Nebraska Football Prepares For Michigan

Here’s something amazing.

The Nebraska football team practiced today. They did not run away and hide in their lockers. This might be because most of them are very large people and could not fit in their lockers, but they could have hid somewhere else and did not.

Eric Chinander talked about his defense.

“You can look at some things and say it was good,” he said. “They had four first downs in the first half, two of them from penalties. The 17 points we gave up on defense…they were all assignment errors.” Chinander said. “Positively, we had a couple sacks. We had an interception. We played good against the run most of the day but you can’t make those mistake. Especially when there is a backup quarterback in or a new quarterback, whether it is Adrian [Martinez’s] first game or the backup is in. You have to be pretty perfect on defense and we weren’t.”

Bottom line - they’re going to have to play some pretty good defensive ball to stand a chance against Michigan. Right now the Wolverines are third in conference in scoring offense at 37 points per game. Nebraska is 13th in the same category, with 23.5 per game.

Nebraska’s offense is struggling, obviously, and their chances of scoring a lot of points against Michigan without help from the defense is not so good (am I being too kind?). As much as they needed perfection against Troy, they’ll need it ever moreso against the evil Wolverines.

Chinander talked about the versatility of the Michigan offense.

“Obviously Michigan is going to be a different game than we have seen the last few weeks,” Chinander said. “They bring a lot of big boys at you. I think you have to take care of them running the football. You have to have a good plan to defend the run but also get those defensive backs in a spot where they can defend the deep ball.”

Pound the rock, pound the rock, Bombs Away, is a phrase Chinander used here, alluding to Harbaugh’s preference for a more traditional pro offense. I would think that this offense is easier to defend against, but the mentality of pressing and trying to win your first game of the season will make those play-action passes more intriguing than they would be otherwise.

Michigan is currently favored by 18 points. Yay.

I’ve seen some comments from fans who’ve stated they won’t be watching this week. That won’t be me. I still want to watch a young team grow up, and that’s what this season is. That’s what this season was always going to be.

Aaron Williams earned a Blackshirt this week. Good for him.