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Final take: Nebraska delivers a night to remember in route over Colorado
By Sean Callahan,
13 hours ago
It was fitting that world champion boxer Bud Crawford led Nebraska out of the tunnel on Saturday night against Colorado.
The Huskers appeared to be on the verge of delivering an early-round Crawford-style knockout to the Buffalos. The Big Red jumped out to a 28-0 lead at halftime. Instead, the fight went 12 rounds, with NU walking away on Saturday night with a 28-10 unanimous decision.
Colorado (1-1) may have won a few late rounds against Nebraska (2-0), but this game never was in doubt during the second half.
“I’ll be honest with you, we expected this score,” head coach Matt Rhule said following his team’s victory. “We expected this to be like this. We have a good team and we felt like we were going to play really well tonight. We’re going to go right back to work and treat this like a game that we lost.”
Saturday’s win, though, had plenty of meaning. Colorado started NU’s program slide in 2001, and the Buffs have won the last three in the series.
The win was the Husker’s first against a Power Four non-conference opponent since 2016. It was also their first 2-0 start to a season since 2016.
“I mean you can think of it as 2-0, but then you can also think of it as being 1-0 right? To go 1-0 every week,” senior defensive lineman Ty Robinson said. “If we end up at the end of the season being 12-0, then you go to the playoffs or the postseason. What this team does really well is not looking at it in terms as a whole, but really going 1-0. We have posters on it everywhere – 1-0 for whoever the opponent is.”
The win over CU delivered in several areas, but it also showed on Saturday that Nebraska is still building this football team under Rhule in year two.
Going into the season, I think we knew the defense would be the strength of the 2024 Huskers, and that’s what we saw on Saturday night: Colorado’s offense was held to one of its worst performances under head coach Deion Sanders . The Buffs finished Saturday with just 260 yards of total offense.
“They just came ready to play. Simple,” Coloraod quarterback Shedeur Sanders said. “They just came out there. They followed their game plan.”
Now, on to the breakdown…
What I saw on Saturday
***In my time covering Nebraska, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the stadium and sidelines as buzzing as it was for pregame vs. Colorado. Between former players, the 1994 team and the 60+ recruits, it was electric before kickoff at field level.
***When the 1994 team took the field, they mirrored their entrance with the original Tunnel Walk for that season. It was a very cool wrinkle by Husker Vision.
The fourth quarter light show also featured a drone presentation that honored the 1994 team. NU went all out for their 30th anniversary.
***The start of the game for the defense set the tone. Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher made it so Colorado could not keep Shedeur Sanders in the pocket. They had to move the pocket nearly every passing play.
***Linebacker John Bullock was also outstanding. He took away a slant route that forced the throw that led to the pick-six. He also single-handily wrecked one Colorado drive with a tackle for loss and a pass breakup on back-to-back plays.
***QB Dylan Raiola said he punted for the first time in a football game since high school. NU had Raiola execute a pooch punt. I’ll be curious if that is something we see again this season.
***We saw Nebraska’s students storm the field following the win over Colorado for the first time in over 30 years. It’s been so long since we’ve seen a field storm. It took a few minutes for it all to play out.
(Photo credit: Casy Fritton/HuskerOnline)
The final grade out
Grade
HOL take
Rushing offense
B-
Nebraska averaged 4.3 yards per carry and had 149 yards on their sack-adjusted total. They ran 18 times for 90 yards on first down plays. It was a solid game, but the ground attack lacked a final home run to bring the day over the top. Dante Dowdell looks to be NU’s top running back.
Passing offense
B
QB Dylan Raiola finished 23-of-30 for 185 yards and one touchdown. He did a great job of managing the game and made no costly mistakes. We even saw him run 12 yards to pick up an early first down.
Rushing defense
A
Colorado’s actual ground game yielded just 46 yards on 14 attempts from its backs and receivers. They had only one run longer than 10 yards.
Passing defense
A
Tommi Hill picked off Sanders early for a touchdown. The contained Travis Hunter. The long CU pass play on the day was just 30 yards, while Sanders had 244 yards passing.
Special teams
C-
Let’s start with the good: NU blocked a field goal, the return game was solid, and Brian Buschini boomed the ball on Saturday night. As for the ugly, the Huskers had a punt blocked, allowed a 61-yard return, and missed a 32-yard field goal. It was very much an up-and-down day for special teams.
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