Despite mistakes after a fast start, the Huskers regain momentum only to serve up another senseless decision that epitomizes the Scott Frost era. An onside kick leads to Wildcat momentum and Thompson ends debut with two picks in the final period.
The Good
All of Husker Nation breathed a sigh of relief when the favored Nebraska Cornhuskers came out with a game opening touchdown drive. You can always tell the intensity of the game as the driving in Omaha becomes a dicey proposition in days and hours leading up to the season opening game. It was as if all the hype that we heard had come true of the portal transfers and the young man from New Mexico State, Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda who benched Huskers favorite Omar Manning, scored the Cornhuskers first touchdown of 2022.
The defense also looked sharp taking away some of Northwestern’s bread and butter type plays early on. The question of replacing Nebraska’s interior defensive linemen proved that this year’s group would have the bulk to take on powerful Big Ten offensive linemen. Chinander’s group was the highlight of past seasons and the cause of great enthusiasm for the upcoming season, saved by portal transfers Wynn and Drew and veteran edge rushers like Tannor and Nelson. Despite the collective sigh of relief, holding Northwestern to a field goal still gave Huskers the lead 7-3 but with a bit of trepidation.
Nebraska’s energy and ability to push the ball down the field was capped by a second touchdown by Thompson, Nebraska’s first rushing touchdown of 2022. The sentiment that Nebraska had the upper hand with a 14-3 lead with 11:59 in the second quarter had a business as usual effect, as if it were ready to break open to a 50 point throttling. It isn’t like a bad officiating call could break this momentum and restore a curse of single-digit losses?
Player of the Game- Travis Vokolek
My player of the game for Nebraska is Travis Vokolek, despite Garcia-Castaneda’s excellent performance. Why? There are several reasons but primarily when he was not in the game it was noticeable. There were blocks that were missed and routes run by different receivers where he would normally be and I think the last interception, Liewer was where Vokolek would have been.
If someone told you that Casey was 25 of 42 for 355 yards passing and one touchdown, all of Husker Nation would say that Nebraska won that game. If we took off the 4th quarter yards, we still would think we won the game. But then if you said he had two interceptions, your intestinal tract would get shaky and the beads of sweat would appear and you would ask, “What caused those interceptions?” And a poorly thrown ball from a guy who, at times had to run for his life, who was under pressure to win a game to make up for awful coaching decisions, and then you would ask, “Is Martinez back?” According to The Spun by Sports Illustrated, via On3Sports, Frost was reported as saying that there is a “learning curve” Thompson has to go through in this conference.
Considering last year the Cornhuskers rushed for over 400 yards on the Wildcats, the game plan for Nebraska’s running game was lacking in the consistency department and one breakaway touchdown that accounts for 50% of the total yards of one running back does not suffice, especially with the cold weather and type of games coming in mid-October through November in the Big Ten. Gabe Erving Jr. was praised by Coach Frost a couple of weeks ago and failed to get one carry or rep in the game. Scott Frost reportedly suggested that the offensive staff be creative, but it was unsure if the running game was what he was talking about.
The Bad
Just when someone has proven themselves like Chinander has as Nebraska’s defensive coordinator over the previous four years, the expectations are that his realm of control, namely the Blackshirts, will be a constant that the Huskers faithful can rely upon. Unfortunately, the losses in the secondary and the inexperience or youth at defensive back had shown themselves in big ways on Saturday. Just as Nebraska appeared to have things handled, Hilinski and the Wildcats passing attack exploded for 314 passing yards on 27 completions, while giving up no sacks or interceptions in the effort.
Huskers fans took to social media to lament an on the field ruling of a fumble as linebacker Greyson Metz ripped the ball away from an apparently down Garcia-Castaneda on a reception that would have put Nebraska on the Northwestern 11 yard line after having given up a 41 yard touchdown pass the previous Northwestern possession. After a booth review the call was not overturned with clear and convincing evidence that his knee was down.
Although the fumble recovery resulted in a possession by each team that did not result in points, the poor officiating call derailed the potential routing of the Wildcats early on in the second quarter. The most telling drive of the game, the one with the most significance to me, are the late second quarter drives that will tell you everything you need to know about your opponents preparation and conditioning, and ultimately their game plan for the end of the game. With only 3:40 and 82 yards to go, the Wildcats went for it on 4th and 1 at their own 38 yard line! The intent was to call cadence and monkey around until a defender showed that they did not expect a snap and then rip one off, which they did! They went 82 yards in 3:15 even facing adversity with the 4th down and a penalty in the red zone and came away with the halftime lead on a 6 yard pass.
The Ugly
Despite all the hype of the Blackshirts having 9 members becoming a part of the club for the first game, Northwestern enjoyed the line advantage on both sides of the ball. In my preview of the game, I said that Hilinski was the type of quarterback who will not overwhelm you with his average play and needing time to make reads downfield….ok, so I was only partially wrong. The Blackshirts did not sack Hilinski one time and as far as I was concerned did not even put enough pressure on him to force him to throw errant balls or take a sack.
The greatest thing that stood out to me was the lack of conditioning or speed on our side of the ball on defense. The starting LB’ers accounted for only 10 solo tackles between the two of them and Reimer’s standout plays were bunched together that failed to show consistency throughout the ballgame. And although our defensive line look like they bulked up and got massive in the off-season, it would appear that the feet are more flat and the hand speed coming off blocks is relatively slow. How much of it is the OL of Northwestern or how much of it is us, remains to be seen. All I can say is, at the beginning of the game it looked just “ok” but as the game went on, it definitely became a problem we will have to address over the next month or so.
Finding that first “monkey off your back” win is such a difficult task when the tape has been rewound right in front of you in real time. When you are mired in stress and Husker Nation displeasure, with radio pundits having their way with you on the air, it is hard to get that first expected victory in a very tough match-up. What I saw was confusion from blocking schemes and missed blocks that should be fundamental to Huskers football when the game was on the line. I saw things that I had hoped to breakdown for you but my software and recording devices are not communicating well at the time. But the picture below shows the epitome of the Husker offense over the past five years now. Northwestern showed very little blitzing or pressuring (line stunts) throughout much of the day. When they added just one pass rusher to their four down linemen, we had two on one blocking and failed to account for a blitz. What teams have picked up on, and Minnesota’s coach P.J Fleck had picked up on is that you can actually mentally condition our guys throughout the game. IF you do things the same way for about 50 or 60 reps, when it counts, like reps 60-70, you can defeat the Huskers scheme with basics.
Last year I could never understand why the Huskers would not run the ball when they had a numbers advantage in the box in base situations. Although those mistakes were minimized so far this season, it was hard to understand some of the personnel groupings and uses throughout the game. Here Casey Thompson is picked off throwing to Oliver Martin (#89) on a crossing route. Last year’s standout Omar Manning was not seen on a single play while some relatively new faces were popping up all over the place. To me, there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Whipple needs to be up in the booth and if not him, then Joseph should be, there are just too many associate head coaches, assistant head coaches, run coordinator , pass coordinators on the field…you hardly ever see the offensive coordinator on the field these days. There also appears to be much division in the coaching ranks, but that is purely speculation from appearances.
Some of the biggest Adrian Martinez questions have been partially answered at this point with Casey’s final quarter picks. Perhaps the poor coaching decisions that put pressure on the quarterback, the blocking schemes that get so easily messed up, and the personnel groupings that don’t make sense, culminate in a single-digit score loss…I bet Vegas loves that whenever we are favored by too much. Needless to say, I noticed a change in the way Casey held the ball in the first half as compared to how he held it and threw it in the second half. In early to mid-Fall, the temperature and humidity change and the result are fingers that do not grip as well. Perhaps the setting of the sun and falling temperatures account for that, but more ominous is coaching? Martinez changed his whole throwing motion between his successful Freshman year and his second year, the changes in Casey’s throwing reminded me of that exact change. The final interception was a pass to Liewer. Both passes that resulted in interceptions highlight a problem that hopefully does not stick with the Huskers long this season. Both passes were errant but both passes were catchable.
THE BEST (WORST) FOR LAST
What appears to be happening in Big Ten football and Scott Frost, are even good guys like Fitzgerald (or his coaches) are having negative things to say about Scott. There has been a loss of dignity in the Nebraska Cornhuskers football program, where even guys that have great reputations are saying negative things, and not just P.J. Fleck! The onside kick, although there was a gap there, is a stunt a team pulls when they feel like a team is poorly coached and leaving the front line too early to get into a wedge or whatever. Some have said if it worked we would be praising coach, but I wholeheartedly disagree. The onside kick was the biggest mistake and bush league move that draws the kind of ire you may see in opposing coaches like that. Coming out after halftime or to start a game might cause an attempt but facts are facts. First, your defense was not playing that great to put them in that situation. You just regained the momentum that you had lost after a bad break with a fumble call that at the very least would have given you a field goal and you were just down at halftime. The post game presser Coach Frost said he thought they could have put the game away at that point. With only 1/3 of a quarter gone in the second half? No way! You have to be on drugs to have that logic. Needless to say, if the placement of the onside was more towards the gap rather than the man, perhaps we had a chance. But these are the risks Scott takes to build a solid program.
I don’t want Husker Nation to start calling of the firing of Scott Frost. But Scott has to understand that he is also his own worst enemy. The onside kick had more to do with putting his own stamp on the game, that he had no longer had control of the play calling that did put points on the board, and a reliant defense that pretty much took it…so to speak. Don’t forget that the team we faced pLayed for the Big Ten Championship in 2018 and 2020, and it appears they just may be the best team in our division in 2022.
I will have a preview of the North Dakota game posted by Thursday. In the meantime, have a great week and #GBR!
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