Hey everyone, sorry it's a little late on my reflection, but I think we all had to let that one sink in a little bit. Great opening weekend in College Football, even with Nebraska losing their opener to BYU. Here's my reflection on Nebraska's game and the picks that I made.
The debut for Coach Riley and his staff could've gone a little bit better. I was saying all week leading up to the game, it's going to be a toss up. However, I was a little bit surprised when it turned into a literal toss up with the Hail Mary. Regardless of the outcome, it was a great game to watch. I saw a lot of good things with Nebraska's new style, but I saw some bad things as well. Obviously the Defense was not on the same page for a good portion of the game, especially the second quarter. They struggled to get pressure on the Quarterback, and that lead to the secondary being out of position at times. With the QB having so much time to sit back and throw, it was a lot easier for BYU to pick apart our secondary. I was surprised with the lack of pressure that we put on BYU, but that may have been to account for Taysom Hill's ability to scramble out of the pocket. However, adjustments were made at halftime, and I was very glad to see that. That is something Husker Nation hasn't really seen for a long time. The third quarter was fantastic for the Huskers, not allowing a point and shutting down BYU's offense which was running wild before the half. A lot of people are upset about the final play, saying that the defense was out of position and messed up big time. Hail Mary's seem like pretty simple plays to defend, but in the moment it's a lot more difficult, trust me. I do agree that someone should have been placed in front of the receiver, but they did cover the play very well in my opinion. It had to be tough covering a Wide Receiver who is 6'6 215. I think that the defense really missed Johnathan Rose and Michael Rose-Ivy as well. Luke Gifford played well, but he's just not quite at the level to keep up with BYU yet. He will be a great linebacker for the Huskers in another couple years though.
On the offensive side, there were obviously some issues. The biggest problem that I saw was the lack of blocking by the O-line. This caused numerous problems in the passing game and basically made our run game non-existent. I honestly have never seen a Husker team not run the ball so much. That kind of worried me a little bit to be honest. I think that our line will settle in and start making some holes though. Expect the run game to pick up as we progress through the season and our backs get used to the new system. Our QB Tommy Armstrong looked very good in his Junior season debut. He looked like a much more efficient passer to me. He did miss a few open shots, but I think part of that was due to the heavy pressure he was under for most of the game. I was a little annoyed by the lack of running he did throughout the game though. I think that Tommy is a much better passer when he is able to run throughout the game. There were a few times last Saturday where we could all tell that Tommy held off of a big gain on the ground to throw the ball downfield. I think that Coach Riley and staff need to let him be the dual threat QB that he is and set him loose. That will spread the defenses out a lot more and open up more lanes for our running backs.
I was really glad to see a couple of my friends on the team get some quality playing time and use it well! My good friend Freedom got the first sack of the season and fellow Red-shirt Freshman Mikale Wilbon looked solid while in at RB. Can't wait to see them get a lot more playing time.
I am getting a lot closer with the football program as I now work with Husker Video and get to help film practice 2 days a week. I am also a tour guide for prospective football recruits that come to Memorial Stadium for a game. I am not allowed to give any information on the recruit or any of that stuff, but I will say that the tours are a lot of fun and it's great getting to know the kids and just talk football with them. Hopefully I can get us some future Huskers! GO BIG RED!
#CollegeFootballKnowItAll
Alex Fernando
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