Nebraska Football: What we learned in week one vs South Alabama

Nebraska football didn’t come out guns blazing like many Husker fans anticipated, but they’re still 1-0 on the year. What did we learn about the Cornhuskers in their season opener?

Well, it wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but ultimately a win is a win and that’s all that matters. The Nebraska Cornhuskers never put the South Alabama Jaguars away, but they were able to escape week one with a victory, even if it wasn’t a great win.

While the win itself wasn’t a blowout as many fans were hoping for, after starting 0-6 last year, just getting a W in the first game of the season is a big accomplishment for Scott Frost and the Huskers. All you can do is win the games on your schedule and so far Nebraska is one for one in those regards.

All of that being said, what did we learn about the Cornhuskers after their 35-21 victory over South Alabama? Let’s take a look.

WHERE WAS THE OFFENSE?

Coming into this season, many expected Nebraska to be firing on all cylinders on the offensive side of the ball. While Nebraska’s offense scored 14 points in the first half, that’d be it for that side of the ball. After the first half, the offense struggled to do much of anything.

The run game was atrocious, not even getting to 100 yards on the day. Dedrick Mills led the Huskers with 44 yards and found the end zone twice, but he had a costly fumble later on that kept the Jaguars in the game until the very end.

Adrian Martinez has a lot of high expectations this year (more on that in a bit) and his run game makes him a very intriguing player. That being said, he didn’t run the ball well at all on Saturday, carrying the rock 13 times for just six yards. Not good.

As the tweet above indicates, the Huskers offense might as well have sat on the sidelines in the second half. When really all it took in the final minutes to put the game away was a decent drive, Martinez and the rest of the offense failed to capitalize. That’s concerning for sure.