The Nebraska football team is apparently going to have to convince its detractors that the defensive showing on Saturday night was a one-off. The Huskers allowed 497 yards and 36 points against Arkansas State. Despite lots of talk of this being the first game of the year and the Cornhuskers only getting better, Vegas seems to believe they have hit their ceiling. Early lines are now out and the Huskers have gone from 6.5 point dogs to 10 point dogs in the span of a few hours.
Even worse than being rather big underdogs to a team that won a total of four games a year ago, is that there doesn’t appear to be too many people who are surprised at the rather large spread.
When looking at what the Nebraska football team compared to what Oregon did, the spread certainly seems to make sense.
Oregon rolls over its first week opponent
No, the Oregon Ducks didn’t face off against a team that can even claim it won the Sun Belt a year ago. The new look Ducks, who are under a new head coach after going 4-8 in 2016 went up against Southern Utah. That is likely one of the reasons Nebraska’s next opponent was able to win their first game of the season by more than 50 points. At the same time, Oregon looked like it was operating on all cylinders, as it rolled up 77 points and allowed just 21.
The Nebraska football team, on the other hand seemed clunky at times in almost all aspects of the team.
The defense especially looked clunky all night. While they allowed over 400 yards through the air, they also allowed the Arkansas State Redwolves’ starting running back to average 5.9 yards per carry. In other words, not only couldn’t Nebraska stop the pass, but as the game went on, they couldn’t really stop the run either.
That’s not a good sign heading into Eugene, Oregon.
Nebraska football will need a bounce back
Coming into the season, the Nebraska football team had two major questions. The first was how Tanner Lee would play in his first season as a starter for the Huskers. Lee passed his first test while throwing darts all over the field, including two touchdowns.
The second question was how the new look defense performed. It’s a safe assumption most experts are giving that performance a solid F. While being a 10 point dog after that performance really shouldn’t surprise, this might be the first time in at least half a century the Huskers have been a double digit underdog to an unranked team. Mike Riley’s seat might be getting a bit warm these days.
