A thing of beauty it was not, especially on offense. Nebraska’s 42-28 victory over Rutgers probably created more questions than it answered about the Huskers. What did we learn?
Well, Ameer Abdullah is good. Really good. But we already knew that.
The Nebraska defensive line is becoming dominant. Take that second quarter where Rutgers simply couldn’t handle Maliek Collins and Kevin Williams.
What are we growing concerned about?
Start with the offensive line, which was inconsistent at best. And awful at times. Penalties, bad snaps, muddled blocking. Substitutions didn’t help this week either.
Tommy Armstrong was off most of the day, and awful in the second half. Overthrowing open receivers, locking onto recievers that were covered. All the things we’ve worried about all year were there and not getting better. And that interception was simply horrible; Kenny Bell was out of bounds before the pass was even thrown. At times, Tommy Armstrong is more YOLO than Taylor Martinez ever was.
What was more concerning was the play calling late in the 2nd quarter, as Tim Beck took the ball out of Ameer Abdullah’s hands and couldn’t resist letting Armstrong throw the ball. And badly.
Don’t blame the receivers. Alonzo Moore had a couple of drops, but those were unnecessarily difficult catches. There’s no need to have to leap and dive when the receiver is that open.
As for Rutgers, they were completely bambozzled. I have no idea what Kyle Flood and Ralph Friedgen were thinking when they decided to go shotgun from their own 2 yard line with only a minute to go before halftime. That boneheaded decision resulted in Gary Nova, his quarterback, getting his knee brutally twisted. If we hear he’s out for the year with a torn ACL, you shouldn’t be surprised.
The Husker secondary was rather inconsistent, especially early on. That 71 yard touchdown catch by Leonte Carroo was a cluster by nearly everybody in the back seven. It’s clear that David Santos isn’t 100%, so that’s part of it. But it was a keystone Kops/Yakety Sax moment out there.
After the game on his radio show, you could tell that Bo Pelini was not happy with his team’s performance. I can see why. The Huskers could get away with this performance against Rutgers. They won’t against Wisconsin. And maybe not against Minnesota and the improving Purdue Boilermakers.
Yes, Nebraska is 7-1 and that’s a good thing. Problem is that Nebraska didn’t play like a 7-1 team today. A critical November awaits, and today’s game was no way to head into it.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login