Huskers in the NFL Week 2

Week 2 of the NFL season was a rough one for our former Huskers as we saw Nick Gates go down with a season ending leg fracture to start the weekend off. From there several former Huskers were limited in their playing time or inactive. That being said we still did get some strong performances and even a reappearance of a dominant Ndamukong Suh.

Husker of the Week

Ndamukong Suh, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Against the Falcons we got to see dominant Suh as his one sack and two quarterback hurries didn’t tell how truly devastating he was all game long. Snap in and out Suh trashed the Falcons offensive line putting pressure on Matt Ryan on passing downs and even chasing him down from behind to prevent him from scrambling for a first down.

Good Game

Andy Janovich, Cleveland Browns

Janovich may have only played 11 total snaps on offense and only had two carries, but he made the most of them. It was Janovich who scored the first touchdown of the game on a one yard gain, powering his way to the goal line for the score.

Lavonte David, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Sunday’s game against Atlanta meant that we got to see David tasked with covering 4th overall pick Kyle Pitts for the first time. Now David has had success against Travis Kelce and some struggles against Darren Waller, so this match up was worth the watch. Now David didn’t cover him the entire game but held his own, giving up only a couple of catches and none of them were touchdowns. Outside of this battle David had another solid game finishing with 8 total tackles in the Bucs dominant win.

Solid Game

Cethan Carter, Miami Dolphins

As the pseudo fullback, Carter was on the field for the Dolphins first offensive snap, but after that he only saw the field 15 more times. One of those plays Carter was actually thrown the ball and made a tough catch holding on despite two defenders delivering a crushing hit that popped his helmet off. Thankfully Carter was OK.

Sam Koch, Baltimore Ravens

In the Ravens/Chiefs shootout on Sunday night there wasn’t much of a need for Koch to punt. But when he did it was another stellar night. With only two punts Koch averaged 47.5 yards and put the Chiefs back to the 11 yard line on his first. Koch did try to sell a running into the kicker on his second attempt but couldn’t win the Emmy.

Rough Game

Nick Gates, New York Giants

Gates was in the news leading up to the Giants Thursday night game as they slid him over to left tackle to replace the injured Shane Lemieux. But Gates’ night unfortunately didn’t last long as he was rolled up on and suffered a nasty leg break ending his season. Tough moment for Gates who was in his second year as a starter and seemed to be coming into his own at center. We hope for a full recovery so Gates can get back out there and get into fights once again.

Maliek Collins, Houston Texans

Playing against one of the best offensive lines and running back duos in the NFL, Collins and the Texans had their hands full. Collins struggled to get pressure on Baker Mayfield and couldn’t at times to get off blocks to make tackles. Collins finished with only two tackles but one of them was a tackle for loss on third down that limited the Browns to a field goal.

Limited Snaps

Matt Farniok and Luke Gifford, Dallas Cowboys

Both Cowboys only played on special teams. Farniok on field goal and extra point units while Gifford was on the coverage units where he didn’t register a single tackle.

Rex Burkhead, Houston Texans

For a second straight week Burkhead was barely used in their game against Cleveland. In his 11 snaps on offense he wasn’t given a single carry or targeted in the passing game. We’ll see if Burkhead can get more work as the season moves forward but in a loaded backfield with Mark Ingram, David Johnson and Phillip Lindsey doesn’t bode too well.

Jack Stoll, Philadelphia Eagles

After a strong opening week game, Stoll’s snap count was cut in half from 12 to 6. Offensively Stoll was used more as a blocker but was Johnny on the spot to recover a fumble on a sack. Stoll did register his first tackle of his NFL career on special teams.

Stanley Morgan, Cincinnati Bengals

Only playing on special teams, Morgan had a bit of a quiet day on the coverage units. Morgan’s only tackle came when he pushed the returner out of bounds. On the bright side for Morgan is the Bengals punt and kick units only allowed one return the entire game. So Morgan had 100% of the coverage tackles.

Ameer Abdullah, Minnesota

Last week we saw Abdullah have the second most snaps of any of the Vikings running backs, but against the Cardinals Ameer was kept on the bench for all but one offensive snap. On that one snap Abdullah was targeted on a key third down pass but it was an off target throw.

Inactive or Did Not Play

Carlos Davis, Pittsburgh Steelers
Richie Incognito, Las Vegas Raiders
Brenden Jaimes, Los Angeles Chargers
Khalil Davis, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Randy Gregory, Dallas Cowboys - Covid

Practice Squad

Lamar Jackson, New York Jets
Dedrick Mills, Detroit Lions
Dicaprio Bootle, Kansas City
Devine Ozigbo, Jacksonville
Nate Gerry, San Francisco 49ers
Chris Jones, Tennessee Titans