Report Card: Nebraska 17, South Dakota State 3

write?

Simply because this effort would have given us a double digit loss against any other team from the Big 12. For every reason that has been already mentioned, just bad.

The Big 12 is bad this year. I don’t feel like I’m exaggerating, the Big 12 is BAD (kind of appropriate when you think about it). Considering the athletes we have, we really should run the table in the regular season. But teams will play hard against us, and we need to show up 8 times in a row to pull it off. Can Pelini and his staff pull that off?

I couldn’t watch, but the punting sounded good. Couldn’t see the coverage on kicks. Didn’t Kunalic put one out of bounds again too? After the B12 CG, I do not want to ever see him do that again.

So what’s the grade?

1) The passing offense. From what we’ve seen so far, Taylor Martinez is not good at throwing the football. He’s not even OK. He’s somewhere between mediocre and terrible. If he can’t quickly turn into a credible passer, good teams are going to figure out how to stop Nebraska pretty easily.

2) The offensive line. Yeah, Martinez didn’t make great decisions on the zone read and Watson’s play-calling left quite a bit to be desired, but the core problem was that almost every time a Husker back took the ball, he was met by a Jackrabbit within about two yards. That’s a clear sign of poor blocking more than anything else – against an undersized, not terribly talented defensive front.

3) Run defense. Duh. Unless something significantly changes in the next week and a half, Daniel Thomas is going to run wild on the Huskers.

Here’s what I’m not worried about:

1) The running backs. As I said earlier, Helu and Burkhead (and Martinez, too, in large part) had zero room to run. I didn’t see a lack of vision for cutbacks, and I did see a lot of fight for extra yards in those two guys.

2) Playcalling. At least I think so. Watson got thoroughly outcoached on Saturday, but I really don’t see that happening again next week. I don’t have a lot of trust in Watson, but he’s simply got too many offensive weapons to screw things up game after game.

3) Wide receivers. We saw a heck of a lot of brain farts in this game, but we also saw a unit that would have looked pretty good if it had a quarterback that could just throw a ball 15 yards with accuracy. We had a lot of wide, wide open receivers. Their blocking will come around, too – it was phenomenal against Washington.

Mike & Jon – if you go to anti-husker’s profile you’ll see that he’s a fan of no one and is only signed up for Corn Nation. I’ve got no problem with fans of opposing programs stepping in to talk a little smack, but this clown is an out and out troll. I know I’m not the only one who’s tired of ignoring him.

1) SDSU came to play the game of their lives, and they did. Nebraska came in expecting to win by a lot, and no matter what the players said, you have to know that in the back of their minds the fact that they were playing a “lesser” opponent was there to some degree.

2) Someone forgot to tell Taylor Martinez that this was the game he was supposed to have on the road against Washington, not at home against SDSU. I still think he’s an extremely talented QB and he has the “it” factor that is going to make him great, but he’s still a freshman, and he’s bound to have some flat games. That’s why no freshman has ever wont he heisman, and probably never will.

3) Better to have this game now rather than later. This was a horrible performance by the Huskers but it was against a team that couldn’t beat them on their best day. Last year when Nebraska placed Va. Tech really close and then beat Missouri, the feeling was Nebraska was going to dominate the north and walk into the Big 12 championship easily. Then they were humbled at home in back to back games against Texas Tech and Iowa State. At some point in the season, most great teams have a wake-up call, even national champions usually have a scare or two (see 97’ Huskers at Missouri). At least the Huskers had a scare and still walked out with a W and kept the high ranking.

I think the players, coaches, and fans were brought back down to earth by this and if they can recover well this will be a good thing for a team that I still believe could line up and beat anyone in the country if they play to their potential. GBR, go beat K-State!

1). Daniel Thomas will not “run all over” this defense. The coaching is too good and they have 10 days of practice to figure out how to stop him. More importantly, on that point, is that K-State will be playing from behind, a la Washington, forcing them to make more plays through the air.

2). Martinez throws a beautiful ball. The nose is down so as to not let it sail or miss trajectory, problem is, he’s not polished enough to get the elevation he needs on it to complete passes consistently (he throws off his back foot a lot).

3). Nebraska may have the most athletic secondary in the country. Athlete-wise, the entire team is on par with any school in the conference. Dobson has the uncanny ability of taking 2-3-4* athletes and turning them into 4-5* athletes, it’s what he does (see: Ndamukong Suh, Philip Dillard, Ricky Thenarse, Roy Helu, Brandon Kinnie, etc.) Not one of those players was 1/3 of the athlete they are now.

First Nebraska lays a giant egg, then the Packers go and lay an even bigger one (you have to be TRYING to get 17 penalties!).