LINCOLN, Neb.—Minutes after his team’s loss to Virginia Tech, Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz noted that the Hokies were no New Mexico State.
Guess what, Joe? Neither is Missouri or anyone else in the Big 12.
With their 35-30 loss to Virginia Tech, the Cornhuskers failed their first test under Bo Pelini against an opponent from the so-called big time.
Now they face fourth-ranked Missouri at home and seventh-ranked Texas Tech on the road in consecutive weeks.
“It’s tough for me because I want to be so good now,” senior offensive lineman Matt Slauson said. “But we’ve got a new staff and a lot of young players playing. Things aren’t always going to go well. There’s a lot of season left.”
Pelini said his team needs to take lessons learned from the loss to Virginia Tech and apply them against Missouri.
“I think it will make us better,” Pelini said.
If the Huskers learn anything from the game, it must be that all is not well on the offensive line and in the running game.
The coaching staff touted the offensive line as the strength of the team entering the season, but it underperformed against Virginia Tech’s front seven. The Huskers ran for just 55 yards on 25 attempts, 2.2 yards per carry. Through four games, the Huskers have run for 622 yards—with more than half the total coming against the aforementioned New Mexico State.
Marlon Lucky was held to 17 yards on eight carries by Virginia Tech, and he has not played up to his billing as the Big 12’s top returning rusher from a year ago. Perhaps the team’s best back is Lucky’s understudy, Roy Helu Jr., who hit the hole hard while running four times for 21 yards and a touchdown against the Hokies.
“I thought we blocked pretty well initially,” Slauson said. “But they were peeling off enough to get an arm on a guy, or we weren’t holding our blocks. And sometimes they blitzed right into the play.”
If the Huskers can’t rely on the ground game to maintain ball control against Missouri, the Tigers’ high-scoring offense will be on the field a lot.
“We’ve obviously got to do a better job on first down,” offensive line coach Barney Cotton said. “We’d like to run the football, but I think we make too much of that. We can throw the ball. We’re a balanced team.”
Defensively, the Huskers gave up six straight scoring drives to the Hokies. Virginia Tech’s struggling offense suddenly got well, generating 377 yards. Tyrod Taylor played his best game, throwing for 171 yards, rushing for 87 and committing no turnovers.
He flummoxed Nebraska defenders when he broke containment and made something out of seemingly nothing.
“I would never say we took a step back,” defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said. “Everybody wants to ask if we took a step forward or back. The truth of the matter is you’re seeing a different offense every week. How can you compare a spread offense to the power offense we saw (Saturday)?”
