On a cloudy and mild September afternoon, the #6 ranked Oklahoma Sooners dispatched the Nebraska Cornhuskers 49-14 in the most lopsided home defeat between the former rivals since a 41-0 loss in 1955. If you think of the game as a sandwich, the Huskers touchdowns represented two thin slices of bread over seven helpings of Sooner meat in the middle.
It was the head coaching debut of former Husker quarterback Mickey Joseph who promptly assumed responsibility for the loss in his post-game presser. But this loss is hardly on Joseph. He inherited a defense and defensive coordinator that has diabolical deficits. Even though more effort was spent on live tackling drills in the past week of practice after four years of two-hand touch, it will take more than six days to turn this team around. Joseph has a bye week to work with to prepare his squad for the rest of the conference schedule.
It’s fair to give him at least a month to see if the Huskers can show improvement in intensity and efficiency. The Scott Frost era is in the past, but I find it telling that there was no outcry from the locker room regarding his dismissal and the squad seems to have rallied around the move. Perhaps it should have happened sooner. Joseph certainly looked more engaged on the sideline and gathered the whole team at the end of the 3 rd quarter encouraging them to fight to the end.
Oklahoma was the far superior team in terms of their team speed and strength and scheme against the Huskers. The Huskers were dominated in the trenches and overwhelmed by their first legitimately talented opponent. The Sooners under Brent Venables appear to have improved significantly on defense to match an already potent offense. It seems like the Huskers are still trying to catch Marvin Mims who had 4 catches for 66 yards and had 3 punt returns for 60 more yards. The Husker offense gave up 4 sacks and 8 tackles for loss in the first half alone.
Nebraska looked inspired coming out of the tunnel, stopping Oklahoma with a three-and-out before streaking 77 yards in six plays capped by a 32-yard strike to Trey Palmer to lead 7-0. That was as good as it got. After the defense allowed the Sooner quarterback to amble 61-yards for a touchdown on a third and seven, the balloon deflated, and Oklahoma took over. They piled up 355 yards and scored on five of their final seven first half possessions while Nebraska managed just 71 more yards before intermission.
With the 580 yards allowed today, the Husker defense has allowed 2,056 yards through 4 games. This puts them on pace for 6,178 over 12 games which would smash their previous mark of futility surrendered in 2017 (5,234 yards), the worst since Nebraska joined the Big Ten. It made sense that Joseph removed the Blackshirts on his first day as coach as those numbers are not honoring that proud tradition.
Nebraska allowed two sacks per game through the first three weeks of the season. It allowed four on Saturday, three of which came in the first quarter. The Huskers played without starting left tackle Teddy Prochazka, who was injured last week, and is now out for the season. Bryce Benhart continues to struggle with moving his feet and looks like a matador on pass blocking. Is it time to move him to guard and/or allow Omaha native and Northern Colorado transfer Kevin Williams a shot? When Casey Thompson has time, he can be very accurate, but it is impossible to be effective when lying on your back.
Thompson did manage to go 14 for 20 for 129 yards with the TD toss to Palmer. Chubba Purdy made his Nebraska debut, leading the Huskers on their final drive with a 13-play, 82-yard march that resulted in his eight-yard touchdown run. Purdy finished 7 for 11 for 35 yards and threw a pick into double coverage when it appeared he could have run for first down yardage. Thompson seems to demonstrate more responsibility with his throws, but Purdy shows he may be better at eluding the rush.
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Gabe Ervin (7 carries for 60 yards) led the team in rushing, albeit in garbage time, but he ran hard and looked promising in relief. It must have been especially gratifying for him since it was against Oklahoma last year that an injury ended his season. Ajay Allen added 52 yards on 11 carries before getting dinged up and Anthony Grant had just 44 yards on 13 carries as he was tasked with running east and west against a defense with better lateral speed.
Trey Palmer finished with 10 receptions for 92 yards, setting career highs for both receptions and receiving yards, by bettering his 82-yard effort against North Dakota. His previous high in receptions was eight against Northwestern. Palmer has caught 28 passes in the season’s first four games, believed to be the most by a Nebraska player in their first four games of the season. Both Stanley Morgan (2017) and Jordan Westerkamp (2015) had 26 receptions in their first four games played. Unfortunately, he also had the ball stripped on the first play of the second half after a 21-yard grab. Ten other receivers had at least one reception including Marcus Washington (2 for 17 yds) and Brody Belt (2 for 9 yards). Isaiah Garcia-Castenada continues to disappoint fumbling after his only catch of the game.
On defense, linebacker Luke Reimer led the team with eight tackles to give him 39 tackles on the season, and increase his career tackle total to 198. Unfortunately, linebacker play has been a significant weakness and disappointment. I was encouraged by Eteva Mauga-Clements who made five tackles in limited action and at least met the runner at the line of scrimmage. In a game with multiple defensive busts, I was also impressed by Ochaun Mathis who had 7 stops, including 3 on one series, and added a QB hurry. Garrett Nelson (5 tackles) recovered a third quarter fumble and had a QB hurry.
Ty Robinson made a nice stop on third down to force a field goal attempt and Devin Drew recorded a third-quarter sack, the first of his career. Tackling remains an issue, so hopefully more contact in practice will help. Will we ever figure out how to defend against slant passes which every team this season has successfully exploited.
Special team play was unremarkable. Unfortunately, punter Brian Buschini appeared to injure his plant foot and it resulted in much shorter licks as he averaged just 40.8 yards on six boots. Thankfully, placekicker Tommy Bleekrode came in to nail a 51-yard punt. The Huskers finally attempted a punt return, but Trey Palmer had a hard time avoiding his own teammate who got in the way instead of blocking. The punt team was also victimized by Marvin Mims as mentioned earlier. Brendan Franke remained solid with touchbacks on all three of his kickoffs.
With one third of the season in the books, the Huskers sit at 1-3 and in looking at the schedule, fans are wondering whether there are any possible wins with the eight conference games that remain. One benefit is that the bulk of the Big Ten West appears to be woeful. Northwestern lost today to Southern Illinois after losing last week to Duke. Their lone win is against Nebraska. Purdue got beat today 32-29 by Syracuse. Our next opponent, Indiana, moved to 3-0 by outlasting Western Kentucky 33-30, but appear to be vulnerable. Minnesota and Wisconsin look to be the class of the division. Mickey Joseph has his hands full and the bye week is needed by the team and fans alike. Let’s see what he can do. The next four games do seem to be winnable if the team can play with better execution and consistency. Nobody except the trolls want to see a 1-11 campaign. Go Big Red!!
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