Charting the Run Game: Illinois Edition

Increased execution on the offensive line allowed the Husker offense to sharpen existing schemes and implement a few new ones

At the quarter mark of the 2017 season, your Nebraska Cornhuskers finally put together a complete game in all three phases of the game, allowing the Huskers to cruise to a 28-6 win in a very businesslike road trip to Champaign, Illinois. In doing so, the Husker offense implemented and executed a game plan that accentuated what they did best, using the inside run game to soften the belly of the defense, forcing the defense to allocate more defenders to stop the run, leaving the Husker #Wideouts to get open against the Illini Man-Free coverage.

Against the Illini, offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf leaned on the familiar concepts of the run game that we’ve previously discussed, while also implementing some new concepts for the first time this season for live game reps and to set the table even further for future opponents to consider in their game prep. Some of these concepts may even look familiar to Husker fans from a bygone era.

With 165 net yards rushing against Illinois, the Huskers averaged 4.3 ypc. Excluding the 16 yards in losses for QB Tanner Lee, the 12 yards for receiver JD Spielman on Fly Sweeps, and the 4 yard loss sustained from taking a knee in the Victory Formation, the Nebraska tailback triumvirate ran for 178 yards on 33 attempts, for an average ypc of 5.39. The tailback triumvirate was paced by G.A.M. (Grown Ass Man) Devine Ozigbo with 106 yards on 18 angry attempts (5.9 average), while Mikale Wilbon, who showed some serious juice in exclaiming “they can’t tackle me, man. They can’t tackle me,” registered 60 yards on 13 attempts (4.6 average), and the young buck Jaylin Bradley had 12 yards on 2 attempts (6.0 average). The best part of this strong performance by the three tailbacks is that we have a nice core of offensive weapons once Tre Bryant returns from injury.