Mostly sweet...a little sour

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

NE Statepaper

 

If you could draw up an ideal season-opener for Nebraska’s football team, well, you got it.

 

A romp over Florida Atlantic. Plenty of excitement on offense - most of it courtesy of junior running back Roy Helu. Three takeaways on defense. A full quarter of experience for the youngest, newest Cornhuskers. And lots of penalties and minor mental breakdowns that didn’t really cost NU, but will keep head coach Bo Pelini plenty busy for the next week.

 

Nebraska fans get to savor the sweet. Pelini, perfectionist that he is, will fixate on the sour.

 

After all, the two-million-dollar man isn’t getting paid to beat FAU. Bo’s getting paid to find and correct the mistakes in a 49-3 win in pursuit of something bigger.

 

“I like some things I saw, but I’m a realist,” Pelini said. “We have a lot to work on.”

 

So what can we really take from Saturday night, other than Florida Atlantic’s pro-style offense is good at rolling up yards but awful at scoring points?

 

*The patchwork offensive line gets a passing grade – for tonight. Left guard Keith Williams didn’t play, and he’s a major piece of the pipeline puzzle. But there were line leaks throughout the night. Roy Helu and Rex Burkhead made a lot out of a little. Twice, it took four tries inside the ten-yard-line to pound home a touchdown on the ground.

 

“It’s an ongoing thing,” offensive line coach Barney Cotton said. “We started a little bit slow, but sometimes that happens your first game. But we got things clicking a little bit.”

The false starts have to go, too. The sooner, the better. Not another half-season of little five-yard cuts into drives.

 

*The secondary looks much more confident. Only one blown assignment, really, on that 38-yard fullback throwback pass, and that seemed to be linebacker Blake Lawrence’s responsibility anyway. Matt O’Hanlon and Ricky Thenarse played especially well. They were in position all night, they broke well on passes over the middle, and O’Hanlon got a pick in center field.

 

Shawn Watson is more spread. Hope you didn’t miss those counters, sweeps and that one veer play NU ran Saturday night. NU even used some two-back runs out of the shotgun, like Texas A&M did two years ago. You’re not watching Florida or anything, but you can see the shotgun running game has evolved during the offseason. Which is good.

“We had some things in the run game,” he said. “We were just a smidgen off here, a smidgen off there. Just little detail things. There were probably some other big runs that could have happened.”

 

The passing game, to us, still looks pretty West Coast-oriented. In upcoming games, Nebraska has to try to use Niles Paul better. If he made so many plays in fall camp and was clearly the No. 1 guy, you need find ways to isolate him in coverage.

 

*Nebraska just might have two quarterbacks. Junior Zac Lee quarterback mostly played well, completing 15 of 22 yards for 213 yards and two touchdowns. He scrambled for a first down, too. He threw several nice passes, including a 29-yard beauty to tight end Mike McNeill.

 

“He managed a really good game,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. “I’m really proud of him. He was really encouraging to the guys…really did a nice job of letting the game come to him.”

 

But true freshman Cody Green looked awfully fast in the fourth quarter. His 49-yard gallop around the right end demands an encore. More than that, Green seemed in control. He commanded the huddle. His footwork was good.

 

“Cody did well,” Watson said, grinning. He left the compliment at that.

 

We’ll go one further: Green earned a first-half drive against Arkansas State. Will Watson give it to him? If not, would Bo Pelini make an executive decision?

 

NU has Will Compton and Sean Fisher for four years. And that might be the best news of the night. The redshirt freshmen linebackers were active, fast and tough. Compton stuck his nose in there on a couple toss plays. Fisher stoned a running back in the flat. Both passed their initial tests with flying colors.

 

“Without a doubt, I feel comfortable,” Compton said. “Just warming up to the older guys, finally getting to know them, knowing they will trust you. My comfort level and communication, across the board, just got better.”

 

[admo]

Mostly accurate and good stuff. Although if the fellas do not drop four passes, Lee is 19 for 22 with more yards. McNeill, Holt and Co. will prolly tell you they should have caught those passes that hit 'em right in the hands.

[ironmike]

Good recap. While there are areas that need shoring up, the guys performed well for the first game. Next week hopefully we'll see some of those things ironed out, i.e, fewer dropped passes, fewer penalties, etc.

 

At least those are things that can be corrected and we're not questioning heart or how hard the guys are playing anymore!

[Enhance]

It was a great game for us last night. I was extremely surprised that we held FAU to 3 points. Granted, we need to work on not letting teams get 358 yards of offense, but it was still pretty solid.

[AllTheGoodNamesAreTaken]

Imagine the damage a fresh Cody green can do against a tired D in the second half of games. I'm excited.

[HankNU]

It was a great game for us last night. I was extremely surprised that we held FAU to 3 points. Granted, we need to work on not letting teams get 358 yards of offense, but it was still pretty solid.

 

 

Teams can get 800 yards and if they only score 3 points, I am fine with that. I will take wins over stats anyday.

[VA Husker Fan]

Disagree. Stats are one indication of how you'll play the rest of the season. Not going to stress over it, but it's not the same as totally shutting an opponent down.