You know those immediate thoughts you have about the most recent Husker football game? Whether you’re walking out of Memorial Stadium or flipping your television screen(s) over to new games, plays, decisions, all the good and bad stands out.
What’s the first thing I take away from a game? Welcome to Knee-Jerk Reactions.
Tommy Armstrong, Jr. looked good. Not great, not bad, but good. There’s still a lack of touch sometimes, but improvement’s there.
Ameer Abdullah’s a freak, but we all knew that. Hat tip for a career day, sir.
Aside from what looked to be same song, different verse early in the same, the offensive line played solid. Like what I saw from the right side. FAU tried to attack it early on and they held up.
Once Randy Gregory departed, I didn’t figure he’d be back. He had multiple trainers looking at his knee, then headed to the back. After I seing him in street clothes, I don’t expect him to play against McNeese State.
Linebackers looked skittish early on
, but settled in. Trevor Roach had one of his better games.
Long snappers did well as did both Brown and Bondi. Seeing them nail a 44 and 45-yarder, respectively was a plus. The competition continues!
The return units continue to be absolutely putrid. I like the returners for kickoffs, but Pierson-El needs to be bringing back punts. Bell looks disinterested and Westerkamp simply doesn’t have that immediate speed.
Overall, a very satisfying win, however it’s worth putting things into perspective, and no, not that the opposition was Florida Atlantic. Once FAU quarterback Jaquez Johnson was out, this was a completely different ballgame. He was the reason the Owls had that 11-play 75-yard scoring drive. Do the Huskers sit at 1-0 if he played the whole game? It’s likely, but Greg Hankerson was a sitting duck (owl?) without Johnson’s moves and the defense feasted on him.
While it would’ve been nice to have Johnson in there for the full 60 minutes, the game gave experience and film to break down.
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