Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE
A lot can be learned about a team when they play an outmatched opponent. The Nebraska Cornhuskers have had a lot of trouble with these teams recently, losing at home to Northwestern and barely beating South Dakota State three years ago.
This time around, the Cornhuskers had no trouble dealing with the Idaho State Bengals, dispatching of the FCS team 73-7 in a game that left no doubt as to who the better team is.
The biggest news of the day, however, was the return of star running back Rex Burkhead. Burkhead, who had nursed a knee injury for the past two weeks, ran well today. He had eight carriers for 119 yards and two scores, including a career long 61 yard touchdown run.
At that point in the game, Rex had 6 rushes on the season, two of which were 50+ yards touchdowns.
The game was not without concern for the Huskers though. 3 turnovers and 9 penalties later, how much has this team matured?
It is imperative for the Huskers that they fix these issues. Last season, those were their achilles heels. If Nebraska is going to do something in the B1G 10 this year, those issues have to go away.
Clearly turnovers kill drives, and penalties make good situations bad.
This season, the Cornhuskers are averaging nearly eight yards per play on first down. The Huskers need to get rid of stupid penalties and keep drives alive
Sure, it did not hurt them against Idaho State, but against a team like Michigan or Ohio State, it is going to be a problem.
Paul Troupe is the lead writer for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and San Antonio Spurs, while covering many major sports for RantSports. You can follow him on Twitter @gamin4HIM
