Nebraska Football: Winners and Losers from Cornhuskers' Win vs. Wyoming

The Nebraska Cornhuskers defeated the Wyoming Cowboys 38-14 on Saturday in their final contest before facing No. 6 Wisconsin next week.

While Nebraska put on an impressive display on Saturday, it is important to look past the numbers to see how everyone truly performed.

The Huskers obviously had one eye on next week's game, so it is necessary to look in the context of how the players and coaches are preparing themselves for Wisconsin.

There were many winners from the tough road win, but a few people still failed to perform and will take home the title of loser for the day.

Winner: Rex Burkhead

In the best game of his three-year career, Rex Burkhead tore apart Wyoming's defense with 170 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

The first score of the game occurred midway through the first quarter when Burkhead scampered for 45 yards into the endzone. He showed that despite the close score for the majority of the game, Nebraska was still in a different class than the Cowboys.

His 11.3 yards per carry (YPC) was helped by the long run, but even without it he still rushed for an average of 8.9 YPC. This was by far the best average of Burkhead's season and the hope is that he can continue to build of this performance.

On the season, Burkhead has already matched his career-high in touchdowns and is well on his way to passing his career high in rushing yards. Yet if he wants to take his game to the next level, he needs to be a better receiver out of the backfield.

Despite having 148 receiving yards last year, the junior is down to zero yards this year on two catches. If he can expand this area of his game and continue to rush the way he did Saturday, Burkhead can be one of the most dangerous running backs in the nation.

Loser: Taylor Martinez as a Runner

With Wyoming focusing on shutting down Taylor Martinez, he was more than happy to keep giving the ball to Rex Burkhead on the way to a great game.

Still, Husker fans should be worried about Martinez and his lowest rushing output of the season. He finished with 37 yards on the ground, bringing his season total to a very productive 384 rushing yards with six touchdowns.

The reason for concern is the way that the quarterback finished last season. He built up most of his 965 rushing yards in the beginning of the season against lesser opponents, then faltered once the competition started to heat up.

In Nebraska's eight wins that Martinez played in last season, he averaged 117 yards per game. In the four losses, he only averaged a little more than seven rushing yards per game.

If he wants to be taken seriously as a Heisman candidate, the sophomore will need to show he can perform well in big games, not just against the weaker teams.

Winner: Taylor Martinez as a Passer

So far this season, head coach Bo Pelini has been attempting to make Taylor Martinez more of a passer than he was in his freshman year. Until this game he has not shown much.

Martinez had solid numbers a year ago, but he was not often asked to lead the team through the air. Only three times was he asked to throw the ball more than 20 times in a game. He has already passed that number and has thrown 21 attempts or more in each of his four games in 2011.

In the first three games, the sophomore quarterback has failed to complete more than 50 percent of his passes. Against Wyoming, Martinez finally completed 57 percent of his throws while also having zero interceptions.

The most dangerous players in college football over the past decade have been quarterbacks who can beat a team with their arm or legs. Vince Young, Tim Tebow and Cam Newton have all had dominant seasons that ended with a National Championship due to their dual-threat ability.

Taylor Martinez has that ability, but he will need to continue to get better.

Loser: Nebraska Scheduling

Nebraska wanted to play a road game before the conference schedule started. However, they could have done better than playing at Wyoming.

The Cornhuskers played their first road game at a non-BCS conference school since 2003 when they faced Southern Mississippi. It was nice for Wyoming to be able to get a sold-out crowd while hosting a top-10 program with tons of tradition, but it was not as beneficial for Nebraska.

War Memorial Stadium officially holds 29,200 fans, which is tiny compared to the stadiums they will be playing in as part of the Big Ten.

Next week, the Huskers travel to No. 6 Wisconsin in what should be their toughest test of the season. The Badgers play in Camp Randall Stadium, which officially holds 80,321 people. This past game did nothing to prepare the young players for what they are about to see.

Nebraska has a tough slate of games on the Big Ten conference schedule. Unfortunately, they did not schedule enough non-conference opposition to truly see what this team is capable of doing.

Winner: Nebraska's Defense

After allowing 38 points to Washington the week before, Nebraska needed to show that they can stop Wyoming's offense if they had any hope of competing in the Big Ten.

The Cowboys came into the game scoring 103 points in their first three games, all of them wins. They also have a very good freshman quarterback in Brett Smith. They were not a pushover by any means.

Fortunately, the Huskers passed Saturday's test with flying colors. The defense held Wyoming to 14 points while holding Smith to his lowest passing output of the season.

The unit still has a lot of room to grow, as they still allowed 137 rushing yards to the Cowboys. Still, the team has to be encouraged in the improvement since the beginning of the season.

When Nebraska faces elite teams starting next week, the defense will at least need to slow the opposition down. Otherwise they will not be able to continue their winning ways.

Winner: The Big Ten

When the Big Ten Conference decided to add Nebraska to its list of already impressive schools, they knew they were getting a program rich in football tradition. The fact that they are a top-10 team in their first year is just an added bonus.

Nebraska will make its Big Ten debut next Saturday while traveling to No. 6 Wisconsin. This should create a massive amount of buzz and national media attention as it should be the best game to watch on the day.

This game could be a preview of the first ever Big Ten Championship Game later in the year, and the winner might be headed to the BCS National Championship in January.

Basically, the Wisconsin—Nebraska showdown is everything that Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney could have possibly hoped for.

Hopefully, it lives up to everything that the fans could hope for as well.