Sunday School: It Happened Again?!?!

Blackshirts: Bleached

Husker Running Attack: Humbled

Road to Indianapolis: Blocked

What is it about Bo Pelini teams that they always find that one loss to teams they should not lose to? And it seems to happen just as the feel around the program is getting just about right.

2009: After a brilliant fourth quarter comeback in a rain storm at Missouri, the Huskers come out flat-footed against Texas Tech and follow that up with an embarrassing loss to Iowa State.

2010: As T-Magic is wowing the nation and Texas is falling all over themselves, the Longhorns come in and totally befuddle the Big Red.

Now we can add the Wildcats, the seemingly defense-less Wildcats, to the ledger in 2011.

How does a Nebraska team that was more physical, smarter and faster than Michigan State look like the inferior team in all three categories to Northwestern? Was it, as Taylor Martinez said afterwards, a case of the Huskers looking ahead to Penn State? If so, it goes against everything posted in motivational messages around the Osborne Center and against all logic, because now next week’s Penn State game looks a lot more like the start of a road to the Outback Bowl….or maybe the Gator Bowl.


Taylor Martinez Postgame Audio

It’s easy to claim “hangover” after the emotional effort against the Spartans last week. MSU may have suffered their own in barely overcoming lowly Minnesota. But with both hands firmly on the steering wheel in the driver’s seat to the Legends Division title, Nebraska found a way to take their eyes off the road.

In the first half, it was Nebraska fumbles that killed two sure scoring opportunities. One by, of all people, Rex Burkhead inside the five yard line that had sports writers and fans all gasping “Iowa State, part 2” almost in unison. For Burkhead, it was a crashing down to earth performance that does make you wonder if Nebraska used up their tough Texan the previous week. He did not seem to have that same spring in his step, that same ability to find creases and make the tough yards. Granted, his offensive line did him no favors as running yards had to come on the perimeter because the supposed soft Northwestern interior allowed virtually nothing between the tackles.

But the most disturbing development was the Blackshirt Defense’s complete inability to stop the Wildcats when it mattered most. Twice the Huskers (behind the amazingly accurate Martinez) drove the length of the field for momentum changing scores only to watch the defense, wearing their fancy new practice jerseys, simply give that mojo right back to the Cats. All of it happening with veteran signal caller Dan Persa watching from the sidelines and the Northwestern offense in the hands of Kain Colter.

Early in the fourth, Colter found the swift Jeremy Ebert taking advantage of Nebraska’s carnival secondary for an 81 yard touchdown strike. It was a play where the Huskers were supposed to have double coverage, but in a scenario all too reminiscent of earlier season breakdowns, the second man was nowhere to be found.

But Martinez marched the Huskers right back down the field in a drive where he went 6/9 and rushed for 21 yards capped off by Burkhead’s one yard plunge. The exclamation point was put on the drive by Martinez, who stretched the ball across the line for a successful two-point conversion, putting Nebraska within 3, at 21-18, with 9:00 to play.

So here was Northwestern, a team that had blown second half leads to Illinois and Michigan with no momentum and every reason to fall into its shell and fail once more and what do they do? They punch the ball into the Blackshirts’ gut 13 straight times. Not. One. Pass. The first three plays went 14, 11 and 14 yards then it was methodical four and five yard gains until Colter snuck in from the one with 90 seconds to play. It was textbook tough guy football befitting their coach Pat Fitzgerald, but for the Blackshirts it was humiliating.

Predictably, Pelini had no excuses. He called it a “team loss.” For a program whose bare-minimum expectation was to be playing for the B1G Championship, it could be a fatal blow. Destiny is no longer in their hands. They must regroup and find a way to win on the road at Penn State and Michigan, teams that no doubt will bury their helmets in the soft underbelly of the Nebraska rush defense. Then, if they can somehow go 2-0, the Huskers will have to try and stop Iowa’s Marcus Coker. Even then it may not be enough unless these same Wildcats can pull another upset and stun Sparty Thanksgiving weekend.

After what I saw Saturday afternoon, wishing for another Michigan State loss is the least of Nebraska’s worries.

Nebraska/Northwestern Final Statistics


Bo Pelini Postgame Audio


Pat Fitzgerald Postgame Audio

After the Wisconsin game, the cry from many Husker observers was “feed the ball to Rex Burkhead.” Now after his 35 carry game against Michigan State, we are hearing pleas to give the junior IB a break before the durable Texan wears out. Did we already see a glimpse of that Saturday?

I went to the archives of Husker Max.com to see just how much of a load Burkhead has been carrying in 2011 compare to the best running backs of the last 40 Husker seasons (for ease of research, I only considered rushing attempts, not pass receptions, kick returns, etc.)

As of the Michigan State game, Burkhead has 187 rushing attempts. If factored out to a 12 game season, that means he will have 249 carries at the end of the regular season. Here are the top five most carries per season by Nebraska rushers since 1970.

1)      1994, Lawrence Phillips, 286

2)      1973, Tony Davis, 282

3)      1997, Ahman Green, 278

4)      1983, Mike Rozier, 275

5)      2002, Jammal Lord, 251

6)      2011, Rex Burkhead, 249** (projected)

Out of 630 total plays run by the Nebraska offense, Burkhead’s rushes constitute 29.6% of Nebraska’s offensive snaps. Here are the top 5 percentage of rush attempts/total plays since 1970.

1)      1994, Lawrence Phillips, 31.8%

2)      1988, Ken Clark, 31.4%

3)      1973, Tony Davis, 30.2%

4)      1983, Mike Rozier, 30.0%

5)      1997, Ahman Green, 29.6%

6)      2011, Rex Burkhead, 29.6%** (projected)

Rozier and Green’s legacies at Nebraska are rock solid. Phillips, despite the off-field transgressions, is considered by some to be the most complete back in Husker history. Ken Clark is, in my estimation, one of the most underrated IBs in Nebraska lore and I have previously documented my respect for the toughness of Lord especially through the turmoil of the 2002 season.

It should be noted that the 1983, 1988, 1994, 1997 seasons were 13 game seasons. 2002 was a 14 game season and, most impressively, “Tough” Tony Davis’s 282 carries in 1973 came in a 12 game season. His nickname was well earned.

Burkhead is certainly on pace to be one of the most heavily relied upon rushers in modern Husker history. Is he being “overused?” According to history, he ranks very high, but what is currently being asked of him is not too much to ask if one is to achieve greatness.

One of the casualties of today’s gotta-have-it-now; 30-seconds-to-debate; fast-paced; instant gratification society is a grasp of history. The run up to the much-ballyhooed LSU-Alabama game provided another example.

While debating for points (how does that really work, anyway?) on ESPN’s Around The Horn, moderator and 9^th year college intern Tony Reali breathlessly exclaimed his shock that the SEC had never played host to a regular season #1 vs. #2 matchup. All it would have taken is a cursory glance at the previous games to understand that an intraconference #1 vs. #2 game has only happened five times in history between three different conferences and two of them are extinct. More on that later.

Part of the problem is that, in sports, we tend to get so caught up in the flavor-of-the-moment that we fail to see the larger picture that is historical context. For the last decade, the college football world has seemingly rotated around the sun know at the Southeastern Conference. Everybody with a loud enough voice (ESPN & CBS, especially) has bludgeoned this into our collective brains even though most of us are smart enough to see the results – last five BCS champs. Add to that Rebel blowhards like Sports Illustrated’s Paul Finebaum, who hosts a popular radio show in the South and simulcast on satellite radio, making enough bold statements about SEC dominance that many of the listeners have to believe this has always been the case.

A quick review of history shows us that for the better part of 35 years the SEC was a one-trick pony known as the Alabama Crimson Tide. Thirteen times from 1961 to 1981, the Tide rolled to an SEC title and save for a Georgia 1980 national championship, there wasn’t an SEC team within sniffing distance of number one whose team wasn’t coached by Paul “Bear” Bryant. Then after Bryant’s retirement the SEC wasn’t in prime contention to win another national crown until Gene Stallings led, you guessed it, Alabama to the 1992 championship.

The point isn’t to downgrade today’s SEC, rather to be mindful that trends in sports are cyclical. The SEC isn’t going to rule forever just like observers were hinting about the 1980’s and 90’s Florida teams. The balance of power will change. Just look at two of the conferences that can claim previous regular season #1 vs. #2 matchups.

The Big Eight Conference and the Southwest Conference.

**Two postseason SEC Championship Games have pitted #1 vs. #2 – Florida/Alabama in 2008 & 2009

1 – LSU.  Defensive greatness confirmed. And it helps to play a team with a crappy place kicker.

2 – Stanford. Realistically, the season boils down to next Saturday vs. the Quack Attack.

3 – Boone Pickens State.  The great Oil Baron can buy himself a new stadium for his team, but can he buy a new defense?

4 – Boise State.  Our list in front of you is getting smaller! But if Stanford falls to Oregon and Okie State is slayed by Oklahoma, are you going to withstand the pressure of the one-loss clan?

NOTE: About two weeks away from introducing the one-loss teams into the discussion.

**
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