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McMaster’s Keys to the Game: Nebraska at Colorado
A football game is a long, 60-minute grind.
It is truly a game of inches and that comes down to hours of practice and tedious preparation. Games in college football are not just won by talent on the field but by strategy and weeks of game planning.
Nebraska has a golden opportunity in Boulder Saturday at No. 22 Colorado. In order to taste success against the old rival, here are three keys for Big Red.
Run the damn ball
This one is obvious. Colorado’s main weakness is their defensive line. TCU was able to manhandle Colorado up front last Saturday, running for 262 yards on 7.1 yards per carry. Colorado head coach Deion Sanders even admitted the team was weak up front against the Horned Frogs.
“We gotta stop the run,” Coach Sanders said in his midweek press conference. “Linebackers gotta do their jobs.”
Couple Colorado’s weakness with the fact that Nebraska has three very capable running backs — Gabe Ervin Jr., Rahmir Johnson, and Anthony Grant — along with a dynamic dual-threat quarterback in Jeff Sims, and NU has the personnel to be aggressive up front and control the game's pace. The biggest question is, who gets the bulk of the carries?
It seems like a shoo-in that Sims gets about 15-plus carries again, but how about at tailback? Ervin projected to be the bell cow for the team until Grant outpaced him in carries nine to seven. After Ervin’s 7.9-yards per carry performance against Minnesota and Grant’s preseason turnover issues rearing its ugly head against the Gophers, there will likely be a new carries leader against Colorado.
Possession, possession, possession
The easiest way to stop an explosive offense is not allowing them to have the football.
The longer NU holds the football, the more likely they are to win this game. This is all pretty rudimentary. If the Huskers will walk out of Boulder the victors, they won’t do it in a shootout. They will need to make the contest a 60-minute slog, holding the ball from anywhere between 35 to 40 minutes.
TCU lost to the Buffaloes partly because they got behind and were forced to play at Colorado’s pace. The longer Nebraska can keep the ball out of Travis Hunter and Shadeur Sanders’ hands, the better off they will be. Luckily, the new college football clock rules will make it easier for Nebraska to accomplish this feat.
Under the new rules, Minnesota forced Nebraska to have the ball three times in the first half. The Huskers want to do the same against Coach Prime's squad.
Special teams
Ed Foley's unit was one big bright spot in NU’s game against Minnesota.
Rahmir Johnson’s explosive return to start the second half sparked the team's only touchdown drive. The kickoff and punt teams were both dominant, not allowing Minnesota to get the ball past the 20-yard line once.
As much as this key is about Nebraska’s strength, it’s also about Colorado's weakness. Against TCU, the Buffaloes allowed a staggering 150 kickoff return yards on five kicks and one touchback. That performance ranked Colorado’s kick return defense 122/132 in the country. Colorado also missed one field goal.
Nebraska can help their chances of winning by pinning Colorado’s offense back and consistently giving themselves good field position. They have an advantage here and must find ways to expose Colorado.
This isn’t a predictions article, but I expect NU to pull out a fake punt or field goal during this game.
