I don’t have a social media presence outside of what I write here, but I know I’m in the minority here. I absolutely cannot wait for this game to kick off. I love the rare experience of having to play such a late game. The last time we started a game approximately this late was 2014, when Ameer Abdullah helped put a beat down on Fresno State. I know, Oregon is way better than Fresno State. That still doesn’t change the fact I’m excited for this.
Nebraska has not always fared well with incredibly late
kickoffs. Most Husker fans can recall how out of sorts we looked in Tempe while getting shut out by the Sun Devils. The Huskers went 0-1-1 in the 1970s under Bob Devaney while playing late games against USC and UCLA. We’ve also played Hawai’i in Honolulu and even played a game in Japan of all places. This is a truly wonderful experience.
Look at the bright side, this isn’t your typical Big Ten screwing with Nebraska and time schedules. Let’s be real, this would be where this game would be followed by a Friday night game at Rutgers if it was made for us to suffer. Instead, we get a bye week after this one. We have officially entered the second half of the season. “We are a second half team” has been a mantra on many of the Corn Nation game threads.
Husker fans aren’t averse to these late-night shenanigans. I know plenty of people who have stayed up for volleyball and basketball games in recent years. Anyone remember the basketball team playing in a holiday tournament in Hawai’i over Christmas 2 years ago? I had a blast covering those games between twelve and one a.m. I know it will be possibly past 2 a.m. when this game gets over, but you can always sleep in…maybe. My son usually is up around 5:30 am, so I’ll get a slight nap in instead of a full sleep.
As for the actual game itself, a wounded duck is a dangerous thing. Oregon has only lost 2 times at Autzen Stadium under Dan Lanning. Don’t expect Dante Moore to be cleared from concussion protocol but also don’t expect Dylan Raiola to play nearly as awful as he did against UCLA. This team has plenty of talent, despite how it might have looked last week. If Nebraska continues to blow assignments, this could be a long night.
Nebraska also has to avoid something that is very tough to do, get past the “big game hangover.” It doesn’t matter if you win or lose a big game, playing that well on a consistent basis is very hard to do. It’s really easy to just not have the energy and heart after that tough loss against the Hoosiers. But that’s what makes a mediocre team good, or a good team great. That ability to say, “we are good enough to do this no matter the time, place and what happened last week”.
Nebraska goes into this as an underdog again. Oregon has played plenty of tough competition, as all but Portland State is currently ranked in the AP Top 25. The Huskers have played bottom feeders in the Big Ten, outside of that slugfest against defending National Champ Indiana. Nebraska will need to show that steel and mettle again, but this time for all 4 quarters. If they do what they did for 3 against Indiana and put it together for a full 60 minutes on a consistent basis, the Huskers should be a lot of fun to watch from here on out.
