Nebraska just needed to go on the road to turn around the season. It could be argued they played in front of more Cornhusker fans than Baylor Bear fans, though.
The Husker faithful were rewarded by not only seeing a 20-10 win but also the first start in the career of Cody Green.
Many in Husker Nation have already projected their hopes and dreams on Green, and on Saturday, they finally got to see him play.
Green’s play was as expected: not dazzling, but efficient. His arm was corralled by his own coaching staff, but Green showed nice touch on a 45-yard pass to Niles Paul, setting up the Huskers’ only offensive touchdown.
Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson called his usual conservative game plan. Nebraska ran the ball 38 times not only because the team was up 20-0 at half, but also because Green doesn’t know the whole offense. He was limited to slants, outs, an occasional fly pattern and the hideously overused bubble screen.
But what else can an injury-riddled offense with an average offensive line do to help out its quarterback? This team is a mess offensively. Green might be more explosive than Lee, but he still needs help.
During the second half, the Huskers went three-and-out four times. And this is an offense that is supposed to compete with the Sooners next week?
Green didn’t give this team a spark. He managed to use a stellar defensive effort and a lucky special teams break to give NU an ugly win. This was a game that Nebraska should have won with nearly any quarterback on its roster.
Nebraska’s offensive problems go much deeper than the quarterback position. Why is Roy Helu Jr. still playing when he’s obviously less than 100 percent? He’s a shade of the player who showed up in Bl acksburg, Va., and ran for 169 yards. Dontrayevous Robinson showed yesterday and also against ISU that he can handle the load. Why not save up Helu for a game like Oklahoma, where he’s going to need to be a gamebreaker?
And where are the tight ends? Mike McNeill deserves credit for having the best Halloween costume yesterday: He went as the invisible man.
In fact, Kyler Reed made the only statistical appearance out of an extremely deep group of tight ends, and he went down with an injury at the end of the first quarter. McNeill has been shut down more by his own offens e than by any opposing defense. This was a guy who broke big plays routinely last year.
How many drops will the Nebraska receiving corps compile by the end of the year? Brandon Kinnie added another to his growing collection. There were a few others on Saturday.
Then, perhaps most frustrating is the play of the offensive line. This group continues to rack up penalties for false starts and holding and collectively failed to provide push on runs late in the game.
This is what Green has to work with. Or, if you want to look at it another way, that’s what Zac Lee had been working with.
It’s hard to call Green a difference-maker because he can’t carry this team for the rest of the season. Other players need to step up.
Besides, Green isn’t perfect. He locked onto Khiry Cooper, and the play resulted in Baylor’s only touchdown. He lost a fumble immediately after NU’s defense forced a turnover.
These both can be attributed to him being a freshman. He’s only going to get better from here, but he can’t make substantial gains without help from his teammates. Otherwise, he’ll face the same heat Lee did.
Go celebrate Green’s performance in the win. But not even head coach Bo Pelini sounded convinced by his team’s efforts.
“It was a good win for our guys,” Pelini said. “It was a win. We won the football game.”
Michael Schaefer is a senior news-editoral major. Reach him at mikeschaefer@
dailynebraskan.com.
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