When a Heisman hopeful like AmeerAbdullah rushes for over 200 yards and three touchdowns in a conference game, you already know what kind of grade the Nebraska ground game is going to receive.
But what about the rest of the Huskers team?
This game was a great warm-up for next week's showdown against Michigan State in East Lansing, and a fresh set of grades for the Cornhuskers is ready heading into that nationally relevant Big Ten showdown.
Pass Offense
Tommy Armstrong had a perfectly mediocre performance against Illinois. Luckily, Nebraska didn't need him to be any better than that in order to win.
Armstrong was 10-of-21 for 166 yards, one touchdown and one pick. The day started very slowly for the Cornhusker quarterback, mainly because AmeerAbdullah was handling the Illini all by himself. Armstrong didn't have a single completion until the last play of the first quarter, but he made up for it with a fairly prolific second quarter.
After halftime, with the game in hand, throwing the ball wasn't a priority.
Still, with a sub-50 percent completion ratio, Armstrong's inconsistency shouldn't be rewarded.
Rushing Offense
Anyone want to take a guess at Nebraska's grade here?
A total of 458 yards and five touchdowns, 208 yards and three touchdowns coming from AmeerAbdullah, only tells you the final tally. What those numbers don't tell you is the incredible depth of talent the Huskers have at the position, as each back on the roster seems to possess the power and speed to run over and around defenders.
Abdullah is clearly the lead and should be a legitimate Heisman contender this season, but don't sell Nebraska short by believing he's the only guy capable of making highlight-reel runs in Lincoln.
Pass Defense
Holding Illinois' back-up quarterback Reilly O'Toole to 17-of-38 for 261 yards is decent enough. But limiting the Illini to one passing TD while picking off three O'Toole passes is worthy of recognition.
Both halves were pretty even in terms of passing success (or lack thereof) for the Illini, but Nebraska's pass rush was a factor all evening long, thanks to Randy Gregory and pals, so I'm content in giving a solid "B+" for the pass defense.
Run Defense
As impressive as the run defense was in the first half (allowing just 71 yards on 15 carries), things got even better after halftime.
The Illini finished with just 87 total rushing yards on the evening. That early rushing TD hurt the Huskers grade, but Nebraska gets a significant boost for the final mark thanks to its suffocating run defense in the second half.
Special Teams
If there's one weakness in Nebraska's game so far, it has to be special teams. The Huskers were 1-for-2 on field goals, averaged just four yards per return on both punt returns and kick returns (though Nebraska had only one kickoff return), and the punting average was an inflated 37.7 because of some great bounces and rolls in punter Sam Foltz' favor.
That kind of poor performance doesn't matter much against Illinois. Against Michigan State or Wisconsin on the other hand...
Coaching
Bo Pelini is smart enough to stick with what's working. Right now, that's AmeerAbdullah. The only gripe (and, believe me, it's a small one) is that it would be nice to see stars like Abdullah, Armstrong and wide out Kenny Bell come out of the game a little bit earlier.
If the game is well in hand in the second half—let's say it's a three-score (or larger) lead—why risk injury? In fact it appeared that Abdullah tweaked his right knee in the second half. It didn't appear serious, but the point here is that it didn't need to happen at all.
We're just saying...
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.
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