Hey everyone, hope you all enjoyed the crazy weekend of football we had! I had a great 4 day weekend off of school, and am pumped for the game this weekend against Northwestern. I went a solid 6-3 on my predictions this week. My Penn State - Ohio State pick was a lot of blind hope, but that's alright. I am surprised that it took Urban Meyer to realize that JT Barrett should be starting, but that's going to make it a lot harder for teams to pull the upset. Also, even though I picked Michigan to win, I was more than happy to watch them lose in that fashion! What a crazy finish to a football game. Plus, it'll be nice to have an undefeated Spartan team walk into Lincoln only to be knocked off!
The Husker game definitely lifted some weight off of Husker nation. Nebraska finally put together a near complete game, and looked like they could play with almost anyone in the nation. Pass defense still has some work to do, but they have made improvements. I've seen it in practice, and I'm starting to see more and more of it in the games. Trust me, being a defensive back is a tough job. It seems really simple, and it's the easiest position to learn. However, it's the hardest position to play. Especially how the Blackshirts play it. With the Husker's new defensive scheme, there's a lot of mid-play rotations and switches. Players often have to switch coverage mid play, causing confusion. Once our DBs can figure it out, we'll have a much stronger defense, just give them some time. I would like to point out that making a play on the ball is something that needs to be worked on. Anyone can see that our guys are in a great position to make a play and break up the pass, but they just can't quite finish. A little more work on ball skills, and I think the Blackshirts will be back to shutting down the pass game just as much as the run. Speaking of the run, Nebraska only gave up 65 rushing yards to a run-heavy Gopher offense. Obviously losing David Cobb from the last couple years has hurt the Gophers this season, but to go from 271 and 281 in 2013 & '14 respectively down to just 65, that's impressive. The Blackshirts have played quite well since starting conference games, and they finally ended their long turn over drought with 3 against Minnesota. Josh Kalu's pick-six and Nate Gerry's interception sealed the game for the Huskers and crushed any hopes of a Gopher comeback. Hopefully this game will be a good confidence boost for the defense as they head into the rest of their conference schedule. They'll need a lot of confidence when Michigan State comes to town on November 7th.
Offensively, that was one of the best performances that I have seen from the Huskers in recent years. The play calling really seemed to click other than one drive early in the fourth. The offensive line came off of the ball hard and dominated the line of scrimmage. This opened up a lot of holes for the running game, including one that Newby took for 69 yards on Nebraska's opening drive. It looked like the Huskers had a lot more rhythm on offense, and really set up some plays well. Tommy played really well, especially when pressured. He had a couple of erratic throws, but I'm sure his timing will get better as he progresses in Riley's system. This weekend will be a big test for the offense, Northwestern has been beaten down hard in their last two games. Not to mention that the last time they came to Lincoln, they lost on RK3's Hail Mary to Westerkamp. I would really like to see the offense step up and put two solid games back to back. When a team does that, they believe it can happen every week, and they start to get that swagger. Consistency is key to winning championships, and back to back performances is the first place to start.
Overall, I thought that the game against the Gophers was a great win for the Huskers, and will be huge moving forward in the season. One key stat that I would like to point out from Saturday's game is the lack of penalties on the Huskers. Nebraska only recorded two penalties the entire game, and one of them was a sideline infraction. Good teams avoid penalties, and that's the least penalized Nebraska game that I have seen in a very long time. It all comes back to consistency though, this weekend will be a big picture to how the Huskers will move on with the rest of their season.
For my week 8 predictions, I will be posting them on Friday night as I have to be over to the stadium at 8am. We've got another great set of games this weekend, and I can't wait for Gameday! Please comment if you'd like me to give my reflections on any other teams and how their season is going. I think that would be a lot of fun to look at, and if you have any questions or topics that you'd like me to write on, please let me know! Thanks, and GO BIG RED!
#CollegeFootballKnowItAll
Alex Fernando
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