Hey everyone, sorry for the late post, I've been extremely busy in the first half of this week! This post will have my reflections on the Huskers' big win against Oregon as well as my concerns with the growing epidemic of players dropping the ball before the goal line on sure touchdowns! Enjoy reading!
Nebraska's big match-up with the Ducks lived up to the hype! I had such a blast at the game and Memorial Stadium was rocking!! The Huskers played really well and were able to come away with a thrilling 35-32 victory. This was definitely the most balanced game the Huskers have played this season, especially considering the Huskers rushed for 228 yards and threw for 200. Both Tommy and Ozigbo had 95 yards rushing a piece and a TD. Obviously, everyone remembers Tommy's fantastic 34 yard run to give Nebraska the lead at the end of the game, but his toughness is what impressed me. Obvious cramping issues as well as a few hard hits caused him to leave the game for a bit late in the 3rd Quarter. I was very nervous with him on the sidelines and knew that we needed him if we wanted to win. I know Husker Nation was very excited to see him come back into the game and lead us to a fantastic 4th Quarter victory. Overall, the offense played really well throughout the game. I said all week that we needed to average 10 points per quarter if we wanted to win, and Langsdorf was able to stick pretty close to that. There were a few drives that concerned me, especially because we were moving so well. The first was late in the 2nd Quarter where Nebraska was driving straight down the field by running the ball right down Oregon's throat with Newby, Ozigbo & Tommy. However, once we got into the redzone, we tried a backwards pass to RB Mikale Wilbon, who fumbled, leading to an Oregon TD on the next play. I am a big fan of Mikale & he's a good friend and is very talented, but there's no reason to interrupt the rhythm of your offense by giving the ball to Mikale when Ozigbo & Newby have driven you down the field. There's a reason they are the top two backs for the Huskers, so we need to feed them. I understand wanting to give guys breaks and other guys touches, but when you have a chance to tie the game heading into half time, you don't mess with the system. You can work him into the game at other times. The other drive that frustrated me was late in the 3rd Quarter and into the 4th. Again, Nebraska was grinding the ball on the ground, chewing up a ton of yards and a ton of clock. Ozigbo was averaging around 6 yards per carry on that drive. But then, once we cross into Duck territory, Langsdorf dials up three straight plays to drop back and pass. When you can wear a team down by just running all the way down the field, you don't take a break to pass for a play or two. That once again ruins the rhythm and puts you behind the chains. Once again, I understand the need to spread the ball around and keep it balanced, but you don't need to fix something that isn't broken. Sometimes Football is as simple as running the exact same play over and over until they stop it. To me, it was pretty clear Oregon couldn't stop it!
There's not too many negative things you can say about a win, but I just know that you cannot waste productive drives like that against teams like Wisconsin or Ohio State. Oregon is a very talented team, but they are very young. They only had 5 returning starters on defense from a year ago, and 4 of them are in the secondary. Their front seven has not played many games together, and that's a big reason why our run game was so successful. If Nebraska truly wants to make a run at a BIG 10 Championship or anything else this year, they need to finish out those long drives and not stall once they reach their opponents 40.
On the Defensive side of the ball, the Blackshirts really stepped up their game. I can definitely tell that the players are really understanding Banker's system now and know where they're supposed to be on each play. The amount of yardage doesn't necessarily reflect how well the defense played on Saturday, but anyone would give up yards compared to points any day. The run defense was not as impressive as I thought they'd be, but Oregon is a very good rushing team, and they love taking the edge with lots of jet sweeps and read options. Tackling was an issue that seemed to hurt the Huskers multiple times throughout the game. I'm sure that will be a big emphasis this weekend at Northwestern. It was tough to see, because it really looked like we had guys pinned on the sidelines and were ready to finish the play, but if you don't wrap hard, the play-makers are going to break free.
Finally, the pass defense (one of the worst in the nation last season) was fantastic on Saturday! The Blackshirts snapped Oregon's 82 game streak with at least 1 passing TD, and they only allowed Prukop to complete 60.8% of his passes. Coming into the game he was completing over 68%, so that's a solid drop. A big factor in that was the pass rush. Ross & Freedom were constantly getting into the backfield causing Prukop to move around in the pocket. It looked like he had some happy feet to begin with, but breaking down the pocket definitely helped the secondary stick with their wideouts. You could tell that the crowd definitely played a factor as Oregon had a couple of communication errors throughout the game. Penalties definitely killed the Ducks as they had 13 for 126 yards. Nebraska had 7, which is still concerning, but there are definitely improvements being made in the football program.
My last topic for the post is the insanity of players dropping the ball before crossing the goal line while running in for a Touchdown. Dalvin Cook from FSU dropped the ball as he ran for the endzone in week one. Clemson's Ray-Ray McCloud dropped the ball at the 1 yard line as he ran into the endzone in week two as well. But the worst is that there were TWO incidents in week 3, only one of which was noticed and called on by the officiating crew. In the Oklahoma-Ohio State showdown, OU return man Joe Mixon got away with one as the officials failed to review his 97 yard Kick return. Had they looked at the film, they would've clearly seen that Mixon dropped the ball before crossing the goal line. Then, later in the evening, Cal RB Vic Enwere dropped the ball at the 1 yard line as he trotted into the endzone against Texas. That TD would've put the Golden Bears up 57-43 with just over a minute left, more or less sealing the game. However, that one was reviewed and saw that the TD was not valid. A Texas player did pick up the ball, but since there was no "immediate recovery", the officials gave the ball to Cal and let them run out the clock. I honestly don't understand how and why this is happening. JUST RUN THE BALL ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE ENDZONE!! It's not hard and all the camera-men sit behind the endzone, so you can even get your picture WITH THE BALL once you get to the back. I just laugh every time it happens, but I also pray none of my fellow Huskers are ever stupid enough to do that! Thanks for reading & GO BIG RED!
#CollegeFootballKnowItAll
Alex Fernando
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