5 things we learned from Nebraska football win over Northern Illinois

It was good to see Nebraska football get a win over Northern Illinois and here are five things we learned.

For the first time during the 2023 season, Nebraska football is waking up as a winner, following the first victory under head coach Matt Rhule.

The final was 35-11 over Northern Illinois. It was a competitive game and the Huskers didn’t lock it up completely until the fourth quarter, but the tone was set on the opening drive.

Nebraska football forced a punt to start the game and went down the field behind first-time starting quarterback Heinrich Haarberg.  The Kearney native capped it off with a touchdown pass to Billy Kemp.

Haarberg did have a fumble on a strip-sack and NIU got within four points on a field goal, but Haarberg added a touchdown pass to Thomas Fidone, as well as a touchdown run later. The offensive line got going in the second half and the defense held the Huskies to just 149 total yards.

Looking back at the 24-point win that was badly needed in the state of Nebraska, here are five things we learned about the Huskers Saturday night.

Nebraska has a quarterback

After the game, Matt Rhule didn’t say Heinrich Haarberg was going to be the starter. He said Nebraska football had two quarterbacks it could win with.

Yet, so far, I’ve only seen one. Haarberg did have the one fumble, but outside of that, which wasn’t his fault, the ball security was outstanding. He didn’t have any issues with snaps and you could tell from the opening drive that the game wasn’t too big for him.

Frankly, it seems like Haarberg likes running people over as much as he likes scoring touchdowns, which I love. His attitude was infectious and the team fed off of it.

Haarberg also impressed me as a thrower. Nobody is going to say he’s going to the NFL anytime soon, but he completed 14-of-24 passes and had two touchdowns. He threw a dart on the touchdown pass to Fidone and had three completions of more than 20 yards.

You don’t need a future first-round pick at quarterback to win games. You need someone who can take care of the ball, pick up third downs (Nebraska was 8-of-14), and execute in the red zone. Haarberg did all of those things and his short-yardage running ability was a real weapon.

I hope he gets another opportunity next week. At this point, he’s earned it.

Nebraska used Matt Rhule’s formula

The Huskers have done a lot of good things to start the season, especially on defense. The running game has been good too and averaged over 200 yards coming in.

On Saturday, Nebraska football ran for 224. The Huskers also rushed for 75 yards in the fourth quarter. They did allow some points, but it was a garbage-time TD.

When the game was on the line in the second half, the Blackshirts didn’t give up a damn thing and it was really impressive. However, it was how it all worked in conjunction that was impressive to me.

Nebraska played the kind of football Rhule talked about when he was hired and really all offseason. The Huskers were physical; they pounded the rock and played great defense.

We’ve seen a lot of games won in Lincoln Memorial Stadium using that exact formula and it was refreshing to see the Huskers apply it to Nothern Illinois.

The Blackshirts are back in force

In the past few seasons — really since the Bo Pelini days — it’s been hard to use the term “Blackshirts.” The Blackshirts haven’t looked like the Blackshirts in a long time, but they are living up to that name this season.

My goodness just look at the run defense. Not a single opponent has reached 60 yards rushing in three games and last season, Northern Illinois got 26 yards on 22 carries.

Nash Hutmacher is a man amongst boys up front and so is Ty Robinson. When P.J. Fleck said people were going to have a tough time running on Nebraska football, he wasn’t kidding.

The pass rush delivered three more sacks and while there was just one takeaway (there should have been two if the replay looked at Quinton Newsome’s pick) you can’t lodge a single complaint against the Blackshirts.

The only points allowed during the competitive portion of the game was when Northern Illinois was essentially given a goal-to-go situation by the offense, yet didn’t get a single first down and settled for a field goal.

Straight up, this is the most fun I’ve had watching the Nebraska defense in a long time.

The Blackshirts are back. For real.

Thomas Fidone is looking better and better

It was great to see Thomas Fidone catch a touchdown in Boulder, but Saturday night was a totally different story. The former top-ranked tight end hauled in a touchdown reception, as well as a massive third down conversion on the sideline in the third quarter, where he dragged his toe.

Fidone finished the game with four receptions for 42 yards and he definitely seems to have a connection with Haarberg, his former roommate. Heinrich has tossed three touchdowns in two weeks and two of those were to Fidone, who is looking healthier and better by the week.

The offensive line can be nasty

In the second half, it was clear that Nebraska put the game on the shoulders of the offensive line and those guys responded with over 140 yards and more than five yards per attempt.

Nebraska lined up in the I-formation a bunch and just ground out a win. The Huskers used the fullback, they used their tight ends, and their offensive line did a hell of a job.

Anthony Grant bounced back with seven attempts for 46 yards and a touchdown. Gabe Ervin had 14 rushes for 67 and Haarberg got 21 attempts for 98 yards with a long run of 20.

The fact that Nebraska got 224 yards without a run longer than 20 shows the sledding wasn’t easy, but the offensive line won the day in the second half, which was good to see.

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