Nebraska beats Colorado: Amie Just’s takes

Electric atmosphere. Raucous crowd. Beautiful weather. A 28-10 win for Nebraska.

This is why we love football season.

Here’s what I loved, liked, loathed and was let down by in Nebraska’s win over Colorado.

Nebraska’s pass rush devoured Colorado’s offensive line Saturday.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, was feasting. And it started from the jump.

Colorado’s first third down opportunity? Ty Robinson exploded off the line to sack Shedeur Sanders for a loss of 9. And it could have been anyone, considering Colorado’s pass protection disintegrated like cotton candy in the rain.

Nebraska finished Saturday’s game with six total sacks — including three in the first quarter that left the Buffaloes in the dirt with minus-2 yards of total offense through the opening 15 minutes.

The run defense was dominant as heck, too.

Excluding Sanders’ numbers, Colorado’s backs only managed to get 46 yards on the ground. When you add in the sacks and tackles for loss on Sanders, that comes out to 16 yards rushing.

Yes, he was mentioned in the above section, but he deserves a shoutout. Easily one of the players of the game.

A sack. A tackle for loss. A pass breakup. A quarterback hurry. A blocked field goal.

Pick 6 for No. 6 has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Hill, in man coverage, read Shedeur Sanders’ eyes like a book and jumped the route for a 7-yard house call to score Nebraska’s first defensive touchdown since 2020.

Hill finished with six tackles, which was a four-way tie for the team lead, and that interception.

What a great showing for a guy who’s been projected by some to be a high draft pick in February.

The freshman gunslinger was as efficient as efficient could be on Saturday. The 19-year-old, in his second collegiate start, finished the game with 185 yards, but completing 23 of his 30 passes for a completion percentage of 77%. In the first half, Raiola completed 82% of his passes.

You don’t have to be Superman every day. You don’t need to throw for 300-plus yards every night. Sometimes you just need to play complimentary football, manage the game and minimize mistakes.

That’s just what Raiola did.

The Huskers would have been over 150 yards on the ground if not for them kneeling it out to end the game.

Dante Dowdell — a surprise, I’ll admit after his fumble last week — led the charge with the lion’s share of the carries going his way.

Dowdell had 17 carries for 74 yards with two touchdowns. Rahmir Johnson was the No. 2 guy in carries with 9 for 33 yards.

Dylan Raiola also used his legs a little, finishing with three carries for 7 yards with a long of 12.

In total, Nebraska had 149 yards rushing. That’ll play.

A couple of throws in the first quarter could have been touchdowns, but one that comes to mind: in the first half, Jaylen Lloyd burned Colorado’s defense and was wide open along the sideline after executing a wheel route. But the slightly overthrown pass hit his fingertips and the ball fell to the turf.

If Lloyd would have reeled that in? Memorial Stadium would have erupted — just like it did on Hill’s interception.

Nebraska started so great in this regard. The Huskers only had three penalties in the first half.

And then… the second half happened.

Nebraska was flagged 12 times for 105 yards. Of those flags, nine of them were on offense.

Holding: Isaiah Neyor. Negating a 7-yard rush from Jacory Barney Jr.

Holding: Bryce Benhart. Negating a 12-yard rush from Dante Dowdell.

Holding: Janiran Bonner. Negating a 1-yard pass from Raiola to Barney.

Illegal block: Justin Evans. Negating an 18-yard pass from Raiola to Rahmir Johnson.

Holding: Justin Evans. Negating a 6-yard pass from Raiola to Isaiah Neyor.

Delay of Game: but that was possibly intentional?

Holding: Rahmir Johnson. Negating a monster play from Raiola to Barney that would have put Nebraska in the red zone.

False start: Thomas Fidone.

Holding: Ben Scott. Negating a rush play from Rahmir Johnson.

Then, the three defensive/special teams penalties:

Offside: James Williams. Negating a whopping 17-yard sack from Princewill Umanmielen.

Illegal block: Amare Sanders. Negating a 4-yard punt return by Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda.

Targeting: Mikai Gbayor. Moving Colorado down the field

I genuinely don’t know what defenders are supposed to do in this situation. What do you want him to do? Defy physics? Defy the laws of gravity? Good luck with that.

I feel bad for the guy. Had a dominant game — tied to lead the team with six tackles with a tackle for loss and a pass breakup.

And now he gets to sit for the first half of next week’s game.

And, to quote Matt Rhule:

“I was disappointed,” he said in reference to the penalties in general. “We didn’t get many calls going our way. It’s a Big 12 crew, so I can’t get fined by them, I don’t think.”

Something was amiss with the extra points early in the game, but they both went in. And then, Tristan Alvano missed a 32-yard field goal to open the second quarter. The snap appeared to be high there.

Unsure what’s going on there, but Nebraska’s operation needs to be cleaner moving forward.