It was a hell of an offensive performance by Nebraska on Saturday as they won a shooting down in Stillwater against Oklahoma State. Taylor Martinez led the explosive offense with five passing touchdowns and the defense got a couple of stops in the second half as the Huskers pulled away for the 51-41 victory. With the ten point win, the Huskers control their own destiny in the Big12 North and can take a big lead in the standings with a win over Missouri on Saturday.

So how did the Big Red put up 51 points and not score a rushing touchdown? The receivers came up with most of the balls that they should have and special teams came up huge with the kickoff return by Niles Paul and field goals by Alex Henery. Great job by the special teams units for scoring. Brandon Kinnie was the main target for Martinez as he hauled in three touchdowns to lead the receiving corps.

I liked the fact that Shawn Watson put Martinez behind center for some plays this game. It allows the defensive ends to stay in a little bit longer and not have a full look at the quarterback. Mix that in with some play action like they did you can see why they had such success through the error. The Cowboys defense may not be that good but Martinez looked pretty good throwing the ball and hit the receivers right on the hands. I would never have thought T-Magic would threw for five touchdowns and not run for one. The freshman sure grew up in my eyes and did so at a hostile environment on the road.

The bad part of the game? The secondary still missed a ton of tackles. No matter who is at safety it seems they cannot wrap up and tackle a running back. The big time match up between Prince Amukamara and Justin Blockmon was dominated by Blockmon. Prince had a hard time picking up the ball on underthrown balls and also got caught looking in at the line of scrimmage on a trick play that Blockmon took to the house. A bad game by Price but one that he can learn from. It also didn’t help that the d-line wasn’t stopping the run to help out.

Overall I’m happy with the ten point victory but the defense really needs to step up. Saturday’s match up with Missouri is basically for the Big 12 North title and a return trip to Dallas for the championship. Nebraska’s defense is setup to stop the spread attack that Missou will bring into Lincoln but the defensive line needs to show up and shut down that running game for the Big Red to win. It will be very interesting and I cannot wait!


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Dropped passes, terrible line play, bad decisions in the zone read and some questionable injuries. That is what every Nebraska fan was left to talk about Saturday evening and Sunday after watching Texas come into Lincoln and give the Huskers their first loss of the season. The 20-13 defeat to the Longhorns was not what everyone was expecting before the game but coming off a bye week, Texas knew what they wanted to do and that was take Taylor Martinez out of the game and that is exactly what they did.

Martinez could never get on track in the running game as Will Muschamp had the best scheme setup to slow Martinez down. Sitting in row 18 in the North end zone I was able to see the game up close. I don’t fault Taylor for not being able to execute the zone read plays because it made no difference if he would have handed the ball off or ran it. A longhorn defender was there waiting. So how do you beat that defense?

You put the ball in the air and trust that your receivers and running backs can catch it. Rex Burkhead, Niles Paul and Brandon Kinnie all dropped balls that should have been caught for touchdowns. Had Rex come up with the touchdown early in the game, I don’t think we would be talking about a loss right now. Niles, the guy just needs to strap it up and go out there and make plays like he is capable of doing. You want the ball, CATCH IT!

Sure it sucks losing to Texas. It was the game every fan was looking forward to. However, it is not the end of the season and the team is still looking good to make it to the Big 12 Championship. The guys must rebound in a hostile environment down in Stillwater this coming Saturday but I have faith that they will bounce back and pick up a big conference victory.


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Kansas State fans were talking smack all week long on message boards and the airwaves but that smack talk was quickly put to rest Thursday night once Taylor Martinez had the ball in his hand. Martinez quickly made the wildcats fan think “wtf was that” as he scored from 14 yards out and then added a 35 yard td run in the first quarter. It was just the beginning for the big red as they rolled up 587 total yards on offense in route to a 48-13 butt whooping on national tv against K-State.

Martinez was pretty damn impressive against a wildcat defense that did not know how to tackle and defend the zone read play. Martinez set a freshman rushing record as he ran all over the wildcats and finished the game with 241 yards on 15 attempts. His 80 yard td run to start the second half put the game out of question for good and left Bill Snyder wishing it really wasn’t his birthday as it was a downright terrible game for his team. T-Magic would also throw for 128 yards on 5 of 7 passing. Martinez hit Kyler Reed for a 79 yard touchdown to account for most of his passing yards.

I gotta give some props to the offensive linemen and wide outs that were out there blocking down field for Martinez and Roy Helu Jr. who scored on a long 68 yard td. When your linemen can get downfield and knock linebackers and on their butts, you are going to break some long runs and that is exactly what Nebraska did. Great job guys!

The defense was once again led by linebacker Lavonte David who had a game high 16 tackles. David was out there flying around and if I remember correctly he had 10 tackles in the first quarter alone. David had a lot of help out there as the entire Blackshirt defense came ready to play. They allowed just two long field goals and a late touchdown. They also shut down Kansas State super running back Daniel Thomas to just 63 yards on 22 carries.

It was great to open up Big12 play with a butt whooping like that. Now all the attention goes to next Saturday when the Texas Longhorns make a trip into Lincoln. This game has been on a lot of fans mind since the Big12 Championship. I’ll be making the seven hour drive and attending and cannot wait!


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