, this time for the Ducks, will be the difference maker.
Nebraska should be able to run on the Ducks, but I suspect the Ducks will be able to run on Nebraska as well. To me, it’s all about the little things, special teams, field position and turnovers. Generally the home team gets a lot of those breaks, especially when the crowd is juiced. This crowd sounds like it’s as nasty as Wisconsin and that is not a fun environment.
I don’t want to predict it, but that’s what my head is telling me. My heart though, as always, is GBR!!
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