The Good, bad, and the ugly from Nebraska’s win over UTEP

More than 24 hours after the Nebraska football win over UTEP, Husker Nation is reveling in a season-opening win. Also, the play of Dylan Raiola.

We have heard that he’s special and we saw it on Saturday. Of course, that was just UTEP. Raiola needs to show he can do the same things against Colorado, but make no mistake, it felt like the start of something.

Something Nebraska football fans have been starving for.

Championships? Yes. But also, competent football.

With Raiola, and Matt Rhule, and Tony White, and Nash Hutmacher, Ty Robinson, and the offensive line, the Huskers look competent.

At the risk of overreacting, they look more than competent. They look good.

We’ll find out more next Saturday against Colorado in the renewal of a rivalry that started in the Big 8. Yet, with a look back at UTEP, here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly from the 40-7 win for Nebraska.

The Good: Dylan Raiola

I saw a post on social media about how Nebraska fans watching Dylan Raiola was comparable to cavemen seeing fire for the first time.

It’s funny — maybe a little overboard — but the point hits home.

Nebraska has rarely, if ever, had a quarterback this talented at the forward pass.

Tommie Frazier, Turner Gill, Eric Crouch, and Scott Frost were weapons in a different way. Taylor Martinez was too. Their arms were a secondary asset compared to what their legs could do.

With Raiola, it’s the exact opposite. And like many have pointed out, his brain might be his superpower.

There’s more to quarterbacking than having a strong arm. You have to be able to read the defense, make the right decision, and execute.

It wasn’t a perfect performance, but Raiola did that. Next week, he’ll probably be even better. The numbers might not reflect that, although I think they might, but either way, it’s a much different attack than Colorado last season.

The Bad: Dante Dowdell’s red-zone fumble

This and the long touchdown allowed were the only black eyes on Saturday and sometimes, you are going to be beat deep.

However, the Huskers can’t afford any more fumbles in the red zone. Nebraska had advanced the ball inside the 10-yard line in a 7-7 game. UTEP recovered and Nebraska did force a safety.

But that kind of thing has to stop. Turnovers are bad enough but in the red zone, they are even more costly. They also reminded us of the failures in ball protection that have haunted this program.

The Ugly: UTEP’s rush offense

One of the things that made the 2022 Nebraska defense so tough was the run defense and on Saturday, the Huskers looked even tougher against the run.

UTEP’s run game was downright ugly. The Miners rushed 24 times for 56 yards. That’s an average of 2.3 yards per attempt. Nebraska football notched nine tackles for loss.

The Huskers only had one sack, but the first goal of any defense is to stop the run. Nebraska did that to perfection at Lincoln Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

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