Nebraska Cornhuskers Football: Report Card Grades for Wisconsin Badgers Game

Nebraska kicked off play in their new conference Saturday night and Wisconsin gave them a rude welcome. Wisconsin beat Nebraska 48-17 in front of a sold out Camp Randall Stadium.

Nebraska had this game circled on the calendar for over a year. The Cornhuskers came out of the gates on fire taking a 7-0 lead over the Badgers. The fire was soon extinguished by Wisconsin who put the game away with quick points off of Nebraska turnovers.

Nebraska has some work to do if they want another chance against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game.

Here are my grades for the Nebraska offense, defense, special teams and for the coaching staff.

Offense

All offseason Nebraska fans were told about how Nebraska would be returning to an option running attack. Saturday night Nebraska did run the option for about a quarter. It was quickly abandoned to let the Cornhuskers show a national audience what their true weakness is...their passing game.

Taylor Martinez played like...Taylor Martinez. Everyone was hoping that Nebraska would show up with a different quarterback against Wisconsin. Maybe the Cornhuskers were hiding something that was being discussed by the Husker faithful?

The truth is, Nebraska was not hiding anything in their first four games. The sloppy, inaccurate quarterback that played the first four games is the same sloppy, inaccurate quarterback that showed up Saturday night. Three Taylor Martinez interceptions led to three Wisconsin touchdowns.

Rex Burkhead had some good runs in the game but he was quickly taken out of the game, not by Wisconsin, but by the Nebraska coaching staff. Coming off of a 170 yard two touchdown game against Wyoming, you would think Burkhead would be the focus of the offense.

Burkhead however finished the night with 18 carries for 96 yards (most of it came in the fourth quarter when the game was already over). Nebraska needs to get Burkhead more involved in the offense if they want to compete in the Big Ten Conference.

The offensive line played well at times, but still made mental mistakes by committing foolish false start penalties. However, despite the early season struggles for the offensive line, I would now consider them more of a strength of the offense than a weakness right now.

The Cornhuskers did play one of the best teams in the country. I would not be surprised if Wisconsin were playing for the National Championship. Many teams would look bad against them so Nebraska can’t be downgraded too much.

GRADE: C

Defense

As bad as Nebraska looked offensively, they looked even worse on defense. The Cornhuskers had no answer to the elusive quarterback, Russell Wilson. If Nebraska cannot stop Russell Wilson from scrambling around, what will the Blackshirts do when they travel to Michigan to play quarterback Denard Robinson?

Wisconsin ended the game with 484 yards of total offense. That is not going to get it done in a good BCS Conference.

Nebraska played well at times with their front four on defense. Many times Jared Crick and Cameron Meredith put pressure on Russell Wilson but Wilson was too fast for Nebraska.

Lavonte David was the standout on Nebraska’s defense. David had two sacks, pressured Wilson many times in the game and led the Cornhuskers in tackles.

Nebraska’s secondary is a work in progress. Nebraska rotated players in and out of the lineup the entire game but couldn’t come up with a combination that worked. Nebraska allowed 255 yards passing. The secondary will continue to be a problem for Nebraska.

GRADE: D

Special Teams

Nebraska’s special teams were the strong point of their team Saturday night. Nebraska caused a fumble on a kick return in the first quarter that set up a touchdown.

When Wisconsin scored, Nebraska blocked the point after the touchdown which allowed the Cornhuskers to keep a one point lead in the first quarter.

Nebraska kick returner Ameer Abdullah also played well. He returned seven kickoffs for 188 yards. He will continue to be a force on special teams for the Cornhuskers in 2011.

Grade: B+

Coaching Staff

Everyone wanted to know: What does Bo Pelini have up his sleeve for Wisconsin? The answer is nothing! What you see is what you get with the Cornhuskers in 2011.

This was another big game for Bo Pelini and his Cornhuskers. Once again Pelini came up on the losing end of the fight.

Pelini has to play with the talent he has on his team. While Nebraska has many talented players, most of them are young and inexperienced. It will take time for them to gel and become a dominating team. I doubt it will happen this year.

The Nebraska caching staff must be downgraded for two reasons:

1) The Cornhuskers abandoned the run too early to go to the pass which is the weakness of the team.

2) The Cornhuskers made no adjustments at halftime to slow down the Wisconsin offense.

Maybe Wisconsin was just that much better than Nebraska, but a good coaching staff would have stuck to their game plan and made adjustments at halftime.

One more thing I would like to add about Bo Pelini...the Nebraska fans try to act with class no matter what situation our football team is in. I think it was a mistake for Bo Pelini to run away from ESPN’s sideline reporter, Erin Andrews, to escape a halftime interview.

I know you hate the media Bo, but show some class and give your halftime interview like every other coach in the country.

GRADE: C-

Overall

Most people said they would know where Nebraska stood after the Wisconsin game. What we know is: Nebraska is not a top 10 team, they have a ways to go before they are and their dreams of a Big Ten Conference title in their inaugural season may be far-fetched.

Nebraska started the game well but was quickly taken out of their game plan and had no answer to the Wisconsin offense.

Nebraska will be a competitive team in the Big Ten, but they won’t be the top team in the conference.

Next week Nebraska will host Ohio State. The Buckeyes are closer to the level that Nebraska is at right now. It will be a good game between the Cornhuskers and Buckeyes next week.

GRADE: C-