The Nebraska football team got a win against Indiana on Saturday. After the two teams traded punches for a while, the Huskers were able to pull away in the second half in much the same fashion that they did against North Dakota.
That should give people pause when they start really celebrating this win. There’s a chance that it isn’t an indication that things are getting better, as some have pointed out. There are indications that this was just an ugly win against a bad team.
Cooler heads would tell you that the Huskers still looked shaky at best a number of different times on Saturday night. The offense stalled more than it had any business stalling against an Indiana defense that allowed more than 40 points to Cincinnati the week prior. It allowed 30 points to Western Kentucky.
Yes, there are plenty of reasons not to overreact to the Nebraska football victory over the Hoosiers, but there are three big reasons why people can and should overreact and have some real hope for the rest of the season.
The Nebraska football defense was dominant in the second half
While the Huskers struggled a bit in the first half, eventually getting outgained by the Hoosiers and entering the break tied 21-21, the second half was an entirely different story.
Much has been made in the days following the win that the Huskers held Indiana to 71 total yards, but it’s even more impressive when looking deeper at the stats.
NU allowed just seven yards on eight carries. In other words, the Hoosiers averaged 0.9 yards per carry.
IU was also awful once the Cornhuskers were able to get them to third down, going a combined 1-for-9 on 3rd and 4th down. Of course, this was one area where the “D” excelled in the first half as well, and the Hoosiers finished the game 2-for-16 in those instances overall.
QB Connor Bazelak had some success throwing the ball in the first half, going 13-for-24 for 159 yards and a touchdown. However, he ran into a buzzsaw in the second half, going 9-for-20 for just 64 yards and an interception.
That kind of defensive turnaround should have Nebraska football fans hoping that the simplification of the defensive calls that new defensive coordinator Bill Busch talked about is working.
After opening the season with three straight 100-yard rushing games, Anthony Grant was thoroughly bottled up by the Oklahoma Sooners to the tune of just 36 yards on 13 carries. it would have made total sense for Nebraska football fans to worry that Grant’s season was about to become extremely pedestrian.
Then he ran for 136 yards on 32 carries against Indiana. It was a workman like effort by Grant who averaged 4.3 yards per rush but whose longest run of the night was 17 yards. It was the kind of performance that Nebraska football fans haven’t seen all that often out of the team’s featured back.
On the season, Grant now has 600 yards rushing. That’s the sixth highest total on the season and while he’s also got the third most carries of any back in the country, he’s clearly one of the best talents in college football this year.
Forgetting the feel good story that is Grant, who started the season as someone that the staff didn’t think had really separated himself from the field, he’s a real offensive weapon for the Huskers when the passing game isn’t working.
While Casey Thompson has had himself his own productive season, there have been times when the Nebraska football aerial attack has sputtered out. It’s nice to see that Grant can then put the team on his back and carry it across the goal line, both figuratively and literally.
Grant is not only well on his way to 1,000 yard season but he seems like he could get right up there as far as best season by a Nebraska Cornhuskers running back in quite some time.
Trey Palmer has had a very solid season but he seems to be taking the next steps towards being one of the premiere receivers in college football in the last few games. The Nebraska football team has been a bit too balanced on offense for him to be among the nation’s leaders in either yards or catches, but he’s certainly looked like one of the most dangerous weapons out there of late.
While he’s not necessarily at the top of the list in either yards or catches, he’s in the conversation as he’s 9th in the country in the latter and 16th in the nation in the former.
His story is a bit like Grant’s as the Huskers came into the season not really knowing who was going to step up and be the go-to receiver. It didn’t look like it would be Palmer right from the get-go but he’s managed to step up big of late.
Palmer has led the Nebraska football team in receiving with 18 catches and 249 yards in the last two games alone. He’s also gotten his first two touchdown catches of the year.
The LSU transfer who came over almost exclusively because he wanted to keep playing for Mickey Joseph has also been pretty explosive. He’s had at least one catch of 24 or more yards in four straight games and he had a season-long 71-yard catch and run for a touchdown against Indiana.
If Trey Palmer can keep being the man for this offense through the air, then the Nebraska football team could have quite a bit more success moving forward than it has so far in 2022.