Curt McKeever: Learning curve still steep for offense
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“Our biggest concern is we’re playing a really good Nebraska team.”
By now, Wake Forest football coach Jim Grobe has adjusted that assessment he made of the Huskers prior to Saturday night’s game in Memorial Stadium.
NU, fueled by three defensive touchdowns, did put a 31-3 bruise on his club to improve its record to 2-0. But having done precious little offensively on the heels of last week’s 25-7 tussle with Division I-AA Maine, Nebraska’s record feels more like 2-and uh-oh.
Or more precisely, 2-and no O.
Eight quarters into the season, it’s one sustained touchdown drive for the offense and three TDs for the defense. Kevin Cosgrove and his crew deserve to take bows. But just for good measure, they’d better be sure to show up for that pregame huddle when the players kneel and ask for a little help from above.
And Heavenly Father, can we also get a little support from the other side of the ball, too?
You know it’s not good when TBS names Wake Forest quarterback Ben Mauk the Huskers’ offensive player of the game (Mauk threw passes that the Huskers’ Corey McKeon and Stewart Bradley turned into 14 points).
OK, so that really didn’t happen. But I would have given him serious consideration.
One week ago we watched Nebraska, with 16 full offensive possessions, settle for four field goals. The only “drive” to reach the end zone came after a punt return to the Maine 1.
On Saturday, the Huskers went 1-for-15 trying to march to paydirt, and finished the game with 234 yards. More than half of those came from the one-man army, I-back Cory Ross.
So much for that big jump teams expect to make from Week 1 to Week 2.
Nebraska did open Saturday’s game with promise, moving 27 yards to the Wake Forest 17 in six plays. But after Brandon Jackson got stuffed on third- and fourth-and-1 plays, a Wake Forest defense that gave up 422 yards to Vanderbilt last week should have known it would have a fighting chance. Sure enough, that ended up being the Huskers’ best offensive threat of the first half.
Then, as if it had convinced the Deacons it was incapable of putting together anything more than a jab here and there, Nebraska landed a haymaker to open the third quarter. Ross, getting what running backs coach Randy Jordan called “his war legs,” beat a defensive lineman to the perimeter, got a chop block from Isaiah Fluellen that took out a cornerback and raced 57 yards down the sideline. Three plays later, quarterback Zac Taylor found Frantz Hardy in one-on-one coverage to his left and the Huskers had their real first touchdown drive of the season.
That momentum lasted all the way to the next possession, when Nebraska fans were actually left cheering their team for being in a third-and-17 situation. I know, that came after a Taylor interception was reversed following a review. I still couldn’t help thinking the Huskers would have been in better shape with their defense back on the field.
“This offense is going to take a little time,” coach Bill Callahan suggested once again.
Nebraska did produce twice as many yards in the third quarter (160) than over the game’s first 30 minutes (73), and ran 26 plays from scrimmage in that period(one less than all of the first half).
Another clue that the light to Callahan’s West Coast offense might do more than just flicker came during the third possession of the third quarter, when Taylor hit six straight passes. But when the Huskers were knocking on the door he missed Terrence Nunn running free in the end zone, allowing a defender to recover in time to knock the ball away, and NU had to settle for three points.
Anyone think it’s too late to go back to the option? Sorry.
“We need to commit to it and try to keep it wide-open,” Callahan said.
The good news is Nebraska committed just one turnover (down four from the opener). So as long as the Huskers continue getting 21 points a week, there’s hope. Of course, Saturday marked the first time since the third game last year at Pitt that NU came up with three turnovers.
Speaking of the Panthers, it looks like the Huskers are about to catch a break. Pitt is 0-2 under Dave Wannstedt, another refugee from the NFL who is discovering that going back to college in mid-life isn’t working out quite like it did for Old School’s Frank “The Tank.”
Thereafter, the Huskers will be matched against people in the Big 12 who know the syllabus cover to cover.
And those folks are sure to know the book on Nebraska reads something like this: Take fewer chances on offense, because it won’t take that many points to get the result you want.
“We’re going to look at 31-3 and know that if we take care of the football we are in the horse race right to the wire,” Grobe said.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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