A tale of two halves plagued the Cornhuskers today against the Purdue Boilermakers, but today unlike in previous years the second half was owned by Nebraska. Taking a 28-10 victory, Nebraska was ahead 7-3 heading into halftime. A different Husker team emerged from the locker room or at least a different playbook made an appearance. As the defense continued to hold strong and seemingly fixed a few assumes that arose last week, the run game of Nebraska started to bloom.
Rushing for 161 yards, mostly in the second half, Nebraska found its stride as the game pushed on. Jacory Barney led the team with 67 yards rushing on four end arounds. With Emmett Johnson gaining 47 yards on seven carries to help secure the win. Raiola played the game we all expected from the young superstar going 17/27 for 257 yards and a touchdown. Nebraska protected the football and did not turn it over once again as Bullock and the Husker defense forced a pick six.
The Blackshirts held Purdue to 174 passing yards and an abysmal 50 yards rushing. Crazy Legs Mockobee has hurt Nebraska so many times in the past but was completely shut down today by the Blackshirts only going for 41 yards. Adjustments were made by Tony White to counter what Purdue was coming out in. The Blackshirts also pressured Purdue quarterback Hudson Card, collecting five sacks. Both teams procured more laundry than a college freshman visiting home for the first time. A total of 23 penalties, 9 against Nebraska and 14 against Purdue. Even with the sloppy play, the Huskers defense stopped them from shooting themselves in the foot.
Run the dang ball. Purdue gave up on average over 200 yards rushing per game this year so far, yet Nebraska came out throwing. Purdue was stopping the run early but that is common against Big 10 opponents. One of the most common turns of phrase is “worn down by the run” for a reason. The small two, three and four yard runs start to become ten twelve and fifteen yard runs as the offensive line starts to wear down the smaller defensive line. Nebraska did make an adjustment in the run game in the second half, using more of a zone blocking scheme, moving the young and inexperienced line to get proper angles to move defensive linemen opening up holes. That may be something this coaching staff and young offensive line will need to lean on as the season progresses. When you are less powerful, the use of angles and leverage is of utmost importance and this younger offensive line just isn’t as developed as we would like. The offensive line did do very well in pass protection today though, earning them the position group of the game today.
Coach Rhule and company have a shiny new car and they want to drive it as fast as possible as much as possible. But it seems they are skipping gears hindering the machines top end performance. They know that Raiola and this receiving core can go for a lot of yards, but seem to forget that the run game is the base in which offense is built on. I am happy, yet worried after this game. I am hopefully yet highly concerned after this game. If we can establish the run game early on teams then Raiola will be able to pick teams apart for big plays, but they need to be complimentary on offense and not skip to the flashy. Run the dang ball.
