As the season is half way over and we look at the Huskers so far, its hard to take a glass half full or in this case three quarters full view. The team, no matter the school ever lives up to the hype. But Nebraska is doing just what we asked. With two very solid wins against Michigan State and Maryland and an opportunity for a third this Friday at Minnesota, Nebraska is 5-1. Taking out the unwinable game that we all predicted Penn State to be earlier this year due to their falter, Nebraska’s toughest opponent left is USC. With UCLA surprisingly right behind them. 10-2 and a birth in the college football playoffs is still very much in reach.
Nebraska has grown, with the biggest growth coming from their clutch performances. According to Matt Rhule “when Dylan gets blood in his eyes, hes a diffrent player”. Leading me to believe some of his mid-game woes come from his adrenaline wearing off and his mind starting to cause doubts. This young quarterback has been fantastic when they have needed him to be such. So far Raiola’s toughest game this season has been within his ears.
Emmett Johnson has been fantastic. A top 3 back in the Big 10 this year in rushing yards, with his biggest game to date to come this Friday against Minnesota. Johnson has been playing grown man football. On a long run against Maryland he seemed to want to get into the endzone and refused to fall short, being tackled finally after 6 would be tacklers. The offensive run blocking has been holding its own. Opening holes in the run game even though at times, they seem to get bullied.
That brings us to the offensive line. They have shown major weakness in pass protection. While outsizing every defensive line they have went against they still seemed to get pushed around or ran by. The simple key is to not get lazy and continously keep your feet moving. These 6’8 plus lineman have the size just seem to be struggling in pass sets. But as the season progresses hopefully the linemans footwork and hand placement does as well.
The defensive line has greatly improved and is showing immense upside. Nwaneri has been the mist impressive player on defense this year to me besides Singelton and Wright. They are still undersized and giving up too much in the run game but with adequate linebacker play the big gains seem to have diminished throughout the year. While Watson-Trent hasn’t lived up to expectations in the linebacker core, there have been so many players who haven’t strayed from playing high caliber football on defense. McCullough and Guthrie being two others who stand out and have been impressive additions to this Blackshirt defense.
With a pass defense that will keep us in any game and a quarterback and receiving core that is up to the task the Huskers could be favorites in all 6 games left on their schedule this year. While there hasn’t yet been a welcome to the national stage moment yet for Raiola, I do believe its coming as he is one of the most underage quarterbacks in the nation. Overall I would grade the Huskers at a B. Finding ways to win games and even close out games, this is a very young team who will still be in the playoff hunt if they can take care of buisness when they are supposed to take care of buisness. I still see 10-2 being a very viable record at the end of the regular season. Go Big Red.