Hey everyone, I hope you all had a fun weekend of football and enjoyed another Husker victory! It was a little stressful at times, but the Huskers are 6-0 for the first time since 2001! I think that this will be a post that you will all want to read. I'll be going over my opinions and reflections of the win at Indiana, but I will also add my opinions on the recent "War" between Kirk Herbstreit and Nebraska fans. Enjoy!
Nebraska comes home from Bloomington with a hard-fought 27-22 victory over the Hoosiers. I'd like to start by saying that Indiana is a much better team than they have been in previous years, and I consider them a quality win. They hung with the Buckeyes last weekend, and they put up a great fight against the Huskers. With all that being said, here are my nit-picking opinions on the game.
Let's start with the bad so we can end on a positive note. For anyone who watched the game, it was easy to see that the offense was the "bad". Tommy's ankle was clearly bothering him as he would not step into any of his throws, causing a majority of his inaccuracy. Plus, anytime he dropped back to pass, the entire defensive line was on top of him before he finished his drop! The Offensive line is beaten up, but they should not be knocked 2 yards into the backfield on every play. That, in addition to the very frustrating play calling, is a big part of why the Huskers' run game and overall offense could not move for a majority of the game. The 2nd and 3rd quarters were absolutely agonizing to watch. Constant 3 & outs with questionable play-calls, and no points. There were numerous times throughout the game where Nebraska would line up and run Newby straight up the middle for a 6-8 yard gain. But then they would change and run a zone to either the right or left, losing a couple yards in the process because the offensive line cannot block those very well. Once behind the chains, there's only one thing to do, start throwing the ball with an injured rushing QB! I hate being this sarcastic about Nebraska's offense, but when you see how dominant they can be one play, and then turn around and go backwards on the next, you have to wonder what the issue is. They put together another great 4th quarter, controlling the clock and bumping their scoring margin to +75, but they will need a full game performance to compete with Wisconsin and Ohio State. Again, overall not a bad performance, but there were a number of fairly pathetic drives where Nebraska looked very similar to the 2015 Huskers in not being able to make a first down. Fixing penalty issues will be a focal point this week as well. I truly believe that Indiana should've had more than their 1 penalty, but that has nothing to do with the 9 penalties on the Huskers. A couple of offsides, false starts and holdings all need to be cleaned up. I would like to think that Purdue would be a good week to give Tommy rest, but after last year, I'm not sure that's a possibility. If they do play Ryker, Langsdorf better not pass the ball 50+ times like last season. The offense needs to challenge itself to get better.
Moving over to the defense, it is both good and bad that the Blackshirts are now the strength of our team. Good because the defense has been playing at a very high level all season with a lot of young talent. Bad because the offense returned nearly everyone from a year ago and has one of the deepest rosters at both WR and RB not only in the conference, but in the nation. The Blackshirts held a very dynamic Hoosier offense to only 88 yards rushing on Saturday. Apart from a couple drives late in the game, Indiana was lucky to get into field goal range for most of the game. I could tell that Indiana's fast tempo was causing some issues at times, and for some reason, nobody on the defense thought it would be a good idea to cover their rushing QB Zander Diamont whenever he came into the game. However, they did contain him fairly well after the first couple times he came in. The Huskers also came away with 3 sacks, causing lots of pressure throughout the game. Moving back into the secondary, it was frustrating to see so many passes caught with the receivers having an 8 yard cushion around them, but I understand the fear of not wanting to get beaten deep. That's a big part of why the Huskers' secondary plays so far off of the receivers on every play. I am glad we're not giving up as many deep balls, but I've always believed that giving such a large cushion to the wideouts should be a situational game plan. There are times to use it, and there are times to take away the short passes and trust your guys on the edge to lock down the deep ball if necessary. In the end, Nebraska's defense played probably one of their best games of the year, and they're gaining confidence every week. The Blackshirts will keep us in the big games that lie ahead, but the Offense needs to help them out.
Over the last few weeks, many Husker fans have gone out of their way to publicly bash College Football Analyst and College Gameday host, Kirk Herbstreit. This is due mostly to the fact that Herbstreit often picks against the Huskers, believing they're not quite deserving of their ranking. During the College Gameday broadcast on Saturday morning in Madison, WI, the Gameday crew talked about whether or not Nebraska was deserving of their #10 ranking in the polls. Desmond Howard stated that he wasn't entirely sold on the Huskers, but Herbstreit said that they are the top 10 team that their ranking reflected. The Gameday crew then proceeded to laugh, causing many Husker fans to believe that they were laughing at the Huskers. Some fans have tweeted at Herbstreit over recent weeks, and brought up the laughing issue this Saturday after the show. Kirk replied by saying that the crew was laughing at him because he changed his tune by finally siding with the Huskers. I believe Herbstreit with that statement, because I have a lot of respect for the show and the hosts. As someone who dreams of being on that set someday, I highly doubt that a show of that quality would deliberately laugh at one of the most historic programs in the nation.
My second point that I would like to bring up in this Media vs. Nebraska battle is that the fans make way too big of a deal about this. When I scroll through my Facebook feed and read through different articles, and all I see are comments bashing all of the media icons in CFB just because they didn't pick Nebraska, that's pathetic. The members of the media have NO OBLIGATION to agree with every fan base in the nation, and they are NOT REQUIRED to pick your team to win every week. Herbstreit, Howard, Corso, and everyone else has the freedom to make the picks on teams that they think will win. The only difference between the fans making picks and them is that they get to do it on TV. Just because they don't pick your team to win all the time, does not mean you have to bash them on social media. Also, there is no need to go out of your way to rub it in their face if their pick is wrong. After the Northwestern game, there were some Husker fans that tweeted at Kirk Herbstreit, poking fun at him because he picked the Wildcats to win. His reply was this: "When was your last meaningful season? When you LOSE say little; When you WIN say less." I personally think that was a great statement (don't think he needed to jab with the meaningful season part, but that's because I'm eternally nice to everyone). The second half of his statement is a good phrase to live by, especially as a fan base. You don't see our players rubbing a victory in all of their opponents faces, do you? If they are wrong, let them be wrong. No big deal. The best thing about football is that, no matter what happens, all you can do is focus and move onto the next week. Nebraska fans are supposed to be the greatest and most respectful in all of College Football, so start proving it. Respect is not limited just to opponents and their fans. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on who the best team is, just because you don't agree doesn't make them wrong. GO BIG RED!
#CollegeFootballKnowItAll
Alex Fernando
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