STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Ugly Big Ten football. On TV, maybe that's what Nebraska-Penn State looked like. From the floor of Beaver Stadium, pulsing with the spectrum of human emotion, it looked and felt just right.
";var zflag_nid="1431";var zflag_cid="67/49/47";var zflag_sid="1";var zflag_width="1";var zflag_height="1";var zflag_sz="31";
Every Monday, Sam McKewon will review Saturday's game, take a glance around the Big Ten and preview the upcoming opponent.
The hardened looks and weary smiles on the faces of NU players afterward confirmed it.
"They played their hearts out," defensive end Eric Martin said of PSU. "We respect them for it."
Right guard Spencer Long: "We had to battle all game. Never stop. They never quit."
This was a slobberknocker, two teams in more than 150 car crashes called plays. Big sets. Hard tackles. Powerful runs; aside from a bizarre fumbled handoff, this might have been Rex Burkhead's best game.
Players were exhausted — so were fans. What it lacked in offensive aesthetics, it possessed doubly in drama, especially a fourth quarter owned by the Nittany Lions, urged by the crowd to stage their third last-minute comeback of the year.
I thought they would. Penn State had more in the tank. The Huskers' front six — four linemen plus linebackers Will Compton and Lavonte David — sure looked spent.
But, on fourth-and-1, David stuffed PSU running back Silas Redd forcefully, then drove his entire body into the tackle while safety Austin Cassidy pumped his fist in celebration. If that doesn't get David the Big Ten's defensive player of the year award — including his forced fumble versus Ohio State, he's won two games for NU — what else could?
Afterward, coach Bo Pelini held one of the longest — and most important — postgame press conferences of his career. One that may change how some Husker fans see him.
Without a written statement and with little prompting, he unloaded a week's worth of thoughts about the Penn State sex-abuse scandal. They weren't off the top of his head, but they weren't rehearsed, either. He cast his coaching role as that of an educator. And the lesson of the week, in his words, "was about right and wrong."
Among all sports figures and commentators outside the eye of this storm — fellow coaches, former players, actors, ESPN talking heads, the Joe Paterno defenders and purple prose prevaricators — Pelini perhaps acquitted himself the best thus far.
He didn't think the game should be played, but when the teams put a little ointment to a gaping wound, he acknowledged that. He wisely didn't sidetrack into Paterno attack or worship. He wasn't overly moralistic or sappy. This wasn't a day for blinking rage — in either direction. Enough of that.
It was a revealing day for Bo and Nebraska, the right opponent for an emotionally tough scene. The day was somber, subtly powerful and dramatic.
Did healing begin? Even if it did, this scandal is sadly still young; more wounds could await. No proclamations here. Just two teams gutting through a game, their coaches rising to the moment.
On with the rewind.
• Running backs coach Ron Brown, the man in the middle of a hushed sports nation.
• Kicker Brett Maher, who, along with David, was the biggest difference-maker Saturday. A 45-yard punting average — with five downed inside Penn State's 20-yard line.
"Going into the game we thought it'd be a fistfight, a war, and it played out to be that," special teams coordinator John Papuchis said. "And in any war, field position and territory is key. Brett flipping the field over a couple of times, that was huge."
• Defensive end Cameron Meredith, with the biggest sack of his season, causing a fumble that was recovered by Martin.
• Compton, who finally gives Nebraska a true No. 2 linebacker. The injury frustrations behind him, Compton's finally blooming into the player Pelini thought he could be.
• Cornerback Alfonzo Dennard, with two more pass breakups, both on key first-half third downs.
• Cornerback Andrew Green, who lost track of one deep pass to Derek Moye, but otherwise played well, finishing with 10 tackles and good coverage on the Nittany Lions' final desperation drive.
• Burkhead, whose 121 yards were earned by blazing through tackles and carrying guys on his back. Old Rex looked good, but I suspect he's sore for next week.
• Quarterback Taylor Martinez, who battled through some early inconsistency to make some wonderful, smart plays on NU's two touchdowns drives. He's getting much harder to sack. And he's stopped committing the dumb fumble.
• Offensive coordinator Tim Beck, for crafting a creative, varied game plan to combat Penn State's terrific defensive line. He went to the well one too many times, though, with that Burkhead under-center triple option play. The two attempted Burkhead passes were non-starters, too.
• Penn State's running backs. Redd, Stephfon Green and Brandon Beachum are a good trio of tough runners. Redd and Beachum are back in 2012.
Drops: Including two big ones by senior Brandon Kinnie that might have extended drives. Not a good late-season habit.
Depth in the trenches: Nebraska took two guards on the trip — Andrew Rodriguez stayed home sick, and Brent Qvale, wherever you'd play him, didn't to come to State College, either — while the defensive line shoulders a heavy load because of the injuries to Jared Crick and Thad Randle. Also banged up is redshirt freshman tackle Chase Rome.
A sudden outage in big returns: NU's longest kick return Saturday was 23 yards. It's been many weeks since the Huskers had any punt return of note. Teams have effectively diminished Ameer Abdullah's impact.
Who's the Rose Bowl front-runner? Wisconsin, which remains relatively healthy and close to unstoppable on offense. The Badgers have two last-second road losses, but in the neutral environment of Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium, they're a 10-point favorite over any other Big Ten team. Nebraska surely wants to be in Indy — but I'm not sure the matchup's real conducive to victory three weeks out.
NU could win 10 games and be in a plum spot for a BCS berth — think Fiesta Bowl — especially if Houston stumbles during the last month vs. SMU, Tulsa or in the Conference USA title game. The BCS loves the Big Ten because teams travel — and few assemble in masses like Nebraska.
The most likely bowl? I'll submit the much-criticized Fiesta, which could lose its automatic qualifier — the winner of the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game — to the BCS national title game. The winner of the Nebraska-Michigan game could be on track for that berth, presuming Michigan State wins the Legends Division.
Will Nebraska have to pony up to keep Bo Pelini comfortable at NU? Whether or not you agree, Athletic Director Tom Osborne just might have to do it if the Huskers win out and make a BCS bowl. You read that "if" in the last sentence, right? OK.
Several high-profile jobs — Ohio State, Penn State and Arizona for sure; Texas A&M, UCLA and Arizona State potentially — could be wide open after the season, and Urban Meyer can take only one of them. If he takes any of them. If Bo gets some calls, might NU go in for its own private jet — instead of some rental Air Force service — to permanently ease recruiting stress?
Is the Big 12 overrated? While it cleans up in the BCS rankings thanks to some complex, interlocking scheme of computer ratings, the on-field product looks woefully one-sided.
There's hardly any defense, and teams that can get up one week — like Texas Tech beating Oklahoma — get humiliated another week — like the Red Raiders losing to Oklahoma State 66-6 at home. How sloppy is it? A team 85th in total offense — Kansas State — has scored 41, 59, 45 and 54 points, respectively, in the last month thanks to takeaways and good kickoff returns. Ridiculous.
First: Maher's Big Ten ranking in punting and field goals. He's seventh nationally in punting and tied for ninth in field goals. If he won both All-Big Ten spots, would anyone argue? And is there some compelling reason NU keeps giving scholarships to guys for not doing what Maher and Alex Henery did?
91 percent: Nebraska's red-zone offensive efficiency, good for 11th in the country. Some very good teams — Michigan State, South Carolina, Virginia Tech — struggle with this.
3,319: Career passing yards for Martinez, who passed Turner Gill and Vince Ferragamo on NU's all-time list. Just a sophomore, he could rewrite every statistical quarterback record Nebraska has.
Michigan survived another Denard Robinson injury in beating Illinois 31-14. He left after hurting his wrist. Coach Brady Hoke said Robinson could have returned, but backup Devin Gardner played well enough to keep going. You know what? Hoke's weird infatuation with Gardner just might do Nebraska some good next week.
The Wolverine defense, in giving up 214 total yards, was strong again.
I sure hope it doesn't include snow in Michigan. I have a connecting flight in the Upper Peninsula. Time can stop up there.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment