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Iowa State 2007

No, I am not an expert – and yes, there are Husker fans in NYC.

I caught most of this game on my cell phone, and updates on scoring from my dad. See, the only college football in this part of the country is Rutgers football. I scored a ticket and ended up watching more of my phone (live ESPN updates) than the game in front of me. As Rutgers proceeded to drop their national title hopes, I was pleased to see the defense make some plays. “Rudd runs interception back for touchdown – 93 yds” – did I read that right?

This weekend hopefully has reassured Husker Nation that things aren’t as bad as it may seem. We can all can some perspective this week. After Rutgers lost its game to Maryland, their fans were actual happy afterwards. Because, “anytime we compete with a “Maryland” it’s a good day.” You all do realize that you came in ranked 10th, right? With Colorado and the Kitty Cats handing the big bad wolves of the South defeats, I’m not sure if I should cheer (reestablished North dominance?) - or become very, very concerned about our chances at winning the North.

Defense: With the Cyclones coming into Lincoln and racking up 400+ yards of offense, there is little to be excited about. However, this was not the same defensive effort that we saw against USC and Ball State. There were no gapping holes or continual bombardment of long pass plays. That is reassuring. Our offense primarily set our defense up for these stats as we progressively lost ball after ball during the first half. It was great to see a series of black shirts in our crowd for this game. We saw some big performances from both Rudd and Grixby. It’s great to see senior leadership taking a role in what everyone hopes is a ‘reawaking’ of our Blackshirts.

However, I can understand our confusion on defense. Everything works against us, so we have nothing to identify as an area of improvement. End arounds (Wake), running up the gut (USC), play action bombs (Ball State), and slant passes (Iowa State). There is not really one area that Cos and company can identify as the issue, and then fix.

Offense: Anyone remember when we had to wait until late November to see the newest ‘trick play’ from Osborne and crew against Oklahoma? Ah, those were the days. Lucky’s 20 yard touchdown pass to Hill reminded me of how far we have come since then. Iowa State’s defense did not really stop us at any point. We really stopped ourselves with a lack of consistent execution. Multiple drops (Nunn/Hardy), fumbles (Lucky/Glenn), and missed opportunities (Smokin’ Sammy thinks he can run it in). I have the same concerns as most. Our running game needs a breakout performance superstar, similar to Jackson last year. I love Lucky, but he must learn to break the first tackle! That could make this a scary offense. Smokin’ Sammy looks brilliant and may will us to 10 victories this year.

While we do not have the front 7 of last year’s defense, we do have an offense that can move the football quickly. This team would have beaten Oklahoma State last year in Stillwater.

Our Team: The only half this year where we have performed on all cylinders was the second half against Nevada. Other than that, various parts of the team decide to show up. Every year we seem to go through this gestation period over the non-conference schedule where there are breakdowns from different parts of the team. Last year, it was the offense that needed to step up, and Brandon Jackson took the lead on bringing the offense to the next level. This year, it is the reverse. We need a strong leader to show up and take this defense to the next level that was not originally identified as one the producers to begin the season. Is that Dillard? Suh? I would preferably like to see one of our front four take on this challenge. Suh, Potter, Turner, Ty – all have an opportunity to step up and be that guy.

Up Next: With an October schedule that looks intense, I hope we can start putting together some complete games, starting next week at Missouri. Chase will not make the same mistakes that Bret made on Saturday. Our best hope is to control the line of scrimmage on offense and keep their offensive horses off the field. If we have a similar result with Missouri that we just saw with Iowa State, we will not win the game. We will need a strong performance from our offensive line if we are to come out of Columbia with a win. I really feel like we need the Missouri win to establish ourselves as a Top 25 football team.

With the results across the country this week, we must gain a better perspective about the current “State of the Husker Union”. Yes, we are not a national title contender this year. But consider this: the only teams with more total victories in the history of college football through Saturday are Michigan (863), Notre Dame (821), and Texas (817) - (Huskers are 814). Anyone want to go over how these programs have faired this year? Listening to a Top 10 team’s fan base get excited about ABC coming into town, and losing, has helped me to appreciate what our program has done for the state.

From the Big Apple – to the Big Red Country…

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