Nebraska vs Northwestern Preview and Prediction | PTFS Fan Perspectives

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Parks is back home after witnessing the embarrassing 24-6 loss to the Golden Gophers this past Friday. Nebraska has another chance at Bowl eligibility this weekend against a good Northwestern team. Drop your score predictions in the comments for a chance at a FREE No Rivals hat. Play It!

Chapters
Minnesota Recap : 2:07
Northwestern Start: 9:01
Northwestern Offense: 12:54
Northwestern Defense: 20:50
Score Prediction: 25:12

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Roster:
QBs: Dylan Raiola, Heinrich Haarberg, TJ Lateef, Marcos Davila, Jalyn Gramstad
RBs: Emmett Johnson, Jamarion Parker, Kwinten Ives, Conor Booth, Mekhi Nelson
WRs: Dane Key, Nyziah Hunter, Jacory Barney, Janiran Bonner, Demitrius Bell, Cortez Mills, Isaiah Mozee, Jeremiah Jones, Quinn Clark
TEs: Luke Lindenmeyer, Carter Nelson, Mac Markway, Ian Flynt
OL: JuJu Marks Shawn Hammerbeck Houston Kaahaaina-Torres Brian Tapu Grant Brix Gibson Pyle Preston Taumua Gunnar Gottula Sam Sledge Jason Maciejczak Justin Evans Tyler Knaak Elijah Pritchett Turner Corcoran Henry Lutovsky Teddy Prochazka
DL: Malcolm Simpson Kade Pietrzak Tyson Terry Ashton Murphy Jordan Ochoa David Hoffken Williams Nwaneri Keona Davis Riley Van Poppel Gabe Moore Cameron Lenhardt Jaylen George Elijah Jeudy
LB: Dawson Merritt Christian Jones Pierce Mooberry Roger Gradney Dylan Rogers Maverick Noonan Willis McGahee IV Vincent Shavers Vince Genatone Dasan McCullough Marques Watson-Trent Javin Wright
DB: Bryson Webber Caleb Benning Donovan Jones Kahmir Prescott Amare Sanders Larry Tarver Evan Taylor Mario Buford Blye Hill Jeremiah Charles Jaidyn Doss Rahmir Stewart Justyn Rhett Andrew Marshall Jamir Conn Marques Buford Malcolm Hartzog Ceyair Wright DeShon Singleton
Staff: Matt Rhule, Marcus Satterfield, Dana Holgorsen, John Butler, Jamar Mozee, EJ Barthel, Donovan Raiola, Daikiel Shorts, Terry Bradden, Rob Dvoracek, Addison Williams, Philip Simpson

Tags: #nebraska #mattrhule #troydannen #nebraskafootball #jacorybarney #dylanraiola #mattrhule #gbr #mattrhule #gobigred #huskers #huskerfootball #nebraskacornhuskers #Gophers #minnesota #marcussatterfield #nebraskarecruiting #huskerrecruiting #nebraskafootball #nebraskareaction #huskers #GBR #gocats #NorthwesternFootball #northwesternwildcats #catsFootball #NorthwesternNebraska #collegefootball #Skers #DonnyRaiola #DonovanRaiola #OffensiveLive #OLPlay #Sacked #gobigred #danekey

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What’s up everybody? Welcome back into the play the fights on college football show. This is the Nebraska fan perspective and if you’re joining us boy oh boy you are a loyal and true fan as majority of Nebraska fans are but what a week this past week Nebraska gets druged by the Golden Gophers 24 to6 in Minneapolis. I unfortunately made the drive up, was a part of the loss, was in the stadium, drove six hours to see six points, and it was an embarrassing performance on national television once again for Nebraska. You’ve never been a part of the show before. We are going to recap that game very, very briefly before we get into the Northwestern Wildcats. We are going to focus upon the Northwestern Wildcats. We’re going to move forward. I’m going to tell you about their team, the little bit of the series history, their position groups, what to look out for, the keys to the game for Nebraska to win it, and whether or not I will think they win. So, we’ll get into all of that. But, make sure you smash the like button, smash the subscribe button if you’re a Nebraska fan. If you’re joining this one, I appreciate you more than you know. I know after a loss, it’s tough to get back up for another Saturday game, an 11 a.m. game. It’s that emotionally draining point in the season, right? We’re reaching week nine already. Nebraska stands at five and two now after falling on the road. And you know, we still have some opportunities in front of us, but from the product that we saw kind of hurts, right? The hope of what this Nebraska season could be, but I feel like a majority of the fan base had a good idea of what this team really was without looking through the rosy red glasses. So, we’ll get into that game, but appreciate you being here more than you know. Check out our other fan perspectives, Iowa and Iowa State. If you have friends that are fans of those teams or friends, quote unquote, I should say, if they’re an Iowa fan, send them over to our Iowa or Iowa State fan perspectives live in our channel right now. And of course, check out the full college football show week 9 preview this Wednesday, 7:30 Central. That’s a live show. You can drop in, drop your comments, predictions. If you love the sport of college football, this is college football heaven. So, smash that subscribe button like I said. All right, with that, let’s get into it. Let’s go into the Minnesota recap. Very brief thoughts on this, but of course, we have to have thoughts, right? This recap is presented by Full Ride Vintage Gear, our great partner over at fullridevintagegeear.com. Great Nebraska shirts, that premium cotton poly blend, super comfortable, fits nice and tight on the arm. So, check them out today. Got officially licensed Nebraska gear, bunch of different designs, including throwback designs, game by-game designs, a little Colorado hatred. Nothing more you could ask for as a Nebraska fan from Full Ride Vintage Gear. So check them out today and use code PTFS at checkout for free shipping on your order. It’s a Nebraska small brand just starting out. So support them. Give them a look today. Use the code PTFS at checkout and let them know we sent you. Shout out fullridevintagegeear.com. All right, going into the Minnesota recap quickly. I know we don’t want to talk about it anymore and you probably tried to trauma erase it from your head. We got to break it down a little bit. My first bullet point on this was Jesus, man. And that just really came from this is now my second trip in three years, second trip under rule, I should say, where I’ve driven out a decent distance away from Omaha to watch just an absolute dud of a football game from Nebraska. First one was Boulder. Obviously, we know how that one went. 3614 Drubbing by Dion and company. We got our lick back there, but it doesn’t feel like we’re going to get our lick back on Minnesota ever. They’ve had her number. I talked about last week in our preview. I highlighted a lot of the guys that made a ton of impact plays for them. So, the show’s doing well in my opinion. I love the Northwestern week. Just a quick note because this is how this show started back in 2023 was Northwestern week and our 17 to9 victory, which we we will get to briefly mention. So, we’ve come a long way in this show. So, make sure you hit the like button for that reason alone. But back to the Minnesota game. Overall, I think the main notes, horrible blocking and tackling mixed with ghost and questionable play calls. That’s like what I would wrap it up as all in one sentence. Horrible blocking. Everybody knows the offensive line, the injuries we sustained. Roco Spindler looks like he had surgery this weekend. He’s expected to play. Basically, it’s pain tolerance intended. I would expect a guy of that caliber and size and with his experience to play this weekend. And then Elijah Pritchette getting thrown out of the game. He will be able to play this week in the first half because he did miss part of the first half last week in his ejection for targeting on one of the weirdest calls I’ve ever seen in college football. It feels like we see linemen finish blocks like that all the time. Late hit, sure. Targeting little questionable in my mind. The tackling I think was as big of an issue when it came to our defense as our offense was blocking. Obviously the nine sacks stand out. First time Minnesota’s had nine sacks since 1977. Usually, it’s we should be flipping and setting the records. Now, if we’re really changing this program in the right direction and not giving up records, but here we are. And the tackling was brutal. I thought Maris Watson Trent played the worst game he’s played at Nebraska so far. He was brutal. I thought Maris Buford was brutal. And I don’t usually get individually too into the players on how they played in that game, but those two really, really struggled all night long. Um, I thought Jones on the outside was targeted and they took advantage of him in a lot of spots and he was there for coverage, but he was just a step slow and that’s where their offense really took advantage. It wasn’t a terrible defensive performance by any stretch of the means, but the rush defense and the pass rush on our defensive side of things is just not there. It hasn’t been there. It hasn’t been productive enough and it has to change otherwise these last four games are going to be brutal because that is what these teams do well and that includes Northwestern. Little spoiler alert there. I think overall I’ve talked Buford in this game individually, but I think Singleton, you can probably wrap him up into this, but Buford and Singleton and partly Rex Guthrie, their run fits on the defensive side of the ball have been atrocious. It it has to change. I mean, that long touchdown Darius Taylor broke off from Minnesota this weekend was simply because Maris Buford took a horrible angle, got cut and ran by like nobody’s business. And that cannot happen from a guy that’s played as much college football as Maris Buford Jr. I think when I say ghost, everybody’s like, “What does he mean ghost?” Well, nine sacks is obviously a problem. And it was a it was a mix of things. You’ve heard that by now, especially in rules presser today. you know, backs missing blocks, blown assignments, bad blocking, just simply getting pushed back into the quarterback and then maybe not throwing the ball away. But I’ve seen way too many opinions from this fan base wanting TJ Latif. And I said this a couple weeks on the show. If you find yourself being like, “Yep, time for TJ Latif. Time to move on.” Do not let Akran and Houston Christian garbage time production make you think that a kid is ready to play in Big 10 football because he is simply not. And if he was the guy we pay millions and millions or I should say the guys we pay millions and millions of dollars for would put him in. Especially in scenarios where Dylan’s getting beat up like that where we’re down 24 to6. They would put throw him in in the the last drive if he really thought he was ready to go. But it I don’t think it’s an all-on Dylan issue. I think there’s a little bit of a narrative that goes untalked about and that is when you get sacked five times that six the drop back is not as sustainable as the rest of them were because you’ve been hit and sacked so many times in that game. At some point your pocket presence does break down because you don’t know where the pockets’s been. You’ve been sacked five times. That’s what I mean when I say we’re seeing ghost. So yeah, I think everybody saw that clip of the twoman rush where they got home and he should have stepped up into the pocket. It wasn’t a very long window where he could have stepped up, but that is a credit to exactly what I just said where it’s ghost and those things will be worked through, but Dylan’s just a sophomore. I don’t think that game was all on him. I thought he made a couple of nice plays obviously you’ve seen the highlights for and he still does need to get better at throwing the ball away, but I wouldn’t put as much as the fan base has put on Dylan Riola when it comes to the sacks. I think there it takes a toll and one of the running backs we get to preview this week will be kind of the exact opposite of that toll being taken. I’ll leave that game there. It was ugly. It’s unacceptable. It’s embarrassing. It’s another national stage where Nebraska is embarrassed and the fan base has got to answer for it. But a good opportunity this week against a better than people given credit for Northwestern team and we have to see something or this fan base will check out once again come November. So big time match up this weekend preh Halloween with Northwestern. Let’s leave the Minnesota game there. Let’s leave it in the past. Let’s all those stupid narratives and let’s focus on the task ahead. That task ahead starts with our other great partner over at no rivals. Shopnor rivrivals.com. Use the code PTFS at checkout as well here for free shipping on your order. Awesome Nebraska hat designs. I got the Herby one on. Check them out today. They got some different collections rolling out. Pink for the breast cancer. No, it does not tie back to the pink helmets in the all surrender whites we got dubbed in. They’ve got some more designs coming by the day. They got the car heart look. Awesome design. Super comfortable fitting, high frame, embroidered. Really, really high quality stuff here. So, use code PTFS at checkout for free shipping on your no rivals Husker hat today. You have a chance to win a free one by dropping your Northwestern score prediction here in the comments. So, drop that score prediction down below for the Northwestern Nebrask. So, thank you for being here for that and shout out no rivals. Use code PTFS for free shipping today. All right, on to Northwestern. Northwestern Wildcats are 5-2 this year. Their wins come from Western Illinois, UCLA, Louisiana Monroe, Penn State, and Purdue. Boy, it feels weird to say Penn State even in that sentence talking about Northwestern. Their losses come from two lane to start the season. That was a 23-3 drubbing where their offense really couldn’t figure it out. And on the road in Eugene against Oregon, they got handled 3413 in that matchup, but it’s pretty much a different Northwestern team. It’s almost as similar as a story as UCLA has been the last few weeks without the firing and the interimm head coach, but they’ve really picked it up over the last few weeks and have looked like a completely different football team. They’re three and one of the Big 10 conference. That’s something Nebraska can’t say. They’re two and two. Nebraska stands at right now. So, they do have the edge of us in the conference standings and it should be an absolute dog fight in my mind. Taking a look at the series alto together, Nebraska leads the series 10-7 all time against the Cats. The last win came in 2023. that 17-9 victory in Lincoln. Really ugly football game where our defense was just stout as could be as it was in that first year under Tony White. And then their last win for Northwestern came in Dublin, Ireland against Scott Frost, which was nearing and really a good kickoff to the end of that Scott Frost era. Sorry if Dublin comes up with those PTSD moments and that war meme with the guy kind of looking with all the action going behind him. That’s the way that Dublin loss felt. though. Nebraska still leads the series. It’s close. This match, this series has had a lot of close matchups, a lot of game-winning plays. Nebraska is favored in this game by a touchdown once again, which we were favored in Minneapolis, so don’t write that all off. But Northwestern’s a good football team. Let’s not get it mistaken. They are led by head coach David Braun. David Braun was the 2023 Play the Fight Song coach of the year. He’s also the Big 10 coach of the year and real awards, but the Play the Fight song awards are as about as good as they get. Check out the full show at Play the FightPod on all platforms. Hell of a coach. He’s a disciplined guy. He’s a gritty coach. He really gets a lot out of his players and that program and what Northwestern is. And he does a decent job of recruiting. They’re not going to get those four or five star guys. Does this talk sound very eerily similar to what I told you about PJ Fleck last week? Sure does. It’s kind of a very similar way that the way that they coach and the way that they handle their business. They’re big. They’re physical and they’re not going to take a name from anyone. They don’t care that it’s Nebraska. They don’t care that it’s Penn State. They’re going to go in and they’re going to play football and they’re going to play a tough brand of football. You got to be ready to play against a David Braun team. They’ll come out. They’ll hit you in the mouth. They’ll take advantage if you give them extra opportunities. and he’s a hell of a coach and what he’s done at Northwestern has gone under the radar more than it should have because it’s been unbelievable what he took in from the Fitzgerald firing from the situation and scandal if you will say that went around Northwestern it’s been very impressive what David Braun’s done at this program on the offense before we get into their individual players overall past aside we can have an expectation of what teams are going to do against Nebraska at this point right even last week. Minnesota didn’t throw the ball incredibly well. They kind of dked and dunked it around. It wasn’t a part of their big plays outside of that fade touchdown in the corner to Brockington. They ran the football and they hadn’t run the football well all year. They did against Nebraska because the rush defense has struggled so bad and our front seven has really struggled to stop the run. That’s going to be Northwestern’s recipe. That’s what they want to do. It’s a 6040 split in favor of the rush. So, they’re passing it less. That was the exact opposite what I told you in Minnesota. this is what they want to do. They ran the ball 50 times against Purdue last week in their 19 to nothing victory. It’s a pro style pistol offense is the way I would tell you that they’re set up. They’ll show you different looks. They’ll mix in RPOS’s, but they’re going to run downhill and that’s what they want to do. That’s what you’ll see most most often. They average 4.4 yards per carry as a team. That ranks 47th in college football 136 teams. And to put that in perspective for you, Nebraska’s defense has given up five yards per carry. That ranks 116th in college football. So that’s kind of your recipe for success if you’re Northwestern. But they may share some similarities when we get to the Wildcat defense. Heading the offense, transfer quarterback Preston Stone out of SMU. If you follow college football as a whole, you know this name. Preston Stone. One of the best quarterbacks in college football in 2023. Had an injury problem. Got into a fight with Kevin Jennings. And I shouldn’t say fight, it was a position battle with Kevin Jennings at SMU, a team that went to the playoff last year. They went with Kevin Jennings. Preston Stone had his issues. He transferred out before the playoffs even happened. So he wasn’t even a part of that playoff run for that SMU team. Although he did have a factor within their season and he’s a hell of a quarterback, fifth year guy thrown for,200 yards over over,200 yards this year. 60% completion rate right around that number isn’t great, but a lot of that came at the start of the season. He struggled immensely. I think after three weeks he was leading the FBS in turnovers at quarterback and he really has cleaned it up. He hasn’t turned the ball over in the last four games I want to say. 10 touchdowns, seven picks on the year. He’s experienced, that’s the best way to describe him. He can throw the ball where he wants it to. He’s pretty accurate guy. He has made his mistakes and that’s when he’s under pressure. But they’ve done a decent job keeping him upright, which we’ll get into. If they keep him upright, they win. if he hasn’t gone down in a game, they’ve won the football game. And that’s kind of the recipe for success if if you’re a Northwestern is when they do attack the passing game, they cannot get sacked. They cannot turn the ball over. All their losses and their losses, those turnovers have had a direct impact of why they lost the game, which is not uncommon. But he’ll make his mistakes if we force him into it. The problem is we haven’t seen Nebraska’s Dline force really pretty much anybody into it. but he’s a good pocket presence and he can move a little bit. He’s not going to be a designed runner, but if he has to move outside of the pocket to extend a play and run for four or five yards, he will do so. That’s just kind of where that experience comes into play. On the running back side of things, and this is where we got to focus a lot of our time because I told you NE they’re going to want to run the football against Nebraska and what they’ve done well over the last few weeks incredibly stating last week as one of those names. It starts with these three and it’s not their starter. Cam Porter went out for the year. They’re expected starter. So, these three have really been the three-headed monster for this group and a lot of their production from left to right. Joseph Himeian, the second, he number six, you’re going to kind of they’re they’re all kind of built the same way, so it is a little confusing. Uh Caleb uh Koma Laf, he’s in the middle. Hell of a player, really projectable, gets the majority of the carries. And Deshawn Reer, who’s a true freshman, really inexperienced, but high potential, which we’ll get into. Starting on the left with him in 5’9, 190 pounds. Bowling ball number one. He’s a good runner. He’s physical and he’s quick downhill. He’s our second carrier. Uh 73 carries on the year, 360 yards, four 4.9 average, and no touchdowns. He has not gotten in the end zone quite yet, but he’s been productive for this offense. And in the middle, my expected starter, Caleb Co Kalaf, sophomore, 5’11, 210 pounds. He leads the team in majority of rushing categories. 107 carries on the year for 483 yards. Breaks down to a 4.5 average and he has five scores. Also a good quick physical runner. Both of their backs, both himian and Kalaf pick up blitzes extremely well. And I want to give a special apology to Northwestern fans and Caleb Kalaf if you’re finding this video. I could be saying that wrong. I want to double check, but my notes are not doing me any justice right now. Let me know in the comments if I’m saying it wrong, Northwestern fans. But he’s a hell of a player. I’m giving him his flowers for good reason. And on that third side, that true freshman, 6’1 190 Deshawn Reer, hell of a player. 22 carries, 222 yards, breaks down to a 10.1 average, and a score. The potential is there with this guy because he screams Big 10 back to me. He’s physical and he’ll run through you before he’ll run around you. He has this kind of stupidity about the way he runs that benefits him. And what I mean by that is Adrien Martinez had it. Harberg had it his first few games playing quarterback to where they see a guy in front of him, they’re going to lower and try and deliver the blow, but I feel like once he takes a few blows back in his collegiate career, kind of those things slow down and instead of running through somebody, he might just run out of bounds. I think the young stupidity is really benefit to Reer right now. but he’s a hell of a player and he’s a good back and he’s a physical right now. So, he will run through somebody’s face this weekend if Nebraska’s defense has played the way that they have over the last few weeks. On the outside, one name I want to highlight, and you can kind of guess what it is if you’ve looked in Northwestern at all, and that’s Griffin Wy. The South Dakota State transfer has been a heavy target for this Northwestern offense. 36 receptions on the year for 516 yards, four scores, and that breaks down to a 14.3 average. So when he’s catching the ball, it’s downfield and it’s for a first down majority of the time. He’s a good downfield threat. He’s really good in contested catches and he’s got a lot of college football experience for what he is at a high level that South Dakota State team and program is absolutely no joke. Don’t let me think don’t think that to become he’s coming from the FCS that he’s any less than what we would have seen from Northwestern without him playing there first. I mean he’s a really really good player. 6’2 200 lb out of Sou Falls, South Dakota. Shout out my co-host Jake who currently resides in South Dakota, but he had over a thousand yards at South Dakota State last year and he looks to be on a good pace to do that again here in the Big 10, which is pretty impressive. He’s their number one target. Their next closest target has had 15 receptions on the year. Griffin’s got 36. So, they want to get him the ball. He’s might be the key definition of wide receiver one for a team. I think he’s he’ll be targeted between four, seven times. I think that doesn’t sound like a lot, but they’re going to want to run the football. That’s what Northwestern’s recipe for success is in this game. Their offensive line overall has been pretty impressive. They’ve been pretty good. 5% sack rate on their drop backs this season, which is not bad at all. Obviously much better than Nebraska who’s flirts around nine. That percent does. Really disciplined team. They don’t get penalized overall. And that’s not just their O line, but as a unit, as an entire team, they don’t take a lot of penalties. Like sometimes it’s maybe one a game. It’s that good. And they’re disciplined and they’ve been that way the whole year. Nebraska fans, take that as a note. Try and get some false starts out of them this weekend with with what they want to do. That would be pretty impressive because nobody’s been able to do it yet against this Northwestern team. On the defensive side of things, their defense, they’ve been all right. They they they struggled towards the beginning of the year. They really have found their stride, but they’re better than giving credit for on the national scale. Reading through an inside NU, which is a little beat writer report for Northwestern and and their fans, they think the secondaries turned the corner and they’ve gotten really good over the last few weeks. Drew Aller and company back when he was playing in that game before he went down because that’s the matchup he went down. He struggled immensely against this Northwestern secondary. They did a really good job limiting them and what they wanted to do outside of one catch and it was mostly a long run outside of that one catch. But they’ve been good overall in that secondary and and really took flight last week against Purdue, a team who has thrown the ball a few times this year well and they couldn’t do anything against this Northwestern secondary. You’re going to see a 4-3 base majority of the time. They’re really good and physical within their front seven. We got to avoid their the hitch interception out of Ryola. We’ve seen that in the past. Northwestern defends that really well. Their backers are experienced and fast. They only have 11 sacks total on the season as a unit. Their defensive lines, linebackers, whoever it may be. They’ve only got 11 sacks. We gave up nine last week. So, this is not a unit. Honestly, Minnesota was better team at that. They had they had 15 on the season. They’ve only they’ve only sacked a quarterback 11 times. We have to keep our number within three. I think I think that’s the key if you’re Nebraska’s offensive line. and number shoot fours. You give up three sacks, you’re going to get the moans and groans out of fans, and that includes me. But it’s a massive improvement from what just happened against a Minnesota team that had no business doing that to that offensive line. Only giving up 16 and a half points a game. Puts them top 15 in college football. They’re only giving up 320 total yards. Puts them top 25 in college football. And they’re only giving up, I shouldn’t say only, they’re giving up five and a half yards per play. That puts them in kind of the middle range of college football. But they’re they’ve been bad on third down. They’re giving up 50% of those. And they’ve been really good on fourth down getting stops. They’ve only given up 33 and a third percent of those on the season, which puts them back top 15 in college football. So they’ve got their bright sides, they got their downsides, heavier on their bright sides for this unit, what they’ve done overall this season. All right, starting off with the defensive individual highlights. M UN, I want to say Yulan. Let me know in the comments. Good player anyway. Hell of a linebacker. 33 solo tackles on the year, 51 total, it’s 18 assisted tackles, three picks, and one force fumble. As a linebacker to have that many interceptions, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Got to avoid those hitch routes. That’s the one that he’s been picking off. Hasn’t taken any back to the house, but an experienced player none le. He’s senior linebacker out of Lake Forest, Illinois. Two tackles for loss last week against Purdue in that dominant defensive performance. And he’s a really good run stopping piece for this defense. In the secondary, the name I want to highlight, and I usually try and avoid picking the top statistical guy out of a defense, but this guy’s deserved his flowers, and that’s Robert Fitzgerald. 36 solo tackles, 60 tackles total that leads the team. He’s got a pass breakup and a fumble return on the season. Really disciplined defensive back that finds himself all over the field. Similar to like a Purdue style Dylan Theamman, Robert Fitzgerald kind of fits that narrative and and skew here for that defense. He’ll be all over the field. They’ll mix looks with him. He will show pressure if they want to bring everybody or engage eight. He’s kind of the jack of all trades for this Northwestern defense. He’s really taking a leadership role in the secondary. He’s a six-foot senior. So, another experienced guy with on this Northwestern defense. Now, I’ve talked about a lot told you a lot of good things out of Northwestern. That’s because they’ve deserved it. They’re 5-2. Not a lot of people would expect them to be at that mark. They’ve got a couple of good wins. How good does that UCLA win look right now? Winning on the road at Penn State, no matter if they just fired their coach or I guess they’re the reason they fired their coach. It was the last draw is incredibly hard. And I get it was a hangover spot for Penn State and their fans were, you know, white out, lenient, whatever the hell you want to say, but winning there is not easy and it’s not going to be easy when we go there in a few weeks. They did it. So don’t expect any swaying or scared feeling out of this Northwestern team coming into Memorial this this Saturday morning. and Nebraska got their hands full. Do I think Nebraska can get it done? I do because of the matchups that I just broke down. I feel like Nebraska is obviously more talented. I think Nebraska is going to play with a chip on their shoulder this week. I think the recipe for success and the keys to the game to get to the score prediction that is Nebraska winning the football game 24 to 20. And that’s a dog fight as I expect it to be. The the keys to this game are we have to give EJ the ball. We absolutely have to give EJ the ball. When the Northwestern defense has struggled, it’s been against the run. Their numbers are all around kind of the middle to the back half of college football as a whole. We cannot give him to him 14 times where he can average four and a half yards per carry and kind of really not do what we should have done. And that’s what I was talking about the play calling last week. We struggled with so well or so badly, I should say. We got to give the ball to EMTT. We were feeding him 20 to 25 times against Houston, Christian, Akan, Cincinnati, and we were like, man, can he carry the load through a Big 10 season. It didn’t look like he was slowing down, but they slowed those carries down. Can’t happen this weekend. I think Nebraska’s got to control the clock because Northwestern likes to do that. They dominated Purdue in time of possession, 37 minutes to like 22. That’s what they’re going to do this weekend, too. That’s what they’re going to want to do, and it’s what I told you Minnesota was going to want to do, and they did so well. Nebraska has to avoid that. And I think they can do that by running the football. Don’t go out there and throw three pass plays straight. Mix in a run. Mix in a draw. Use more of the screen game. Get the ball out quickly. Like all the basic notes on the offense that you probably share. One of them being Emma Johnson getting the ball more. That’s a huge key against this Northwestern team. On the defensive side, rap. Wrap and tackle for God’s sake. The amount of missed tackles last week, including from experienced guys like Sarah Wright, were unacceptable. We have to make tackles at the point of attack. We get one-on- ones. We We’re trying to fit the run. If you’re Maris Buford to Deshawn Singleton, you got to rap and tackle because they’ve got big physical runners that will go through you. Is I think we get a couple turnovers. I think they fumble once or twice or we get a pick which would be awesome, but it looks like Preston Stones really settled into kind of this offensive scheme. He’s he was new in it and that’s why I think the struggles were early. But I think it’s a great opportunity for Nebraska to force a couple of turnovers this weekend and I think they do. And that leads to this score and another Nebraska win. This feels like a situation where I could have put Northwestern on top of us because of the way we played. I truly don’t think Memorial Stadium and this Nebraska team will let it happen. I think there’s too many pissed-off guys in the room right now that even no Northwestern’s a damn good football team like I just broke down for you. I think Nebraska can get it done at home this weekend. And there’s going to be a big play or two that will really sway this to get it where it needs to be. But we got to see some improvement as the fan base from where we want it to be to feel good about the rest of the games. But this is a massive game to get bowl eligible because truthfully, if Nebraska doesn’t win this game, I don’t think they make a bowl game. I’ll tell you that right now. But we’ll preview those games when they come. That’s what I feel about the Northwestern game. Let me know in the comments what you think your score prediction is for a chance to win a free no rivals cap. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and you hit the like button. I appreciate you being here more than you know. Send it to a friend. Send it to your dad. Send it to your friend and make fun of me like I care. Please let me know what you think of the video. Let me know I can improve them. We’ll see you next week where we’ll break down this game. We’ll preview the next. That’s what we do here at Cover College Football. See you on Wednesday night 7:30 for the full preview of the week nine slate. It’s a great way to learn more about the grand scheme of college football if you’ve been trying to get into it. Maybe don’t watch every team. So check out that live show on Wednesday night 7:30 central from the play the fight song right here on this channel. And you can get notified for it by hitting the subscribe button today. So I love you. Appreciate you. We’ll see you next time. Let me know in the comments what your thoughts is on this matchup. Go big red.