Akron: What did we learn?

Through 2 games Nebraska's secondary has only given up 131 total passing yards and 0 TDs. For comparison, Lateef threw for 128 yards on 7 passes last night.

Sorsby threw for 333 and 3 TDs in Cincinnati's decisive win over Bowling Green yesterday. He'll likely play on Sundays.
 
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I learned the only player lost to the portal NU will miss is Dowdell. Ironically, he's still a #2 back. As an aside, the only player NU lost that improved his situation is Williams (although he's still a specialist masquerading as a starter) , and most lost ground.

I like the look of the young backs, but like a lot of the young talent NU displayed last night, they look like they need another year in the weight room, & nobody looks like a legit short yardage option. The other things I learned last night are that Mozee is a dog and Lateef has some juice. Those guys will be fun to watch in time.

Schematically, I really like what Butler is doing, he just doesn't have the anchors of Ty & Nash. Eckler still looks like as important a hire as Holgerson. Last thing I learned, I no longer expect NU to miss routine field goals, or self-destruct every time Teams take the field. Even though kickoff/kick coverage still has plenty of room for improvement.
 
Akron is not a good team, but I got to say Ben Finley might be a good QB. He avoided the rush well when pressure came, he scrambled modestly on broken plays, and knew when to get rid of it to go to the next play. But you know what, he put so many passes in tight windows right on his receivers hands and so many were dropped. He reminded me of Aidan O’Connell a while back where no matter the coverage or pressure he just kept putting the ball right where it needed to be. The difference, Akron receivers are not good or just had the collective game of misery. I was shocked by the number of passes that are tough catches, but hit their hands, and they just kept dropping them.

I like the heart our backup RB’s showed. They want to fight for their role. I am starting to think our Oline might not have all the tools to mesh well as a legit power run team. Akron had folded by the time we broke off some good runs and it mostly came from Nelson and Mo fighting for their role late in a blowout.

Our passing game is good. Barney might only be our third best receiver. Insane saying that after last year.

Lateef looks like Taylor Martinez, but with a cannon for an arm. The drop step on the defender in the open field was just nasty.

Our defense played with some fire. You could tell the players were going scorched earth attempting to get two safeties in the first quarter. We have some scheme/size issues that will eventually cause us to lose games, but I think our passing defense is pretty darn good. Looking through the schedule, it could be a while before our secondary gets a real challenge.

After seeing Cincy smash a MAC team, I think our team might be pretty good. Outside of like 5ish or so teams, there are not a lot of complete teams this year. Sorsby might have been one of the better QBs we face this year until we get to Allar.
 
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We will get gashed during B1G play. Our run defense is not good.
If Raiola can do ball control thru our dink and dunk offense, it’ll help. But overall, our defense cannot hold up against a good run game.
 
I will say that our defensive front 7 looks pretty skinny. Is that just me?

Like, we reloaded with guys with the hybrid body type that Princewill and Jamari Butler have, but they look too light.

At rover, Singleton seemed to tackle well last night. But again same thing for him; I just don't know if he's really big enough for that role.

Seems like we're setting ourselves up to have to play man coverage with our safeties and keep the bodies close to the line to play the run down the stretch. Which scares me.
 
Dylan’s accuracy in hitting receivers in stride at the chest was pretty sweet last night. I don’t know if everyone realizes how well he spun the ball (even if it was against a less than stellar team. I hope we see that Dylan (and pass protection) against Michigan.

I really like the receiving core. Such an upgrade over last year and they seem to have a professional attitude out there. It’s nice to see NU not having to be reliant on one receiver to be the go to guy. Great job to the coaching staff getting that room filled with talent.

Getting chunk run plays and seeing RB’s taking it to the house I’m sure gives them all some needed confidence. I know people were bagging on Mozee last week, but that kid has some open field skills that will play well for the next couple of years.

The OR’s/back up’s played hard and were genuinely fired up to be on the field and making plays when the game was already a blowout. They weren’t just going through the motions. To me, that’s a sign of program developing an attitude.

I don’t care how bad Akron is. NU did what they wanted to do, got extended playing time for the back up’s who also performed well, and have us all a game we haven’t seen in many years. And some fans still aren’t happy about it. LOL.

I do wish the defensive run game tightened up and the offensive goal line run game was dominate yesterday. Those would be my two areas of opportunity for improvement in an otherwise stellar performance.

It’s a bummer the Michigan game wasn’t next week! Houston Christian gonna be another snooze fest, but does a present the opportunity for the first string to work on saying locked in and getting some more needed playing time for the next set of Husker starters.

Oh, and I made the same comment last night to the people I watched the game with as someone here on the board….some program is gonna throw a lot of money at Lateef in the winter. Hope he stays
 
Hard to tell as it was Akron. As @Undone said our front appears to be on the light side. I didn't appreciate Ty and Nash as much when they were here. Easy to see now how much they did.

Bottom line, for me, is we finally opened a can of whoop a$$ on an inferior opponent and took them behind the woodshed and left them there. No let up. Killer instinct was activated. Played to win and "not to lose"

I liked that a ton of guys got experience. I liked that we didn't "hide" the playbook for conference games. The DR RPO run comes to mind. Put a lot of stuff on film for DC's to game plan.

ST's will actually win us a game or 2 this year.

We have some dogs. Hope we can keep them.

I like DR rolling out of the pocket on his throws.

WR room upgrade obvious.

Still need to get physical at the LOS on running plays. Not getting 6 this game or last week when it's "X and goal to go" is concerning. Won't get easier moving forward.

Great to be on the giving end of the sh!t kicking instead of receiving end.
 
The Dude said:
I'm very excited about Lateef's potential, but it's also difficult to not automatically worry about losing him to the portal. If any of you are rich, now would be the time to give him an NIL deal.
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Exactly you know teams are going to be calling for him after the season offering money to come play for their program and another valuable point is how long does he want to be a backup for us if DR sticks around for 2 more years at least? I hope we don't lose him after the season.
 
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