What to type? The keyboard is intimidating right now. Nebraska football’s 56-7 victory against Bowling Green at Memorial Stadium Saturday night was no surprise. So what insight can be offered here?
Maybe Husker defensive back Donovan Jones’ metaphor for the third quarter is worth quoting. “We kinda talk about, like, bleeding the cutout, like, if you’re watching a boxing cut-up, or just a boxing dude, and he’s got the (opposing) dude bleeding in his eye, keep going at that eye,” Jones said.
“We’ve gotta go down that earlier in the third quarter and just bleed ‘em out.”
If you stuck around at halftime, you know Nebraska led 35-0 and had allowed Bowling Green just 46 total yards and two first downs. The Blackshirts stifled the Falcon offense, and then some.
Bowling Green’s eye was gushing.
In the third quarter, however, the Falcons had six first downs and 98 yards, on 28 plays. Their time of possession was 11:37 to Nebraska’s 3:23. Matt Rhule was unhappy, understandably so.
Neither team scored in the third quarter, but Bowling Green scored on the first play of the fourth quarter, on a 19-yard touchdown pass from Jay Kastantin to reserve fullback Leo Kemp.
And the Huskers weren’t using reserve defenders yet.
Nebraska ran seven plays in the third quarter, the first a 45-yard touchdown run by quarterback Anthony Colandrea, nullified by a holding penalty on wide receiver Jacory Barney Jr., who took accountability for it. “I apologized to him for that,” said Barney.
He also held himself accountable for the second play of the game, a pass from Colandrea that he and a Bowling Green defender both appeared to come down with. The officials ruled an interception.
Barney, however, had nothing, really, for which to apologize. He offset the penalties with a team-high eight receptions for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
In any case, after Bowling Green’s touchdown, Nebraska got back on track, and picked up where it left off at halftime, driving 60 yards on nine plays, the ninth a 7-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Mozee, among six Husker running backs who got at least one carry — led by Jamal Rule, 88 yards, 59 of them on a touchdown run. He didn’t play in the second half because of what Rhule said was “tightness.”
On the Falcons’ subsequent possession, reserve defensive lineman Malcolm Simpson sacked Kastantin and forced a fumble, which reserve linebacker Derek Wacker scooped up and returned 25 yards for a touchdown.
Simpson, a sophomore, is a member of the scout team during practice.
That series began with 10:30 remaining, when Rhule went full-on to the reserves. He “would’ve liked to get more guys in,” he said. Nebraska used 91 players — or so I counted.
TJ Lateef replaced Colandrea, who completed 20-of-24 passes for 222 yards and four touchdowns with one interception, for what would be the Huskers’ final possession with 6:57 remaining. He directed a 12-play, 79-yard drive, culminating in a 6-yard touchdown pass to running back Kwinten Ives.
Kwazi Gilmer, like Barney, caught the other touchdown passes.
Only 1:18 remained in the game, and Bowling Green allowed the clock to run out.
The third quarter not included, the Huskers “played the way we should play,” Rhule said.
At a weekly media availability, Rhule referred to what Joe Paterno, his coach at Penn State, told his players. A team makes the most progress from its first game to the second.
(For the record, Tom Osborne said the same thing.)
Again, with the exception of the third quarter, that could probably describe Nebraska’s improvement from its 49-21 opening-game victory against Ohio.
But “it’s not the Big Ten,” said Rhule.
That’s two weeks away, at Michigan State. Where do the Huskers fit in there? You be the judge. Check Saturday’s scores for starters. I’m done typing for now.
