Nebraska Football: Huskers Explode In Second, Fizzle In Fourth in 38-17 Win

Nathan Enderle won't soon forget his pilgrimage back to Nebraska, which by halftime was nothing short of a nightmare.

The North Platte, Nebraska native and Idaho starting quarterback, who is a legitimate pro prospect, was eaten for lunch by the Husker secondary and torn limb from limb by the Husker defensive line.  The Blackshirts picked off five Enderle passes, including back-to-back pick-sixes in the second quarter, and recorded seven sacks en route to a 38-17 victory.  The score was kept somewhat close by sloppy play on the part of the Huskers, especially in the second half, where the offense shot itself in the foot over and over.  The defense took a step forward this week, but the offense has plenty to clean up before a trip to Seattle next week.

Offense:

The Huskers finally seem to be establishing a running game, rolling up 360 yards on just 41 total carries, albeit against a thoroughly mediocre defense. Taylor Martinez was again electric, with 157 yards on 14 carries, including a 67 yard touchdown burst, but also made some typical freshman mistakes, with a fumble and an interception.  On the fumble, he simply didn't see a blitzer on his blind side (maybe thats why it's called a blind side...) and had the ball knocked out as he was attempting to throw.  On the interception, he tried to do too much, throwing the ball into coverage with a Vandal defender hanging on him instead of just taking the sack.  Also, on the first Husker possession of the game, he got overexcited when he saw a wide open Mike McNeill and simply shortarmed the throw.  These things will need to be cleaned up when the Huskers take on teams like Texas, Kansas State and Washington.  The running backs had another great day.  Roy Helu Jr. had 107 yards on 9 carries, highlighted by a 58 yard touchdown run, and Rex Burkhead had 9 carries for 77 yards, as well as 3 catches for 41 yards.  Niles Paul had a fairly quiet day with 4 catches for 31 yards, except for a fumble as the wildcat quarterback.  Paul cannot keep screwing up like this.  Mistakes like this will hurt a lot worse against better teams.  Why the Husker coaches had Paul in at wildcat in the first place instead of Rex Burkhead is beyond me.  The rest of the receivers had quiet days as well.  Overall, the offense had its moments, and rolled up plenty of yardage, but shot itself in the foot far too many times.  Take away the offensive mistakes, and the score of this game probably would have been 52-10 (52-3 up until the final minutes of the 4th quarter).

Defense:

This week's performance looked a whole lot more like the Blackshirts that we have all come to expect: nasty, stingy, and ball-hawking.  The Blackshirts harassed Nathan Enderle all day, forcing 5 interceptions (and dropping 3 more.  That's right, there should have been EIGHT interceptions on the day) and sacking him 7 times, as well as forcing a fumble.  They also made some devastating hits.  Interceptions came from PJ Smith, Alfonzo Dennard, Anthony West, Dejon Gomes, and Rickey Thenarse (the latter two of which were pick-sixes).  The linebackers played much better in this game (Eric Martin started instead of Alonzo Whaley).  This performance by the defense was much more impressive and promising than the last week.

The officiating in this game was very questionable at times (many of the Huskers' ten penalties were questionable calls, and one obvious touchdown, in which Dontrayevous Robinson leaped over the pile and flipped, landing on his back with the ball on the goal line, was ruled down at the one yard line), but the Huskers need to cut down on the penalties.  The Huskers travel to Seattle next week to take on the Washington Huskies (1-1), who beat Syracuse this week, 41-20, but lost their home opener to BYU, who lost this week to Air Force.  The Huskers must not overlook this game, as Washington has a fantastic quarterback in Jake Locker, but Nebraska is clearly the superior team and I expect a win, barring an uncharacteristically bad showing by the Blackshirts and/or a much more freshman-esque performance by Taylor Martinez.  Martinez could be somewhat exposed, but I expect the Blackshirts to show up for their biggest game so far.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

*How did Hawaii score fewer points against Army than they did against USC?

*FCS member North Dakota upset the Minnesota Gophers, the destination of embattled former Nebraska defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove, 41-38.  Good ol' Cos and his swiss cheese defenses.

*Turner Gill (who switched starting quarterbacks) and the Kansas Jayhawks upset the 15th ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 28-25, just one week after losing to North Dakota State 6-3. Whaaa....??

*South Carolina, as I predicted, beat the AJ Green-less Georgia Bulldogs 17-6.  Spurrier finally has a team here.  His annoying little smirk will become more prevalent on television.  The Gamecocks might be the best SEC team besides Alabama and Florida (in fact, I would take the Gamecocks over more highly rated teams such as LSU and Arkansas).

*Another FCS upset: James Madison over Virginia Tech, 21-16. WHAAAAAAA.....????? Good luck getting into the BCS Championship now Boise State.

*Irrelevant Game Of the Week: Louisiana-Lafayette 31, Arkansas State 24. Yawn.

*A week after unimpressively squeaking out a win over Utah State, the Oklahoma Sooners put a beating on the Florida State Seminoles, a team many predicted would beat OU.  Although I thought OU would win, I didn't anticipate a beating like this.  Suddenly, Phil Steele's preseason #1 ranking for Oklahoma looks pretty darn smart.

*A week after beating "little brother" Colorado State (this is the title the Buffs give the Rams.  I guess that makes Colorado State Nebraska's baby brother!), Colorado put out a stinker against California, losing 52-7.  I bet guys like LaMichael James and Dillon Baxter are drooling in anticipation of the Pac-12's addition of CU in 2011 or 2012...

*Michigan's Denard Robinson forcefully inserted himself into the Heisman conversation with a dominating performance in a 28-24 win over Notre Dame.  It'll be fun comparing Taylor Martinez, a redshirt freshman, and Robinson, a sophomore, when the Huskers join the Big Ten in 2011.

*In the biggest game of the day (Penn State was never in it against Alabama), the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Miami Hurricanes 36-24, clearing their first big hurdle on their way to the BCS Championship game.

*The Rice Owls squeaked by powerhouse North Texas, 32-31, which makes Texas' 34-17 win over Rice even worse.  Texas is a good team, but they definitely aren't as good as they were last year. A 34-7 win over Wyoming didn't do much to refute that.  And the Longhorns aren't making a bunch of mistakes, they just aren't looking as impressive as they  did last year.

*The Oklahoma State Cowboys squeaked by the Troy Trojans 41-38.  I didn't pay any attention to this game, but that score does not look good for Mike Gundy.  He better figure something out or Okie St. might suffer.

*The Oregon Ducks squash Tennessee after a slow start, 48-13.  Ducks fans still don't miss Jeremiah Masoli.

*The Crimson Tide rolled over Penn State 24-3 as Trent Richardson rolled up 144 yards and a touchdown on just 22 carries.  Now, who says Mark Ingram is better than Richardson? Oh yeah, Todd McShay.

*Ole' Miss explodes back from a devastating loss last week and completely destroys hapless Tulane... 27-13. ehh.

*Nevada destroys the Colorado State Rams 51-6.  No wonder the Buffs beat their "little brother".

*USC thoroughly unimpressed me with a 17-14 win over Virginia.  The Pac-10 will be decided between Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona.  And the first two games suggest Oregon.

*Speaking of Stanford, the Cardinal rolled over the crappy UCLA Bruins 35-0.  Rick Neuheisel is, simply put, a rotten coach.  Sorry, there's no way around it.  This also makes Kansas State look not quite so good.

*A random bit of information: a horrible officiating  call cost the Detroit Lions a win-- and, most likely, me a fantasy win.  Calvin Johnson clearly had a touchdown catch, but the whole "control the ball all the way through" rule screwed everyone except for the Chicago Bears.  Johnson did lose the ball, but his body hit the ground before the ball did.  And  Calvin Johnson was one of my starting receivers in fantasy football. Ugh.

Comments welcome! I'll have another rundown next week.