Stryker: No Breakthroughs

Martinez, Husker offense again found wanting against Ohio State

Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

The Nebraska Cornhuskers under Scott Frost have carved out their identity in the Big Ten. They’re the team that plays just poorly enough to lose, but no worse than that.

The Huskers rarely waver from that path, regardless of whether they play a College Football Playoff candidate or a team destined for the lower division of its conference. You can count on the Huskers playing just below the level of their opponent. For conference foes, it’s comforting. For Husker Nation, it’s maddening.

The script was eerily similar on a beautiful early November Saturday against Ohio State (8-1 overall, 6-0 in the Big Ten), which came into the game rated No. 6 in the Associated Press poll. Once again, the defense did enough to win, holding the nation’s top-scoring team to about half its average. Once again, the offense and kicking game did not hold up their end of the deal.

The Blackshirts held Ohio State to 90 rushing yards, less than half their season average. Unfortunately for the Big Red, the Buckeyes did pretty much the same to them, holding the Huskers to 113, though 79 of those yards came in the fourth quarter.

Speaking of the fourth quarter, it featured a Martinez trademark: yards, but not points. The Huskers had 95 total yards in the fourth, but zero points. On three occasions, they had the ball trailing by six points, and could not punch one across. Martinez is piling up the stats and no doubt will own the Huskers’ passing and total offense all-time records when he’s done. He’s not nearly as impressive in the one stat that matters — victories.

Martinez is a great young man. He’s tough and has excellent character. He’s played much of his career with some sort of injury, and obviously has been playing injured for the Huskers the last few games. But the story would have been the same had Martinez been healthy. For the last three seasons, he’s proven undependable in the clutch, whether he’s healthy or not.  He’s never brought a team from behind to win late in the game, and never really has come close since he led the Huskers on two fourth-quarter touchdown drives to even the score at 28 against Iowa in the final game of his freshman year.

Then again, Martinez has rarely played behind a competent offensive line since that day. When Brenden Jaimes and Matt Farniok were experienced seniors, Greg Austin was unable to make a decent offensive line of them. Now, with a group of second- and third-year linemen, Austin hasn’t done much with them, either. There’s almost no incremental improvement that you’d expect to see from a talented young line. They gave up five sacks to an Ohio State team that doesn’t have its usual All-American pass rusher. It’s obvious that they miss their true freshman, Teddy Prochazka, because second-year tackle Turner Corcoran was almost helpless against the Buckeyes’ speed rush. Corcoran is a road grader who might be better served moving to guard. Why don’t the Huskers have any dependable tackles after four years? With numerous third- and fourth-year options to choose from, the Huskers are no longer young up front, despite what Frost says. Actually, they’d be better if they were younger (with Prochazka in the lineup).

After that 2018 game, I wrote, “It’s evident the groundwork is laid for a surge in Cornhusker stock.”

That prediction did not age well. Alas, Husker stock has trended down since Black Friday 2018.

The Huskers showed a no-quit fighting spirit in 2018, and they still show it in 2021. That’s a credit to Frost. The defense has improved significantly since that day, which is a credit to defensive coordinator Erik Chinander. but the offense has regressed. The most troubling aspect of Nebraska under Frost is that the Huskers are at their worst when it means the most. They find ways to lose close games to good teams. They find ways to lose close games to mediocre teams. They simply do not play well with the game on the line. It’s obvious they don’t believe they can. Game after game, when under pressure, they default to their deeply-ingrained erratic — and often self-destructive — behavior. That’s on Frost and the culture he has built, or failed to build.

It’s a nasty addiction and Frost has not found a way to break it. Consequently, although the Huskers have as good or better talent than any team in the Big Ten West, they’re floundering at the bottom of possibly the worst Power Five division in the nation. While teams like Purdue improve on offense and stabilize their kicking game, the Husker offensive coaches do not develop their talent, and frankly don’t seem to know exactly what they want. Husker special teams — especially the kick coverage units — have improved from early season, but the punters and placekickers still misfire far too often.

It would help if they coached to their strengths. The Husker offensive line would be better served if Frost committed to an option-based attack that used only occasional play-action passes. Corcoran could hold up well at tackle in such a scheme. The five Husker linemen can’t hold up against a decent four-man pass rush. The mix of Oregon speed and Nebraska power is not working. Martinez is just too turnover-prone behind an offensive line that cannot pass block; his two touchdowns and one interception Saturday were about par for his career.

Martinez could have broken a lot of negative trends when he led his team into the red zone with 10 minutes left in the game, but he overthrew an open Levi Falck on a crossing pattern on third-and-4 from the 13-yard line. Big Ten defenses rely on Martinez to do that. Open question: Why doesn’t Martinez target 6-foot-9 tight end Austin Allen in the red zone?  Frost and offensive coordinator Matt Lubick are not using Allen as they should.

Ohio State’s talented quarterback, C.J. Stroud, threw for 405 yards and two touchdowns, but JoJo Domann and Myles Farmer each intercepted him. Frankly, Stroud is at about the same level as a decision-maker in his first year as a collegian as Martinez is in his fourth. That’s the legacy of Mario Verduzco, the Husker quarterback coach.

In the final analysis, Husker players are not breaking through; neither are Husker coaches. Some of those coaches certainly will not be back in 2022. The big question is whether any of them should be.

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