As Matt Rhule ran into the locker room at halftime, he stopped to talk with the sideline reporter. The takeaway? “They are the more physical team right now.” Rhule looked livid. Nebraska started the game hot against Northern Iowa, scoring easily on a drive that saw second string quarterback Henrich Haarberg line up at running back and receiver, and saw true freshman tight end Carter Nelson get targeted twice, to include catching his first career touchdown. Then, came a 16 play, ten-minute drive by Northern Iowa that thankfully ended in only a field goal. The Huskers scored quickly twice more on offense, before failing to convert a fourth and three before halftime and going into the half up 21-3. Physicality at the half? Nebraska had 47 rushing yards, Northern Iowa had 71. Carries were split between all three of their big backs fairly evenly. They also had 87 yards passing, at the half. Keep in mind, in their first two games against FCS opponents they never threw for more than 120 yards in a game. The second half saw more of the same from the defense, although they would go on to give up no more points. This was partly due to Northern Iowa shooting themselves in the foot, as they had 9 penalties for 95 yards. They also threw an interception on a drive where the Huskers had no answer for their run attack. Puzzling play call. However, Northern Iowa handily won the time of possession, 38 minutes to the Huskers 21. Northern Iowa went on to have 162 passing yards, more than any of the first two games, and ran for 139 yards on the ground. Their quarterback, Aidan Dinne who exited late in the fourth with an injury, was their leading rusher with 49 yards. Like I said, watch out for the QB run. The offense struggled in the second half, scoring only 10 points. Raiola threw his first interception of the year late in the fourth and the backups came in shortly after. Haarberg would lead them on their lone second half scoring drive, which was capped off by a 34-yard E. Johnson touchdown run. Here’s a breakdown of the offense, defense and special teams:
Offense
Whereas we are so used to talking about the defense being the star of the show, this week they took a far backseat to the offense. At least in the first half. Dylan Raiola was dynamic, going 13/16, 209 yards and 2 touchdowns in the first half with no turnovers. He also ran one for 15 yards. He would end the day 17/23 for 247 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception. The backfield was split between Dante Dowdell, Emmett Johnson, Rahmir Johnson, and Gave Ervin Jr. Still, Dowdell looks like the clear lead horse back there, and I personally wish they would just give him the majority of the touches. He had 6 carries for 55 yards and E. Johnson had 4 for 50, with most of those on the long touchdown run. Stop the committee stuff once conference play starts. It should be mostly Dowdell with E. Johnson there to spell him here and there. We will see what Rhule does. The second half the offense slowed down, for the second straight week. However, Rhule said in his post-game presser that it’s by design. He said take the lead early, run it and win the game in the fourth. He said trying to do too much in the late stages of the game in the past cost them close games. Both Jacory Barney Jr, and Carter Nelson, got their first career touchdowns so that was cool. Rhule stated he purposely has Haarberg in their for-option runs, because it forces opposing teams to have to prepare for it. Smart. All in all, I think the offense could have performed better in the second half, mark that two weeks in a row.
Defense
Where to begin? Overall disappointing performance. On face value, you could say they held them to 3 points. Many will say this is all that matters. But that’s not the whole story. That’s being disingenuous. Northern Iowa’s offense pushed around a supposed vaunted Nebraska Blackshirt defense. Time and time again, you could see our defensive line being pushed up the field. There was a penalty early in the game, where Northern Iowa got called back for an illegible player up field. This was because an offensive lineman cant go more than 3 yards up from the line of scrimmage. In this case, their whole offensive line literally pushed our defensive front back at least 5-7 yards. It was embarrassing. The tackling was at times hard to watch. Yards after contact were too easy for their running backs to come by. So often one (or more) blackshirts would get to their running backs either at or behind the line of scrimmage, and Northern Iowa would still gain five or more yards. I wrote earlier this week in my game preview column that we needed to watch out for the QB run on read options, and they used just that to convert on a fourth down early. They used in later in the game for big gains as well, with their QB being their leading rusher. The defense bent plenty, but it didn’t break. Malcom Hartzog had a great interception in the second half. Issac Gifford almost had one, but instead the receiver got it for a first down. Good effort. Overall, no touchdowns were scored on them, so I know many will say I’m being too critical, but I promise you the film will make some squirm this week. I trust Rhule and Tony White to use this to get the team ready for BIG10 play, which starts Friday night.
Special Teams
In the first half, Tristian Alvano made all his extra points, as did John Holh make one. Alvano made a 34 yard field goal in the second half. The Huskers had a roughing the punter penalty on them, after a good third down stop. However, I don’t think there is anything the defender could have done not have run into the punter, it was just one of those things. Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda only had 2 punt return yards tonight, a big step back from the first two weeks. Nebraska never punted the ball.