Game 5, In the Books.

What a weekend for Nebraska. I can’t think of anything else that could have gone better for us this weekend.

For starters, some recruiting notes.

Friday morning, four-star defensive end Chase Rome switched his commitment from Oklahoma State to Nebraska. He is Nebraska’s 9th commit this year. Also, top 2011 offensive tackle Tyler Moore picked Nebraska over Florida. He grew up a Nebraska fan, and is the second commit for Nebraska’s 2011 recruiting class.

And in case you haven’t seen already, the new Associated Press poll:

1 Florida (50)
2 Alabama (10)
3 Texas
4 Virginia Tech
5 Boise State
6 USC
7 Ohio State
8 Cincinnati
9 Miami (FL)
10 LSU
11 Iowa
12 TCU
13 Oregon
14 Penn State
15 Nebraska <——–
16 Oklahoma State
17 Kansas
18 Brigham Young
19 Georgia Tech
20 Oklahoma
21 South Florida
22 South Carolina
23 Houston
24 Utah
25 Notre Dame

Yes, we surpassed not only Kansas, but Oklahoma State as well, making the second highest ranked Big12 team, second to Texas.

Going into this game, I was predicting Nebraska to have their best game yet. I also said that Nebraska should score 30 points. It wasn't pretty, and we didn't do wither of those things, but we won, and even though you wouldn't have thought it in a million years, we won by 15.

What I liked:

-Christening Josh Freeman 2.0

Again I say, I don't know what could have made this victory sweeter. Beating a ranked team in their own house. Turning Blaine Gabbert from the 4th rated QB in the nation to the 39th. Chase Daniel in attendance to see his beloved Tigers go down in flames. Suh having one of the most impressive and dynamic games of his career in front of 26 NFL scouts, and a national audience.
BEATING MISSOURI!!!!

Did I miss anything?

-Tackling in space

I know people are going to try to attribute MU's poor offensive showing on the rain, but Nebraska's defense played one hell of a game. In particular, I think Nebraska tackled as well in space as I have seen since the nineties. The majority of Missouri's success on offense comes from making plays in space, and Nebraska did nothing short of excellent in preventing that from happening. This is a good sign for the future obviously, poor tackling plagued Nebraska for years under Callahan.

-Peforming well in the clutch

Apparently Watson and Zac Lee just wanted to make things exciting, because they did a damn good job of doing just that. Zac Lee went 7 of 22 for 79 yards in the first half. He also went 7 of 8 for 79 yards and 3 TDs in the fourth. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that something clicked with Zac in that fourth quarter, and he's not going to play like a dumbass against good teams anymore. Needless to say, he pulled this one out, and we wouldn't have won it without that insane fourth quarter.

-Wide receivers proving themselves

In the third quarter, Nebraska was running 2 and three wide receiver sets with the second stringers, which drove me crazy until I found out why. Early in the third quarter, WR coach Ted Gilmore told the starters that they better step it up or he was going to pull them, and he did. This was a very bold move, but I like it. The starters apparently got the message, and they came up big in the fourth, or at least Niles Paul did.

-Putting Missouri in their place

Did I already do this one? Oh well. God Damn did it feel good to beat Missouri at home.

Unfortunately, there were way too many things about this game that I didn't like. But we won, and there is room to improve.

-Play calling

Zac Lee threw the ball 22 times in the first half, which is not acceptable in a game that rained nonstop before the game to the end of the third. Shawn Watson has been trying some strange strategy by trying to open the run by establishing the passing game. The way Zac Lee has played against big time opponents is not supporting this, and it is bringing about some pretty sorry offensive performances. Roy Helu had 88 yards on the ground, and 72 of those came in the fourth quarter. Why he was not running the ball the entire game is beyond me, he obviously was healthy enough to play. Rex had a relatively slow night, with 34 yards on 5 carries, but he did have 2 crucial first downs late in the game.

-Penalties

I was hoping by this point in the season, i would be talking about penalties in the "Things I liked" section. 12 penalties for 108 yards is simply unacceptable. Blaming it on the rain is a cop out. If this team is going to win big games we cannot afford to keep committing this many penalties.

After this game, Nebraska has got a whole different outlook on the rest of the season. We sit at 15th, ahead of every team in the Big12 aside from Texas. We are now looking at the season with a very good chance to win the Big12 north, and maybe even a chance to compete for the Big12 title, but I'm not going to get ahead of myself. There's still plenty of football to play, but the rest of the season is looking good for Nebraska.

Oh and by the way,