Is This The Week We Get A Win!?!?

Bring on Those Wildcats!

I text back and forth with my brother in law quite a bit during the football season (Hi Dave!) and he asked me how I was going to spin another week into, “Hang in there, it’ll get better,” for the Huskers. We had our usual jovial back and forth and right away I told him Nebraska will win this weekend against Northwestern.

I actually told some buddies that right after the Wisconsin game.  I believe it in my heart. In my head? Well that is a different story, but we will get to that in the game prediction.

You see, being a fan is different things to different people.  If you are a message board fan, you know the types out there. Message boards are a microcosm of your family and friends.  There are the nutty ones that really don’t know what they are talking about. Then you have the eternal pessimists, “Scott Frost is an idiot, he has managed to be worse than Riley.”  That kind of person makes me laugh. It’s as if the current Nebraska staff has completely lost their mind when they left Orlando to come to Lincoln.

Then there are the eternal optimists.  Unfortunately, I fall in that category quite often.  The funny thing about being an optimist is you can rationalize anything.  For instance, when I found out Greg Bell was leaving the team last Friday, my first inclination was, “great, more carries for Maurice Washington!”  It didn’t matter that Nebraska continues to hemorrhage players. In my mind I was alright with Greg Bell leaving. He hadn’t really shown me anything that said, “You know, that kid could be an All American someday!”

And so you have a situation where less has become more.  As players leave the team, you start to think, man, maybe they did need to weed some malcontents out.  Sometimes, whether at work, at play or even on vacation, you just have to rid yourselves of people that don’t want to be there.  Coach Frost knows that, heck I suspect players still on the team were happy to see some of those players leave.

Pat Riley wrote a book some years back after coaching the L.A. Lakers to an NBA title.  He talked about this thing called the “disease of me” that can affect a team. Nebraska isn’t coming off from winning any titles, so that isn’t an apples to apples comparison, but basically the disease of me is when players on the team become so enamored of the things that are important only to them, that they lose sight of how they can contribute and be part of something bigger than any one individual.

Teams go through this all the time.  Nebraska has endured some really bad leadership, some bad mistakes in recruiting and some bad seeds in the program the last 24 months.  Scott Frost and his staff continue to weed that out, sometimes week to week. They are getting things done to alleviate the “disease of me.”  Unfortunately, it’s come with a cost of losing a lot of games. Hang tight Husker Nation, I think it’s about to get better. Read on to find out why!

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ON WITH THE REWIND…

Our previous score prediction for the Wisconsin game was Wisconsin 35 – Nebraska 17.  The actual score was Wisconsin winning 41-24 and while the defense continues to not be able to stop teams on 3rd down, I somehow felt like Nebraska found another spark that is about to light the flame.  The Huskers offense again put up yards on a good defense. Maurice Washington, J.D. Spielman, Adrian Martinez and Stanley Morgan are enough talent to start to win games.  If the defense can improve, even in small increments against the teams left on the schedule (not named Ohio State) I can see the Huskers winning 3 or 4 games going down the stretch.  I think it starts this week.

Quick Notes:

Wisconsin’s O-Line…  That was rough watching Wisconsin continue to bully their way through the Huskers defense based on sheer will.  For the second consecutive year, Nebraska had to learn the hard way that we are a way away from being able to slow down NFL lineman from opening gaping holes in the defense.  It’s going to be at least 2 or 3 years before Nebraska will truly be back, even with the hardest work and great recruiting. That is a sobering thought.

Offense is good, when they don’t screw up…. Nebraska moved the ball up and down the field in the second half against Wisconsin.  They even found the end zone to make the game interesting. The problem is they continue to be their own worst enemy.  Holding calls are killing them. Throw in an illegal block in the back and illegal hands to face and they can’t seem to get out of their own way.  I thought the game wasn’t reffed consistently at all and you could argue that Wisconsin was holding all over the place as well, but until Nebraska starts winning some games, they won’t be given the benefit of the doubt.  Hopefully as the Huskers face less talented defensive lines, they will have fewer of these penalties.

We have some Playmakers! … When Nebraska signed Maurice Washington, it was a big deal.  Last week you started to see why. The kid is special. He has a different gear than everyone else on the field.  Nebraska needs to find more like him, but that’s for another blog. J.D. Spielman continues to make teams pay for over protecting to Stanley Morgan’s side of the field.  As teams start to adjust, it should open things up more for Morgan and the tight ends down the field. With Washington showing that he can catch the ball as well as run it, Nebraska may have finally found how they can do what Frost did at Central Florida.  You need playmakers all over the field for the offense to work and I think they are finding the players that can do that.

Score Prediction: Nebraska 32 – Northwestern 31

I think Nebraska has a great shot to win this game.  I know Northwestern knows that too and they will be ready.  I just think Nebraska has worked to improve the last two weeks and is about to show it.  Northwestern isn’t filled with great athletes all over the field, especially on defense. Nebraska has shown that they can take advantage of that.  Offensively, Northwestern has a great quarterback in Clayton Thorson. What they don’t have is a great running game since Jeremy Larkin had to retire.  If the Husker Blackshirts can somehow put pressure on Thorson and not give up more than 2 big plays in the game, I like Nebraska’s chances. Hopefully the Husker Faithful that traveled to Evanston bring their lungs with them and that will help the Huskers finally get over the hump.  Nebraska gets an overdue victory this weekend, GBR!!