ThotDoc's Brain Droppings on the La. Tech Game

Blackshirts bedevil Bulldogs as heady Haarberg hands Huskers a home win

Kenny Larabee, KLIN

On the first day of fall, the Nebraska Cornhuskers used a strong second half performance to build a lead before weathering a game stoppage and then held off the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs to win 28-14. It was a sloppy game for both teams even though the rain didn’t appear until the fourth quarter and a lightning strike caused a 56-minute weather delay. Husker fans need to take wins any way they come - ugly or not.

The Huskers once again started strong on defense and were slow out of the gate on offense. Louisiana Tech was scoreless in the first quarter, marking the fifth time in the past six games Nebraska has held the opposition scoreless in the first quarter and allowing just 3 total points in that span. The offense’s search for an identity appears to be an option and power football-oriented attack. On the four scoring drives for the Huskers, they ran the ball 23 times for 263 yards and passed once (a 29-yard touchdown strike to Thomas Fidone). Two other drives had long touchdown runs (of 75 and 72 yards) called back for questionable holding calls. With a missed field goal to end the half, the Huskers had left 10 points on the field and instead were knotted at intermission at 7-7.

The Huskers scored on three of their first four possessions of the second half to open a 28-7 advantage. Coming out of the break, they executed a nine play, 85-yard drive that featured Anthony Grant carrying the ball five times for 76 yards. Several of the runs were behind fullback Barrett Liebentritt who opened several holes for the I-back.

Nebraska rushed for 312 yards, marking the third straight game with better than 200 rushing yards, the first time that has happened since 2018 games against Northwestern, Minnesota and Bethune-Cookman. The rushing total marks the most by the Huskers since rushing for 427 yards against Northwestern on Oct. 2, 2021. With the 147 yards called back by two penalties, the Huskers would have easily eclipsed that mark. It appears the Huskers may have to dedicate themselves to running because the offensive line’s pass protection blocking is porous at best, yielding three sacks that lost 24 yards. In this game, when Nebraska ran, they scored, and when they passed, the drive stalled. The Huskers averaged 6.5 yards per rush for the game. That’s what happens when the opponent’s run defense is ranked 121st in the country and their pass defense is 27th ranked.

Even though the Huskers put the ball on the turf three times (once on a kickoff return), they recovered them all and for the first game this year did not have a turnover. Maybe the bounces are starting to go the Huskers way, or maybe they are learning to better cover their mistakes. After Jeff Sims accounted for eight turnovers in the first two games, Haarberg has managed to avoid a pick in his two starts and may be making a case to remain the starter. Sims did come in for one snap in this game when Heinrich Haarberg lost his helmet, and promptly lost 2 yards on a broken play, but at least he didn’t fumble.

Heinrich Haarberg led the Husker attack rushing 19 times for 157 yards (even with the yardage lost to sacks and a nullified 75-yard scamper). It was his first career 100-yard rushing game eclipsing his previous high of 98 yards last week against Northern Illinois. It was also the most by a Husker quarterback since Adrian Martinez also had 157 at Rutgers in 2020. With the Bulldogs struggling with defending the option, Haarberg had the two longest runs of his career with a 72-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter and a 43-yard run in the first quarter.

Anthony Grant also went over the century mark on the ground rushing 22 times for 135 yards. At half, Grant had just 8 carries for 26 yards, but netted 109 yards on 14 second half carries (not counting a 72-yard touchdown run called back for holding). Grant’s best play may have been the block he made on a blitzer allowing Haarberg to find Fidone for a touchdown. By the way, the one group who graded lower than the Huskers pass pro blocking were the officials who littered the field with yellow flags and could not accurately spot the ball to save themselves. Rant over.

Haarberg went 8 for 17 passing for just 107 yards but was 4 for 5 in the second half. The limited air attack was led by Billy Kemp (5 catches for 62 yards) who also had a 9-yard jet sweep for a touchdown in the second quarter, his first career rushing TD. His run was aided by great blocks from tight ends Thomas Fidone and Nate Boerkircher. Fidone had just one catch, but it was a leaping beauty for a 29-yard touchdown on which 19 of those yards came after the catch. Fidone now has a TD catch in three straight games and is the first Husker tight to have a receiving touchdown in three consecutive games since Mike McNeill, who caught a touchdown pass in each of the final three regular-season games in 2008 (Kansas, Kansas State and Colorado). He is also the first Husker tight end with three touchdown catches in a season since Jack Stoll had three receiving touchdowns in 2018 (and we have 8 games to go). If the Huskers are committed to the run, they better design a few safe pass plays to the tight ends to keep the defense honest or they will be staring at 8-men in the box the rest of the way.

Louisiana Tech had averaged 181 yards on the ground coming in, including 246 last week, and the Huskers limited them to just 46 yards. In all four games the Blackshirts have held each opponent to less than 60 yards which is the first time this century that has happened. The last time the Huskers held four consecutive opponents to fewer than 60 rushing yards was the first four games of the 1999 season.

The Bulldogs totaled 338 yards, but 93 of those yards came after the weather delay with 8:39 left in in the game. The defense seemed sluggish after the break and gave up a six-play, 51-yard scoring drive to cut the scoring margin to 14. Before the break the Blackshirts had yielded just 245 total yards and 22 yards on the ground (at just 1.5 yds per rush). The tackling was not as crisp in this game, but the Bulldogs presented some real challenges with their wide receivers.

Omar Brown led the Husker defense with eight tackles and also forced a fumble, while Isaac Gifford added seven stops and the game's only forced turnover with his interception on Louisiana Tech's final offensive play of the game. John Bullock and DeShon Singleton both added seven stops for the Blackshirts, who failed to garner a sack for the first time this year. Cornerback Quinton Newsome played well throughout and even though offenses tend to scheme away from him, the Bulldogs went his direction on some screens and he finished with four tackles, including one for a 3-yard loss. Linebacker Luke Reimer (2 tackles) appeared to get dinged in the first half and spent the second half in street clothes. Here’s hoping he’s healthy next week against Michigan.

Special teams were a mixed bag once again as placekicker Tristan Alvano badly missed a relatively easy 41-yard field goal at the end of the first half and is now 1 for 3 on field goals for the year. Alvano also had two touchbacks on four kickoffs, but for the second week in a row, he knocked one out of bounds. Will Timmy Bleekrode get a chance to kick in the near future? Speaking of Bleekrode, his 10-yard run up the middle on a 4th and 4 fake field goal could have been a touchdown if he hadn’t tripped. Nevertheless, it was executed well and the timing of it was just right. Tommi Hill fumbled on a kickoff return but somehow got it back. Brian Buschini averaged 45.3 on 6 punts and placed five of them inside the 20-yd line. His best boot of 58 yards was touched down at the 5-yd line. The kick coverage was solid throughout and special teams expert Phalen Sanford made another nice play by knocking a ball loose on a punt return.

Win the games you are supposed to win, ugly or not. With eight turnovers in the first two games the Huskers went 0-2 and with one turnover in the last two they are 2-0. Granted it was a stepdown in competition, but the Minnesota loss is even more galling since the Gophers lost Saturday night in overtime to bottom dweller Northwestern, who threw for 400 yards against the Gophers. Colorado was humbled (whether they think so or not) by Oregon 42-6 in a game that wasn’t that close. Oh well, water under the bridge. Next week #2 ranked Michigan comes to Lincoln off a 31-7 spanking of Rutgers (who played well early). The defense will be challenged by a team that can both run and pass. To be fair, the defensive scheme in the game today was pretty vanilla with very little risk taking, no shifting before the snap, no disguised blitzes, and no overloads. I expect Tony White will dial up a lot more pressure next week which will be necessary to give the Huskers any hope. Let’s see if the offense can continue to improve a bit as well. Go Big Red!!