The Rear View Mirror: In The Right Direction

SIXTH FLOOR, DON BRYANT PRESS BOX — It’s been sometime since the play-by-play typist whispered to his spotter — the great and wonderful Rod Henkel — and said, “That resembled an actual football game tonight, didn’t it?”

He at least didn’t say no. (Wink emoji)

So, this first win of the Matt Rhule era was a 35-11 pounding of Northern Illinois (not your ordinary, everyday directional school) and a bit of a surprise. But, what was more interesting was HOW Nebraska went about 'the football’ as old coach Mike Riley used to say.

Yes, in this one, Nebraska did things these eyes haven’t seen in awhile even when we have had the chance to overwhelm an opponent, rare as those cases have been.

This one wasn’t a shootout, where you held on for dear life watching an offense that went so fast you covered your eyes for a tired defense. This was an old-fashioned kind of win.

Rhule knows way more than us, however.

“It certainly wasn’t a perfect night,” he said post game.

Sure, but it was the kind of football you see in the Big Ten. A meat grinder, where possessions and field position matter. Where you aren’t trying to SCORE on every play, but to move the ball to make sure your defense is constantly fresh. The Big Ten is rarely about perfect, but survival.

It matters.

So, Nebraska played football on Saturday night. They ran the ball. They kept the ball. They punted (which is a fine football play). The played defense.

The stat sheet looked “old.” They were only 68 plays (56 for the visitors). Remember when it was supposed to be 90? Yuck. There were 224 yards rushing on 44 carries. And on the other column there was 26 yards on 22 carries.

A telling quote: “Just let the runs accumulate, let the field position tilt.”

Ask any football coach if they’d feel pretty good about their chances with those numbers. They will tell you yes. And, Nebraska had that in the first two games, too.

But, they lacked one thing against the Huskies on Saturday. Turnovers. Nebraska was even in margin for the first time all year. Do that the first two weeks and this team, might be 3-0. Turnovers matter, too.

On the way home from the press box, I usually give a good listen to Big Red Reaction. It’s sometimes a good chuckle, but I was interested to hear what the base sounded like on Saturday night.

The conversation mostly centered around the defense and what happens at quarterback. The Mirror believes Nebraska will have a “discussion” surrounding the quarterback position.

On one hand, Jeff Sims faced two more difficult football teams than did Heinrich Haarberg on Saturday night. Haarberg also got to play in Memorial Stadium where everyone was on his side. Could one argue this pressure for Haarberg — a lifelong Husker fan — was even more than what Sims faced? Maybe.

But, Haarberg did what Sims couldn’t. He won. Would a healthy Sims have won this game? Likely. He was, however, knocked out of Northern Illinois’ 22-21 win over Georgia Tech last year. We’ll never know.

What will be great about what happened on Saturday night is that it should — hopefully — create some nice competition at practice during the week. It should also create a little shorter leash should turnovers rear their ugly head once more.

You wonder, also, about the feedback Rhule might get from teammates. The players clearly respect the effort from Sims since he arrived — he earned the single digit jersey. But, you can also see a certain chemistry for Haarberg with the team (especially Thomas Fidone).

Nebraska can win football games this year. They can’t win them with turnovers. So finding the quarterback who protects the ball best — no matter the big play upside — may be the best formula to a bowl game.

As was noted on BRR on Saturday night, “This is a bowl team defense.” Nebraska should embrace it, with a quarterback that values the football over all else.

If you remember last week (or you are new here) you know that we charted a way to a bowl game for this 2023 version of Nebraska football. The Mirror thought Saturday might tell us a little bit about how we’d feel going forward.

A bad loss was certainly possible. An ugly win was probably on the list, too. But Nebraska football did a little more than we expected on a crisp, late summer night as Memorial Stadium kicked off 100 years of football.

Last week, we wrote this: “The first stop is getting to 1-2 and seeing some ball security improvement. It will also be interesting to see what the coaching staff does about it, too. They are paid well enough to know they need to fix it.”

So, step one has been made. The next few weeks will be just as important as September 16th was. For September 23rd? Let’s see if we can play defense and limit turnovers for a second week in a row. Momentum. Simple things can go a long way.

Then, we can talk Michigan. But for Nebraska the real month to see if there will progress toward a bowl is October. A hunt for red October, you could say. The hunch here is that if Nebraska keeps playing “football” Husker fans might like the end result.