3 biggest keys to Nebraska football upsetting Penn State

Nebraska football faces another huge challenge on the road Saturday night, against a Penn State team that’s better than the 4-6 record indicates.

The Nittany Lions were a play away from beating Indiana. The same can be said about Oregon and Iowa. They had Drew Allar for the Oregon loss and most of the loss to Northwestern, but this team never quit on the season.

They pounded Michigan State 28-10 last week. Kaytron Allen rushed for 181 yards and two touchdowns. Ethan Grunkemeyer only attempted 13 passes. The Penn State redshirt freshman is making his fifth career start. TJ Lateef will make his second start for Nebraska football.

With the decommitment of Dayton Raiola, there is a lot of talk about Nebraska quarterbacks. It will be interesting to see what Lateef does Saturday night. The Huskers are a 9.5-point underdog, and here are the three biggest keys to an upset.

Ride the hot hand

As much as the Blackshirts need to stand up in this game, Nebraska football needs to ride the hot hand on offense. Emmett Johnson probably isn’t coming back.

The NFL draft will be calling his name. Nebraska has been pushing him as a Heisman Trophy candidate. Might as well feed him the ball 30 times per game.

Johnson might need to have another 200-yard effort, like the game he had against UCLA, for the Huskers to win, so they should give him the ball as much as possible.

Like Ameer back in the day, Johnson is a threat to score every time he touches the ball. We’ll see what he can do on Saturday night.

Don’t get run over

Penn State will have success running the ball. Nebraska needs to make finding a defensive tackle or two a top priority this offseason. The Huskers also need to play more four-man fronts, which they have done the past few weeks.

Penn State wants to run the ball 40-50 times. Nebraska can’t let that happen. The Huskers can’t allow Penn State to do what Michigan or USC did. 150 yards or so is something Nebraska can overcome.

Grunkemeyer has won one start this season, and he threw 13 passes. Penn State hasn’t won a game when its quarterback throws the ball 20 times or more, so that’s a key for Nebraska: make the Penn State quarterback make plays, especially on third down.

Get an edge

Whether it’s on special teams with a kickoff return, a blocked punt, or winning the turnover battle, Nebraska needs to get an edge to win this game.

Penn State is better in the trenches. They have the better pass rush, and I’d argue the better defense. It’s also hard to win in Happy Valley, no matter how good the Nittany Lions are.

Getting a big play on special teams would help.

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