Huskers show signs of life in Defeating Iowa State 35 to 7

After opening their Big 12 season with back to back losses the Huskers responded very well this past Saturday on the road by soundly defeating Iowa State by the score of 35-7. For the first time in quite a while the Huskers played almost a complete game on both sides of the ball, gaining almost 550 yards on offense and allowing only 218, with 67 of that coming on a run by Iowa State running back Alexander Robinson 30 seconds into the third quarter. Without a doubt the first half of this game was the Huskers best of the season, gaining 349 yard and scoring 3 touchdown and almost had a 4th as Menelik Holt caught a pass and was streaking towards the goal line until a hard helmet hit on the ball, popped it into the air at the 5 yard line where Iowa State recovered and ran out the clock in the first half. The Huskers first scoring drive covered 92 yard and was capped by Nate Swift's 19-yard catch and run for the first score with 5:27 left in the opening quarter. Swift who had 3 catches and a 7-yard run on a reverse on that drive was outstanding once again. For the day Swift had 8 catches for 112 yard and the touchdown and he became only the second player in Husker history to amass 2,000 yard receiving in a career (1972 Heisman trophy winner Johnny Rogers has 2,479 yards). The Huskers gained over 200 yards rushing for the game and controlled the clock to the tune of 37 minutes for the game. Ganz was like a surgeon Saturday afternoon completing 27 of 37 passes to 9 different receivers for a total of 328 yards and no interceptions. Ganz has now started just 10 games for the Huskers, but has thrown for the 6th most yards (3,366) in school history. The running game was great with the 3-headed I-back combo of Marlon Lucky, Roy Helu and Quentin Castille gaining 214 yards on 32 carries. The offense scored touchdown on all 5 drives into the red zone and there were only 4 penalties, which was great to see. The defense forced their first 2 fumbles in more than 3 games and with the exception of the Robinson run did not have any huge mental breakdown for the game. As for the negatives, punting is definitely one of those. We lost probably 40-50 yards in the Iowa State game from either shanking a punt or booming it into the end zone instead of pooching it. It is an item that needs to be addressed. Coming up this Saturday is our first home game in 2-weeks against up and coming Baylor with their true freshman quarterback Robert Griffin, who just set a NCAA freshman record for consecutive passes thrown without an interception (155 and counting) and is as mobile a quarterback as the Huskers will see this season. This will be another good test to see if the players can maintain their level of execution after a good win Saturday. They should be able to defeat Baylor, as they are a very young team and will probably be distracted by coming into the Big Red atmosphere in Lincoln. I look for another 25 point win and bring our Big 12 record to 2-2, GBR!