LINCOLN — After each game this season, The World-Herald's Sam McKewon will hand out his Husker Report Card, assessing Nebraska's performance in several areas. Here are the grades coming out of the Iowa game.
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RUN OFFENSE
Logan Smothers can run. We knew that before the Iowa game, and we know it even more after the Iowa game. Coach Scott Frost did an excellent job of tailoring his gameplan to Smothers’ skillset — that is, good decision-making, great speed and genuine toughness — and keeping the Hawkeyes off balance with a variety of formations and schemes. The running back double option made an appearance, as did some tricky power plays that featured multiple blockers plowing holes for Smothers, who probably kept the ball more than he had to but routinely bulled through the first tackler. Starting running back Jaquez Yant functioned as a hammer — he’s not terribly elusive, but he’s no fun to tackle, while Brody Belt made a few guys miss. Nebraska may or may not be able to run this offense for a whole season, but for a game — in which Iowa had no previous film on which to lean — it looked pretty, pretty good. Iowa’s one hell of a run defense, and it struggled to figure how where and how Nebraska was going to run it. Smothers’ midfield fumble underlined the dangers of an offense that has lots of mesh points and pitches.
NU threw the ball strategically — which, in this case, included the first pass of the game, while controlling the ball on the ground. Smothers didn’t miss in the first half — 5 for 5 for 58 yards — and had one particular conversion, a fourth down smoke screen to Travis Vokolek that was executed perfectly. Smothers didn’t force balls into traffic — he was more happy to scramble or evade sacks — and played as clean of a first half as possible against an Iowa defense that led the nation in interceptions. On NU’s first drive of the second half, Frost dialed up two smart play-action deep shots that resulted in 27-yard pass to Austin Allen and 40 yards to Omar Manning. Those chunks fueled a 94-yard touchdown drive. Smothers looked the part as a passer… until a safety taken after he committed an intentional grounding penalty in his own end zone. It’s questionable whether Frost should have called such a deep shot at his own 6, but he did, and Smothers needed to get rid of it sooner.
GRADE: C+
RUN DEFENSE
Hawkeye running back Tyler Goodson had his share of success against NU’s less-than-full-strength front seven, but, until a 55-yarder in the fourth quarter, he struggled to bust a big one as much as Iowa struggled to stick with Goodson on the ground. Iowa’s attempts at reverses were disasters, losing seven and four yards, respectively, and Nebraska inside linebacker Luke Reimer forced a key Goodson fumble that Deontre Thomas recovered. Iowa repeatedly and confidently moved into NU territory only to hurt itself or be slowed by the Huskers’ stingy red zone defense. The Huskers finished with five tackles for loss, a nice day against an offense that doesn’t land behind the sticks that often but the pressure of being the only well-functioning unit in the fourth quarter was too much to bear.
GRADE: C-
PASS DEFENSE
Alex Padilla is a young guy who definitely looked his age at times against Nebraska. Padilla has a big arm, and showed it off a few times, but he’s indecisive and still new at reading defenses. Hence, he had his greatest success when Iowa was able to fool NU with a nicely-timed play-action pass over the top. His lousy throw to Iowa tight end Sam LaPorta at the goal line was an unforced error, but Husker defensive coordinator Erik Chinander did a crafty job of disguising pressure packages and dropping defenders into underneath coverage against Padilla and Spencer Petras, the regular starter who entered in the second half. The Blackshirts need to catch those passes when they land right in their hands. Nebraska had as many as five opportunities to do so.
GRADE: B-
SPECIAL TEAMS
Iowa blocked a Nebraska punt — and returned it for a touchdown — less than one minute into the fourth quarter. The Huskers played clean until that point, but it took one mistake — a new mistake in terms of bad punt protection, to let Iowa right back in the game. When NU figures out special teams — and it needs to do so with a full-time special teams coordinator like current USC coordinator Sean Snyder — it might be a pretty dangerous team. As it stands, the whole operation stinks.
GRADE: F
PLAYCALLING/GAME MANAGEMENT
Playing without several of its best players — Adrian Martinez, Rahmir Johnson, Damion Daniels, JoJo Domann and Deontai Williams — Nebraska did so many things right in its plan for the game and methodical attack. The first three quarters on offense were nothing short of a masterpiece against a terrific Iowa defense. NU’s defense, nowhere near 100%, did what it could against the fresher, if relatively punchless Iowa offense. Frost and his makeshift staff got Nebraska to the fourth quarter against a ranked with a 12-point lead.
GRADE: B-
OVERALL
But NU’s special teams is uniquely awful, and one blocked punt for a touchdown shifted the tides of the game. Everything about Nebraska’s offense looked tentative and different after that happened — the Huskers struggled to hold blocks and Smothers, so confident for the entire game, seemed less certain — and, if Frost thinks job one is to secure an offensive coordinator for the future, then job No. 2 is to reassure his players, whomever remain, that he’ll get a coach to fix a special teams unit that arguably lost five games for NU this season. Frost’s job is that above all else.
GRADE: C
How would you grade Nebraska's performance against Iowa?