| The Big Ten Revenge Saturday finishes up in Lincoln where Nebraska attempts to avenge a 2017 loss to Northern Illinois that made Mike Riley's departure inevitable. Granted a lot of the shine of this night game was taken away last Saturday, when Colorado completed a fourth quarter comeback for the second straight year, to complete the series sweep of the Huskers. It revealed a lot of the problems Nebraska had last year when facing any offense better than Michigan State/Bethune-Cookman (and I'm not sure which one was worse). After shutting the Buffs down for nearly 3 quarters (0 points and 134 total yards), the Huskers defense imploded and surrendered 34 points and 323 yards over the final 16 minutes plus overtime. They did make it abundantly clear that Maurice Washington is playing, absent a jail sentence without work release. Washington is clearly the best toy Adrian Martinez has to work with, with 77 rushing yards on 5.1 ypc and 4 receptions for 118 yards. JD Spielman also showed up, but a couple more guys need to step up for this offense to work at max capacity. Georgia Tech transfer Dedrick Mills has been horrible in both games. Freshman Wan'Dale Robinson has been very good, and I hate to ask for more than 6 receptions for a freshman through his first two games, but he's got the talent to deliver. New Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock declared Cal transfer Ross Bowers the starter over returning starter Marcus Childers, who was MAC Freshman of the Year in 2017, and won a MAC title last year. Tough crowd. He hasn't done much to warrant winning the job thus far, but he's working behind an offensive line that returned three starters, but they two they lost were both NFL Draftees. Yes, Utah has a fantastic defense, but this line isn't doing anything right now, ranking in the bottom ten of the FBS both in power run blocking and sack rate. There's a chance for the Nebraska front to regain some confidence. So how has Northern Illinois won one game, and gave #13 Utah everything they wanted on the road? A defense that is just as feisty as ever. Problem is Nebraska's weakness is too many big negative plays. They are #127 in the FBS in sack rate allowed, which is part on the line, and part on Martinez' propensity to hold the ball too long. Northern Illinois plays sound, low pressure defense. They aren't built to attack Martinez, and the Husker offense is too good to sit back and trust your stuff, when you still have MAC talent. |