Husker offense no joke on Saturday
Print
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
AMES, Iowa — Marlon Lucky was taking snaps from center, and Joe Ganz was throwing blocks on the perimeter.
If those aren’t signs that Nebraska’s offense is feeling loose, then the smiles by Nebraska players and coaches certainly were.
“We just came out and played a heck of a game today,” Lucky said after Nebraska’s 35-7 victory against Iowa State on Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium.
“That first half was pretty intense.”
Lucky, the senior running back, was downright serious when he twice took direct snaps from center Jacob Hickman. Running back Quentin Castille was lined up alongside Lucky, and Ganz lined up as one of three receivers.
It’s what Nebraska calls the “Joker” formation. The first play was a 6-yard gain for Lucky. The second time, Lucky scored easily on a 4-yard run for a 21-0 lead.
Implementing the formation was the idea of offensive coordinator Shawn Watson.
“Who knows? It might get bigger next week,” Lucky said. “I really don’t know. Coach Watson’s got an eye for trick plays. He might put something else together this week.”
One, perhaps, with Lucky displaying his arm? Remember, he’s 3-for-5 passing in his career, for 65 yards and three touchdowns.
“We’ll see how far we go with it,” Watson said. “We’re having fun being creative. We’ll see what happens. I don’t know. We’ve seen Marlon throw. Stay tuned.”
A reporter jokingly asked receiver Nate Swift if, given Lucky’s snap-taking, there’s a quarterback controversy.
A better question might be if there’s a receiver controversy, given what Ganz did on his two plays in the “Joker” formation.
“He got a knockdown,” Watson said. “He’s all proud and happy. He ran over and got on the headset, said, ‘Hey, I got him chopped.’”
Swift, though, seemed hesitant when asked if he’d be taking any tips from Ganz, despite his contributions.
“I think he got his first cut today,” Swift said, “so he’s pretty pumped up about that, I’m sure. We’ll be hearing about that tomorrow.”
Let’s leave the receivers’ big-play making to guys like Swift, though. The senior caught eight passes in the first half, as Nebraska receivers found gaping holes in Iowa State’s defense and collected 21 receptions before halftime.
“We schemed them very well, and we were well-prepared for this game,” said Swift, who didn’t have a catch after halftime. “It wasn’t always the primary receiver who was getting it, either. It was the second or third reads, so Joe was doing a great job of going through all his reads, going through his progressions.”
Seven different receivers caught passes in the first half, and Ganz, who finished 27-of-37 for 328 yards, connected with nine different receivers in the game.
“They run a lot of coverages we’ve seen before, and we used some of the similar things to attack those coverages,” senior receiver Todd Peterson said. “We had them off-balance there for a while, but they settled down the second half.”
Nebraska had 349 yards of total offense at halftime — including 283 through the air — and didn’t score more only because of two turnovers, and near-miss on a deep pass attempt to Dreu Young.
The Huskers also had the ball for more than 20 minutes in the first half, a week after dominating time of possession against Texas Tech.
“That first half was better than any half we’ve had this year,” Swift said. “It definitely carried over from last week.”
Things fizzled a bit in the third quarter, though. Ganz was sacked once. Nebraska punted three times, collecting only two first downs.
“We don’t want that,” Peterson said. “We want to be running on all cylinders, all the time.”
Nebraska got revved up again in the fourth quarter, thanks to a ground game that wore down the Cyclones. Roy Helu broke a 50-yard run, and Castille had runs of 19 and 10 yards.
“We had the same game plan we had last week,” said Lucky, who had 15 carries for 74 yards, part of Nebraska’s 220 rushing yards. “Keeping it simple and running it straight at them. That’s what we did today.”
As for the “Joker” formation, Lucky credited Watson for coming up with a new wrinkle that let the running backs showcase their abilities. Helu and Castille ran the play in practice last week, too.
“Whatever Coach Watson’s got for me. It’s all on him,” Lucky said. “It makes us happy just to get the ball in our hands. We caught ’em off-guard both times, and it worked good for us.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
Most Commented Football