3 reasons Nebraska football can beat Colorado

Colorado is the college football darling right now, but here are three reasons why Nebraska football can beat the Buffaloes.

Colorado has captured the college football world’s attention with its 45-42 win over TCU last week. On the other hand, Nebraska football looked like the same old Huskers in a 13-10 loss to Minnesota.

That’s not entirely fair. For much of the game, Nebraska football looked much better than it did during the Frost era. The tackling was better; the special teams were outstanding, and there was a different physicality to the Huskers.

It looked and felt different. Only the final score wasn’t. That and the performance from Colorado have the Huskers as a 3.5-point underdog, although with the way some are talking about Colorado, that spread might as well be three touchdowns like it was for CU last week against TCU.

This is a winnable game for Nebraska football and here are three reasons why the Huskers can leave Boulder with their first win over a top-25 team since 2016. 

Ground and pound

Nebraska football rushed for 181 yards last season and averaged 4.8 yards per carry against a pretty stout Minnesota defense. I guarantee that defense is better against the run than Colorado, which allowed 262 yards on the ground to TCU.

Jeff Sims will probably be heavily involved again. Gabe Ervin needs more carries and Rahmir Johnson also needs more touches — whether rushing or receiving.

Hopefully, Anthony Grant can put that fumble behind him, because he’s a talented runner. Regardless, I see Nebraska rushing for over 200 yards on Saturday and that’s one reason they can win.

A better matchup for Colorado

TCU possessed the ball for 27 minutes against Colorado. If that’s the case for the Huskers, they’ll leave Boulder 0-2. They are the team that needs to control the ball and they’ll do a much better job than TCU which wants to run as many plays as possible.

Matt Rhule isn’t going to play that way. Nebraska ran 56 plays last week and if there are fewer than 120 total that will play right into the Huskers’ hands.

Colorado has some dynamic playmakers. There’s no question about that. But Nebraska looked like a really good tackling team last week. The Huskers have two good corners and a defensive line that should be able to win consistently.

Colorado allowed four sacks and seven tackles for loss last week. The Buffaloes also didn’t notch a single sack and allowed more than seven yards per rush, including a 74-yard run.

The win over TCU was impressive, but it wasn’t without warts and Nebraska should be able to take advantage of some of the things the Buffs didn’t do well in Week 1.

Tony White’s defense

What Colorado did against TCU was impressive. But let’s be honest, the Horned Frogs stink on defense. Even when they had some NFL talent last season, they allowed 30 points or more seven times and ranked 91st in scoring defense. 

Nebraska is a much better defense than that. Based on what I saw against Minnesota, it looks like a top-25 scoring defense in my opinion.

That will be a much different animal for Colorado. Poor tackling and missed assignments doomed TCU. While the Huskers were really good in those areas. Tony White is a rising star and he’ll have a good gameplan.

White will have to find ways to confuse Shedeur Sanders and also pressure him. College quarterbacks are like NFL passers nowadays. If they know what’s coming, they’ll tear you up.

That’s why I loved the hire of White. He’s known for the 3-3-5 but he ran a bunch of different formations last week and will have some things dialed up just for Buffs.

We’ll see if it works, but this Blackshirts’ defense reminds me of the 2021 defense and that unit always gave the Huskers a chance. This one will do the same on Saturday.

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