Quick Grades for the Huskers: NU/CU

The Corner is wanting to get on to Championship Week as quickly as possible, but still has necessary duties to fulfill before the fun gets started. Normally grading the team’s performance is a Monday thing, while H.C.’s Top 25 comes out on Tuesday. However, this week, both posts will be coming out today. That means extra posts on the Big 12 Championship Game against Oklahoma!

Lets start by saying that Nebraska played one of its most complete games of the seasons in beating the Rocky Mountain Oysters out of Colorado. Thankfully, it came at just the right time, and the Texas A&M fiasco will end up nothing more than a blip on the Huskers’ 2010 season.

Rushing Offense: Nebraska blowed up the #2 rushing defense in the Big 12 conference on Friday. Rex Burkhead is really starting to come on as of late, and received more carries than Roy Helu for the second straight week. Rex piled up 98 rushing yards in the first half alone. The team relied heavily on its running game with the season on the line, and a backup QB, calling 59 runs to 19 passes. That’s the kind of stat Big Red Country loves to see. Grade A

Passing Offense: Cody Green played phenomenally in the biggest game of his career. He was in complete control of the game from start to Wildman Time. I believe the full week of knowing he would start, and the preparation that came along with it, was the difference for Green. I said before the game that if Nebraska lost then I didn’t expect to see Green in a Husker uniform next year. Now his name is thrown into the conversation for starting the Big 12 Championship, as well as the competition for starting next season. However, Green wasn’t the best QB on the field on Friday. Rex Burkhead compiled a 556 QB rating. Grade B+

Rushing Defense: Colorado was able to find a little running room, but nothing that ever factored into the contest. The Blackshirts do a great job of limiting the opposition’s big runs, but seem to consistently allow 4-5 yard gains. They might need to do better than that against Oklahoma on Saturday. Grade C+

Passing Defense: The NFL’s 14th rated pass defense held Colorado to 38% completion rate and picked him off twice. It wasn’t all good news though as they failed to record a sack after harassing QB’s the past few weeks, and The Fonz got left in the oven a little too long on Colorado’s first TD. Also, potential award winners Lavonte David and Prince Amukamara dropped INT’s that would have made some nice stat padding. Grade B+

Specialty Teams: Don’t remember any plays from this unit aside from the Tim Marlowe curiously kneeling the ball on a kick return. So I’ll use this time to rant about Alex Henery getting snubbed from the Lou Groza award list of finalists. The only rational argument is that he simply didn’t kick enough field goals this year. I suppose that’s acceptable, but College Football fans need to know who the true best kicker in the nation is, and that’s Alex Henery. Grade B