Game 4: Nebraska 27 Iowa St. 20 (2OT)
For the first time this season, I think I can say that we dominated in all phases of the game. Offence, Defence and Special teams were all won by Nebraska. Nebraska set many records with the win. Zach Taylor set’s the Nebraska school record with 46 passing attempts and 431 yards. Offencsive Coordinator Jay Norvell said after the game on how ironic it was that a kid from Oklahoma held the Nebraska passing yards in a game record. What I find more surprising is that he took the record from Joe Dailey. We all knew that when the change was made that these records wern’t going to take to long to break. Zach looked real good on Saturday. Most of his passes were quick and in the right place. Nebraska’s recievers ran good routes and for the most part (save Franz Hardy’s dropped ball in the end zone) held onto the ball. Nathan Swift came out of nowhere with 5 catches. Cory Ross again solidified his place as Nebraska’s heart and soul. It takes a special person to make the moves he did on his 70 yard screen pass for a TD. The first was at midfield where he juked the guy so badly that he is still trying to find Cory Ross and then the next guy at around the 15 yard line where he got the guy twisted around like a used phone cord. The defence once again looked spectacular. Nebraska collected 6 sacks on the day uping thier total to 26. Nebraska in the ‘04 season had all of 25 sacks. In 4 games the D has collected more sacks this year than in 11 games last year. They bothered Bret Meyer all day forcing him out of the pocket and putting pressure on every play.
For me only really a couple concerns after the game. The running game only collected 37 yards. Ros
s did have a couple nice cut back runs but the o-line is still not opening up the holes for Cory to run through. If Nebraska were to develop just a decent running attack, say maybe only a 100 yards/game, it would make the opposing defence respect it just a little more and open up a deep threat in the passing game. Nebraskas secondary also looks suspect. Austin Flynn tortured us all day. When he was thrown to he was usually open and could have hurt us badly if not for the pressure on Meyer most of the game.
First overtime at Memorial Stadium. First double overtime in school history. Fun and interesting fact, in Nebraska’s four overtime victories, they have won the coin toss every time. Strategie says that in overtime you want to play defence first so you know what you need. Nebraska gave up the TD but got it right back very easily. In the 2nd OT the TD was even easier with Ross catching the screen pass that was open all day. Iowa St. looked like they were playing a zone D most of the day and Nebraska fed off that with little 8-12 yard pass plays all night that ate up ISU’s secondary.
This past weeks game was only an appetizer of what is to come for NU this year. Now comes what could be Nebraskas best opponent all year. Texas Tech and their pass happy offence comes to town. I will tell you this right now, Nebraska will not lose as bad as we did last year. And yes I think Texas Tech is still scoring points on last years Nebraska D. Texas Tech comes in at 4-0 with a wins over Texas School for the Deaf, Texas school for Computer Science, Texas Panhandle St., and Kansas. Tech did not put away Kansas like they did to their 3 previous opponents so Tech comes in bruised and Nebraska comes in confident. Husker Nation is feeling a WHOLE lot better about this game after the win against Iowa St. Many people had already penciled in a L for this game before the season and now I think they can entertain the idea that we might win this one as well for a couple of reasons. Tech isn’t as good this year as last year. They aren’t tested and Nebraska is leaps and bounds better than last years team. They key to this game will be the pressure on Tech QB Cody Hodges. The front 4 and LB’s HAVE to put pressure on him and make him uneasy in the pocket. If he get’s to sit back there and pick apart Nebraska’s secondary it will be a L for Nebraska. Nebraska also has to put up another solid offencsive performance. I don’t care how it get’s done. 400+ yards passing or running, Nebraska can not leave points out on the field that they have in the past 4 games. That’s why the D will be so important as well because Nebraska can’t win a scoring fest with Tech. The D needs to hold Tech at bay and hope that the offence can score early and put Tech in a hole.
The Comments
Steve October 3, 2005 at 10:42am
Don’t worry about the conventional running game. In the WCO, screens and short passes to running backs are the running game. Consider Ross’s 130 receiving yards as rushing yards.
D.M.B. October 3, 2005 at 2:07pm
I realize that. But what I find very problematic is that a couple of times now this season we have not run the ball very well inside the 5 yard line. Ross isn’t big enough to plow his way through and the line isn’t blocking as well. I’m a little miffed why they don’t use the fullback down there. Dane Todd is a serviceable enough player to be able to get in the end zone. And it’s easy to see now that Cody Glenn is obviously not ready because he has that capability to hit people and gain yards at the same time.
Steve October 3, 2005 at 10:49pm
Dane Todd is not an option to carry the ball at the goal line. The Nebraska fullback tradition has fallen way off. If anything, he should be a lead blocker for Ross, Lucky or Glenn down there. Tryin to punch it in from a single-back set is folly when your offensive line isn’t getting off the ball and creating a big push up front.
Glenn is an option but from what I’ve been hearing he’s been having trouble holding onto the ball in practice and that’s not going to get a guy goal-line carries in a game.