• last year
Transcript
00:00 Welcome to the Kroker Chronicles, the people show.
00:11 Checking the pulse of Eskeran Nation.
00:13 Ladies and gentlemen, this is my gut reaction to Nebraska's oh so beautiful, beauty is in
00:18 the eye of the beholder, right?
00:19 The oh so beautiful victory over Northwestern, 17-9 today.
00:25 Now Nebraska football, it's kind of like the ugly duckling.
00:28 I don't know if I'm remembering that story right.
00:30 Isn't the ugly duckling kind of really ugly, but the mom loves it anyways?
00:33 I don't know if I'm remembering that story wrong.
00:35 Let me know.
00:36 That's how Nebraska football is right now.
00:37 You watch Heinrich Harburg.
00:39 He's a guy that can be tough to watch, but easy to root for.
00:42 I hope that makes sense with the differences.
00:44 He's a young guy.
00:45 He's passionate.
00:46 He's just going to get better.
00:47 Please do it sooner rather than later in the pass game.
00:50 But here's the deal.
00:52 There were times when I was like, "Man, I wonder if Jeff Simms should get a chance."
00:55 There was adversity in that game.
00:57 As the game got on, went along, Heinrich Harburg played better and better.
01:01 Also, we ran the ball more.
01:03 The running game picked up just a little bit.
01:05 He can be hard to watch, but I like rooting for him.
01:08 I hope that difference kind of makes sense.
01:12 There were times throughout this game when it looked like our offense couldn't do the
01:15 basic little things.
01:16 We were like a middle school team out there.
01:20 Now the defense, we just couldn't do the basic little things, but the defense won this game
01:24 plain and simple.
01:26 The defense had several sacks, great pressure on Northwestern's quarterback.
01:30 In fact, I think, I've got to go back and double check, I think they ended up with eight
01:32 sacks and 13 tackles for a loss.
01:37 This was a Northwestern offensive line that was not great.
01:40 They had given up the second most amount of sacks in the entire Big Ten Conference, only
01:43 Illinois where the S.S.
01:44 Silent was worse.
01:46 But Tony White devised up a great game plan and he took advantage of that.
01:50 It's not very often you get outgained.
01:53 Northwestern actually had more total yards.
01:55 It's not very often you have more turnovers, we had more turnovers than Northwestern did.
01:59 They actually did have more penalties.
02:01 They shot themselves in the foot several times, not only with the amount of penalties, but
02:04 badly timed penalties.
02:08 It's not very often those things happen when you win the game.
02:10 Here's the deal, I don't want to say I don't care because I want us to get better and better,
02:15 but we won the game.
02:16 It's like that old Al Davis saying, "Just win, baby!"
02:20 If you're with me and you're just happy and you'll take it right now and you're just happy,
02:24 we won the game, smash that like button.
02:26 Also, the injuries on offense, I want to wish those guys all a speedy recovery.
02:31 For several reasons, I wish them a speedy recovery and if you're with me on that, smash
02:34 that like button as well.
02:36 Now, the Huskers snap a four game Big Ten home losing streak.
02:41 Northwestern now hasn't won a Big Ten road game in their last 14 tries.
02:45 Their last win was at Purdue in 2020.
02:50 There were times in this game when it was ugly.
02:52 We know that.
02:54 Adversity.
02:55 But the Huskers battled through, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
02:59 So we're going to go back to pre-game, first quarter, second quarter, walk through the
03:02 game, get my overall gut reaction.
03:04 Nebraska, 3-3 each of the last three years has been our record going into the seventh
03:08 game of the year and then it kind of went downhill after that.
03:11 Well now, we have our first winning record since October 26, 2019.
03:17 Coming into this game, Northwestern had the worst rushing offense in the entire Big Ten
03:21 conference, averaging 103 rush yards per game and the worst rushing defense, I'm sorry,
03:28 the worst rushing defense belonging to the Wildcats in the Big Ten conference, giving
03:31 up 172.3 yards per game.
03:33 Now Nebraska is averaging just over 200 rush yards per game and they're actually one of
03:38 only eight coming into this game, FBS teams to rank in the top 25 in both rushing offense
03:44 and rush defense.
03:45 Alright, and the Blackshirts are actually second in the Big Ten in rush defense, giving up
03:49 175 yards per game, coming into the game today.
03:52 Now the other seven teams that are top 25 in rush offense and rush defense in the entire
03:56 country, okay, pretty good company.
03:58 Penn State, Oregon, Tennessee, UCLA, Kansas State, Air Force, and Cincinnati.
04:03 Here's one other interesting pre-game stat that I came across since Nebraska joined the
04:07 Big Ten.
04:08 Nebraska versus Northwestern, those games, seven times they've been decided by three
04:12 points or less.
04:14 That's the most of any two teams playing each other during that time frame in the entire
04:18 country as well, and that doesn't even include one overtime game.
04:22 Now the Huskers, okay, are last coming into this game in the Big Ten in pass defense,
04:28 giving up 247 pass yards per game.
04:31 But part of that is due to the fact other teams have a hard time running the ball.
04:35 Northwestern actually had more success running the ball today than most teams do, but most
04:39 teams don't have much success running the ball, so they pass the ball 68% of the time
04:43 against the Blackshirts.
04:44 I'm willing to bet that a Northwestern quarterback kind of wished they would have thrown the
04:48 ball a little bit less today, as much as he got hit.
04:50 Alright, freshman running back Emmitt Johnson got the start at running back today, not Anthony
04:55 Grant due to fumbling issues.
04:58 First play of the game, Heinrich Harburg throws the interception, the Blackshirts force a
05:03 three and out, and get great pressure on Northwestern's backup quarterback, Brendan Sullivan, making
05:07 a second straight start.
05:11 Now Northwestern's first two possessions, or first three possessions, but I'll get
05:14 into that, their first two possessions both started in Nebraska territory, and they didn't
05:18 pick up a single first down on either drive.
05:21 A second interception started Northwestern's third drive in Nebraska territory on the 13-yard
05:27 line in Nebraska territory.
05:30 Again the Blackshirts forced them to kick a field goal, Nash Humpmaker had one and a
05:32 half sacks already early on in the game, I believe.
05:36 After the Wildcats' first three drives, they had minus nine total yards.
05:41 They had three points and a 3-0 lead.
05:45 The Huskers also had negative yards through their first three drives as well.
05:48 Now Nebraska's fourth drive, they moved the ball, and Tristan Alvano banged through a
05:52 47-yard field goal going against the North Wind.
05:55 I was very happy to see this for Tristan and our offense.
05:59 This tied the game up 3-3.
06:01 The end of the first quarter, Nebraska had 48 total yards, and Northwestern had zero.
06:08 They ran 14 plays in the first quarter, and at the end of the first quarter the Wildcats
06:11 had zero total yards.
06:12 Now, at this point, I don't know, be amusing to you or not, it is what it is, we had almost
06:17 as many INTs too as we did points.
06:21 Not a lot of pretty football or points so far was my note at this point in the game,
06:25 but you can't call it boring.
06:26 There was a lot of turnovers and sudden changes, so it wasn't boring.
06:31 I know Satterfield wants to throw the ball.
06:34 As the game wore along, we ran the ball more and more and more.
06:38 But right out the gate, they had practiced throwing the ball more during the bye week.
06:42 He clearly wants to throw the ball more.
06:43 I don't want to say I don't care what he wants, but I care about results.
06:49 The fact of the matter is, we're a running team with a running quarterback, and Henrik
06:53 Harberg is Nebraska's leading rusher.
06:56 Let's run the fricking ball for the rest of the year.
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07:23 Right after I made some of these notes, and I was like, "We've got to run the ball more,"
07:26 we started to.
07:27 Thank God.
07:28 Nebraska went on immediately right after that.
07:30 They went on a 10-play, mostly run, 70-70 yard drive, took 525 off the clock, and 50
07:37 of those 70-70 yards were rushing yards, capped off by a Henrik Harberg TD run.
07:43 He may not throw the best right now, and his arm angles are kind of funky.
07:47 I've talked about that in the past, something they can address in the offseason.
07:50 I think my biggest question is, "Did it used to look like that when he was a freshman a
07:54 couple years ago?"
07:55 How did it get that way?
07:56 Story for another day.
07:57 Here's my point.
07:58 He sure runs hard.
08:00 I love the way that kid runs the ball.
08:01 He ran it in, capped off this drive for a touchdown run, put Nebraska up 10-6, and then
08:06 it was halftime.
08:07 Normally, I go through a whole list of halftime stats.
08:11 I picked out what was interesting to me.
08:14 Just the most interesting ones.
08:15 Here's what stood out to me.
08:17 Northwestern had only 96 total yards at halftime.
08:20 They were 1 of 6 on 3rd downs.
08:22 They only completed 2 passes and only attempted 6 the entire first half for a total of 10
08:27 passing yards in the first half, yet they were only down 4 points.
08:30 I was nervous.
08:31 I was like, "Man, I feel like we're better, but you never know."
08:35 I didn't like them being that close.
08:38 They had ran the ball 21 times up to that point, and only passed the ball 6 times.
08:42 Heinrich Harburg, at halftime, even though we'd thrown the ball more to start the game,
08:47 kind of slowed down as the game progressed, he had 24 pass yards at halftime, the least
08:51 amount by a Nebraska quarterback since 2019.
08:53 Again, we're a running team.
08:55 By God, we're a running option.
08:57 Well, let's pitch the ball.
08:59 Let's pitch the ball.
09:00 Then we can actually say we're an option team.
09:03 But a running option football team is what our strengths are.
09:07 My note was both teams had a very sloppy start to the second half.
09:11 The Huskers put the ball on the turf multiple times already.
09:13 In fact, up to this point in the game, we'd had 3 fumbles.
09:16 Now luckily, we'd recovered them all.
09:19 Then this is where I said we look like a middle school offense.
09:22 Injuries or not.
09:23 I have a speedy recovery to those guys, but injuries or not, we don't look great.
09:27 Offensively, thank God the Blackshirts are legit defense again.
09:32 I mean, they have played great football in 6 of our 7 games this year.
09:37 Thank goodness for the 3-3-5 defense.
09:39 Who knew I'd be saying that a year ago at this time?
09:42 Alright, Northwestern pretty much had a huge edge in field position most of the day.
09:47 But they couldn't do a whole lot with it for the most part.
09:51 We've got to be able to actually pitch the ball in the option play.
09:54 I just talked about that.
09:56 Otherwise, it's not really an option.
09:57 Here was my other note.
09:58 Otherwise, we just look like Iowa at best out there.
10:02 Harburg is 6'5".
10:04 Got to fix those throwing angles.
10:05 Talked about that.
10:06 He's a young player with phenomenal passion.
10:10 Got to get better, and he's only just going to get better.
10:13 I am curious to see if they give Jeff Sims a few more opportunities this week in practice.
10:19 I'm just curious to see how this unfolds as Matt Rule talks about things in his press
10:24 conferences upcoming here in the next couple days.
10:27 Early fourth quarter, a fake option play to a deep pass became a 44-yard touchdown pass
10:33 from Heinrich Harburg to true freshman Malachi Coleman.
10:37 I was excited when I heard he was going to get the start.
10:39 I know we've had guys leave.
10:40 We've had guys get banged up.
10:42 I mean, why not?
10:43 He's more talented than any wide receiver that we have.
10:48 This puts the Huskers up 17-6.
10:50 Obviously, keep your eye on Coleman, and keep your eye on Jalen Lloyd.
10:53 Two very young, fast wide receivers with bright futures.
10:56 Both those guys.
10:57 And right now, Malachi Coleman gives us that deep threat that we've really been missing
11:03 all year.
11:04 Now, the Northwesterns scored a field goal on their ensuing possession, 17-9.
11:10 Nebraska leads 17-9 in the fourth quarter, and that ended up being the final score.
11:15 There was a couple threats here and there.
11:18 Nebraska, Tony White ended up blitzing the pants off of Northwestern, basically to close
11:23 out the end of the game.
11:24 Got a couple of sacks there at the end.
11:26 My final thoughts are, it was ugly at times.
11:29 There was adversity at times.
11:30 They kept fighting, scratching, clawing.
11:32 By God, we've got to get better.
11:34 That's no secret.
11:37 Thank goodness for a great defense.
11:39 Let's just run the ball on offense and incorporate play-action pass.
11:43 Just my opinion.
11:44 Alright, ladies and gentlemen, let me know in the comments below.
11:47 Alright, first of all, do you agree with me?
11:49 What did I miss?
11:50 What did I not miss?
11:51 What do you dislike/like that I had to say?
11:54 Aside from that, here are my questions.
11:55 Should Jeff Sims get more opportunities in practice this week?
11:58 Let me know in the comments below.
11:59 Also, I haven't said the phrase "TTB" much at all this year.
12:05 Not like I used to.
12:06 I don't know why, just haven't.
12:07 But here's my question.
12:08 I haven't said "TTB" as much this year.
12:11 If you know what "TTB" means, let me know in the comments below.
12:14 Also, we have a winning record for the first time in four years.
12:19 Here's my question though.
12:21 Do you feel better or worse about the Huskers after today?
12:27 As always, check out all the game reactions that are going to be going up over the next
12:31 24-48 hours.
12:32 You've got John Johnston, Corn Nation, check it out at Carriker Chronicles.com.
12:36 Connor Hayden of Corn Craze, Carriker Chronicles.com.
12:39 Obviously, the Big Tent Show, Carriker Chronicles itself.
12:43 DocTalk with Rob Zaduska, Travis Justice, a plethora of people.
12:49 Check them all out.
12:50 Carriker Chronicles.com.
12:51 Until next time, Husker Nation, go big red.
12:54 And always remember to throw the bub.