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Sacks, kicks, empties and explosives: The numbers that will determine whether NU can mount a post-bye push | Football








Nebraska’s JoJo Domann (13) sacks Northwestern quarterback Ryan Hilinski in the first quarter Oct. 2 at Memorial Stadium.



FRANCIS GARDLER, Journal Star file photo


Nebraska hit its first bye week bruised and sporting a 3-5 record overall.

Instead of taking a narrow loss at Oklahoma in mid-September and turning it into fuel for a critical four-game Big Ten stretch, the Huskers instead lost three one-score games around a blowout win against Northwestern and have dropped four of their past five overall.

NU hasn’t won on the road, hasn’t won a close game and has just the one conference victory on its ledger so far. Down the stretch? Well, the Huskers will be at home more often (three of their final four are at Memorial Stadium), but at least a couple figure to be close and they’re all Big Ten opponents.

Nebraska is likely to be either an underdog or a very narrow favorite against Purdue next weekend, will be a sizable home underdog to Ohio State on Nov. 6 and then closes with a pair of division opponents in Wisconsin and Iowa that coach Scott Frost is 0-5 against so far in his tenure.

So, if Nebraska wants to make a seemingly improbable run to six wins, how does the program do it?

Reversing some of the following, troublesome statistics and trends would be a good start.

Strike when the iron is hot

Nebraska is second in the Big Ten in total offense (477.5 yards per game), third in yards per play (6.66) and fourth in scoring offense (30.8), a number that actually jumps to No. 2 (30) in Big Ten play. Not only that, but NU’s red-zone touchdown rate (63.2%) is surprisingly third-best in the conference.



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