Grounded

I’ve learned that this is going to suck writing about this team when they lose, because they look so bad when they do. Playing the best team in college football didn’t make it look any prettier either. What makes it worse is the fact that I hate Larry the Cable Guy being a huge Husker fan. He introduced the players on the ABC broadcast. I hate that guy. USC has Will Ferrell, we have Larry the Cable Guy. Yikes.

The USC Trojans held the Huskers to 31 total yards rushing while the Men of Troy racked up 313 yards of their own turning the tables on the Memorial Stadium crowd who had witnessed countless acts of rushing madness over the years, just not against them. The team was booed by the home crowd off the field after the first half because they didn't try to score downfield with under a minute to go. You thought the fans in Michigan were impatient and fickle.

Trojan quarterback JD Booty looked the part of a Heisman candidate quieting the crowd and driving his team up and down the field at will. Booty’s numbers were modest but extremely efficient connecting on 19 of 30 pass attempts, throwing for 144 yards and two touchdowns. Booty didn’t need to pass (or open up the offensive playbook, which made the loss that much harder to swallow) as the Trojans ran over and around Husker defenders all night. Sophomore Stefon Johnson emerged as the go to back for the Trojans and finished the night with 144 yards on the ground with one touchdown. The amazing statistic is that he accomplished this on 11 carries which translates into 13.1 yards per carry. So basically every time Booty handed him the ball he picked up a first down.

Nebraska gave the Trojans a game for about a quarter and a half actually leading the game 10-7 until USC scored twice (with ease) late in the second quarter taking a 21-10 lead into the locker room. When the second half started the Husker defense was ill prepared to stop the Trojan ground game as USC would go on to score 35 unanswered.

Saturday night showed just how far Nebraska has to go before they can compete against a team like USC. With all the athleticism and talent of an NFL practice squad, the Trojans are going to be a handful for every team they play this season and will more than likely find themselves in New Orleans in January playing for their third national title in five years.

While the game was out of reach in the fourth quarter at 42-10 before the Huskers would score again, I am happy that they did not just pack it in and allow USC to really blow them out. Nebraska scored three touchdowns in the fourth, albeit against backups from USC. I would argue that USC’s backups are probably better than 70% of other team’s starters in all of college football. I would bet that USC’s second squad could beat every team in the Pac-10 with the exception of Cal and Oregon. Anyway, enough justifying my teams sub par performance.

Well, maybe not. I know people in Husker nation are growing impatient and desperately would like to see their team on top again, but everyone must remain patient and allow Callahan to retain more quality players. Maurice Purify was the only receiver to have any real success against the USC defense. Players like Terrence Nunn, Nate Swift and Dan Erickson are not receivers built for the West Coast offense. They just aren’t. And until Callahan and company can get more players like Purify into the fold it’s just not going to click. Sam Keller isn’t even your typical QB for this type of offense. His talents are not to drop back and pick up seven and eight yard gains in a controlled offense. He’s the type of player that is best suited to go down the field and make plays. Sadly, Purify is the only player on the team that is capable of making any success.

Despite all of that Nebraska must pull it together and realize that it’s just one game. They still have an entire season left to play and it’s not going to be easy either. They’ll have a chance to rebound this weekend at home against Ball State who is 114^th in rushing defense in the country. Hopefully this will restore some confidence in the team (the defense especially) so when conference play begins they’ll understand they still have something to play for.

For those in the area, approximately 400 tickets were returned by Ball State fans not making the trip to Lincoln for this weekend's game. Be sure to snatch them up, I'd go but I'll be in pre-marriage boot camp all weekend.