ThotDoc's Brain Droppings on the Northern Illinois game
On a beautiful evening in Memorial Stadium, the Nebraska Cornhuskers dominated the Northern Illinois Huskies and scored a 35-11 victory for Head Coach Matt Rhule’s first win at the helm. After being the only Power 5 program this year to open on the road in back-to-back games against P5 competition, the Huskers had their latest home-opener since the 1994 season (with the exception of the 2020 Covid year). The Huskers have won 36 of their past 38 home openers with tonight’s win and improved to 50-10 all-time in night games at Memorial Stadium.
Now Northern Illinois is not a powerhouse, but two weeks ago they defeated a Boston College team that was nipped today by Florida State 31-29. Like the Huskers, NIU has a salty defense but has struggled on the offensive side of the ball. With starting quarterback Jeff Sims still hobbled by a high ankle sprain, Nebraska gave the ball to backup Heinrich Haarberg. Haarberg, from dinky little Kearney Catholic. Haarberg is the first Nebraska native to start at quarterback since Noah Vedral started games against Indiana and Minnesota in 2019.
Haarberg was not spectacular, but he was very solid. Most importantly, he was not a turnover machine gifting points to the opposition. There was a fumble when he was hit when a blitz wasn’t picked up, but that was hardly his fault. Credit the coaching for a scheme that played to Haarberg’s strengths. The Huskers scored on their first possession with a script that was executed to perfection (4 runs and 2 passes on a 55-yard drive). It culminated with a triple option pass to Billy Kemp for a 10-yard score. Haarberg struggled a bit on the next three possessions as the offense failed to sustain a drive. But then they drove 43 yards in 9 plays, with the subsequent punt pinning the Huskies at their own 1-yd line. When the Huskers got the ball back, they were able to travel 36 yards in 4 plays for their second score. With the way the Blackshirts were playing, the game was effectively out of reach at 14-3.
In the Huskers first 8 drives they totaled just 134 yards, but as they wore down the NIU defense, the last 4 drives netted 205 yards. Dare I say that it resembled a smash-mouth type of play that will come in handy in the Big Ten games to follow. A tentative offensive line in the first half, stepped it up after intermission, and the push up front became noticeable. We saw Teddy Prochazka line up several times as a second tight end on the right side as the Huskers went heavy and dared NIU to stop them. Ethan Piper had the pancake block of the night 10 yards downfield as he crushed the defender.
After two and a half quarters, the Huskers were just 1 for 7 on third down, but with 8:10 to go in the third, they put together a 14 play, 76-yard drive that consumed 7:10 on the clock and they completed four third downs of 15, 4, 10, and 1 yard. That put the Huskers up 21-3 and they dominated to the end converting seven straight third down attempts to finish 8 for 14.
Haarberg seemed to get better as well as the game wore on and as his confidence increased. He made just a couple of scary passes over the middle but avoided an interception. He finished the night completing 14-of-24 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns and led the team in rushing for a career-high 98 yards on 21 carries. Even though that kind of load may not be advisable in the long run, Haarberg seemed to deliver more punishment than he received.
Haarberg distributed the ball to seven different receivers led by tight end Thomas Fidone (4 catches for 42 yards) who made a nice move inside and caught a 16-yard touchdown in the second quarter. The highlight reel catch was when he toe-tapped the sideline for a 20-yd catch on 3rd and 15. It was a career high in receptions for Fidone and was his second straight game with a touchdown reception. Billy Kemp (3 catches for 13 yards) was mostly kept in check but did manage that first quarter TD as well as recording his 200th career reception. Entering this week, only six active FBS players had 200 career catches. Marcus Washington (2 catches for 37 yards) may be the best possession receiver for the Huskers, and he had a big 26-yard gain on the initial drive. Alex Bullock (1 catch for 33 yards) made the most of his slip screen in the 4th quarter where he shows that he has some giddy-up.
Rahmir Johnson was apparently dinged in the first half as he showed up on the sideline after intermission in street clothes. The extent of that injury was uncertain but it is concerning in that Gabe Ervin (14 carries for 67 yards) also seemed hobbled late. Anthony Grant (7 carries for 46 yards) emerged from the doghouse and ran tough with nary a bobble in averaging 6.6 yards a carry. Grant is powerful and deceptive and needs more carries. It’s generally not advisable for the quarterback to have 21 out of 44 carries. But three games in the Huskers are averaging over 5.1 yards a carry.
The defense played exceptionally well with the first team yielding just 79 yards in total offense with a paltry 16 yards on the ground. NIU gained 75 yards against the reserves on their final drive in which they scored with just :04 left on the clock. Even with the final drive, Nebraska limited Northern Illinois to 26 rushing yards, the fewest by a Husker opponent since Purdue had -2 rushing yards on Dec. 5, 2020. The Huskers also recorded three more sacks and could finish this weekend No. 1 in the nation in sacks with 14 and as high as No. 2 in rush defense with just 47.3 yards allowed per game. This is the first time NU has had three sacks in three straight games in the same season since the first three games of 2019 (South Alabama, Colorado, Northern Illinois). Overall, Nebraska has had at least three sacks in four straight games including last year’s season finale at Iowa. Even when the offense gave the ball to NIU at the NU 5-yard line, the defense pushed them back to the 13 before the Huskies settled for a field goal. NIU may have a QB controversy of their own as the backup Ethan Hampton looked much more capable than their starter.
Nash “Polar Bear” Hutmacher had a career night, with a career-high six tackles, including a career-best 2.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks. Hutmacher had a pair of tackles for loss on that red zone drive in the first quarter when Nebraska limited NIU to a field goal. How often do you see a nose tackle leading the team in stops? Malcolm Hartzog, AJ Rollins and Javin Wright all had 4 tackles with Wright adding a 4th quarter interception he returned for 12 yards. It looked like Quintom Newsom (3 tackles) came really close to his first career pick, but his foot came down on the line. He did have 2 PBUs, however. Ty Robinson nabbed half a sack and Jimari Butler and MJ Sherman came up with the other two. Senior linebacker Luke Reimer had two tackles increasing his career total to 257 and he moved into 10th place on the Nebraska career tackles list, passing Marc Munford (256) and tying Ed Stewart (257).
Special team play was improved over last week as punter Brian Buschini averaged 42.8 yards on 6 punts with a beauty that Phalen Sanford downed at the 1-yard line. Tristan Alvano converted all 5 extra point attempts but kicked one of his three kickoffs out of bounds. Buschini had 2 touchbacks on 3 kickoffs with the 3rd only being returned to the 13. Kickoff and punt returns were not a factor although it looked like Kemp may have had an opportunity to run on a couple punt returns.
Matt Rhule said that the turnaround would not be a quick fix (think slow cook oven instead of microwave) and a 1-2 start validates that view. But the Huskers needed to soundly defeat NIU and they did so and Haarberg looks like a very capable quarterback. Will Sims start next week or will Haarberg be given another chance? My guess is that if Sims is healthy, he gets the start, but his leash has gotten much shorter with the play of Haarberg tonight. Next week, the Huskers face Louisiana Tech who fell Saturday to North Texas 40-37 to fall to 2-2 on the season with wins over Florida International and Northwestern St. La Tech will throw it 40-45 times so the defense will need to step up again as our offense is ill-suited for a shootout. Go Big Red!!!
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