Now that everyone's blood pressure has had a chance to normalize, let's all take a moment to forget everything else that happened in yesterday's game and just admire the Husker's gumption in finding a way to win a road game that had no business being that close. Ready? Okay, go...
Now that that's out of the way, yikes. What the heck was all that about? Why do these Huskers insist on trying to lose a game for three and a half quarters before squeaking out a win? How can we play so brilliantly most of the game and so poorly in small patches that lead to opponents carving out big gains and tons of points? That 'C' word that we've been waiting for, the consistency that the program desperately needs, still eludes us, and I fear that even though Bo made a step in the right direction towards his "Win out." proclamation, we're just being set up for a disappointment next week versus Michigan.
But that's still a week off, let's keep plugging with the review:
Offensive MVP: WR Quincy Enunwa. Kenny Bell is still the teams' best receiver, but it was Enunwa who got the offense fired up with 4 key grabs late in the 4th quarter. Big time performance by the junior: 6 catches for 110 yards, setting up both of Nebraska's last 2 TDs with clutch receptions including the beautiful 31 yard grab that set up Taariq Allen's TD catch.
Defensive MVP: CB Stanley Jean-Baptiste. Yes, he got beat on a 26 yard TD pass right before halftime, but SJB was picked on all afternoon, and he rewarded the Northwestern QBs with 5 pass break-ups for their trouble. Sure he dropped an interception, but so did practically everyone else in the back 7. This was a great performance by one of the biggest corners in college football.
Special Teams MVP: Northwestern P Brandon Williams. No his 38 yard average wasn't great, but his wobbly punts were muffed twice, and twice took ridiculous bounces and died inside Nebraska's 10 yard line. And you can't ask for more from your punter than to flip the field and pin the other team at their own 24 with 4 minutes left, clinging to a 5 point lead.
Freshman MVP: WR Taariq Allen. Allen's contributions this year have mostly been limited to blocking when Enunwa needed a break, but the redshirt freshman made an outstanding 8 yard grab above his head in the corner of the endzone to pull the Huskers within 5 points. If you're going to have 1 catch for 8 yards in a game, it might as well look like that one.
Assistant Coach of the Game:
Rich Fisher. Nebraska's wide receivers made some terrific catches, some nice yards after catch, and did a solid job blocking on the perimeter. The wide receivers were a liability 2 years ago with plenty of poorly run routes and dropped passes. Under Fisher's guidance, they're the strongest position group on the team.
Play of the Game: Taylor Martinez's magnificent laser to Ben Cotton for the go ahead score. After all that went wrong yesterday, the 7 yard perfectly placed pass to the middle of the end zone was a breath of fresh air to Husker fans everywhere.
Play We Want Back: Ameer Abdullah's muffed punt. Nebraska's first turnover came right after the Cats had gone 3 and out, and instead of a chance to build on a great start defensively, the Huskers fall behind 7-3 after NW quickly moved the 15 yards to score the go-ahead TD. To have any chance of making Bo's "Win out." proclamation a reality, the Huskers have to stop giving away points.
I want to see more...
*Takeaways. This is going to remain a bullet point until the Huskers do something on defense to affect that horrendous -12 turnover margin. PJ Smith twice dropped interceptions that he had two hands on, at least 1 of SJB's pass break-ups should have been picked, and let's not forget Daimion Stafford's ridiculous personal foul that negated Ben Cotton's recovery of a NW muffed punt. I want to see somebody, anybody step up and make a play.
*Points. Teams that roll up a balanced 543 yards of offense (201 rushing, 342 passing) should probably get more than 4 TDs and a field goal. Nebraska gained 108 yards per score, which means that the poor field position, penalties and lack of third down conversions left a lot of points on the field. That's gotta improve in a hurry.
*3rd down success. Holding your opponent to 5/20 on third down is great. Converting 3/14 of your own is disgusting. Failing to convert a bunch of third and shorts is even worse.
*LB David Santos. Not a perfect game from the freshman by any means, but his tackle for loss was sweet and he was usually in good position. I like his speed compared to Alonzo Whaley.
*Eric Martin's improvement against the run. This was the most complete game I've seen from the senior. He didn't get any sacks, but he got decent pressure, and more importantly, he stuck his arms out and nabbed NW's ball carriers several times as they burst through the line.
*Imani Cross and Braylon Heard. If Rex is going to be hurt, I'd like to see these two spell Abdullah more than they did. Heard is a fantastic North/South runner, and Cross is too talented to be wasted on the sideline.
*Kenny Bell. The skinny kid from Boulder, CO did some great work yesterday. 6 catches, a TD, a 50 yard kick return (negated by a penalty of course), a timely tip that turned a touchback into a punt downed at the 1, and several key blocks including a nice chip block that helped protect Brett Maher on his last punt . He did enough to make up for the muffed punt.
*Clap and snap. Martinez took a page out of Braxton Millers' handbook with this funky snap count, and you can't argue with zero false starts.
*Press coverage by the corners. This aggressive sort of coverage opens the defense up to deep balls and penalties, but it was an absolute nightmare for Northwestern's short passing game. If we could just get a good pass rush...
*Red on the Road. Really Husker fans? You can only fill 50% of the opponents stadium? Pathetic.
*Big smiles on Bo's face. Bo had a priceless expression after NW missed that field goal; relief, joy and pride replaced the usual detached grimace. It's a good look on him.
I want to see less...
*Busted plays. The difference between a good defense and a great defense is that great defenses don't allow big plays like the 80 yard run by Venric Mark in the third quarter. Santos, and Stafford were both caught up in the middle of the field and couldn't compensate for Mark's speed. Credit the Husker defense for manning up instead of folding like they did against Ohio State, but two of NW's TDs came on big, busted plays, and that needs to change quick with Denard Robinson coming to town next week.
*Turnovers. 3 more yesterday. And two throws in a row that should have been picked before Enunwa's long catch. I don't know what this staff is or isn't telling their players, but it's not working.
*Short fields for opponents. The Cats scored from 15 yards out, and from midfield after muffed punts. That disturbing trend needs to stop.
*Sustained drives by opponents. Northwestern had a good march to start the 4th quarter, converting 2 third downs, and a 4th and inches to put the Cats up 28-16. That could have been a backbreaker.
*Offensive meltdowns. You know the one I'm talking about. Beginning of the 4th quarter, Martinez is sacked twice in a row, but on third down he escapes, makes a nice throw and forces a pass interference for the first down. But Seung Hoon Choi was too far downfield and the penalties offset. Then there's a sideline interference penalty that makes 3rd and 19. No problem, Martinez escapes and makes another nice throw to Turner to convert, but Jeremiah Sirles was lined up a foot too far back making 3rd and 24. Martinez can't convert this one and Nebraska was forced to punt. The ghost of Shawn Watson came back to haunt us.
*Players without names on their jerseys. The roster says #36 is Eddie Ridder. I've never heard of him, but he did a good job getting downfield to stop Tony Jones, who had just fumbled Maher's punt with 8 seconds left.
Armchair head coach:
I'm all for aggressive play, but I probably would have taken a chance at the field goal instead of going for a 4th and 3. It would have made an 8 point game midway through the 3rd quarter, instead a confusion in the blocking scheme had Kyler Reed running into the pulling guard, resulting in a 10 yard loss.
I'm not as against the 2 pt conversion try, as some fan are, but in retrospect it probably was a little early to chase those points.
Both plays would look daring and cavalier if they'd have worked.
Hit of the Game:
This award goes to Ciante Evans who jammed Kain Colter just enough to get him to drop a late 4th quarter pass on 3rd and 4. The three and out gave Nebraska the ball back with plenty of time to run down the field. The ESPN announcers thought Evans should have been called for pass interference, but it was typical of the aggressive play by the Nebraska corners yesterday.
Jennifer's Take (my wife doesn't know much about football, but she still has opinions)
"They need to play the whole game like they did the second half."
Yep.
Keeping an eye on the rest of the college football world...
*Alabama, Florida, Oregon, and Kansas State all get enormously impressive wins this weekend, and are a clear top 4. We'll see how it shakes out, but if Oregon and Kansas State win out, it'll be another controversy in December.
*While we're on the subject of the Wildcats, my Heisman top 5 looks like this: 1. Collin Klein; 2-5. Not even close.
*Lots of relieved faces in church this morning as Georgia squeaked out a win at Kentucky. That would have been a tough one for Mark Richt to explain.
*Ohio State was lucky to escape two weeks in a row against inferior teams. Purdue finally made them pay for their reliance on Braxton Miller by knocking the QB out late in the third quarter, and only a late collapse kept the Boilers from getting back in the Leaders race. Wisconsin can likely clinch the Leaders with a win over Michigan State next week.
*Speaking of the Spartans, they've got to be the best 4 loss team out there. That defense is too good for their offense to be so bad.
*Michigan is on a roll coming into Lincoln, but it will be interesting to see what kind of success they have against the best offense they've seen so far.
*Bill O'Brien is everyone's pick for Coach of the Year because he's done so much with so little. Penn State might be the toughest game remaining on Nebraska's schedule.
*The rest of the Big Ten is hardly worth writing about, Indiana lost their one of thier last winnable games to Navy, Illinois lost to BYE (kidding...kind of), and Iowa and Minnesota keep playing down to their skill level.
*Carl Pelini's Florida Atlantic team lost a heartbreaker in 2OT to Southern Alabama. The battle continues uphill for him.
*Southern Miss is 0-7 after getting blasted 59-24 by Marshall.
Song of the Game
"Breakdown" by Tom Petty
"It's all right if you love me
It's all right if you don't
I'm not afraid of you running away
Honey, I get the feeling you won't
There is no sense in pretending
Your eyes give you away
Something inside you is feeling like I do
We've said all there is to say
Baby breakdown
Go ahead and give it to me
Breakdown honey take me through the night
Breakdown now I'm standin' here can't you see
Breakdown it's all right
It's all right
It's all right
Breakdown"
Tom Petty is right, we Husker fans could run away, but we won't. Husker fans filled Northwestern's little stadium, survived several Husker breakdowns, and were treated to an exciting, if a little disappointing, back and forth football game.
Beer of the Game
Georgia Brown Ale by SweetWater Brewing Co., Atlanta, GA
I wish it hadn't taken me so long to try this fantastic local brown ale. I judge all brown ales against the Newcastle standard, and Sweetwater exceeds that standard. Easy to drink, and a little bit sweeter than most brown ales, the Georgia Brown Ale stills retains the warmth you'd expect from a darker beer and finishes clean. I'm not sure how widely available it is outside of Georgia, but if you see it in a store somewhere, it's definitely worth the money.
Best Commercial
I guess this Fiat Abarth spot is an older commercial, but it's still pretty funny. By the way, it's a total coincidence that all of my best commercial awards go to the ones with pretty girls. Total coincidence.
Last thought
A win is a win. I said that after the Wisconsin game and it's no less true after the sloppy showing in Evanston. In any event, it's one down and five to go.
Michigan rolls into town with all sorts of momentum and another mobile quarterback. And by mobile quarterback, I mean the best pure running quarterback maybe ever. Denard Robinson is simply magical on the run, and the Huskers need to play the game of their lives to shut him down or outscore him at home. It's possible, but it will require a much cleaner game than the Huskers have played recently. Oh, and it will likely decide the Legends winner. No pressure.
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