It’s been roughly 24 hours since Nebraska took on the Spartans of Michigan State in their first road game and B1G game of the season. While Nebraska walked away with the only thing that matters, a win, there is still a lot of room for improvement and some serious red flags. So let's break it down.
On offense, Nebraska looked hot and cold. They struggled to run the ball, averaging just 3.8 yards per carry for a total of 157 total rushing yards on 41 attempts. Colandrea led the team, but those yards came from scrambles, not designed runs. Jamal Rule was out early, and that may have played a huge role in why we couldn’t move the ball, but looking back at the film, our line struggled to create holes, especially on the right side. The offensive line played well, not great, especially when you look at how many starters MSU had out on defense. Frankly, the fact that MSU was without their 4 starting CBs, 2 starting LBs, and their best pass rusher, and Nebraska still managed only 212 passing yards is a huge red flag. This should have been an easy 300+ passing-yard game for Colandrea. If you can’t throw for 250 against MSU’s 2s and 3s, how are you going to against Indiana’s or Ohio State's starters? This offense looks a lot better than last year's, largely because of Colandrea, but it still has a lot of room for improvement.
The Blackshirts showed up against Michigan State, allowing just 257 total yards, with a miserable 39 yards of rushing from the Spartans. You do need to keep in mind that MSU lost 50 rushing yards because Nebraska forced 6 sacks. Nebraska played well most of the game on defense but clearly struggled against runs up the A/B gaps and play-action, especially roll-out play-action. Both should be easy fixes, but they could take time. The defense's clearest weakness was when MSU played with tempo. As soon as MSU started to play tempo, it was 8- to 10-yard gains play after play, it seemed. The Blackshirts did bail themselves out a few times with key sacks or forced turnovers to end those streaks. For their first road game and first serious opponent of the year, Nebraska played about as well as you could hope.
Nebraska’s special teams also got bailed out, but not because of their play. MSU blocked a punt on our side of the field early on, which likely would have given them a 10-point advantage over the Huskers. Luckily, MSU was called for a holding penalty before the block, which gave Nebraska a first down and eventually led to the first touchdown of the game. The only highlight on special teams was the partially blocked field goal by Nebraska, which held MSU to just 13 overall points. Besides those two things, special teams looked fine. The fact that we didn’t allow Kenneth Williams to take back a huge return was a nice little cherry on top also.
Overall, Nebraska played tough. There was a decent amount of sloppiness and penalties, and that will cost us down the road if they don’t address it. If Nebraska can get things cleaned up and execute as a 4th-year team should, I think this might be the Nebraska team to finally turn the corner.
