Hey gang!
Been a long time since I was on HuskerBoard. Lost my password to my previous account (It'sNotaFakeID), so I'm back here on a new account.
Anyways - I've had a hard time shaking the feeling that Rhule's first game was just a lower scoring version of Frost's first game against Colorado. A lot to be excited about but at the end the plays weren't made and the end result was a 1-score loss. That being said, I was encouraged by how the defense played. It seemed the front filled lanes, got pressure. Aside from Hartzog, the coverage was pretty solid and I thought Omar Brown had a great game. Special teams was a big improvement. Alvano was 1/1 on XPs and 1/1 on FGs and the kicks actually looked like they should. Each of Buschini's punts ended up inside the 20, punt and kickoff coverage were solid, and we had a big return.
The offense is the unit that concerns me most after last night. That said, Simms is a solid runner. I thought the line started to wear on Minnesota as the game went on, which opened up some big opportunities for the run game. We need to find some speed at receiver as no one really got any separation last night.
And ultimately, Simms needs to go through his progression, even if that progression is just to a secondary target. On every one of his 19 attempts he was starting down is primary option and it cost them dearly. He missed the TE on the goal line before the half, instead throwing a back-breaking INT. He moved the safety to his where he threw it on the interception late in the 4th quarter. I think if he can get to a secondary option, he will be at least 3x more dangerous.