I know all the Husker fans didn't have the best weekend, but there was still some great football games to watch and some fun upsets! There honestly won't be too much to say in this post, and for those of you who watched the Nebraska game... you know why. Let's just get this reflection over with and move onto Minnesota.
Horrible, pathetic, upsetting and just plain bad. You can take your pick of adjectives to describe Nebraska's second worst loss in school history that took place in the Horseshoe Saturday night against Ohio State. I want to start out by saying that the Buckeyes are that good of a team. They are very well coached, they have tremendous talent and can easily blow up a team on any given weekend... but Nebraska just looked horrible.
I'll start with the defense, because that was by far the worst performance I have seen since the 2012 BIG 10 Championship. I do believe there were a few missed holding calls, but it really wouldn't have mattered. The Blackshirts missed every possible tackle and were constantly out of position. They let JT Barrett and crew pick them apart and did not come away with a single stop throughout the entire game. They will need to get their heads back on straight and focus on the Gophers who have a better offense than many might think. They will need to get better at all phases, because the Huskers' defense could not get off the field at all against the Buckeyes.
On the offensive side of the ball, the most important take away from the game is that Tommy Armstrong is okay. I was beyond happy to see him come back to the stadium later in the game, because it looked pretty bad with him lying motion-less on the ground half-way through the second quarter. Now switching to how they played, I blame the entire first quarter on Danny Langsdorf. My friends Matt, Paulina and I were literally calling each series the Huskers ran on offense and were exactly right on every play. If the three of us can figure out what play is going to be run on every play, and exactly how a drive is going to play out, then the Buckeyes and everyone else in the nation probably did as well. The diversity in play-calling on offense is absolute garbage. The second drive by the Nebraska (after the opening pick 6) was by far the best thing the Huskers did all night, but it was aided by an incredible Westerkamp catch on another deep ball on 3rd down. Plus the Huskers only came away with a Field Goal because the play calling in the Redzone was anything but stellar. Every other team we play will have an easy time defending Nebraska even if Tommy plays. The run up the middle, run up the middle, deep bomb 3 and out series are not going to work any more. They never did in the first place. After Tommy went down with the injury, it was over for the offense. Nebraska was in the Redzone, but could not convert on 4th down and that was the last time they even had a slim chance at scoring. Ryker Fyfe will be our QB when Tommy cannot play, and our offense will not be able to move very well with him. The play calling is designed around Tommy to begin with, and as bad as he is at times, Tommy is a much better passer than Fyfe. I expect Ryker to start this weekend and NO, they will NOT burn Patrick O'Brien's redshirt. I doubt Tommy will be ready to come back this Saturday, and I think it would be a bad idea to have him play injury-wise. If he were to get hurt worse just a week after being knocked unconscious, there would be hell to pay. Nebraska needs to find a run game soon, especially if Ryker is going to start against the Gophers. I really hope the play calling changes soon too.
My last remark on the game at Ohio State is to quiet the comments of the hit on Tommy being illegal. The defender clearly dove well before Tommy was out of bounds and he was simply making a football play to stop the runner from advancing any farther. It just happened to be one of those freak hits, Tommy landed poorly and was knocked unconscious. I highly doubt there was any malicious intent by the Ohio State defender, and those individuals who are calling for his head should watch a little more football. If the same thing happened to JT Barrett and it were Nate Gerry who made that tackle, I highly doubt any of those Husker fans would even mention the possibility of a flag, and that's sad. The guys who play football on Saturday nights are college kids. They are student athletes who put their bodies on the line for their respective schools, and on both sides, they are just trying to do the best they can to win. There is no game or even rivalry vicious enough where the members of opposing teams will intentionally hurt one another just to gain an advantage. If so, their coaches better talk to them ASAP. I know a strong majority of those student athletes respect each other and the game too much to stoop to those levels. Please stop hating on a kid for making the best play possible given his current situation. Football is a crazy, very fast paced game. And for those who haven't played it competitively, it's difficult to know exactly what's going to happen in every situation, and you really do not have a lot of time to react. No true football player would intentionally hurt another, that's disrespecting the game. Thanks for reading and GO BIG RED!
#CollegeFootballKnowItAll
Alex Fernando
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