If there was ever a game that reflected a team’s entire season, it was this 28-20 loss for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Nebraska played well enough in most areas to win Friday afternoon, but costly penalties and infuriating turnovers once again caused the Huskers upset. Tommy Armstrong accounted for 342 yards of offense to lead Nebraska, but he also threw four interceptions and made several mind numbingly bad decisions that Husker fans have unfortunately come to expect from him. Here are the final grades and observations from Nebraska’s loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes.
GAME GRADES
Quarterback: F
Four interceptions, that’s really all I need to say. We could blame Armstrong’s awful performance on the cold weather, a sound Iowa defense, or even distractions from last week’s sexual assault allegations. But the cold hard fact is that Tommy Armstrong singlehandedly destroyed Nebraska’s upset bid of Iowa. Of Armstrong’s four interceptions, only one, the pick six by Parker Hesse, occurred due to Iowa making a great play. The other three fell squarely on Tommy Armstrong’s shoulders. Tommy also decided to throw a 40 yard deep fade instead of throwing to the flat on fourth and one midway through the fourth quarter, a monumentally stupid decision that cost Nebraska a chance to make it a one score game.
Running Backs: C+
The numbers aren’t great. Imani Cross and Terrell Newby combined for just 89 yards on 28 carries, but the Husker running backs did a decent job against the #9 rush defense in the country. Cross ran hard all day, rarely breaking free for big runs, but consistently gaining positive yardage and scoring two touchdowns. Newby looked his healthiest since the Minnesota game, accounting for 56 yards of offense on 14 touches, and giving Nebraska a nice change of pace.
Tight Ends: A
Cethan Carter had his third straight fantastic performance Friday afternoon, as the junior from Louisiana led the Huskers with four catches for 76 yards. Cethan looks like a fantastic weapon to build around in the 2016 season. Fellow junior Sam Cotton also got in on the action, catching one pass for 14 yards and providing solid run blocking when he was in the game.
Wide Receivers: C
The Nebraska receivers didn’t have a bad game against Iowa, but they didn’t have a great one either. Jamal Turner, of all people, led the receivers with four catches Friday afternoon for 26 yards. Brandon Reilly and Stanley Morgan each had three catches, while Jordan Westerkamp had two catches for 41 yards on one drive before disappearing for the rest of the game. Despite decent stats, the Husker receivers failed to consistently get open against the Iowa secondary and make the necessary plays to pull the upset.
Offensive Line: C
Nebraska’s offensive line did a decent job against Iowa, allowing zero sacks and paving the way for Nebraska to rush for 137 yards against a very good Iowa defense. Unfortunately, Nebraska’s pipeline failed to get a push on a crucial third and one midway through the fourth quarter, causing Danny Langsdorf to call a pass play on fourth and one that Tommy Armstrong completely butchered (I’m talking about the fade pass if you haven’t figured it out yet). Nebraska did not allow a sack against the Hawkeyes, but Tommy was forced to scramble more than I would have liked.
Defensive Line: A-
Nebraska’s defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage for the majority of the game Friday. Unfortunately, the brief stretch where they were beaten up front led to two breakaway touchdowns for Jordan Canzeri that allowed Iowa to take an insurmountable 11 point lead. The defensive tackles were stout in the middle against the run and got a solid interior push against the pass; and the defensive ends did a solid job of collapsing the pocket on C.J. Beathard in passing situations.
Linebackers: B-
You know those two breakaway touchdowns by Jordan Canzeri that I just talked about? Well both of them occurred because Iowa got a solid push against Nebraska’s defensive line and because Dedrick Young got caught up with blockers and wasn’t able to scrape over into the hole. Other than that bad two play stretch the Husker linebackers played fine, allowing just 56 rushing yards on Iowa’s other 26 attempts.
Secondary: A
Its a shame that Nebraska lost Friday, mainly because it wasted their secondary’s best performance of the season. Iowa gained just 97 yards through the air against the Huskers as the trio of Johnathan Rose, Joshua Kalu, and Chris Jones were all over the Hawkeye receivers. Junior Nate Gerry played like a man possessed in the first half, but missed the second half due to being ejected for targeting late in the second half. Aaron Williams, a true freshman, came off the bench and performed admirably as his replacement.
Special Teams: B
Drew Brown had a solid day for the Huskers, nailing two field goals despite stiff winds at memorial stadium. He has now made 20 of 26 field goals on the season. Sam Foltz had a solid day punting for Nebraska, averaging 44.6 yards on five punts. Nebraska once again got nothing out of their return units Friday, as neither Stanley Morgan Jr. or Jordan Westerkamp have provided the same spark that Demornay Pierson-El did last season.
Final Grade: C
On one hand, its hard to be mad about a 5-6 team going toe to toe with the #4 team in the country and losing by just eight points. On the other hand, Nebraska lost despite holding a 443 to 260 yard advantage due to bone headed penalties, idiotic turnovers, and some questionable play calling. Nebraska fans can belly ache over the missed chances, but the bottom line was Nebraska didn’t deserve to win this afternoon.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Bad Tommy rears his ugly head
Tommy Armstrong threw four interceptions and registered a horrid QBR rating of 34.2, and this wasn’t even his worst performance of the season (Illinois will always be his worst game). Armstrong has now thrown an FBS leading 16 interceptions on the season, the most by a Nebraska quarterback since Joe Dailey threw 19 in 2004. With highly touted recruit Patrick O’Brien set to enroll in January, it raises an interesting question. Does the Husker coaching staff stick with Tommy in 2016 and pray that he improves? Or do they roll the dice with a true freshman? Either way it should be an interesting spring.
Does Nebraska Deserve to go Bowling?
The short answer to this question is no, absolutely not. No 5-7 team deserves to play in a bowl game. In fact most of the 6-6 teams that play in the Camellia or Potato Bowl don’t deserve to go bowling. It doesn’t matter how close Nebraska was to winning five of their seven losses. The bottom line is they still lost. If Nebraska does get a bowl game they should take it, if nothing else for the extra practice. But it won’t change the fact that they got a reward for something they didn’t earn.
Mark May… where to begin?
Mark May has never been very high on my “college football analysts who actually know what they are talking about” list, but he hit a new low at halftime on Friday. After praising a Hawkeye offense that had accounted for just 112 yards of offense in the first half, May jumped up on his soap box to discuss the Les Miles situation at LSU. He made a really idiotic comparison of the LSU situation to how Nebraska handled Bo Pelini last season. To make things short and sweet, I’ll limit my counter argument to three statements.
#1: Bo was fired because he was a complete jerk who hadn’t won anything, Les is being fired for not being able to beat Nick Saban. Those are two VERY different reasons for firing a coach.
#2: Nebraska never leaked news to the press that they were looking to get rid of Pelini. Pelini stoked the firing rumors himself by challenging his athletic director to fire him in 2013, and Shawn Eichorst still gave him another year.
#3: When Les Miles becomes a free agent, every major college football program looking for a coach will be rolling out the red carpet for him. Do you know which FBS powerhouse scooped up Pelini after he was let go? Oh wait, no one did. He ended up at FCS Youngstown State.
Bonus #4: You’re Mark May, stick to what you’re good at, which is trying to beat Lou Holtz in a shouting match
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