Take yourself back to August. You'd been reading the sticky-sweet gooeyness that is offseason Husker football coverage for several months, and the 2009 team had yet to play a game. You were sure Nebraska would win the Big 12 North. Maybe you thought the team was capable of more than that, maybe not. But I can almost guarantee you that if I had told you we'd be playing Kansas State for the Big 12 North title and that they'd have a better offense than the Huskers, you'd have thought my credibility was zero and never visited this site again unless you were looking for a good laugh.
Yet here we are with a questionable offense. And so is Kansas State.
The Husker offense has struggled much more than even the grumblers predicted. With two regular season games left, we're still not sure what might show up this Saturday. Given Kansas State's pass defense, you'd hope that Zac Lee can find Niles Paul on deep routes like he did against the Jayhawks. Consistency is what we'll be looking for this week - more offensive production, as Shawn Watson mentioned last week.
A win against the Wildcats is not a given. KSU has been one of the weirder teams in the nation this season, losing to Louisiana-Lafayette in September, and then in consecutive weeks giving up 66 points in a loss to Texas Tech while coming back to destroy Texas A&M, scoring 62 points in the process.
Offensive Statistics
| Nebraska | Kansas State | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rush YPG | 152.40 (57/6) | 183.55 (31/3) | |
| Rush YPC | 4.43 (48/3) | 4.30 (52/4) | |
| Rush TDS | 16 (56/7) | 22 (17/2) | |
| Pass YPG | 200.9 (82/9) | 170.9 (105/12) | |
| Pass YPA | 7.0 (71/9) | 7.1 (65/8) | |
| Pass TDS | 13 (71/9) | 7 (111/12) | |
| Pass Efficiency | 127.50 (67/8) | 124.54 (78/10) | |
| Total Offense | 353.3 (77/11) | 354.5 (75/3) |
Defensive Statistics
| Nebraska | Kansas State | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rush YPG | 93.90 (8/4) | 105.82 (23/6) | |
| Rush YPC | 2.72 (6/3) | 3.67 (42/7) | |
| Rush TDS | 6 (9/3) | 9 (23/4) | |
| Pass YPG | 185.2 (26/3) | 240.7 (90/10) | |
| Pass YPA | 5.4 (6/3) | 7.0 (56/9) | |
| Pass TDS | 4 (1/1) | 24 (115/12) | |
| Total Defense | 279.1 (10/3) | 346.5 (47/6) | |
| Scoring Defense | 11.0 (3/1) | 23.9 (59/8) |
Opponent Statistical Ranks
| Total Offense Rank | Nebraska Opponent | Total Defense Rank | Total Offense Rank | Kansas State | Total Defense Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Florida Atlantic | 111 | - | Umass | - | |
| 96 | Arkansas State | 53 | 83 | UL-Lafayette | 93 | |
| 62 | @Virginia Tech | 16 | 84 | UCLA | 37 | |
| 83 | UL-Lafayette | 93 | - | Tennessee Tech | - | |
| 55 | @Missouri | 39 | 67 | Iowa State | 92 | |
| 6 | Texas Tech | 54 | 6 | Texas Tech | 54 | |
| 67 | Iowa State | 92 | 8 | Texas A&M | 104 | |
| 81 | @Baylor | 91 | 105 | Colorado | 73 | |
| 21 | Oklahoma | 6 | 21 | Oklahoma | 6 | |
| 27 | Kansas | 52 | 27 | Kansas | 52 | |
| 55 | Missouri | 39 | ||||
| 51.3 | Average | 60.7 | 50.67 | Average | 61.11 |
- UMass and Tennesee Tech are Div IAA (FCS) opponents, so are not included in the stats.
- More about how funny a season goes. Back in June, I stated that Kansas State's two primary strengths were schedule and pass defense. Schedule has played a double-edged sword. While the two games against FCS foes were wins that gave the Wildcats some confidence, the Wildcats can only count one towards bowl eligibility. They must win this weekend to become bowl eligible, so if they lose, Bill Snyder's legendary desire for cupcakes may come back to bite them.
- What happened to the Wildcat secondary? If you watched the Kansas State - Missouri game last week, you saw a Wildcat defense consistently give up the long pass. You might have thought that was because Mizzou's Danario Alexander played like a Randy Moss look-alike, but instead it's because the Wildcats secondary has been pretty bad this season.
- Both teams like to run the ball and both teams will have a tough time doing so. Nebraska has the advantage (obviously) in that they can toss some deep balls to soften up the defense. Kansas State may hope to do the same in hitting Brandon Banks for a big play here or there, but most likely they're just going to try to slug it out on the ground and hope that Nebraska commits mistakes (as we have most of the season).
- The Husker national ranking for rushing touchdowns went from 73 to 56 after scoring 31 points against Kansas. That's a healthy jump. The 56th ranking isn't earth-shattering by any means but if it can continue to improve the Huskers still have a shot at an incredible season.
- We'll have more statistics tomorrow, looking at some more of the esoteric stuff.