Plenty of questions remain, and the program will have to batten down the hatches for a full-blown quarterback controversy over the coming weeks, but I think the Huskers took a big step forward in their Big 10 opener, nowhere more than on their much-maligned defense.
To sum up the game: Tommy Armstrong still looks like the second coming of Tommie Frazier, Ameer Abdullah looks even better, and the defense seems to be coming along.
On with the review:
Offensive MVP: Ameer Abdullah, RB. 225 yards and 2 TDs rushing and a clutch 15 yard reception tell you most of the story, but his reaction in the post-game finishes it. Abdullah went out of his way to mention his line, receivers, and even the fullbacks for their outstanding blocking, essentially saying that his career game was simply the result of his teammates' hard work. Great back, and great teammate.
Defensive MVP: Ciante Evans, CB/NB. Evans didn't do much in coverage, but he shined as a blitzer, ending one Illini series inside the Nebraska 10 yard line, getting another TFL, and forcing a fumble after a big run. On a young defense, it's about time the man with the most experience steps up.
Special Teams MVP: Nebraska's kickoff team. Facing the best returner in college football, these Huskers answered the bell and shut V'Angelo Bentley all afternoon. Nothing spectacular, but always solid.
Freshman MVP: Tommy Armstrong, QB. There aren't any of the outlandish stats or the big plays that defined Taylor Martinez's freshman campaign (though his field-reversing option play was pretty nice), but there is that indescribable calm that fills the stadium when Tommy is at the helm. We still have yet to see how he reacts to a big turnover in a tight game, or how he rallies the team when the Huskers are behind in the 4th quarter, but you get the sense that he might handle it better than most kids his age.
Assistant Coach MVP: John Garrison, OL coach. When your team racks up 335 rushing yards (219 of which came in the second half), you know that the offensive line is doing a lot of things right. It's also worth mentioning that the Huskers haven't had a single false start in two games.
5 Who Stood out:
*Jason Ankrah. Nebraska fans have rightly been hard on the senior so far this year, but he responded with one of the best games of his career yesterday. Ankrah had a sack and a TFL and led the defensive line in a much improved effort.
*Quincy Enunwa. Another TD and some timely grabs accompanied his always fantastic downfield blocking. There's nothing flashy about Enunwa, but he's one of the Husker's most consistent and valuable performers.
*Sam Cotton. There were more than a few grumbles when the youngest Cotton was the only Nebraska high school kid offered a scholarship in 2012, but Sam finally got the chance to show us why that was the case. His downfield blocking was reminiscent of his big brother, and seeing him drag defenders for five extra yards on his lone reception was incredibly gratifying.
*Michael Rose. Rose was flying around all afternoon yesterday. He wasn't always in the right spot, but he made a few nice stops and led the team with11 tackles. It seems the future is bright for the freshman.
*Avery Moss. The young DE doesn't show up as much on the stat sheet, but he crashes the pocket better than any other defensive end currently on the roster. If Nebraska's defense can survive this season, their future is bright in the front seven.
Key Stat: 11.2. That's Abdullah's yards-per-carry average on 20 carries. That's amazing.
Play of the Game:
I just couldn't decide between:
The option run for a TD by Abdullah, which was a thing of beauty. Good job by Tommy Armstrong stretching the play outside and making the accurate pitch to Abdullah while he was running at full speed. Abdullah did an outstanding job reading his blocks downfield and made an amazing cutback to take the ball into the endzone. Maybe not a perfect play, but darn close.
And of course Kenny Bell's leaping one-handed grab for a TD was pure magic. And it came at a good time with the Husker's offense seemingly stalling inside Illini territory. It was a perfect statement play for Bell who had a rough game against SDST and hadn't done much up to that point against the Illini.
Play We Want Back:
I don't like to question the Almighty Beck, but when you have 3rd and 11 at your own 3 yard line, that is not the time to make Imani Cross run laterally. Terrell Newby or Abdullah maybe, but not Cross. You gotta play to your player's strengths, and when you don't, you get bad plays like that safety.
Blown Call: Pretty good game by the stripes overall but I'm seriously starting to wonder if our defensive line needs to work on some sort of flopping technique (as if they need one MORE thing to work one) in order to start getting some holding calls. It's getting a little bit ridiculous, and it makes it that much harder to set the edge on those gashing perimeter runs that were killing us yesterday.
Hit of the Game: I almost threw something at the TV when Illinois WR Steve Hull caught that ball on 4th and 11, but praise Rex for CB Stanley Jean-Baptiste and his hard hitting prowess. He's unquestionably been the Blackshirts' best playmaker this season.
I want to see more...
*Jack Hoffman. ESPN reported late Friday night that little Jack is in full remission and his father is hopeful that it might be for good. Jack will still have to get regular MRIs to monitor his tumor of course, but he's done with chemo and he will get a chance to be a little boy again.
*Tommy Armstrong. Several of his throws went high yesterday, but we'll chalk that up to the wind. What we can attribute to the young quarterback is a calm sense of control over this offense and the ability to move the football (with the exception of the 2nd quarter safety). If I'm Bo Pelini, Taylor Martinez sits against a bad Purdue team and has 2 more weeks to heal before the all-important November stretch.
*The option. Seemed like every time the Huskers ran those speed option plays, it went for big yards. There's no better way for a quarterback and an offensive coordinator to endear themselves to the Nebraska fans than running the plays that won those now mythical championships in the 90's. Extra credit to Tommy Armstrong for the bags of ice on his shoulder in the post game news conference. Some of my first Husker memories are of Scott Frost and those bags of ice on his shoulders after a game. That's Saturday romance at its best.
*Soul crushing drives. Nebraska took over with 3 minutes to go in the second quarter at their own 4 yard line with an opportunity to mount a long drive and take a four score lead into the second half and get the ball back. Instead, the Huskers get conservative and Cross is tackled in the endzone for a safety. A big return set the Illini up at midfield with the potential to steal the momentum going into the half. Gregg Easterbrook often writes of the disaster that comes with being too conservative at the end of football games, and his rule held true yesterday.
*Jamal Turner. Other than a pretty block to spring Abdullah for a few extra yards, Turner had a quiet day yesterday, and hasn't done much this season. Theres's a tweaked hammy at issue, but hopefully he has a breakout game soon that gives him a boost for the rest of the season like his TD catch in the Northwestern game did last year.
*Blitzing. Imagine that, a quarterback under pressure repeatedly makes hurried, inaccurate throws...
I want to see less...
*Missed tackles. The Blackshirts did an OK job yesterday, but there were several plays in which the Nebraska defenders either lost the handle on the ball carrier, whiffed completely, or mystifyingly got turned around as CB Jonathan Rose did late in the 3rd quarter.
*Fumbles. Fortunately Nebraska didn't lose any yesterday, but Abdullah and Newby seemingly lost the ball every time they went out of bounds or after they hit the ground, and the law of averages (and past experiences) states that eventually, those balls will come out at less opportune times and be recovered by the other team. Something different needs to happen in practice.
*Free running RBs. Illini RB Josh Ferguson repeatedly gashed the Blackshirts around the edges, averaging 6 yards per carry. Add to that his 82 yards receiving and there's plenty of teaching points for these Huskers this week.
*Miscommunication and substitution errors on defense. I counted 4 substitution penalties and even late in the game, you got the feeling that the Blackshirts were really discombobulated between snaps. That falls on the coaches, and it's something that needs to get fixed before Northwestern comes to town.
*Missed XPs. With an ongoing competition at kicker, the last thing you wanna do as a place kicker is miss an extra point, wind or no wind. Which is exactly what both kickers managed to do yesterday.
*Catches out of the backfield. Nathan Scheelhaase continually burned the Husker linebackers with swings to his RBs, notably on a 4th and 5 conversion in the 3rd quarter.
*Ron Kellogg III. I hate to even write this because of all that RKIII has done for the program as a backup, but there's a reason that Armstrong is starting in front of him. When Kellogg III was on the field yesterday, the offense just seemed stale because he wasn't a running threat. I love the kid and his selfless attitude, but his greatest contributions come on the sideline and the attempts to get him in the game yesterday seemed forced and didn't amount to anything.
*Boring 4th quarters. Sure the game was sort of out of reach, but neither team showed even a whiff of urgency to close out the game yesterday. That was disappointing.
*NASCAR. Seriously ESPN? NASCAR at 3:30 on an October Saturday afternoon?
Armchair coach:
I wanna talk a little more about the safety, because it was a classic example of Tim Beck outsmarting himself:
With Ameer Abdullah averaging 9 yards per carry around the edges, Beck decided that it was a good time to put Cross in the game to bang it inside. I can understand that conservative philosophy down near our own goal line-I don't agree with it, but I can understand it- what I don't understand is that mystifying decision to run Cross around the left edge of the offense on third and 11. Granted, Cross made a poor decision not getting upfield faster, but that wasn't a good play call by any stretch of the imagination.
The Huskers can get away with that against teams like Illinois, but that sort of blunder will cost us against Michigan.
Jennifer's Take (my wife doesn't know much about football, but she still has opinions)
"I think that Martinez's turf toe might be the best thing to happen to Nebraska this year."
Opponent Watch:
*Penn State was granted a reprieve from their Draconian scholarship reductions a few weeks ago, but that isn't going to help them this year. They have some nice pieces, but there isn't enough depth to put together a full game against a decent team, as evidenced by their 44-24 loss to Indiana, the first loss to the Hoosiers in program history.
*I was one of those predicting a 10-3 score from the Iowa-Michigan State game, but the Spartans actually managed a bit of offense and beat the Hawkeyes by a sound 26-13 score. If Sparty can keep that progress going, they're a real threat in the Legends.
*Minnesota kept it tight early, but #19 Michigan pulled away in the second half and cruised to a 42-13 win. It still looks like the best way to beat the Wolverines is to make Devin Gardner throw the ball.
*#12 UCLA survived a 34-27 scare at Utah while you slept Thursday night. The Bruins are good enough to beat every team in the PAC 12, but they're not good enough to sleepwalk against any of them.
*Southern Miss squandered their best opportunity to win their first game in 17 tries, taking on one of the worst teams in the NCAA in Florida International and losing 24-23. Turnovers continue to kill the Golden Eagles as they gave the Panthers a pair of fumbles and a couple interceptions in the loss. Southern Miss has lost 19 turnovers in 5 games.
*South Dakota State lost to Southern Illinois 27-24. Yet another FCS team managed to hold SDST RB Zac Zenner to less than 4 yards per carry...
*#4 Ohio State benefited from some *ahem* generous officiating to eke out a 40-30 win (with the last six coming on the Wildcat's botched final play) at #16 Northwestern. The Big Ten is officially on notice: if you want to beat the Buckeyes, don't leave the game in the hands of the officials.
Keeping an Eye on the Rest of the College Football World...
*I watched the 4th quarter of the Iowa State-Texas game the other night, and even though Iowa State had some questionable calls go against them, they weren't egregious. Texas may be a shell of what they once were, but they're still going to get the benefit of the doubt with refs in the Big 12. What should be of greater note was the way the Cyclones, with their undersized and much slower athletes, whipped the Longhorns on both sides of the ball. I can't think of any reason Mack Brown should be on the sideline next season.
*Spoke too soon on Virginia Tech. I thought the Hokies were in for rough season after that OT scare against Marshall, but they've rebounded nicely with relatively easy wins against a good Georgia Tech team and a decent North Carolina squad.
*#3 Clemson is quietly dominating opponents and staying out of the spotlight after their season opening win against Georgia. There's a potential trap game against Boston college next week and then a mammoth test against Florida State the week after.
*Put #25 Maryland firmly under that "pretender" label. The Terrapins surprised us all with that 4-0 start, but were quickly and soundly brought back to Earth at #8 Florida State, losing 63-0, which is the worst beating a ranked team has ever taken. The Seminoles' sensational freshman QB Jameis Winston threw for almost 400 yards and 5 TDs to keep his Heisman campaign alive.
*I can't help but be impressed with #17 Baylor's third consecutive 70 point game against West Virginia. The Bears racked up 864 total yards and for the fourth game in a row, they scored four TDs in the first quarter.
*On the topic of impressive offenses, #2 Oregon shook off a sluggish start to blast Colorado 57-16. The Ducks scored three TDs in the last 5 minutes of the first quarter after Colorado had taken a 10-8 lead.
*When the Heisman voters are deciding which QB is going to get the award this season, I hope they take into account everything that Georgia QB Aaron Murray has had to endure early this season. No, I'm not talking about the three games against top 10 opponents in September. At Tennessee, Murray was already missing his best RB and WR, then lost his second best RB and two more of his top 5 receivers through the course of the game, and still managed to put together a TD drive to force overtime and get the win. Murray needs to keep winning, but through six weeks, he's got my vote.
*Speaking of the Georgia-Tennessee game, you feel for Tennessee RB Alton "Pig" Howard, whose fumble out of the endzone essentially gave the overtime win to the Bulldogs. Of course one play doesn't win or lose a game, of course your teammates support you, and of course tomorrow will come, but dang. Ya kinda blew it in the worst way possible dude.
*#5 Stanford got away with one against #15 Washington. The Cardinal were outgained 489-279 by the Huskies but got a kickoff return TD and timely defensive stops to get the win.
Last Thought
So I'm on record saying that Taylor Martinez should sit against Purdue. Let's face it: the Boilers are the worst team in the Big Ten, and they provide a perfect opportunity for Tommy Armstrong to cut his teeth on the road. Nebraska gets another bye week and then a trip to Minnesota presents a perfect opportunity for Martinez to work out the kinks before Northwestern comes to town.
I still believe Nebraska is capable of winning every game left on the schedule, especially if the defense continues to improve, but proper management of the incredibly fortuitous midseason schedule is going to be the key.
Fan forecast: Wind-burnt cheeks heal up in time for a smile-inducing road trip to West Lafayette.
Jennifer's Take (my wife doesn't know much about football, but she still has opinions)
"I think that Martinez's turf toe might be the best thing to happen to Nebraska this year."
Opponent Watch:
*Penn State was granted a reprieve from their Draconian scholarship reductions a few weeks ago, but that isn't going to help them this year. They have some nice pieces, but there isn't enough depth to put together a full game against a decent team, as evidenced by their 44-24 loss to Indiana, the first loss to the Hoosiers in program history.
*I was one of those predicting a 10-3 score from the Iowa-Michigan State game, but the Spartans actually managed a bit of offense and beat the Hawkeyes by a sound 26-13 score. If Sparty can keep that progress going, they're a real threat in the Legends.
*Minnesota kept it tight early, but #19 Michigan pulled away in the second half and cruised to a 42-13 win. It still looks like the best way to beat the Wolverines is to make Devin Gardner throw the ball.
*#12 UCLA survived a 34-27 scare at Utah while you slept Thursday night. The Bruins are good enough to beat every team in the PAC 12, but they're not good enough to sleepwalk against any of them.
*Southern Miss squandered their best opportunity to win their first game in 17 tries, taking on one of the worst teams in the NCAA in Florida International and losing 24-23. Turnovers continue to kill the Golden Eagles as they gave the Panthers a pair of fumbles and a couple interceptions in the loss. Southern Miss has lost 19 turnovers in 5 games.
*South Dakota State lost to Southern Illinois 27-24. Yet another FCS team managed to hold SDST RB Zac Zenner to less than 4 yards per carry...
*#4 Ohio State benefited from some *ahem* generous officiating to eke out a 40-30 win (with the last six coming on the Wildcat's botched final play) at #16 Northwestern. The Big Ten is officially on notice: if you want to beat the Buckeyes, don't leave the game in the hands of the officials.
Keeping an Eye on the Rest of the College Football World...
*I watched the 4th quarter of the Iowa State-Texas game the other night, and even though Iowa State had some questionable calls go against them, they weren't egregious. Texas may be a shell of what they once were, but they're still going to get the benefit of the doubt with refs in the Big 12. What should be of greater note was the way the Cyclones, with their undersized and much slower athletes, whipped the Longhorns on both sides of the ball. I can't think of any reason Mack Brown should be on the sideline next season.
*Spoke too soon on Virginia Tech. I thought the Hokies were in for rough season after that OT scare against Marshall, but they've rebounded nicely with relatively easy wins against a good Georgia Tech team and a decent North Carolina squad.
*#3 Clemson is quietly dominating opponents and staying out of the spotlight after their season opening win against Georgia. There's a potential trap game against Boston college next week and then a mammoth test against Florida State the week after.
*Put #25 Maryland firmly under that "pretender" label. The Terrapins surprised us all with that 4-0 start, but were quickly and soundly brought back to Earth at #8 Florida State, losing 63-0, which is the worst beating a ranked team has ever taken. The Seminoles' sensational freshman QB Jameis Winston threw for almost 400 yards and 5 TDs to keep his Heisman campaign alive.
*I can't help but be impressed with #17 Baylor's third consecutive 70 point game against West Virginia. The Bears racked up 864 total yards and for the fourth game in a row, they scored four TDs in the first quarter.
*On the topic of impressive offenses, #2 Oregon shook off a sluggish start to blast Colorado 57-16. The Ducks scored three TDs in the last 5 minutes of the first quarter after Colorado had taken a 10-8 lead.
*When the Heisman voters are deciding which QB is going to get the award this season, I hope they take into account everything that Georgia QB Aaron Murray has had to endure early this season. No, I'm not talking about the three games against top 10 opponents in September. At Tennessee, Murray was already missing his best RB and WR, then lost his second best RB and two more of his top 5 receivers through the course of the game, and still managed to put together a TD drive to force overtime and get the win. Murray needs to keep winning, but through six weeks, he's got my vote.
*Speaking of the Georgia-Tennessee game, you feel for Tennessee RB Alton "Pig" Howard, whose fumble out of the endzone essentially gave the overtime win to the Bulldogs. Of course one play doesn't win or lose a game, of course your teammates support you, and of course tomorrow will come, but dang. Ya kinda blew it in the worst way possible dude.
*#5 Stanford got away with one against #15 Washington. The Cardinal were outgained 489-279 by the Huskies but got a kickoff return TD and timely defensive stops to get the win.
Last Thought
So I'm on record saying that Taylor Martinez should sit against Purdue. Let's face it: the Boilers are the worst team in the Big Ten, and they provide a perfect opportunity for Tommy Armstrong to cut his teeth on the road. Nebraska gets another bye week and then a trip to Minnesota presents a perfect opportunity for Martinez to work out the kinks before Northwestern comes to town.
I still believe Nebraska is capable of winning every game left on the schedule, especially if the defense continues to improve, but proper management of the incredibly fortuitous midseason schedule is going to be the key.
Fan forecast: Wind-burnt cheeks heal up in time for a smile-inducing road trip to West Lafayette.
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