Yet another chapter in the ongoing series looking at just why the Nebraska football team struggled on offense in the 2022 season.
There are several statistics out there that underline why the Nebraska football team struggled on offense last year. The offensive line has been a focal point of the complaints about last season. In fact, it’s been a unit that’s drawn quite a bit of angry comments for the last few years.
It doesn’t take a deep dive into statistics to know that the Nebraska football offensive line was less than stellar last year. A quick review of any game film will show a unit that seemed to be on its heel and struggling more often than not. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come in handy to take a deep dive into the stats.
One such stat that shows Nebraska football fans’ eyes weren’t fooling them is the percentage of designed runs plays with a missed blocking assignment. The stat is self-explanatory. It considers the number of designed run plays a team ran. And then, how many of those plays had a player who missed a block.
Granted, those who missed a block weren’t always on the offensive line. But it’s a safe bet that several missed blocks can be pinned on it.
Nebraska football near the bottom of the country
As presented by the Twitter account, StatsOWar the Huskers were near the bottom of the country regarding Power 5 programs.
Percent of runs with a blown blocking assignment*
— parker fleming (@statsowar) July 16, 2023
2023 P5 teams in 2022
* as charted by SIS pic.twitter.com/bA5HWb860M
11.5 percent of Nebraska football’s running plays last year involved a missed tackle. That ranks them 54th out of 69 P5 schools.
The other end of that spectrum is Central Florida, who only had a blown block in 4.4 percent of their designed run plays.
It’s worth pointing out that blown blocks aren’t always the best way to tell if a team is going to struggle or not. After all, national champion Georgia had 10 percent of their run plays with blown blocks. That was 40th out of 69. 11-2 Penn State was worse than the Nebraska football team as they had 11.7 percent of their run plays with a blown block.
On the other hand, no other Big Ten squad had a higher percentage than the Huskers and Nittany Lions. Not even 1-11 Northwestern.
It’s one of those stats that might not lead to success alone. But it’s clear that teams are looking for lower percentages if at all possible. It’s a safe bet that the Cornhuskers will be looking to reduce its percentage in 2023.