Nebraska Delivered Answers against Bowling Green, but Questions Remain as Nebraska Gets Closer to Conference Play

Heading into this game, I didn’t expect Bowling Green to pose much of a threat to the Huskers. My confidence in that prediction wavered slightly after Jacory Barney Jr. had the ball ripped from his hands, leading to Anthony Colandrea’s first interception of the season. 

Then Nebraska repeated its second-half effort against Ohio, scoring touchdowns on 5 straight drives. By halftime, the game was almost completely out of reach. 

In the first half, Nebraska had a 16% explosive-play rate while passing and a 79% successful-pass rate. It essentially answered my biggest question going into this game: could Nebraska string together passing plays to build drives, or would it rely only on big plays? The Huskers cooled off slightly in the second half, with their successful-pass rate dropping to 72% by the final whistle. However, Nebraska still maintained a high explosive-play rate, finishing the game at 16%.

Anthony Colandrea was sharp when passing in the first half, completing 17 of 20 passes, far better than his 56% against Ohio. He should have had another completion, but Nebraska’s inexplicable ability to turn catches into interceptions ended the initial drive. He finished 20 of 24 through the air as the offense was dialed back in the second half.

This was simply an elite passing performance by Colandrea. Backup quarterback TJ Lateef also proved the Huskers have depth at the position, going 6 for 8 in the 4th quarter and throwing for a touchdown of his own. Anthony Colandrea has proven to be a great addition through the portal and an upgrade at quarterback for Nebraska. The Huskers' offense will be able to score with anyone in the Big Ten.

Despite the offensive explosion in the first half, questions remain for the Huskers as conference play gets one week closer. Penalties are a major issue for Nebraska. For the second week in a row, Jacory Barney committed a penalty that wiped out a touchdown. While the offense still scored in bunches, those penalties will cost it games in conference play. 

Another concern heading into conference play is the Huskers’ defensive front seven. Nebraska stuffed just one run (a carry for negative yards) per game on paper*. Even Tarleton State stuffed 5 of Bowling Green’s runs in the Week 1 game. The bigger, stronger offensive lines of the Big Ten will be able to put together strong ground games if Nebraska doesn’t slow the run better in conference play. 

*Game On Paper excludes garbage-time plays, so Malcolm Simpson’s 4th-quarter strip sack is not included because of Nebraska’s big lead.

Perhaps an even worse stat for the rushing defense is that 55% of Bowling Green’s runs gained 4+ yards. Against Tarleton State, only 26% of their runs gained 4+ yards. Nebraska’s talent made up for these challenges. Starting in two weeks, that talent advantage will be gone, and the better players in the Big Ten will make Nebraska pay for these struggles. These stats are also adjusted for garbage time, so plays late in the game weren’t included due to the blowout. Still, it’s worth monitoring as Nebraska gets closer to conference play.

Nebraska won its first two games by a combined 77 points. It hasn’t had a scoring margin that big through two games since 2006. It hasn’t done that against two FBS teams since 1999. Only 18 Big Ten teams have done this in the playoff era. This is worth celebrating and being excited about, especially as other Big Ten teams are ending opponents’ yearlong losing streaks. 

The Huskers showed significant improvement in the passing game, which was the main thing I was looking for in this game. They have one more game to clean up penalties and work on the pass rush before conference play starts.