Wisconsin vs Nebraska
The Nebraska Cornhuskers (2-3, 0-1) enter their first Big Ten home game on Saturday afternoon. The Huskers are 1.5 point favorites over the Wisconsin Badgers. They’ve also followed the first two losses with victories, so if form holds, the Huskers will be earning their first conference victory of the season.
Read More: Nebraska’s injuries could be a problem on Saturday
Despite playing their best defensive game of the season last week, the Huskers have been dealing with numerous injuries in the front seven. Saturday’s game won’t be much different. For the third consecutive week, linebackers Michael Rose-Ivey and Josh Banderas will be out of the lineup.
Defensive end Freedom Akinmoladun will miss his first game of the season with an ankle injury. For the past couple weeks, Akinmoladun has been one of the “Five Players to Watch.” He’s been one of the best players for the Huskers, and even earned a Blackshirt after proving his worth. In the beginning of the season, Akinmoladun, was a reserve player, filling in for Jack Gangwish. However, his influence on the game was as important as anybody on the Huskers’ defense. There’s no question Akinmoladun will be missed.
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After struggling on the offensive side of the ball, the Huskers have the difficult task of facing one of the best defenses in the country. It’s clear, Tommy Armstrong and the passing game must be better on Saturday. Overall, they were 10/31 last week, and barely scraped past the 100 yard mark. Those numbers won’t get it done against Wisconsin this weekend.
Still, there’s no need to panic. For now, we’ll chalk the bad performance up to a blip on the radar. However, the Huskers can’t blame another bad game on the weather conditions. Not that they made excuses, but the receivers were clearly out of sync for the whole 60 minutes.
One way to make it easier on the offense is to run the ball successfully. The Badgers give up 94 yards per game on the ground, so Nebraska will have a tough time having a consistent rushing attack. However, the offensive genius’ on Nebraska’s sidelines should figure out a way to make it work.
Here are the Five Players to Watch vs Wisconsin.