Nebraska vs Bowling Green - Don't Play with your Food

THE PROFIZER'S PIGSKIN PREVIEW

There is nothing quite like surrendering a 75-yard strike to start the season. It really snaps you back to the reality of being a Husker fan. Nearly instant heartbreak, right from the first snap. And if things weren’t hot enough in Lincoln last Saturday, the temperature in Memorial Stadium only went up going into halftime only up 14-13. Was this the sum of all fears? Coming into the season, expectations were not high, but were we honestly struggling to deal with Ohio? I thought the whole point of this game was to squash the Frank Solich curse once and for all. Undo the wrongs of Steve Pederson. Get this Husker locomotive back on the Big Red track to championships. But here we were. Up 14-13. Struggling to stop the offensive juggernaut known as the Ohio Bobcats. Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been more accurately depicted than Jahsear Whittington vomiting all over the field.

Mercifully, the second half came and the tide turned quickly. What do we chalk the first half up to? The heat? First game jitters? Or did we just wear Ohio down? Whatever happened, we were able to see some glimpses. Glimpses of how Dana Holgerson wants to run this offense. Glimpses of the pieces that are starting to come together. There is undeniable explosiveness on this offense. But can it be harnessed consistently? With Colandrea, no play will ever be dead. Gone are the days of the fetal position sacks. We have got a QB that can move with the best of them.

But the largest question mark on this team is clearly on the other side of the ball. Can this defense compete with the upper half of the B1G? The defensive line again is a concern. The defense still appears susceptible to the QB run game. Small sample size, but we didn’t see the ball hawking defense that we were hearing about coming out of camp. I am sure that Rob Aurich and company kept it relatively vanilla with the calls against Ohio, but you hope there is a lot more in that tank. The return of Owen Chambliss will undoubtedly help, but it is looking like we may have to win some shootouts this year.

Luckily for the Cornhuskers, a Bowling Green team comes limping into town this weekend, fresh off a loss on their home field to Tarleton State, where they surrendered over 460 yards of total offense, including 250 on the ground to Tarleton State back Tylan Hines. This should be music to the Husker offense, as the running game behind Jamal Rule was a bright spot in the win against Ohio. But as this past weekend proved, you cannot take MAC teams lightly. This is their Super Bowl. College football has changed. This is like a tryout for these guys. Show what they have. Get the agents on the horn and shop the tape to the highest bidders. They’ll be hungry and the Blackshirts cannot let them eat.

Matt Rhule always likes to say that you see the biggest jump on a team from Week 1 to Week 2. This Profizer is curious. Can that come to fruition, or will it be yet another mirage on the desert landscape that is Husker fandom the past two decades? Which half of football is the real Huskers? Time will tell, but here is what must happen when toe meets leather Saturday evening in Lincoln, Nebraska.

1.      It’s Impolite to Play with your Food – Bury them. Give them no hope. Establish early that this is a tune up game for bigger and better things to come. Work whatever kinks that were in the system in Week 1 out and do what you’re supposed to do to bad teams. Cut the check, add the notch to the belt you beat them with, and get them on the earliest flight back to Bowling Green, Ohio. Listen, The Profizer watches every minute of every Husker game, but let’s be real. Ohio State and Texas are playing at 6:30. Husker fans shouldn’t have to worry about Bowling Green and should be free to have a top five matchup on the second TV.

2.      Take the Training Wheels Off – Maybe the defense that was called last Saturday was vanilla. The same could probably be said about the offense. And I get it. You don’t want to put too much on tape for perceived better opponents later in the season. But we gotta let these young guys, these new guys stretch their legs a bit. Let’s see what we got. Can we get a consistent pass rush with this defensive line? Can the Blackshirts generate more turnovers? Can the offense push the ball down the field? If you can’t do these things against Bowling Green, can you do them against anyone? The answer is no. No you can’t. So the time to see it and believe it is now.

3.      Let the Backups Shine – There is no reason that the Huskers should have their top line units in this whole game, like we saw last Saturday. I personally want to see the progression in the young guys on the roster. How is TJ Lateef coming? We all know the risks with having a more mobile QB. That backup position is at a premium, and with another offseason of work under young TJ’s belt, I’m curious to see the development. And it’s not just the QB position. What kind of depth do we have on this team? We all know the big story is this 2027 recruiting class that staff is slated to bring in. But what do we have in the cupboard now? Saturday night would be a good place to showcase just that.

There is always a certain amount of rust that you need to shake off in the first game of the season. Let’s hope that all the rust was shed in the first half of week one. Put a complete game together. Iron out the deficiencies. B1G play is coming quick, fast and in a hurry. Expectations are not sky high this year. Good. Take advantage of it. Overachieve for once. Give us Husker fans the unfamiliar feeling of watching a football team exceed expectations instead of inventing new ways to disappoint us.

Are we still capable of doing that?

The Profizer will always believe it…no matter how many times my poor little heart gets ripped out of my chest.

Nebraska vs Bowling Green...Dub #2 coming at you Saturday night

Nebraska 50 – Bowling Green 13