On this birthday edition of The Mirror (you don’t get to guess how old we are), we take some time on September 9th to look at the play of Nebraska’s mammoth No. 9 on Saturday night, Ty Robinson.

The Nebraska football team, — apparently everyone’s favorite team in the media — bruised and battered Colorado on Saturday night. It was fun, mostly. The second half was weird. The final score was 28-10 after Nebraska led 28-0 at the break.

But, what never wavered was No. 9 and his Blackshirt buddies. From the first series, Colorado never seemingly had a chance offensively.

“Nebraska has a great D-line,” Colorado megastar quarterback Shadeur Sanders said postgame. “They brought a great game and did what they were supposed to do.”

The defense controlled the game from the jump. Colorado got the ball and Robinson was a wrecking machine that set the tone for the night. Surely Grant Wistrom and other former Blackshirts liked what they saw.

He batted down Sanders first pass of the game. Then, after an incompletion on the second play he sacked Sanders for a 9-yard loss and the Husker defense was locked, loaded and ready to go.

Ready, you could say, for Primetime.

Just how good was it? Colorado, seemingly, couldn’t get a yard when they needed it most. Is there anything more demoralizing in football than this?

In total, the Blackshirt defense produced 10 tackles behind the line of scrimmage for 49 yards in losses. Six of them were sacks. Linebackers Mikal Gbayor and John Bullock looked like little kids at preschool recess they were having so much fun behind Robinson and the Gang.

“I was going to make sure they knew who I was for all 60 minutes,” Robinson said.

Nebraska is ranked now (a little quick for The Mirror) and might have one of the top 10 or 15 defenses in the nation. But, it’s been awhile. Best to soak it all in, let the players have fun and play. And, then, add up the wins at the end of the season.

You might like what you see.

Number Crunching

MORE ON THE LINE: Our favorite, Sam McKeown, notes that Nebraska has faced just 46 runs in their first two games. That number is second-lowest nationally. It seems to be a combination of things:

1. Uhhh, the defensive line is putting teams in long down situations.

2. Teams are, in fact, having trouble running the ball at just 1.57 yards per rushing attempt (that’s sixth best through two weekends).

3. The style of the opponent. Neither Colorado or UTEP are going to be in the top-50 (even 100) in the nation in rushing attempts.

4.3 YARDS PER RUSH: We are still in the “to be desired” category with Nebraska’s running game. For the second straight week it was really good early (read: scripted) but after that, not so much. Nebraska has to be able to grind out some run game (especially with that defense).

The evidence. Rushing by quarter for the offense. First; 10-for-71. Second; 9-for-12. Third; 9-for-50. Fourth; 9-for-12. In the third quarter, Nebraska had eight running back runs for 30 yards. Just not going to be good enough unless our defense holds everyone to less that 14 points (they might).

To Coach Rhule’s credit, he knows it. Now he has to put it on the “fix it” list on his refrigerator. “We won the game, but there is still a lot to improve on,” he said.

DO THE RIGHT THING: Through two games, quarterback Dylan Raiola has managed Nebraska’s leads pretty well. We noted last week that only seven quarterbacks nationally ended the 2023 season with a 70% completion percentage. Through two weekends this year, 26 are there with nine of them residing in the Big Ten.

Raiola has not turned the ball over. He has thrown into coverage a few times, but there is a confidence to what he brings to the field. A refreshing item on Saturday — no doubt also some coaching — was play clock management while Nebraska played with a big lead.

So, even if your group chat isn’t completely satisfied with the totality of the offense, the improvement is there. But, more big moments lie ahead.

The Standard

I guess we’ll make grading the standard a weekly thing here. See how it goes.

1. Win the turnover battle. Another win here, with no turnovers for the offense, one big one on Tommi Hill’s rocking pick six (man, was that a pretty view from the press box, you could just SEE IT coming). Willis McGahee’s late strip sack a nice add as well. Won it, plus directly scored? Only one grade here. GRADE: A+. 

2. Most physical team in football. The defense is winning the line of scrimmage in spades. Northern Iowa’s running attack will be a new, unique test. The offense has spurts, but needs more consistency. My guess is Donovan Raiola isn’t completely happy yet. Yet. You wonder how soon he and Rhule may take over some of the run play calling. Just a hunch here. We will say it again. Maybe a few MORE runs? GRADE: B-.

3. Culture of execution. The penalties were gross and they have to be fixed. But, that game got weird. Special teams seems to have a high standard deviation. An excellent blocked field goal is countered with a missed chip shot. A perfect punt to the 2, sets up a pick six but later a punt is blocked. And, 100+ yards in penalties is never going to earn a good grade here. GRADE: C+.

There is a new found excitement around Nebraska football from Saturday night, September 7th. A good excitement. Ranked for the first time since who knows when. Does 2019 really even count?

But, long-term program changing excitement takes stacking momentum. It takes continually not being satisfied with your play and striving for improvement. Does Nebraska football finally have THAT back? There is mounting evidence that the answer is yes.

In honor of No. 9, we hope the locker room acts like their leader talks. That’s the way it should be anyway.

“I mean you can think of it as 2-0, but then you can also think of it as being 1-0 right? To go 1-0 every week,” Robinson said. “What this team does really well is not looking at it in terms as a whole, but really going 1-0. We have posters on it everywhere – 1-0 for whoever the opponent is.”

The Mirror likes that. Caring but not coddling. Get the football right. You should like that too.

Nebraska is 2-0 and that has a nice ring to it. We dislike these no-win situation FCS games. Northern Iowa will be a fantastic, old-school opponent that won’t be easy to beat. Remember, always free thanks to our sponsor. But, be careful. You might get what you pay for.