No matter how it looked, a win is a win for the Huskers

Pitching with Pritch

By Larry Pritchett

This week for the first time in 300+ days, the Huskers won a football game. Close in almost all of them, but not able to finish to get a win. Last Saturday, with the loss to Northwestern still on people’s minds, the Huskers finish strong to get the win. Now, how many people think that the Huskers have it turned around and headed in the right direction? Well, I would guess that after listening to people talk, and seeing what was in the papers, I don’t think the Kool-Aid is being drunk like it was just a few weeks ago. One thing is for sure, a win is way better than a loss. There are, however, a number of things you look at and start to worry about even though there was a win. North Dakota was not a Division one team. Nebraska is going to face a lot of really good teams and will have to play way better than they did against North Dakota. You have to give North Dakota a lot of credit because they did a lot of good things against the Huskers and if they keep improving I am sure they will have a decent season with their schedule. This game and the game this week are games that the Huskers have to win. They have won one of them and we will see if some improvement has been made. It is a concern to a lot of people that the game Saturday was tied 7-7 at half-time. This is a game where Nebraska should have won the first quarter or at least in the first half. The second half was better and yet, still questions. There were positives in the game. Special teams were a concern but they were better. The punter looks way better than what we had last year. One missed field goal from 30 plus, but later success from over 40 yards.

I will say that what a lot of people said was another on-side call after a Husker score wasn’t that and the call made since. North Dakota had gotten a penalty that was enforced on the kick-off and the kick was made trying to keep the ball in play and penning the offense deep. The kicker’s aim was off a little, but it didn’t really hurt the Huskers that much because if they had been kicked out of the end zone they would have got up the field anyway, and this way the Huskers didn’t give up that many yards.

What appeared to be the biggest concern is our blocking and many time our inability to make an open field tackle. Teams like North Dakota should not dominate our offensive linemen. They did dominate a number of times. Our Defensive linemen should not be dominated either and in the first half, they were. The Huskers’ ability to block and tackle did got better later in the game, at least that is my opinion. The first half was scary enough to cause some booing from some of the crowd and regardless of the quality of play, I don’t like hearing any booing from the home crowd. Some strong points in the game I thought were that Anthony Grant had another 100 plus yard rushing and that is the first time that a running back has had those stats since 2018 when Devine Ozigbo got 100 plus in the first two games of the season.

It was a win. It is better than a loss. Still, there is a lot to improve on and a short time to do it. Oklahoma is just around the corner and they will be in town on September 17. I guess, all in all, the Huskers did win the game, they did still score 38 points. As a coach, I think I would feel better about this win than maybe Iowa which won a game 7-3 and there were no touchdowns scored in the game. Iowa had a field goal and two safeties for the win. They were playing South Dakota State.

On another note, in the Power Program at Nebraska, John Cook’s volleyball team won another match without losing a set. They have an outstanding group of players and play really well together. I would say they will win a lot of games, but the Big 10 is a powerhouse conference in volleyball. It should be a great competitive season.