2010 Nebraska Football - By The Numbers

by Jon Johnston on Sep 21, 2010 6:30 AM CDT in Nebraska Husker Football

Things are looking really good early in the first quarter of the season. Really good.

It's always interesting to take a few minutes throughout a season and see where your team stacks up with the rest of the nation.

Right now, Nebraska's offense is kicking butt, both on the field and in the statistics. That's a pretty amazing statement considering where it was last at the end of last season. I suspect that's one reason why the rest of the nation has been somewhat skeptical of our Huskers. The first two games were on PPV - no one but Husker fans saw those games. Last week was the first time the rest of the nation got to see Taylor Martinez' speed, and while they may have been aware of Rex Burkhead and Roy Helu, they were not aware of how explosive the pair could be.

Everyone was aware of the prowess of the Blackshirt defense, but this year it seems to be representing itself in a different way. Rather than Ndamukong Suh tearing up opposing offensive lines, it's the secondary confounding opposing quarterbacks.

(If the formatting looks a little weird, I apologize, trying to get accustomed to a different table generator. Probably could have added some color and made things look a little nicer, but trust me, after you screw around with something that's supposed to be simple for a while, you have a tendency to give up and go on to other things.)

Still, rather interesting stuff nonetheless. We'll take a comparative look further down the road.

1	Nebraska's national rank in rushing TDs - 15
1	Nebraska's national rank in interception TDs – 3
1	Taylor Martinez' national rank in plays over 20 yards - 7 (tied with Daniel Thomas, Kansas State)
2	Nebraska's national rank in interceptions - 8 (tied with three other teams)
2	Taylor Martinez' national rank in scoring - 16 ppg (tied with one other)
3	Rex Burkheads's national rank in plays over 20 yards - 5 (tied with nine others)
4	Nebraska's national rank in rushing offense - 344 yards per game
5	Nebraska's national rank in scoring offense
5,6	TDs given up so far by Texas, Nebraska, respectively
5,6, 13	Taylor Martinez, Roy Helu, and Rex Burkhead's national ranking in yards per carry
8	Nebraska's national ranking in opponents yard per attempted pass - 5.1 (tied with two others)
9	Nebraska' national ranking in yardage per pass attempt
11	Baker Steinkuher's national rank in sacks - 3.5 - (tied with eight others)
16	Nebraska's national ranking in sacks – nine
16	Nebraska's national ranking in average kickoff return yardage - 27.75
20	Nebraska's national ranking in opponent third down conversions – 28.57
22	Nebraska's national rank in total defense
24	Nebraska's national rank in average punt return yardage – 12.89
55	Nebraska's national ranking in run defense
56	Lavonte David's national ranking in tackles
101, 97, 107	Western Kentucky, Idaho, and Washington's national rankings in run defense
83, 1, 54, 81	Kansas State, Texas, Oklahoma State and Missouri's national rankings in run defense
95	Nebraska's national ranking in pass offense yardage per game
114	Nebraska's national ranking in penalty yardage per game
116, 38, 96	Western Kentucky, Idaho, and Washington's total defense ranks nationally

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Hmm..

I wonder how Bo feels about #22?

"Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game;
In the deed the glory"

GO BIG RED!

by Brian Speers on Sep 21, 2010 7:41 AM CDT reply actions

Not good, but I see it improving greatly in weeks to come.

I’m in the process of re-watching the Washington game the last few nights, with a much more critical eye than on Saturday. It appears a good portion of Washington’s rushing yardage came from poor LB play: misreading gaps, overshooting them or getting hung up by blockers at the point of attack. Lavonte David really didn’t play well in the first half at all. If teams are going to line up and run between the tackles, we might need to think about getting Martin on the field more often, and possibly Matt May or getting Will Compton back ASAP. David is fast as all get out, but he missed three plays entirely by getting hung up in the mess instead of filling the gaps our DL left for him to fill (I’m pretty sure that was a design thing and not the DL getting blocked).

"...when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to."
— Martin Luther

by Go Big Rev on Sep 21, 2010 8:42 AM CDT up reply actions

you sure

it was David, and not Gomes????

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Twitter!
cornnation@gmail.com

by Jon Johnston on Sep 21, 2010 11:58 AM CDT up reply actions

I'm pretty sure.

Will go back and double-check tomorrow, but I know for certain on the long-ish drive where they scored a touchdown, David got caught up by blockers and/or “the mess” twice on long runs through gaps he should have filled. I also read somewhere that the LBs corrected some things at halftime and fit their gaps much better in the 2nd half, which would explain how they basically shut down the UW offense in the 2nd half. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but it sounds logical to me.

"...when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to."
— Martin Luther

by Go Big Rev on Sep 21, 2010 11:33 PM CDT up reply actions

I noticed that too.

Hadoken!!

by Brizzle T on Sep 21, 2010 3:30 PM CDT up reply actions

Yes...

there is plenty of work to do on the defensive side,but they are not hard fixes (IMO). I think the improvement in the offense has been a bigger surprise. lol hard not to think about this years O with last years D…OMG!

GBR!
throw dem bones!!!

by hskrntnfreak on Sep 21, 2010 11:28 PM CDT reply actions