Nebraska vs. Penn State: Grading the Cornhuskers' Win Against the Lions

For all of the talk going on right now about Penn State and the horrible issues they are facing, it's largely not even thought about that this was a tough situation for Nebraska as well.

How do you go into the stadium, be respectful of a team who is dealing with so much adversity, and still try to beat them senseless? It can be a fine line to walk without seeming a bit insensitive.

Nebraska walked that line easily, as they showed both class and moxy in handing the Nittany Lions their first conference loss with a 17-14 Husker victory.

It wasn't a dominating performance in any respect, really. The Cornhuskers gave up more total yards than they gained. They committed more penalties for more yards. They committed just as many turnovers as Penn State.

However, Nebraska got the early lead and found ways to keep the Lions behind them.

The Cornhuskers played tough ball, demonstrating again why they're a good fit for their new conference. They're not afraid to pop pads and level a little punishment. They're not afraid to take it, either.

Nebraska matched Penn State punch for punch.

So, now that it's all over but the crying, how would grade the various Cornhusker units?

Here's how I grade the offense, defense, special teams, coaching and overall performance in Saturday's win over Penn State.

Offense

QB Taylor Martinez continues to be something of an enigma. He's so talented, and the potential for greatness is undeniable. At times, he looks like a flippin' genius.

At other times, he's a liability to the Cornhusker attack. Of course, he's still relatively young and has a lot of learning left to do.

RB Rex Burkhead has become one of the league's premier running backs and has largely taken this team on his powerful shoulders and carried it without complaint.

Nebraska needed Burkhead today.

Martinez completed just 50 percent of his passes for 144 yards and didn't have a passing touchdown. He had some big throws here and there but couldn't consistently hook up with his receivers.

Of course, not all of that is his fault. There were dropped passes that hurt his performance from a statistical point of view.

Plus, Penn State's defense stepped up pretty big against the pass and forced some bad situations.

Burkhead, however, won the running back battle. He carried the ball 27 times for 126 bruising yards (4.7 average) and a touchdown. His performance allowed Nebraska to chew up both yardage and time. That became huge as the game wore on, as the Huskers needed desperately to run the clock down.

The offense wasn't truly flashy. It was tough, having to grind out most of their yards on the ground. The fumble in the fourth quarter was ugly.

However, that didn't ultimately hurt Nebraska too badly, and their offense was effective against a very tough Penn State defense.

Grade: B

Defense

This is a little tougher to grade. While any grade has to take into account the quality of their opponent, Penn State's offense is hit-or-miss.

At times, it can be fairly effective, particularly when RB Silas Redd is carrying the football. At other times, it has been ineffective and a terrible thorn in Lions' fans' sides.

So, was the Cornhusker defense that good, or was Penn State's offense that bad?

In my opinion, it was a little of both. Penn State's offense wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible.

The best way to grade Nebraska's defense is to weigh how they did against Silas Redd and the Nittany Lion run game. In that area, they did very well.

The Cornhuskers held Redd to just 54 yards on 15 carries (3.6 average) and kept him out of the end zone.

They didn't do quite as well against Stephfon Green, who averaged over four yards per carry and scored two touchdowns. Green's 71 yards helped push Penn State a few yards over their 161-yards-per-game average on the ground.

Now, back to that pass thingy.

Penn State doesn't do well throwing the football. They average just 194.2 yards per game and had completed just 50 percent of their passes coming into the day.

Nebraska held them below their average percentage (48.6 percent) but gave up a few more yards (209) than their average.

From a statistical standpoint, Nebraska's defense didn't do any better than anyone else against Penn State this year.

They didn't get consistent pressure on McGloin, they didn't completely shut down the run game and they didn't force a lot of turnovers.

It really was a somewhat ho-hum performance by the defense, despite the low scoring game. They did enough to secure the win on a big stop on fourth down late in the game, but as for the rest of the day, they were good, but not great.

Grade: B-

Special Teams

Special teams are far too often overlooked in football games. Their stats are hard to effectively gauge and really aren't that sexy to begin with.

It's one thing when you have blocked punts and field goals or when you have players return kicks for touchdowns. In the absence of those things, special teams play can be a mixed bag of nuts.

Nebraska's average field position to start their drives was on their own 29. Penn State's average starting position was their own 23. Penn State only had six of their 14 possessions start beyond their own 20 and nothing in Nebraska's territory.

K Brett Maher was perfect on the day, nailing a 41-yard field goal in the second quarter. He also handled punting duties, averaging 45 yards per punt and putting five of eight inside the 20.

The Cornhuskers pretty well dominated the special teams play, getting better field position, success in the kicking game and tremendous punting.

Grade: A

Coaching

I liked Bo Pelini's approach to the game this week. He didn't try to get too fancy too often. He knew his team was facing a tremendous defense and didn't try to do too much to compensate.

For the most part, Nebraska's attack was right into the strength of Penn State's defense—the run. He didn't necessarily try to go up the gut with the football, but he challenged the Lion defense to stop Rex Burkhead and handle Taylor Martinez's running abilities.

It wasn't so much a gutsy call as a smart one.

While Penn State's run defense has been very good, their pass defense has too—and the latter has been very opportunistic. Penn State came into the game with 14 interceptions to only six passing touchdowns allowed.

Pelini minimized the opportunity for turnovers and kept the ball out of the hands of Penn State's offense as much and as long as possible.

Giving Martinez 19 carries kept the Penn State defense honest in that they couldn't key solely on Burkhead and try to force Martinez into throwing the football. Yet, he gave Burkhead enough opportunities to force Penn State to stop him consistently.

They weren't able to, and it played out well in Nebraska's favor.

I liked the call to go for it on fourth down late in the game. It was a tough call considering how well the defense had ultimately played, but it was smart. If it had worked, the game would have been over sooner and the Cornhuskers could have run out the clock without ever giving the ball back.

Though it didn't work, it was the right call, and I appreciate the killer instinct Bo demonstrated.

Grade: A

Overall

Coming into this game, I was a little concerned about Nebraska's ability to handle the stiff Nittany Lion defense. I really thought that Penn State might be able to negate Rex Burkhead and put too much pressure on Taylor Martinez, causing costly mistakes.

It didn't happen that way.

The offense toughed out the yards and gained the ground needed to keep Penn State on their heels. They weren't necessarily able to shut down Penn State's offense, but that wasn't really a concern. The Nittany Lions don't have much of an offense to begin with.

They played smart football that was mostly mistake-free and weren't intimidated by the immense stadium, loud crowd and sketchy situation.

Most importantly, I was moved by their classy act before the game, to kneel with the Penn State players at midfield and offer a prayer together. It showed the very best of the Cornhuskers and demonstrated the compassion and heart of a proud program.

On the field, they didn't really dominate, but they played a good game and came away with a tough win in a tough venue.

Grade: A-