We’re only one game in and I’ve already broken my promise to all of you. I couldn’t even muster up enough strength to write a recap on the Illinois loss. I’m a fan and not quite a Big J Journalist yet. That loss stung and there’s no way to feel good about it.
Everyone has said it, but it truly was the same old story and the same mistakes that have plagued this team under Scott Frost. Penalties, turnovers, and boneheaded moves by both coaches and players are the narrative for this group. The errors were obvious, horrendous special teams play, offensive line play was poor, costly penalties, and the inability to adapt both on offense and defense.
There’s not much else to say, you probably don’t want to keep reading about it and I definitely don’t want to keep talking about it. Let’s move onto Fordham.
The Fordham Rams call the Bronx home and belong to the Patriot League at the FCS level. Nebraska is paying Fordham $500,000 to travel to Lincoln for the game that is now going to be sold out. I’ll keep my subpar jokes about the sell-out streak off the internet.
In my opinion, Nebraska doesn’t have a lot to gain from this game besides a check in the win column. We know that Nebraska will be more talented at every position (or at least we think), which means they should come out and dominate. I’m looking for sharpness out of this team. The offense needs to be able to move the chains and put points up on the board with ease. The defense should be forcing 3 and outs on every possession. The less we can see the punt team the better. The game should truthfully be over by half time and the starters should be done for the day with a Runza in their hands while the rest of the bunch get a little game experience.
Three Things I’m Excited For:
City of Lincoln: It’s been a long time since fans have been allowed back into Memorial Stadium and the city of Lincoln thrives off of Husker sporting events especially football games. I’m a small business guy at heart. Happy for all the Mom and Pop bars, restaurants, and shops to get a ton of foot traffic. Go support your local businesses, folks.
The Kids: The players or the fans? Well, both actually. The players should get a win and get the monkey off their back for the first win of the season. But in all seriousness, there will be roughly 2,000 underprivileged young kids who get to experience a Husker game day and get their first chance to see what Memorial Stadium is actually about. If the tickets had to be purchased, this is at least a cool way to have them get used.
Not Being Sad: This is a personal gain for me and hopefully the rest of you Husker fans. They should win the game and it should (fingers crossed) be out of hand early. If not, well, we might as well end the football program. An 11 am kick-off for a Nebraska win will set up for a great Saturday and enjoyment in watching the rest of the week 1 games.
Three Things I’m Curious About:
Offensive Line: What will this offensive line look like after last week? It will be hard to see drastic improvement given the talent disparity but they need to focus on improving this week. They need to dominate the line of scrimmage and show a physical push in the run game while also keeping the pocket clean. Adrian should have all day to throw.
Special Teams: There were so many embarrassing special teams plays last week. The Cam Taylor-Britt punt return for a safety was laugh-out-loud funny, but he also had another terrible return. Will he be back there to return punts or will it be someone else? Will they stick with Daniel Cerni at punter or will they mix it up? He was horrible last week and for someone who everyone raved about he sure didn’t live up to the hype in his first game. Last but not least was All-Big 10 kicker, Connor Culp who missed two extra points against the Illini. In my opinion, these were all player errors that you can’t blame Frost for. These were all examples of players not doing their job.
Can this team play a clean game? While you would think it wouldn’t be hard, this team has killed themselves with unforced errors. A goal for the game should be no turnovers and keep the penalties to a minimum. We shouldn’t see any silly penalties like an unnecessary holding or late hit. They need to play an efficient game to at least see a little improvement.