Nebraska had seven explosive plays, defined as plays over 20 yards, against New Mexico State.

Two were runs by Joe Ganz on option plays, one for 26 yards, another for 34 yards and a touchdown.
Ganz also completed two long passes to Mike McNeill over 20 yards. One went for 22 yards in the first quarter, another for 35 yards and a touchdown in the third quarter.
Marlon Lucky had a 58-yard rush in the third quarter.

The other explosive plays came when Patrick Witt completed a pass to Quentin ‘Q’ Castille for 24 yards early in the fourth quarter. Castille was tripped up and nearly scored, stopping at the one yard line.
The last was a beautifully fast run by Marcus Mendoza for 35 yards.

Two long pass plays to tight ends, a strong running game. Does this remind anyone of anything?

Finally, the Huskers play four quarters.  While the scoreboard might not show it as much, the yardage statistics show a fairly dominating performance.

Offensive Line:  B+  Definitely their best performance of the year, but keep in mind the competition, playing only three linemen.

Running Backs:  B+  Marlon Lucky didn't break many tackles, but the offensive line cleared out enough room to spring Lucky into the clear.  And oh boy, once he does that, is he electric!

Quarterback:  A-  See Joe run for a touchdown, see Joe pass for a touchdown, see Joe catch for a touchdown.  See Joe not turnover the ball.  Well done, Joe.

Wide Receivers:  A-  Some nice blocking, and a nice catch by Mike McNeill (or should I say a nice acrobatic move at the goal line?  Francis Allen would be proud!)  I'm starting to wonder if they've run the wide receiver screen into the ground.  They're setting something up here.

Defensive Line:  B+  Another good day, though I worry about the injury to Pierre Allen.  Zach Potter was all over the place again yesterday.

Linebackers:  B  Against the Aggies, the linebackers were out of the game quite a bit for extra help in the secondary.

Secondary:  B  OK, they're still thin due to injury.  (I wonder how many people asked "Who the heck is Lance Thorell?" in the first quarter!)  But they held up reasonably well against the spread offense of New Mexico State.  Problem is, they'll soon be facing the spread offenses of Missouri and Texas Tech.

Coaching:  A  When the Aggies started the game by direct snapping to wide receiver Wes Neiman and started running zone read, the defense was back on it's heels.  But after Zach Potter blocked a field goal attempt, the defensive staff spent extra time making adjustments that helped shut that down.  That just wouldn't have happened with the previous regime.

Overall:  B+  Good performance all over.  Effort continues to be there every week, and mistakes are becoming fewer and fewer.  "Day by Day, we get better and better!"

Elsewhere in College Football

USC:  A+  What else is there to say?

Ohio State:  D  OK, you're probably good enough to compete in the Big MAC.  Terrelle Pryor is going to be a playmaker for you down the line.

ESPN:  0  Please stop hyping up games like last night's before you lose what little credibility you have left.

Pac Ten:  F  Yeah, you have USC.  But what about the rest of the conference?  Only other victories were Oregon State (over Hawaii) and Oregon (over Purdue).  Here's who beat the Pac 10:  Baylor, Maryland, TCU, UNLV, BYU, Oklahoma, New Mexico.  Other than the Sooners and maybe BYU, you've got to be ashamed of yourself.  USC fans can probably start booking flights and hotels on South Beach.

Big MAC: D-  Penn State had a nice win, as did Wisconsin.  But a whole lot of ugly.

Buffalo: A  Turner Gill's bunch gets a bunch of publicity for a nice last second win...but up next is a date with Mizery.

What's to overreact to tonight? We went out and played a good game against an opponent we should easily beat and we did.

Okay, I'll admit it, I didn't buy the game this time around because I'm cheap, and because I didn't think it'd be worth buying. I was right. I like that. If you have the game and you'd like to make it available to me, I would greatly appreciate it.

- New Mexico State scored. Well, they were bound to sooner or later. Another Osborne streak broken. Bring the torches!!!! Aarggh!!! (That's sarcasm, just to be clear, okay?)

- Penalties for pass interference. Let's face it, the refs are starting to call things like they do in the NFL. It's pass interference if you oggle a guy for more than two seconds if the ball is in the air.

- Hopefully Pierre Allen isn't injured too badly and thank goodness we have two weeks before the nastiness comes in the new few weeks.

- Did you get the feeling that you were going to be called to go in the game? I did. Well, except that my cell phone rang out of batteries. Damn. So many guys played, and not just in walking on the field for a play.

- Post game pre-conference question: "Is there anyting we didn't do well tonight?"
Pelini: We let them score.

That's good perspective, it's time to go back to work. We won, enjoy it, but the hard part of the schedule is ahead.

Feels good, doesn't it?

Game Time: 11:30 AM Central

Television: Pay Per View Information

Internet-Streaming Audio: KRNU, Huskers.com
Radio:  Affiliates

Live Stats: Huskers.com

Stories: Keys to Victory, Preview

Husker Items of Interest: 

Steve Sipple echos what we've been saying all week about the return of Lydon Murtha and the need for a dominant offensive line.

DE Pierre Allen gets his first career start today due to Barry Turner's injury. What's interesting? Who else will fill in the rotation?

Not exactly a rousing rah-rah bit for NMSU from Las Cruces, but astute in it's observations.

I'll start linking to the Omaha World Herald when their online edition provides consistent links. They're doing better in coverage, a lot better, but holy cow does their web publishing system suck.

Today's TV Schedule - Watchya Watching? 

I'm opening this up early to allow comments on early games. There are a bunch of compelling games, starting with last night's South Florida - Kansas tilt. What a game - I do not think I'll be dropping KU much even though they lost. USF's DE Selvie was just phenomenal in that game, unblockable and a game changing performance.

Iowa State versus Iowa - on the Big Ten Network. SB Nation features Black Heart, Gold Pants for Iowa fans, and Clone Chronicles for Iowa State fans.

Nevada at Mizzou - more interesting than first glance because it will show us whether or not the Tiger defense can stop anyone.

I'll be watching Notre Dame vs Michigan if for no other reason than to watch Jimmy Clausen suck it.

Georgia Tech vs Virginia Tech will tell us how much of a fight the Hokies are going to put up in our next game.

Then there's Oklahoma at Washington. Oklahoma should clobber them but I haven't had the chance to see the Sooners yet this season. Are they worthy of a top five ranking?

I'm going to be sick of hearing about Beanie Wells and the USC - Ohio State match up by the time the game ends. They're really pumping this one to the point that if the Buckeyes get destroyed it will REALLY damage their credibility in big games.

That's most of my line up for the day, including some flipping around.

Most of the sites linked above are SB Nation blogs. They'll be running game day threads, and to comment requires a SB Nation account. The good news is that it's a single account across all the sites. Join us and annoy your rivals.

New Mexico State and Nebraska have played twice. The Cornhuskers have scored 125 points, the Aggies have scored none. Nebraska piled up 1452 total yards in two games. What does this tell us? First off, I highly doubt that shutout streak stays intact, secondly The Triplets were amazing and finally when will athletic directors learn to schedule decent non-conference teams?

Looking at New Mexico State is much how I would imagine The Incredible Hulk looks at a puppy. Given, Hal Mumme’s offensive Frankenstein has sat in Las Cruces for a while now, however I don’t think that they pose as much of a threat as San Jose State. Kyle Reed and his boys were players, SJSU did the smart thing by daring Nebraska to pass and looked mighty close to doing something to shock the Husker Nation in game two. With that behind us, let’s talk game three:

- This is it. If Nebraska cannot establish a running game with Lydon Murtha back at the wheel then things are going to go poorly. If Marlon Lucky cannot find holes between the tackles and be rewarded for his patience, bad things will happen. If Roy Helu has to rely on his God-given talents only, it ain’t pretty and if Cody Glenn could duct tape the football to his hand, that’d be just great.

Point is that there needs to be organization amongst the offensive line and I certainly hope that cohesion was found within the past seven days because it only gets tougher from here on out. New Mexico State offers up the ability to slice and dice for the running backs, but it’s the last sure one we’ll see. Without a decent line in front of them, “Eight in the Box” is the code to cracking Shawn Watson’s offensive safe.

- Ganz, you’re a good kid. We like you already. Stop trying to be a damn hero every time you touch the football. As much as we all love a 25 yard pick up on the ground or a 60-yard catch, it doesn’t need to happen all the time plus turnovers and injuries do and will occur as a result. Joe Ganz should be able to be part of the atmosphere not the life of the party.  

He went up against quality corners last week admittedly, but when you throw one right into the breadbasket, “forcing it” just doesn’t really do the action justice. Makes it worse when you do it and it goes right to a defensive lineman (ha ha). Again, we go back to the offensive line. If they do their job, the backs get theirs, Joe get his and oh, believe me, Husker fans, we get ours.

- With Barry Turner more than likely gone, we’ve seen Pierre Allen do some great things. Ndamukong Suh had a monster game against the Spartans, Zach and Ty have been serviceable. That said, the line needs to assert themselves more. I’m not suggesting they haven’t been trying to go smashmouth, but they need to play smart, keep their heads on a swivel and all four need to make plays when necessary. Most importantly, Allen needs to plant himself where Turner was. He could quite possibly show Barry up and that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

- Cody Glenn needs to revert back to Western Michigan and bring the linebackers with him. I expect to see Sean Fisher this week in a non-special teams roll as well. I noticed that we don’t hear much about Phil Dillard. I believe that to be a good thing at least in pass coverage terms.

- Pass coverage you say? It’s time to find a combination that works. There are quality, talented individuals in the backfield and if the fire has to be stoked for a little baptism, it’s about that time. Chase Daniel and the Big XII slate will eat the Cornhusker secondary for breakfast and finish the front seven off for dinner if safety play cannot be shorn up and assignments locked in most of the time.

In summary, folks, it’s time for NU to nut up or shut up. This should for all intents and purposes be the scrimmage that many felt San Jose State should’ve been. It’s game three, it’s time for some of this stuff to sink in and plug holes in the dyke. I look for a sizable Nebraska win and while the Cornhuskers may not keep NMSU off the board, I expect them to keep the Aggies far away from confidence.

New Mexico State was originally slated to play a game against Nicholls State last week, but that game was postponed because of hurricane Gustav. It’s now been cancelled due to damage to the Nicholls State stadium, but the key is that the Aggies come into Lincoln having not played a game.

Coach Hal Mumme arrived in 2005, and by now will have replaced the option-based players with his own guys, so if there was to be a turn-around expected this would be the season. Mumme established a name for himself at Kentucky where he coached from 1997-2000, but ran into problems with the NCAA at the end of his tenture. He was forced to serve time as a head coach in a lower division before he was allowed to return to Division IA with New Mexico State.

Three coaches from Mumme’s staff became head coaches - Mike Leach at Texas Tech, Guy Morriss who succeeded him at Kentucky and then became the head man at Baylor, and Chris Hatcher, current head coach at Georgia Southern.

Interesting to note that the previous Aggie coach was former Husker Tony Samuel who ran an option-based offense at NMSU. (Samuel is now struggling at last week’s Mizzou foe, SE Missouri.) Barney Cotton, Marvin Sanders, and Jeff Jamrog were assistant coaches under Samuel during his stint at NMSU.

Mumme is known for his "Air Raid" offense and much like Texas Tech under Mike Leach, NMSU will throw the ball. Then they’ll throw the ball some more and some more after that, averaging over 50 passes a game.

The Aggies have a decent combination for success with quarterback Chase Holbrook  and wide receiver AJ Harris. Holbrook is a big guy at 6’ 5", 230 lbs, and he finished second in passing yardage in Division IA last season, throwing for 4,619 yards. He completed just over 705 of his passes, with a 34-9 touchdown to interception ratio.  He is not a mobile guy, but a traditional pocket passer. Harris caught 81 balls in 2007 and has caught 190 over the past three years, making him one of the more succesful receivers in Aggie history.

If that sounds imposing, consider that NMSU is 2-18 all time against Big 12 teams, the only wins coming against Kansas in 1988 (snicker) and (of course) Iowa State in 1983. The Aggies have played Nebraska twice before, losing both - a 57-0 nailbiter in 1979 and 68-0 in 1982.

The Aggies run a 3-3-5 defense, meaning three down linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs. Rumored to be a great defense against the spread (as if there is such a thing) with the right personnel (as is true for any defense), it should present an opportunity for the Cornhuskers to establish a strong running game.

The problem with the 3-3-5 is defensive speed -  if the Aggies put eight guys "in the box" most of them will be smaller and quicker than our linemen. This translates to little pulling or trapping with a heavy reliance on zone blocking, i.e., blocking the man in front of you. We’ll see a defense that moves around a lot before the snap, so that's not as easy as it sounds. Specifically, the line must make good decisions so they don't end up double-teaming a defensive lineman while another remains unblocked. This is key to a running game that must become more consistent as through two games the Huskers are averaging 37.5% on third-down conversions.

Lydon Murtha will start for the first time this season at right tackle and if he’s bought into Pelini’s program we should see a high level of aggression from him. Murtha is the type of player that can anchor the right side of the line - combine his size and athleticism with Slauson and the Husker should be unstoppable on the right side. Whether or not they will remains to be seen, but the physical, brutal, dominating mentality must be brought out of them and the Aggies are a perfect opponent against which to do it.

One thing you can count on - New Mexico State will score this time in Lincoln. Defense appears to be optional for most teams these days and Nebraska is no exception. Two points of interest for the defense - the Husker defensive line playing against a team that lives (or dies) off pass blocking. Can Suh and Steinkuhler explode the middle like they've done in previous games? That and given the Aggies propensity to throw the ball, I’ll be watching to see how many defensive backs Pelini puts on the field at any one time.

NMSU is another vastly inferior team that’s coming to Lincoln for a body bag game. Like the first two games of the season, this game will be available on FSN Pay Per View. After last week’s sloppy play, I wonder how much interest there will be in this game. It is a chance to see if Nebraska has improved, particularly in offensive and defensive consistency, but won’t be much of a game. I said the same about San Jose State, but the fact that the Aggies haven’t played a game is a huge difference. 

Still, if we struggle with the Aggies, prepare to adjust your expectations lower than you already have.