T.J. Birkel 
Nebraska defeated Purdue to get back into the win column.
Nebraska took down Purdue 28-10 on Saturday, improving to 4-1 on the season and, importantly, getting back in the W column after the disappointing loss to Illinois. After a sloppy, scoreless 1st half, the Huskers took control in the 3rd quarter and didn’t look back. Let’s get right to the topline takeaways.
Cheers to That
The Blackshirts. That 1st half might have been the ugliest half of football I’ve ever watched. Neither team scored a point. Nebraska missed a field goal and had two others blocked. Purdue missed a field goal. The officials felt the need to insert themselves into the game early and often. Husker fans could have been forgiven for feeling the same old creeping feelings of doubt and dread at halftime.
You know what wasn’t ugly? The performance by Nebraska’s defense, all game long. They only allowed Purdue to cross the 50 yard line once during the 1st half. After Purdue opened the 2nd half with an 8-minute, 13-play drive that ended in a field goal (giving the Boilermakers a 3-0 lead), the Blackshirts slammed the door from there. Purdue’s next three drives went punt, punt, and Nebraska pick-6, and at that point it was 28-3 Nebraska and the rout was on.
Hats off to Tony White and his defense for responding after an uncharacteristically average showing against Illinois last week. The Husker defense held Purdue’s offense to 224 total yards, and their only touchdown came late in the game, essentially during garbage time. Nebraska will face much better offenses, but this was the bounce back the defense needed.
Positive Turnover Margin. Nebraska came into the game at +4 in turnover margin. After John Bullock’s pick six (accompanied by a turnover-free game from the offense), the Huskers have improved to +5 on the year. This is not an insignificant development for this program. Turnovers have been a major problem for this team going back many years, over multiple coaching staffs. It’s not a stretch to say turnovers were the main culprit in the mind boggling, gut punch losses of recent years.
It’s great to see the defense taking the ball away, but the thing that’s sticking out for me is how well the offense is taking care of the ball. Quarterback Dylan Raiola only has two interceptions on the year–and those were both beautifully thrown balls that, in each case, were initially caught by the intended receiver before being ripped away by a defender. The running backs are hanging onto the ball, having lost only one fumble through five games on the year.
Bottom line, Raiola and this offense are doing a fantastic job taking care of the football.
Not Panicking. A Mike Riley coached team very well could have lost the game against Purdue. A Scott Frost coached team likely would have lost that game. Heck, Matt Rhule’s Year 1 team may have lost that one. I know there were plenty of things that annoyed Husker fans about that performance–and that’s completely fair–but we need to give credit where it’s due. The Huskers didn’t panic after the brutal 1st half, or after Purdue came out and took a lead to start the 2nd half.
There’s a lot of season left, and they’ll need to prove it again. But as this program continues in the process of re-learning how to win, I believe the 2nd half against Purdue represents an important building block for Nebraska. It’s something they can draw on when things get tough and their backs are against the wall. They will play better teams and they will be in more close games. Having that experience of fighting back when things aren’t going well should prove to be extremely valuable. It’s part of learning how to win consistently. Props to Rhule and the coaching staff for getting this team focused, and making sure they took care of business.
Welcome Back Emmett Johnson. We’ve been high on Emmett Johnson on the Common Fan Podcast since the preseason. I personally have argued he looks like Nebraska’s most complete back, one who can be an every down threat in the Big Ten. After seeing inconsistent playing time through the first four games of the season, he was exactly what the Big Red needed on Saturday. He’s powerful enough to go against Big Ten defenses, while being quick enough to make guys miss. His runs are explosive; he catches the ball out of the backfield. It was encouraging to see the coaching staff lean more heavily on the run game in the 2nd half, and it was Johnson who led the way. Let’s hope we see quite a bit more of him in the games to come.
Didn’t Like That
Pretty Much the Whole First Half. After the loss to Illinois, I had it in my mind that the Huskers would come out focused, hungry, looking for blood. Purdue is not a very good team; if Nebraska could pounce early, the Boilermakers wouldn’t have a lot of fight in them, and we could have the backups in by the middle of the 3rd quarter. Instead, Nebraska played what will likely (hopefully) go down as their worst half of football of the season.
We don’t need to belabor the point; the fact that they came back and won decisively makes the ugly 1st half much easier to swallow. And, Coach Rhule said after the game that was exactly where the team needed to be. Essentially he was saying (I think), they needed to be in a position where it wasn’t coming easy, where they had to fight and prove to themselves they could win a close game. That’s a good thing, but the schedule gets a lot more difficult starting now, with an undefeated Rutgers team coming to Lincoln this weekend, followed by a trip to play an undefeated (and currently ranked) Indiana team in Bloomington. It would be great to see the Huskers start putting together more complete games, and soon.
Special Teams. It’s been a concern all season long, and Saturday was the worst performance yet. The kicking game has been the most problematic, but it’s not only on the kickers. The snaps have been bad. The holds have been bad. The coverage units have been so-so. For the second week in a row, punter Brian Buschini made a critical tackle in coverage. I’m not an X’s and O’s guy, but I don’t believe that’s how they draw it up. I don’t know what they’re going to do about the kickers (more on that below). Some of the other things are fixable, but Special Teams Coordinator Ed Foley needs to make it happen ASAP.
Questions Heading Into Week Six
What Does Nebraska Do About the Kicking Game? Starter Tristan Alvano is out with an injury, and doesn’t appear to have been healthy all season long. Backup John Hohl has missed two field goals, along with having two others blocked. I don’t put the two that were blocked on him, as both were impacted by bad snaps which threw off everything. And I don’t want to be too critical of Alvano or Hohl. Alvano was thrust into duty as a true freshman last year, and Hohl has been thrust into duty this year after having never previously attempted a field goal at the Division 1 level. My question, though, is where does Nebraska go from here? They can start by cleaning up the rest of the operation (snaps, holds, etc), but I’m not sure that solves the problem. The Huskers have to be able to take the points when they’re in position to get points; this could literally be the difference in multiple games this year. Hopefully Coach Rhule and the staff can figure something out.
Can the Huskers Clean Up the Penalties? Question for the Common Fans: are there more penalties than ever before? Are these referees trained to throw as many flags as possible? Everyone is mad when calls get missed, but what about when penalties are called that weren’t actually penalties? The offensive pass interference on Thomas Fidone–which negated a touchdown–was incredibly frustrating on Saturday, as the replay showed Fidone clearly going out of his way not to touch the defender. Across college football, it seems that the outcome of games centers on the officials way too often. With all the money rolling into the major conferences now, they need to figure something out.
Having said all of that, Nebraska still has too many penalties. You can’t have one of your senior leaders jumping offsides on 4th and 1 (especially with how shaky the kicking game is). Again, this is the kind of thing that will bite us in close games against better teams. Let’s hope the Big Red can make progress on this front moving forward.
FINAL THOUGHT
Deep breath, fellow Common Fans. Nebraska is 4-1, which represents the team’s best start since 2016. The Huskers are still on track for their first bowl game in nearly a decade. It’s been inconsistent; it’s been downright ugly at times. But this team is improving. They are learning how to win. Dylan Raiola is the real deal, and he will only get better with time. There’s a veteran-led defense that we know will continue to fight. There are young, athletic playmakers on both sides of the ball that are both contributing now and providing hope for the future. Things are on the right track, and college football is always more fun when Nebraska is winning. Embrace it. Enjoy it, even when it’s a roller coaster.
Now, let’s go 1-0 this week.
As always, GBR for LIFE.
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