Analyzing Northwestern Football’s win at Nebraska

The Nebraska Cornhuskers take on the Northwestern Wildcats in a game on the 2015 college football schedule which sees one team’s hard 2015 season on the cusp of a turnaround, and the other team seeing its once promising season suddenly in trouble.

“He made a few huge plays with his legs”, said Pat Fitzgerald. “If that wouldn’t have happened, we would have had three points and they wouldn’t have had seven, so we would’ve been sitting ourselves in a great situation to win that ball game”.

Consistent defense balanced out a nonexistent early passing game until the offense found its footing after halftime.

The Blackshirts then got in on the scoring with a sack by Ross Dzuris of Thorson in the end zone for Nebraska’s first safety of the season, cutting Northwestern’s margin to 7-5 at the end of the first quarter.

TOUGH RUNNING: Northwestern RB Justin Jackson averaged 127 yards the first five games but was limited to 55 the last two weeks against Michigan and Iowa defenses ranked among the top four nationally against the run. He’s accumulated 1,761 yards and a 15/6 touchdown/interception ratio.

Approaching November at 3-5, Nebraska’s in danger of its first losing season since 2007, and only its third since 1962.

And even when Wisconsin darn near handed them the game by missing a go-ahead, 38-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter, NU still couldn’t manage a first down to put the Badgers away.

“You look back and go ‘Oh man, this would’ve changed the game, ‘” said wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp. “But it wasn’t any one thing or any one person’s fault, we just didn’t do good enough”. But Nebraska was only able to score three points on those possessions, while one turned into an interception return for a touchdown for Northwestern.

That’s a red flag; an indication that Nebraska doesn’t know how to get it done.

Most players would say the same, too.

History told us this would be a close game.

When your offensive line is getting swallowed up front, when you can produce just 82 yards on 38 carries, the coordinator is in a predicament. He also mentioned they were considering senior guard Chris Long and sophomore tackle David Knevel, but both suffered recent injuries.

Scouting the passing game: QB Tommy Armstrong seems to be at his best when he’s throwing on the run, as was the case when he scrambled to his right and threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Alonzo Moore against Minnesota.

“We’ve got to make sure we keep grinding”, Huskers quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. said. Thank you for keeping us in mind.

Iowa didn’t play this past Saturday and there weren’t any key losses in the Big Ten that would affect my thinking from last week.

The Wildcats are bowl eligible for the first time since 2012.