Contributors
A wild 42-29 win over Fresno State left Nebraska fans driving home late Saturday night with a lot to look forward to, something to dread and not much that they can really count on in the weeks ahead.
We saw slow and tentative improvement from the young Nebraska offensive line in the fourth quarter after it got off to an excruciatingly poor start. We saw freshmen make some meaningful plays. We saw the Blackshirts get kicked around by a much less athletic, quite inexperienced and winless team from the Western Athletic Conference, which ran 81 plays to NU’s 56 and outyarded the Cornhuskers 444-438.
On a positive note, youth stepped forward and took some responsibility for the Huskers. Ameer Abdullah, the true freshman from Homewood, Ala., set a school record with 211 kickoff return yards and scored on a scintillating 100-yard kickoff return.
Freshmen Jamal Turner and Kenny Bell each made big catches to help set up Husker touchdowns. Turner will give Nebraska something it has not had since Bobby Newcombe – a wideout who can catch a quick spot pass at the line of scrimmage and can bob, weave and dart for 10 to 20 yards on his own. Bell made a nice grab at the Bulldog 5-yard line to set up the Huskers’ tying touchdown in the second quarter. Nebraska fans have some exciting days ahead of them because this freshman class could be a very good one.
The o-line had a bad first half, doing almost nothing on first down and accumulating five three-and-outs (actually, one of those was a four-and-out when Taylor Martinez was stuffed on a fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak). But to the credit of offensive coordinator Tim Beck and the young pups up front, they didn’t abandon the running game, and got 81 of their 219 rushing yards in the fourth quarter, when Rex Burkhead finally started to get some room to maneuver (seven carries for 40 yards in the final quarter alone).
Martinez was his usual explosively erratic self, accounting for 219 yards passing, 166 yards rushing, three touchdowns and two turnovers. He would have had a third giveaway, but his second-quarter lost fumble was overturned by a video replay because the Fresno State player who recovered was ruled to be out of bounds.
At times, the sophomore seems like he has learned absolutely nothing in his 14 starts at quarterback, but just when you start to curse his inaccurate passing, inconsistency at reading coverages and lack of pocket awareness, he rips off a game-changing highlight-reel running play. On an optimistic note, Martinez appeared to be a little more comfortable running the speed option than he was in the opener. You can’t discount 385 yards of total offense, but a defense that forces him to consistently execute 10 to 12 plays in a row will beat him this year, even if he stays healthy.
Meanwhile, Derek Carr, a sophomore quarterback starting his second game and a young, beat-up offensive line, made Nebraska’s vaunted defense look silly most of the night. As a counterpoint to Nebraska’s explosive scoring plays, Fresno State used long, systematic drives to punch the Blackshirts in the mouth. The Bulldogs had four scoring drives of 10 or more plays and showed the world that without a shadow of a doubt, the Blackshirts are soft – very soft – up the middle. Wisconsin’s offensive line is salivating right now at the thought of playing Nebraska.
The Husker defense made no explosive plays and forced no turnovers. It allowed Fresno State to convert on nine of 20 third-down situations, many of them third-and-six or longer.
Carr showed a lot of maturity and kept plays alive by avoiding onrushing Huskers. He made some tough passes look easy, and was a source of constant irritation to the Blackshirts Time after time, when the Husker offense would grab the momentum, the Blackshirts frittered it away as they slowly gave ground.
The kicking game was no more than a wash this time out, although Brett Maher averaged 50 yards a punt. Each team scored one touchdown with its kicking game. Fresno State enjoyed better field position for much of the night.
It’s certainly not a win to pound your chest about, but it’s a game that probably will help the Huskers become a better team. Still, even when All-America-caliber cornerback Alfonzo Dennard returns to the lineup, it could be ugly to watch Wisconsin run the ball between the tackles at will against a Husker defense that took a dramatic step backward in Game 2.
Formerly the sports editor at the North Platte Bulletin and a sportswriter/columnist for the North Platte Telegraph, Tad Stryker is a longtime Nebraska sports writer, having covered University of Nebraska and high school sports for more than 25 years. He started writing for this website in 2008. You can e-mail him at tad.stryker@gmail.com
Video player
Recent Forum threads
vBulletin Message
The following errors occurred with your submission