The Morning After: An Identity for Nebraska Football has Started to Form with 25 Point Win Over Buffalo

I learned something yesterday.

I did not realize it is a 15 yard personal foul if a player’s helmet is pulled off by the opponent and he continues to play football. That happened to Damion Daniels yesterday in the 28-3 win over Buffalo.

Well I guess that isn’t all that I learned.

I learned that Nebraska might actually have a defense it can lean on for the rest of this 2021 season.

It is difficult, no matter the opponent, to hold a college football team to three points. It is even more impressive when that team put up 69 points the week before against Wagner.

Nice.

It’s nice when an identity is starting to develop on both sides of the ball. This defense is more physical and technically sound. It isn’t perfect and it never will be but it is good enough to win the Big 10 West.

The offense on the other hand is not quite there. And it may not even be close. Though it appears an identity is starting to emerge. Frost and his players have said that they want to be a physical running team. They want to run down hill. Well that is exactly what they have been trying to do.

It has not been successful but Frost appears to be telling his young offensive linemen that he’s going to force them to get better. In seasons past Frost would have abandoned the base running game at this point. He has stuck with it and hopefully we will see the fruit of their labors as the season progresses.

Adrian Martinez’s 71 yard run had shades of another Martinez who also played quarterback at Nebraska. Adrian finished the game with 112 rushing yards. This was the first time Buffalo allowed a 100 yard rusher in 16 games.

Going forward Nebraska should be able to lean on it’s defense as the offense matures.

This was a great win for Frost and this program. Buffalo is one of the best programs in the MAC and if it weren’t for some questionable officiating, to be kind, Nebraska could have won this game by at least two more touchdowns.

If the final score read 42-3 then some people outside of the state would have taken notice. But alas that didn’t happen so Frost and the players will have to sit on a 28-3 win over the Bulls.

If Nebraska wants to continue to lean on this defense it is going to have a difficult time when they go up against one of the best offenses in the country next week in Oklahoma. It is another test for this program. We will see how things stand up in the end.

The Morning After

Martinez, Huskers grind out 28-3 win over Buffalo
As the sun beat down and on-field temperatures reached above 100 degrees, Nebraska’s defense carried the load from start to finish and the offense got the big plays it needed in a 28-3 win over Buffalo on Saturday.

Huskers keep Buffalo out of end zone in 25-point victory | Football | omaha.com
The Huskers made it two wins in a row with a 28-3 victory against Buffalo on Saturday in Memorial Stadium. Here’s a recap of the game as Nebraska moves to

Husker Report Card: Grading Nebraska’s performance against Buffalo | Football | omaha.com
After each game this season, The World-Herald’s Sam McKewon will hand out his Husker Report Card, assessing Nebraska’s performance in several areas. Here are the grades coming out of the

Adrian Martinez, Blackshirts help deliver Nebraska a 28-3 win against Buffalo | Football | journalstar.com
On this day, the Huskers got more than enough from the junior quarterback and a stingy defensive effort to improve to 2-1 this season.

3 Thoughts from Nebraska’s 28-3 Win Over Buffalo – Nebraska Football | Hail Varsity
Nebraska improved to 2-1 on the season with a win over Buffalo. Here are three thoughts on the victory that featured a strong outing from the defense.

McKewon: Nebraska’s defense was ‘tough’ against Buffalo, but Blackshirts have big test coming | Football | omaha.com
Nebraska’s defense showed that the Blackshirts could be “tough” in a win over Buffalo, but the Huskers still have work to do before taking on Oklahoma next week. Get the

Sherman: Nebraska shouldn’t shrug off imperfect win vs. Buffalo, even with Oklahoma looming – The Athletic
Even the most spectacular play Saturday from Nebraska’s 28-3 win against Buffalo was not visually appealing. It was chaotic and improvised. And perfectly effective.

Kind of like the game itself.

Report Card: Defense brings home bacon, special teams still need extra work
The Huskers were balanced throughout the game and the defense did its job by forcing mistakes from Buffalo, but old issues flared up repeatedly in the contest.

Here are the grades for Saturday’s win:

A quote, a stat and a question after Nebraska beats up Buffalo
Nebraska football took a bit to build up on Saturday, but the Huskers eventually rolled in a 28-3 win over the Buffalo Bulls in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated.

What were the take aways from the game? We examine:

Here are the final takes and grades following Nebraska’s win over Buffalo.
There are still plenty of questions about this Nebraska football team after three games, but there are at least a few things they can hang their hat on after Saturday.

In the Huskers 28-3 win over Buffalo, NU found three passing plays over 50 yards and one run that went 70 yards. They also did not turn the football over on offense.

Nebraska Huskers Football: 10 things we learned from NU’s win over Buffalo
Nebraska’s offense was better Saturday than it played last week, especially early on, against Fordham. But the constant that has carried the Huskers through two straight win-or-else games has been the defense.