3 Comments

  1. Benjy Wells

    Great work and an interesting read. I think you may have unintentionally had some overlap with 2009 and 2010 Nebraska. 2009 was the year the Huskers had 8 turnovers against Iowa State (and lost 9-7 in Lincoln), but they won in Ames 31-30 in 2010. The 2009 offense was the one that was truly terrible. 2010 had some stinkers for sure (13 points in the home loss to Texas, 6 points in the road loss to A & M), but was more inconsistent than outright bad (especially when Martinez got nicked up). They bailed out the defense in a 51-41 win in Stillwater and had the big game against Mizzou.

    The Blackshirts had no answer for Blackmon or Hunter – like you said, Oklahoma State really over-stressed that D. That one and somewhat Iowa State were really the only even iffy games that 2010 defense had (and the Cyclones only put up 24 in regulation). The 2009 D (I know, outside of the 2010s ranking you’re doing here, but the 2009 and 2010 defenses are together in my mind as a Husker fan) got more acclaim defensively, since it had Suh and had better numbers, but the 2010 D faced a stronger overall slate of offenses for sure.

    It’s amazing how far ahead of his time Pelini was defending the spread. Too few people realized that then and even now. It also explains why the transition to the Big Ten was tougher than expected – that team was built to defend Big XII offenses, not Big Ten “manball.”

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