I understand this 44-7 shellacking of the Purdue Boilermakers has some Husker fans feeling really good about themselves. Well allow me to be the fingernail in the cobb salad. Consider these facts about the team that was blasted on Saturday. Purdue came into Saturday 1-4, their only win was against Indiana State, The Boilermakers defeated Indiana St. by 6 points a week after Indiana hung 73 on them, Northern Illinois at one point led the Boilers 41-10, Purdue ranks 81st in passing yards, 116th in rushing,114th in points scored, and 112th in points against. In short, this team stinks to high hell. There is a good chance that this is one of the 2 worst teams NU will play this season. Nevertheless this was a good, solid, but not perfect, win over a conference opponent. When you play one of the muts the Big 10 provides, you have to beat the pants off of them. To Nebraska’s credit, that was done on Saturday.
Offensively The Huskers rolled out Tommy Armstrong for his 3rd career start. Purdue had easily the best Defense that he had faced. Armstrong struggled in this one. There was some miscommunication, a few errant passes, and some poor choices. On the day Armstrong was 6 for 18 for 43 yards and 3 interceptions. In short he played like a Freshman, imagine that. Ron Kellogg looked much more comfortable out there. Kellogg throws interior passes with tremendous accuracy, much like his QB coach Joe Ganz. Kellogg is clearly a film room junkie. The myriad of blitzes that Purdue brought did not confuse Kellogg. The result was a more efficient attack under Kellogg. This was not the Offensive machine we saw against Illinois. There was a lack of rhythm all day long, regardless of who was under center. The Huskers had problems getting a consistent push due to the Purdue Defensive front. You wouldn’t know it by looking at some of the stats, but if you saw the game you could clearly see that the Nebraska O-line struggled. Some of that was the Purdue front 7 who is pretty damn physical. Those guys will hit you. Time after time Ameer Abdullah and the Husker RBs were being hounded by Purdue defenders. I cant help but think losing Spencer Long early affected Nebraska’s ability to get a consistent push. Replacing Long will be a chore, for sure, and could have a major impact on how the season turns out. Overall this was a decent outing by the Nebraska Offense. Nothing spectacular, a ho-hum day at the office.
The Nebraska Defense played easily, far and away, its best game of the season. If not for a 55 yard TD pass with :39 remaining, the Huskers would have had their first shut out in nearly 4 years. As Ive mentioned, Purdue does have a pathetic, dog piss terrible, Offense. Additionally, they were starting a first time QB is Danny Etling. Etling was harassed all day long by a Nebraska Defensive Line that smelled blood in the water. It was beautiful. Randy Gregory, Jason Ankrah, Avery Moss, and about 5 other guys I could mention, all combined to hound Etling into a miserable performance he would like to forget. Take out the long TD at the end, and the Boilers amassed a paltry 161 yards. I don’t care how piss poor an Offense is, to hold them to 161 means you did something right. Once Nebraska established a commanding lead, the Defense turned up the pressure with blitzes from all angles to further frustrate the Purdue Offense. The Nebraska Defensive backs also pressured and smothered the Purdue receivers. This too was effective as Etling was unable to throw to his receivers on hot routes. Saturday was a very good day for The Husker Defense, especially when you consider where this unit was a month ago. My one gripe on this feel good day is with the tackling. Too often, particularly in the run game, a Nebraska defender will get a body on the ball carrier and not bring him down. There will be opponents who consistently run the ball right into the teeth of the NU Defense and the Huskers will be forced to be sure tacklers. I’m sure this is not lost on the staff. I would be willing to bet that is a point of emphasis in the bye week.
Last week the word I used to describe Nebraska’s performance was “improvement.” In most areas we saw more of that Saturday. The Huskers need to improve each and every week from this point forward to achieve its season long goals. Today was a good step. Now comes a bye week. Time to clean up some of the sloppiness, figure out who is going to replace Spencer Long, and assess the health of Taylor Martinez. This division is even more wide open with losses by both Michigan and Northwestern. Everything is in front of this club, its Bo Pelini’s job to get this squad ready for a Monster November.
College Football Junkie 2015 