Tag: Nebraska Huskers

Big Ten football Week 0 schedule and facts

Big Ten Week 0 schedule and facts #BigTen #B1G

The 2022 college football season is upon us and the Week 0 plate is enough to fill our appetites until week one. I still think Week 0 is a dumb name, but the college football opening week does have some interesting Big Ten teams playing and even a conference game to kick us off right.

The week consists of only 11 games that field FBS teams and only two within that field contain any Big Ten opponents. Still, it’s three exciting teams with Nebraska dealing with a coaching hot seat, Northwestern attempting to accomplish another bounce-back season, and Illinois attempting to climb out of the Big Ten cellar.

Wisconsin bounces back after a slow start to down Nebraska 67-53

The Badgers combat a slow start and cruise to victory over Nebraska

It wasn’t the perfect 40 minutes we saw over the weekend in against Louisville, but it was a win for Wisconsin over Nebraska to open Big Ten play. The Badgers ultimately cruised to a 67-53 victory that was tougher than that score shows.

The Huskers came out of the gates playing aggressive defense with their mobile, lengthy lineup. Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg and crew came in with an excellent strategy against the swing principles that Wisconsin likes to run. By fronting the Badger bigs and guards in the post and preventing easy touches inside, the Huskers confused Wisconsin early and led 13-5 at the under eight timeout.

Shooting 16-25 (64%) from three, as Wisconsin did against Louisville, was not going to be the standard every night, although the Badgers then found the law of averages on their side after a cold start. A few threes started to fall and the Badgers found themselves right back in it. Tough defense kept them around, as it almost always will, and UW took an improbable 25-24 lead into the halftime break.

The Huskers had their chances to create separation, but 4-13 from three in the first half and 9-27 (33%) overall canceled out an incredible defensive effort.

Wisconsin adjusted offensively near the end of the half and into the second primarily with the guards attacking the paint. The Badgers were able to get penetration from Johnny Davis, Brad Davison, and others that opened up everything else on that end.

A 12-0 second half run ignited by Micah Potter and Brad Davison saw the Badgers cruise for the final 12 minutes and change. Davison found his stroke, going 3-4 from three in the second frame and finishing with 11 points in the half alone. The senior guard ended with a game-high 15 for UW.

In the end, the Huskers failing to create needed separation through the first 20 minutes came back to bite them when Wisconsin got back to the ball and body movement we are accustomed to seeing.

Next up for the No. 9 Badgers is No. 12 Michigan State on Friday in East Lansing. Wisconsin improved to 7-1 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten.

Nebraska’s defense loses key pieces ahead of week two against Wisconsin

The Huskers will be without key secondary pieces next week in the first half

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: there was some major controversy surrounding the targeting rule today when Nebraska met Ohio State at the Shoe.

In a 52-17 Ohio State win that felt closer than the score showed, the Huskers were hit hard in the secondary. Starting cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt was ejected in the third quarter for a helmet to helmet hit, followed by senior safety Deontai Williams being tossed for a fourth quarter hit where he struck a Buckeye WR with his shoulder. As a reminder of the rule, defensive players now face ejection for targeting defenseless opponents above the shoulders or using the crown of the helmet to contact an opponent.

As a result of the ejections, Taylor-Britt and Williams are forced to sit out the first half of next week’s game against Wisconsin, pending review by the league.