Of course a win is a win, and like Bo said, that's 4 down and 2 to go. Two games against teams in the bottom third of the Big Ten. Two games against teams that shouldn't be able to hang with the Huskers for even 5 minutes. Two games that have no business being closer than 17 points. Can the Huskers put together two 60 minute games and lock up the Legends division?
That's a question that'll have to wait 6 days. Let's continue with the review:
Offensive MVP: RB Ameer Abdullah. 31 carries, 116 yards, 4 catches for 29 yards and no turnovers. Just another day at the office. Of course we'd like to have Rex Burkhead back, but Abdullah has taken almost all of the sting out of his loss.
Defensive MVP: S Daimion Stafford. After a rough first half that included a sideline 'discussion' with Bo, Stafford came out and picked McGloin's first throw of the second half and returned the ball to the PSU 4 yard line. Stafford broke up another pass in the third quarter, and jumped on Lehman's fumble in the endzone to end PSU's final scoring threat. Stafford plays better every week and if he keeps improving, he'll be making big plays in the Rose Bowl.
Special Teams MVP: K/P Brett Maher. 3 field goals, 3 extra points and a 69 yard punt that pinned Penn State at their own 2 yard line make up for a few short punts into the wind that put the Husker defense in a bad position. The 33 yarder to ice the game was nice to see after all of the senior's inconsistency this season.
Freshman MVP: RB Imani Cross. "Iron" Cross finally got an opportunity to showcase his most valuable skill: short yardage running. Cross plowed 3 yards past the goal line twice in the second half, and even though he was stopped on a late 3rd and 1, you get the sense that the coaches finally trust the freshman when the game is in the balance.
Assistant Coach of the Game:
Ron Brown. Once again, the RBs racked up big yards the whole game, and committed 0 turnovers. Braylon Heard continues to average 8 yards per carry off the bench and Imani Cross is finding his niche as a short yardage back. My only beef is that Ameer Abdullah had 31 carries while Heard only got 3. Does he have bad practice habits or something?
Play of the Game: Apparently, Jamal Turner likes catching game winners. Down 23-20 at Penn State's 5 yard line, where the Huskers had struggled all day, Turner ran an inside slant and hung on to a quick throw from Martinez to put Nebraska ahead for good. After 1 1/2 seasons without a TD, Turner has cashed in with the two most important TDs of the season.
Play(s) We Want Back: On Nebraska's first drive, Turner caught a pass from a scrambling Martinez and set the Huskers up at the Penn State 6 yard line. The next three plays were a microcosm of Nebraska's woes in this game: Abdullah -6 on a zone read, Abdullah -2 on a toss, Martinez -1 on a scramble. Nebraska would get a field goal from Maher, but it wouldn't be until the 3rd quarter that Tim Beck would remember that he had a viable power option in Imani Cross when the Huskers got inside the 10 yard line.
I want to see more...
*Takeaways. The Huskers forced three timely turnovers that erased at least 10 points off the board for Penn State and directly led to 10 points for the Huskers. Alonzo Whaley forced another fumble that rolled out of bounds at the PSU 23. This is the sort of effort we need to see every week.
*Breaks. Tom Shatel wrote last week that Bo's teams are due for some breaks after so many things went awry his first 4 years. I agree. If pressed, I would say that Penn State probably should have been given the TD on Matt Lehman's catch, but that wasn't the call. It adds more spice to this burgeoning Big Ten rivalry.
*Will Compton. The senior is playing pretty good football right now. Like the rest of the defense, he got crossed up a few times in the first half, but he led his Blackshirts back in the second half, and finished with 10 tackles, a fumble recovery, and two pass breakups.
*Baker Steinkuhler. The gentle giant made some nice plays yesterday, none better than his sack right before Stafford's INT where he blew through the guard and smashed McGloin.
*Cole Pensick. Pensick pulled right and along with FB CJ Zimmerer, he blasted through the Penn State defensive line to make Imani Cross' second TD a walk-in.
*Kyler Reed. Often underutilized, Reed had another huge catch yesterday, taking a short throw 56 yards to set up Jamal Turner's go ahead TD.
*Resolve. For the 4th time this season, Taylor Martinez and the Husker offense have shrugged off mistakes and won games for this team. Credit the Blackshirts for shutting down the Penn State offense for most of the second half.
*Power tosses. For most of the second half, Nebraska ran up and down the field sweeping left then right to deliver a victory over the gassed Nittany Lion defense.
*Punt returns. Nebraska has to figure something out here. The punt return game has gone from bad to just plain silly. When our returners do attempt to catch the ball, they drop it. When they don't, the ball rolls back 20 yards. I've never seen anything so pathetic.
I want to see less...
*Turnovers. Taylor Martinez fumbled at the Penn State 5. Tim Marlowe muffed a punt. Business as usual for this team. Unfortunately.
*Field goals. Credit Maher for hitting all three of his attempted field goals, but Nebraska needs more TDs when they get inside the ten yard line.
*Tackles for loss. Penn State had 12 TFLs yesterday, including 3 by freshman DE Deion Barnes. Most of the blame goes to the offensive line, but PSU DC Ted Roof clearly had Beck's number a few times, blitzing right into Nebraska's running plays.
*Penalties. Several bad ones on the Nebraska O-line, including an iffy late hit on Jeremiah Sirles that erased the only good screen play Nebraska's run this year. Eric Martin had a potentially back-breaking facemask while he ran McGloin out of bounds on a key 3rd down in the Nebraska red zone. The infamous "review" made up for the mistake.
*Defensive timeouts. Bo used all three of his timeouts in the first half because he couldn't get his guys lined up correctly against Bill O'Brien's fast paced offense. If O'Brien stays at PSU, he's going to be a tough out for Bo every year.
*Zach Zwinak. The unheralded back carried the entire Nebraska defense all over the field yesterday. He finished with 141 total rushing yards and 1 TD, but I'm sure he'll remember his first quarter fumble at the NU 5 yard line.
*Dropped passes. Jamal Turner dropped one after getting rocked by a safety, which is sort of excusable, but it still deserves a mention. Will Compton let a potential INT hit him in the face right at the end of the game.
*Wind. That 40 mph breeze wreaked havoc on both teams yesterday, but never more so than on Brett Maher's punts. Punts of 35, 30, and 16 yards put the Nebraska defense behind the eight ball in the second quarter. Martinez didn't have a whole lot of luck throwing the ball against the wind either.
*Time for opponents to throw. Sure the Blackshirts got 3 sacks yesterday, but too often McGloin had all day to throw, and made the defense pay for it.
Armchair head coach:
Give credit to Tim Beck for finding the weakness on the edge in two consecutive opponents, but Beck deserves a stern finger in his face from Bo for making 3 trips inside the Penn State 10 yard line without a TD. Instead of turning to his power game, Beck fell into the same trap that so many spread offense coaches do in the red zone, and his offense too often back-pedaled inside the 10 yard line.
Beck was also too conservative after Nebraska took the lead in the 4th quarter. I'm not saying that Martinez should have been chucking it around in such a close game, but Penn State had long since adjusted to his power sweeps, so he needed to try something else.
Hit of the Game:
Nebraska's offense took the ball into the endzone to open the second half, and on the ensuing kickoff Alonzo Whaley blasted Jesse Delle Valle at his own 19 to bring the crowd back to life. Three plays later, Daimion Stafford picked off McGloin, and a little more than 5 minutes into the second half, Penn State's 14 point lead was gone.
Jennifer's Take (my wife doesn't know much about football, but she still has opinions)
"It's like they're an entirely different team in the second half."
Yep.
Keeping an eye on the rest of the college football world...
*Alabama loses at home to a first year head coach and a freshman QB? I had to see it to believe it.
*Kansas State will likely take the #1 spot in the BCS this week. Texas looms large in 2 weeks.
*No SEC team in the National Championship game? Notre Dame, Oregon and Kansas State will all need to keep winning impressively to hold off Alabama and/or Georgia after conference championship week.
*Louisville had a good run, but they're still a young team and the Big East is still the Big East.
*Louisiana Tech keeps inching their way towards the top 12. Their 2 point loss at Texas A&M looks better every week and they have the offense to bust the BCS in a big way.
*Nebraska should have a 1 game cushion in the Legends division right now, but thanks to Northwestern's punter, and a miraculous 53 yard, one-handed catch by Michigan WR Roy Roundtree, the Wolverines escaped the Wildcats in OT, and Nebraska needs to stay perfect in November to guarantee a trip to Indy.
*Wisconsin rose to the occasion in Bloomington. Facing a de facto Leaders division elimination game, the Badgers blasted Indiana 62-14 and punched their ticket to Indy. Jim Delany is breathing a huge sigh of relief.
*Illinois is obviously the worst team in the Big Ten, but Iowa is probably second worst following their loss to Purdue yesterday. Kirk Ferentz shouldn't survive this offseason.
*Minnesota had to sweat out a win at lowly Illinois, but don't think the Gophers can't pull a shocker in Lincoln next week. Bo hasn't lost his annual game to an unranked team at home yet, so you can consider Nebraska officially on upset alert starting now.
*Carl Pelini and FAU picked up their 3rd win over Western Kentucky.
Song of the Game
"The Wind" by Zac Brown Band
"Where the wind blows babe, you can bet
I'll be riding high with it
Holdin' on for my dear life just like I always did.
Close your eyes babe, take a breath
Say my name and I'll be there
My love will find you anywhere
Anywhere my love"
40 mph wind? No problem, Nebraska rode the wind to a victory over the last realistic obstacle on the way to Indy.
Beer of the Game
UFO Hefeweizen, Harpoon Brewery, Boston, MA
Call me a snob, but I think if you're going to use the German term for a wheat beer, you should use it correctly. Harpoon's offering only barely qualifies as a true cloudy hefeweizen by looks, and it tastes more like a krystallweizen. This beer is too light, it lacks a balanced hops taste, and it has an unpleasant metallic aftertaste. If you're looking for a good unfiltered wheat beer, stick with Boulevard or Shock Top and pass on this one.
Best Commercial
I guess I don't 'get' the whole Clay Matthews hoopla that's choking up the advertising world right now, but it sure is funny. Like this Fathead commercial. Matthews does the tongue in cheek perfectly.
Quick Shout-Out
From one veteran to another, happy Veterans Day to Ed Guthrie the 94 year-old Pearl Harbor survivor who was honored at midfield yesterday.
Last thought
Like any red-blooded man, I like to play with fire. Maybe one more squirt of lighter fluid on my charcoal. Maybe one more firecracker tied to my GI Joe. Maybe one more log in the fireplace. It's fun to play with fire, to let it get just a little bit bigger. To see just how big it can become before it gets out of control. Thing is, the fire always wins. I always lose some hair on my arms, and my wife gets to say "I told you so."
Nebraska has played with fire the last 6 games. We got burned at Ohio State, but we've inexplicably pulled victories from the jaws of defeat in the other 5. Now the Huskers are likely sitting inside the BCS top 15, atop the Legends division, and staring at a trip to Indy if we can just take care of business in the two easiest games since September. Time for Bo and Beck to put the lighter fluid down and take the prize that's dangling in front of their faces.
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