Against Cincinnati, even though more of it was saved for the run defense, there was still some grumbling about the offensive line after gaining only 103 yards on the ground at 3.1 YPC clip. The 3 sacks didn’t sit great with everyone either. Three games later against Michigan, the roof blew off. The rushing offense didn’t exactly establish itself. Even though the sack-adjusted actual total was 24 carries for 92 yards, 3.8 YPC was still not considered a success.
And oh, those sacks – there were a total
of 7 at games end and many more pressures. On passing downs, the offensive tackles appears to be hustling backward off the snap making the rush ends appear to be playing at hyper-speed with no contact until they were 2-3 yards into the Huskers backfield. But as Coach Rhule said?
“The interesting thing, go back to the Michigan game, right? It got ugly early, right? But then you watched, we’re in two minutes before the half, and then went to the Hail Mary – we’re blocking everybody. And the drive before that and then the end the game. So, my point – I showed you did block them. So if you did block them, you should be more consistent with blocking them. So we’re capable of it.”
Against Michigan State, there was improvement, even though it was more difficult to spot. There were only 67 yards rushing, although those numbers were again skewed by 5 more sacks of Raiola. But of these 5 sacks, only 1-2 were attributed to the offensive line – Raiola admitted to holding onto the ball too long on a couple and another was a missed block by a running back. And Emmett Johnson ran for 83 yards on 13 carries. And they were flawless as the Huskers reeled off 24 straight points in the game’s last 16 minutes.
It was improving, coming together. It was time to see how much at College Park.
The talk was of Maryland’s dangerous defensive front. Coming in, they had tallied 19 sacks (3.8pg) and 34 tackles for loss (6.8 pg). This was expected to be a big test. Consider it a test passed.
“I think Dana’s figuring it out, like Donny’s figuring out what they do the best, what they’re really good at.” – Matt Rhule
The Huskers ran the ball 29 times for 203 yards, a 7.0 YPC average. Dylan Raiola completed 20-29 passes for 260 yards and was only sacked once with zero QB hits. Maryland totalled only 3 TFL, less than half their season average. And probably most impressively, Emmett Johnson went off with 21 carries for a career-high 176 yards including this beast-mode level 50-yard run:
Tuesday, I asked him if he knew a big day was ahead after that first 14-yard burst for a first down, or for that matter, the first three runs, all for solid yardage. His response?
“Yeah, I knew right away it was just the tight ends and how they set the tone on them blocks. On the first couple plays, the O-line drives them off the ball. I knew that once I had those first couple runs, it’s a tough day for them on defense.”
When he came to the sideline he apologized to OC Dana Holgorsen for not getting the touchdown. And before that drive, he was on the sideline yelling at the defense about how he couldn’t be stopped (“Gimme the rock!”). But beyond that, he knew holes were being opened and didn’t hesitate to deflect the credit to the big ‘uns.
“Yeah, I felt great out there, but I would just say those guys up front, they work their butts off in practice, and I just give credit to them, because they made it easy for me to just go out there and do what I do.”
And the respect is mutual – especially so for center Justin Evans who walked onto campus as fellow freshman with Johnson.
“Yeah, me and Emmett came in together. You know, that’s somebody I consider myself close to as well – we took our official visit together. We moved in here together. Even before Coach Rhule got here, our class was a small, tight class. So just seeing Emmett have all the successes, I feel nothing but joy for him, and I’m excited for him this week to go back home and to bring the show on the road.
For Rhule, it was all a case of staying focused, staying the course and figuring things out.
“You know, when you’re an offensive lineman, people say, ‘Hey, you played great’. Then we talk, and you really didn’t play great, you know? And so that’s kind of the nature of the position. It’s like corner(back) – unless you get a pick, we talk about when you get beat. I thought they did a good job. I thought they did a good job of moving the line of scrimmage and slowing down the rush with the run game.”
And to see the final score, their numbers, as well as the old eye test – you could see the holes, the push, the downfield blocking and the strength again in the 4th quarter – one might assume it was one of those days on which everything clicked. It wasn’t – Pritchett was hurt and two others had to suck it up and step up respectively. Did they ever.
“I wasn’t sure if Gun(nar Gottula) was able to play on Saturday, and he plays the whole game. Turner Corcoran – so proud of him. He’s just basically been the jumbo tight end getting some reps in there. And the game comes on, he goes out there and closes out the game for us. He played really well, too.” – Matt Rhule
The O-line room and their coach had absorbed some grief. Rhule allowed that, but said it was a case of the coaches seeing the positive, figuring out what everybody did well, and not so well, pulling together to close the errors, and for Rhule and his assistants to get on the page with each other. And what did he tell the lineman?
So I think that offensive line – I think they’ve done a good job. Just shut off the noise and watch the tape, you know? I mean, do what I do, turn off your DMS and just play football. I think they’ve done a good job of that.
Against Maryland, they did just that. Can they keep it up in Minneapolis where banging it out in the interior for four quarters is almost a way of life?
We’ll see – but for now, the O-line room has earned a well-deserved pat on the back.
