Strengths:

After watching the first few games of the Nebraska football season, I was very impressed with how the Huskers performed. In all honesty, this is the best start of the season for the Huskers since Scott Frost became coach. Some things I’ve taken away from these first few games are most likely similar to what the entire Husker nation thinks; First, when the Husker defense is functioning, it makes it much easier for the offense to score points. What I mean by that is when Nebraska makes stops, forced fumbles, and gets interceptions, it takes the pressure off the offense to score points. 

In correlation to that, when the offense is scoring insurance points, it takes the pressure off the defense to make stops. If the game is a blowout, and the defense is somewhat doing their job, but the offense is dominating, it gets to a point where the defense doesn’t matter. Since last year, the defense and offense of the Nebraska team have improved a lot. On top of the offense and defense functioning, the ruthlessness of the Nebraska team is a lot better than the past couple of years. What I mean by that is when the Huskers are up by a lot, they just keep making the game a lot worse for their opponent. Take the Fordham game for example. The score of that game was 52-7. The Huskers didn’t let up. Even the Oklahoma and Michigan State games were close because the Huskers didn’t give up. To be honest I was surprised the games were that close. The Huskers are doing a great job in those aspects.

Weaknesses:

Sure, the Huskers have been playing well for their first five games, but they still have a tough schedule coming up. While they did keep the score close against Michigan State and Oklahoma, they still have to face Michigan and Ohio State. Iowa also poses a huge threat because they are the number five ranked team in the country. Michigan is ranked 14 and Ohio State is ranked 11.

 This is the point where I address the elephant in the room: The field goal unit. Now I know kicking a field goal isn’t the easiest thing to do but everyone is going to be somewhat frustrated when the kicker can’t make a PAT (Point after touchdown). One missed PAT is okay but when the kicker starts missing every other extra point, people are going to get tilted. Along with that, penalties need to be cut down. The Oklahoma game could’ve been won without all the unnecessary flags and lost yardage. A great play doesn’t matter if there’s a flag.

My take:                    

I’m impressed with the Huskers performances but the field goal unit needs some work. A team is only as strong as its weakest member and if the weakest part of the team is the field goal unit, that’s pretty embarrassing. All Scott Frost needs to do is coach Matt Waldoch back to his peak performance level and maybe fix the slight issues in the offense and defense and Nebraska will be a formidable team to face in the years to come.