It was just like Nebraska football to do this to all the Husker fans. Bring in a new coach, bust out a new, competent special teams, play outstanding Blackshirt defense, and then in stunning fashion, turn the ball over twice in the last 7 minutes of the game and blow what looked like a stellar opening performance from new head coach Matt Rhule. (Predictions are at the end if you don’t want to read the rest!)
Can you say you were surprised? Let’s face it, Nebraska has been snake bit to the point that any lead is likely to be given up at any given moment. Rewatching the game, how many things had to go wrong for Minnesota to win in that last half of the fourth quarter? It was like a slow-motion bus crash.
You have a fumble by Anthony Grant on a run that looked like it might help salt the game away. The defense seems to match every effort on the drive that they give up the tying touchdown, even after an ill-time faced mask and even then, only giving up a circus catch touchdown on fourth down when the offensive tackle clearly jumped offside and there was no call. Then Jeff Sims throws a ball off his back foot into triple coverage that gives the Gophers a shot to win in regulation when you just had to burn clock to go to overtime at the worst.
It was like watching a three-year-old trying to ride a ten speed, after they master the big wheel. It made no sense.
At least now we know what the key to the rest of the season is. Nebraska must make the games shorter, keep the defense fresh and run the football as often as possible. If Nebraska can continue to play at this pace on special teams and they can play defense like this against every opponent, they will have a chance to win all but maybe a couple games this season. I have no reason to think that they won’t play special teams at a high level. Defensively, the Blackshirts aren’t deep on the defensive line, at least with veterans, but they are at almost every other position, so it should be a strength the entire season.
Can the offense muster enough to make this team competitive? I think they can. They are drastically short on experience at the wide receiver position and the loss of Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda right after losing Zavier Betts is just devastating. However, you can see that they have solid running backs and Jeff Sims is an outstanding runner at the quarterback position. The tight end position will get better, and you may have to play the freshman wide receivers and let them earn it in the fire. Nebraska simply must control turnovers in order to be successful. They need to help Sims enough that he has one or two options on throwing downs and if they aren’t there, take off and try to avoid getting hit, or use the short passing game to the running backs and tight ends. Whatever they did in the first game, don’t do that.
I saw a different team and a different approach than we have seen in the last seven years. It was refreshing and it looked like it would be a winner. And then the same thing happened as it had under the previous staffs and it brought us all back to reality. It may take some time to get this bus rolling, but it seems like it is closer to the top of the hill than the bottom.
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ON WITH THE REWIND…
Last game prediction was Nebraska 24, Minnesota 21. The actual score was Minnesota 13, Nebraska 10. For two days this game sat like a lump in my stomach. Nebraska, especially the Blackshirts, played well enough to win that game and probably should have score 17 or 21 points depending on how you look at the terrible false starts inside the opponents 10-yard line. Nebraska is good enough to win these types of games. Matt Rhule was hired to turn that around. I give him more than one game to do it in.
Quick Notes:
Jeff Sims…Lets start with the bad. Three interceptions, two of which were about as badly timed as you could imagine, make Sims look like he is a total transfer bust. The good? He is a running machine. He had over 100 yards rushing in the game before the sack yardage was taken out. He also was given three first half possessions and inside two minutes drove the Huskers down the field looking to take the lead into halftime. Sims is a work in progress for sure. The question is, was his bad play due to a good Gopher defense, or just Sims overall abilities in general? He has a big stage this weekend to show it’s not the latter.
Rahmir Johnson.…Johnson continues to be a playmaker for Nebraska. His return of the second half kickoff led to Nebraska marching right out and scoring on a trick play. Johnson needs to have the ball in his hands more. If that is at running back or wide receiver, so be it, but Nebraska needs to use him more like Colorado used Dylan Edwards. Get him one on one with someone on the perimeter and let him cook.
Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher…Did these two deliver against Minnesota or what? They most certainly did, and until Robinson’s poorly timed late hit on the quarterback, they were wreaking havoc on the Gopher offensive line. If these two continue to play at that level all season, Nebraska will have its best interior defensive line since Maliek Collins and Vincent Valentine manned the middle. It will be difficult to run on the Huskers if they can stay healthy.
Omar Brown…When Brown transferred in from Northern Iowa, everyone just assumed he would fit right in on the defense and be a starter or a big-time player right away. Life doesn’t always happen that way, but now Brown is making his time at Nebraska count. Brown played great against Minnesota, with seven tackles and his first interception for the Huskers. If he and DeShon Singleton continue to play at a high level, the Blackshirts should have one of the stronger back ends on defense that they’ve had in a long time.
Score Prediction: Nebraska 31, Colorado 23
If you followed the national media after Colorado’s upset over Texas Christian, you would think Nebraska is about to get a thrashing of epic proportion. Having watched their game and Nebraska’s game, I’m a little more biased that Nebraska will make a big jump between week one and week two. I also am giving Colorado more credit than I think they deserve because I think the Blackshirts are WAY better than TCU’s defense and I think the Huskers could cause their offense a lot of issues. If Nebraska runs the football with any kind of success, they should control the clock and keep the CU offense off the field. And if Nebraska limits their turnovers, I can see the Huskers winning this game by more than just a touchdown. I may be one of the few that thinks this, but I think the Huskers are better than their week one showing and that the Buffaloes are about to find out that the Big Ten is a little harsher league than the Big Twelve. No matter what, I’m pumped for the Huskers in Boulder this weekend and GBR!!
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