Kenny Larabee, KLIN
Tad Stryker: Baby Steps for Nebraska Football
You want option football? You’ve got it.
You want to see the Huskers line up in the I formation and run power? You got some of that, too.
Nebraska got enough out of its running game to hold off Louisiana Tech 28-14 Saturday in Memorial Stadium and even its record at 2-2 going into the Michigan game next weekend. The Big Red ran for a season-high 312 yards and had two backs rush for more than 100 yards.
They needed every bit of that running game, considering that passing was a difficult concept for Nebraska against a Bulldog defense that came into the game rated 27th in the nation in that category. The Bulldogs got three sacks and made throwing the ball a dicey proposition for NU. Pass blocking is still a mystery to the Cornhuskers.
Well into its second year of tutelage from Donovan Raiola, and with the most experienced position group on the team, the Husker offensive line is still learning how to survive, still not ready to handle any decent defensive front. It’s way too wobbly-kneed, like a toddler that ends up on its butt more often than not, but then surprises you with how far he just got. Let’s just say that baby steps are not necessarily a bad thing, especially when you consider just how awful that unit looked last year. Going from incompetent to inconsistent, well, you can call that progress.
The line looked best when Marcus Satterfield called the old-school speed option that looked a lot like the play Eric Crouch made famous. There were some sizable holes for Heinrich Haarberg, who started his second consecutive game at quarterback. Maybe that’s something for Raiola to build on.
Haarberg doesn’t quite have Crouch’s speed, but he can get out and move, and he broke two long runs for touchdowns Saturday. One of them was called back by a holding penalty, but Haarberg sprinted for a 72-yarder that counted for six points early in the fourth quarter that stretched Nebraska’s lead to 28-7. Haarberg led all rushers with 157 yards on 19 carries with one touchdown. He was not as effective throwing the ball, completing eight of 17 for 107 yards, but one of them was a 29-yard touchdown pass to Thomas Fidone just a few minutes before his long touchdown run.
Still, Haarberg played turnover-free for the second consecutive week, and that was enough for the Husker defense to keep Tech at bay for much of the day. The Blackshirts allowed 338 yards of total offense, but only 46 on the ground.
Tech put together its best drive of the day, a 10-play, 87-yard march that consumed five minutes, to tie the game 7-7 with 6:07 left in the first half. Tristan Alvano missed a 41-yard field goal try on the final play of the half to leave it deadlocked at halftime, and Nebraska needed a spark.
When they absolutely, positively had to have something on the first drive of the second half, the Huskers lined up in the I formation and ran Anthony Grant at the Bulldogs. It worked. It was the offensive line’s most consistent drive of the season. Behind the blocking of fullback Barrett Liebentritt, Grant carried the ball five times for 76 yards on the nine-play, 85-yard drive, which included nary a pass. Grant capped it off with a 2-yard touchdown run to give the Huskers a 14-7 lead.
Grant, who also had a long touchdown run called back by a holding penalty, gained 135 yards on 22 carries. A lot of his yardage came when he bounced outside and ran to daylight — the sort of strategy that quicker, smarter Big Ten defenses took away from him last season.
It was enough against Louisiana Tech, finishing a two-game stretch that Nebraska absolutely needed to win. The Huskers did it by avoiding turnovers and getting an occasional big play. They’ll need more than that next week against the second-ranked Wolverines.
After the loss in Boulder, it was obvious that nothing Nebraska could do in the next two weeks would impress anyone. That’s exactly what has happened.
Baby steps — call it incremental progress if you like — won’t beat Michigan. That would take at least a plus-three turnover margin, and the Blackshirts haven’t shown a propensity to take away the ball this season — but it could beat Illinois the following week. Is there more growth in this team?
