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Grades and Players of the Game from Nebraska's 9-7 loss to Iowa State

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Traye Robinson, running back. His fumble was the most understandable of the bunch, and he ran with forward lean and toughness. Robinson wasn't worried about picking through holes – he wanted to gain yards. Novel idea, huh?

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Ndamukong Suh and Barry Turner, defensive linemen. Both spent a lot of time making tackles and making life difficult for Iowa State quarterback Jerome Tiller when he did choose the pass. Phillip Dillard and Sean Fisher had strong games as well.

GRADES

QUARTERBACK: C Zac Lee stayed on rhythm in the first half and threw a whale of a deep ball to Niles Paul – which should have been the touchdown that broke the game wide open – but that confidence disappeared in the second half. So did his accuracy. Lee is a below-average quarterback right now, and has been for a month. He can't roll out, he can't run the zone read and he can't locate receivers over the middle without throwing behind them. Shawn Watson and Bo Pelini are apparently comfortable with that.

RUNNING BACK: D Robinson played pretty well; Roy Helu, who looked hurt, really did not. Two costly fumbles from NU's best offensive player – when he's healthy. Marcus Mendoza made a token appearance. It would seem Nebraska's fortunes rest on getting Helu healthy and Robinson holding on to the ball.

WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS: D Drops, bizarre fumbles, so-so perimeter blocking, an inability to catch anything that isn't in stride – this stuff gets old. Lee doesn't help these guys much, and they don't help him much, either.

OFFENSIVE LINE: B There were moments where the big boys dominated up front. But, once again, when Nebraska claimed it would trust the line to plow open some holes, it kept retreating to the passing game whenever it had the chance. Mike Caputo subbed nicely for Jacob Hickman, at first glance. This game wasn't on the line. It could have played better, but it was, in many ways a clean game.

DEFENSIVE LINE: B+ Iowa State gashed a hole here and there, especially on drives near its own goal line, but the Cyclones found little daylight on many plays. Suh and Turner were outstanding, while Cameron Meredith subbed in well for an injured Pierre Allen. But Jared Crick has to stay on that fumble.

LINEBACKERS: B+ Phillip Dillard, Sean Fisher and Will Compton all played quite a bit – and quite well. Dillard was a bit tardy once or twice on the zone read, as was Fisher, but it was a physical, hard-hitting effort. Now – cause a turnover, will you?

SECONDARY: C Iowa State only tried one long pass all game. It worked for a touchdown. No matter what else the secondary did in the game – ultimately, for better or worse, it gave up the winning touchdown on a poorly thrown jump ball. A shame.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B Alex Henery redeemed himself with two excellent punts downed inside the 10-yard line. ISU's fake punt obviously hurt, but the Cyclones just made a good call and executed it nicely Niles Paul and Tim Marlowe were OK on kickoff returns.

GAME MANAGEMENT/PLAYCALLING: C- Cody Green should have started. Should have played, at the very least. By not even giving him the opportunity to win the job on Saturday, offensive coaches are essentially requiring him to outlearn and outperform Lee in a practice lab environment. Which he probably can't do. Beyond that decision, we thought's Watson original plan – quick throws on screens and stop patterns – was a good one. The switch to power football seemed to work, too. Then, in the fourth quarter, he ditched it. Why? Nebraska was not good in the two-minute drill, either, for either half. Defensively, Bo wasted another blitz midway through the third quarter, when he brought heavy pressure on ISU QB Jerome Tiller, who simply rolled out and found an open man.

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Smaller, slower and not as talented. With less depth. And a head coach without the pedigree, personality and national championship ring of Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini. Plus – one hand tied behind its back without a starting quarterback or running back.

You know what Iowa State had Saturday that Nebraska didn't? Momentum. Confidence. Trust. Positive energy. Luck. The first four produced the fifth. ISU hit harder, played smarter and stuck to its minimalist plan of zone read and the occasional rollout, playaction pass. It was boring. It was plain. It didn't do much more than eat up some clock.

But the Cyclones won, you see, by asking its defense to be scrappy – it was – in hopes of making the Huskers so sloppy – they were – that they'd eventually melt. Which Nebraska – with the game absolutely in reach – most certainly did.

Nebraska had something going in the third quarter. A downhill power game. Center Mike Caputo, subbing for Jacob Hickman, looked good. Nebraska was finally starting to get under ISU's pads. And the Huskers were not running horizontally, but vertically. Then, while fighting for extra yards, Traye Robinson had the ball torn out by ISU defensive tackle Nate Frere. That's what Iowa State does. Heck, the Cyclones did it last year with a different head coach. They're good at it.

But just after that fumble, NU's fifth turnover, the Huskers abandoned that power game, headed back to the shotgun, and gained 25 total yards on the next four drives, with three turnovers. At the moment Nebraska needed to keep leaning on the Cyclones, it pulled off, and tried throwing the ball downfield into the wind.

Why? Why did Nebraska do that? Why is NU's ball security among the wide receivers shaky for the second year in a row? Why is Nebraska's offensive line leaky vs. ISU's unit of future haberdashers and carpet salesmen?

And what's Bo Pelini going to do about it? I repeat: What's he going to do?

Fans need to stop demanding these answers from the offensive staff. I mean, they'll answer how they answer. They're entrenched in their philosophy, like most of us would be, and bound, to some extent, to circular logic. Coaches are proud. Most of us are.

Ted Gilmore will continue a rotation of players looking for courage first, good hands second. Tim Beck is forced to juggle around Helu's shoulder injury and deal with the very real consequences of Quentin Castille's dismissal. Ron Brown is ever the dutiful soldier, even if his unit is criminally underused. Barney Cotton will be habitually under fire, as he always is, although it's becoming clearer, to me, that Nebraska doesn't run an offense that caters to his or the line's strengths. Shawn Watson will remain an artful dodger who really is capable of running a great offense, but doesn't want look backward (the early 2008 offense) to go forward.

It gets old, holding them accountable every week. After all, they work for Bo. And, as he ever so forcefully put it last week, the buck stops with him.

Bo knows defense, clearly. Nobody debates that.

But if Bill Callahan had to be responsible for Kevin Cosgrove's defense, then Pelini has to answer the bell now. There's no real pleasure in trotting out those two names, beleive me, but that's what the $2 million is for, right? Now - Bo can provide any answer he wants to, or he can provide none at all. But they're his answers to provide. He's got to solve it.

Zac Lee isn't Watson's quarterback. He is Bo's. Cody Green isn't ready? Fine. It's Bo's decision to let Lee continue to incompetently run his part of the zone read. If NU wants to leave Antonio Bell on the sidelines for better blockers like Menelik Holt and Curenski Gilleylen – who are absolutely not useful in the two, four or six-minute drill – that's Bo's call. If Watson wants to start out with a short-passing game that works, shift to Power O, then screech into a shotgun passing gear in the fourth quarter against the wind, then Bo can explain it.

And Bo will account for it. That's the kind of guy he's shown himself to be. It'll be the account itself that merits examination.

We've spent two weeks whaling away at Watson. Enough of it. Let's not turn him into some misuse of a scapegoat like we did Cosgrove. Let's not relive that. Bo can hold Watson responsible, and fans can and should hold Bo responsible for Watson.

Bo tried adjusting intangibles after the loss to Texas Tech. He tried circling the wagons, casting the media and the fans as a horde who turned on the Huskers. He took the green jerseys off the quarterbacks. In a show of unity, the team locked arms during the Tunnel Walk. It was the Huskers-against-the-world.

To quote Ndamukong Suh, that's all “good and gravy” until the world forces eight turnovers. The button was pushed, and a cataclysmic upset came out of the ticket dispenser. A hardened heart doesn't win necessarily football games.

Which button is next? Tougher practices? Heart-to-heart chats? All-night fumble games? A media freeze-out? Personnel changes? All of them? None of them? Something else?

"It's coaching," he said to explain eight turnovers. "It's coaching and want-to and we didn't get it done. We got beat."

That's all up to Bo.

The buck is on his desk, awaiting instructions.

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A program-making win for Iowa State. A full, dark shudder for Nebraska, especially its offense, which came unglued with a school-record eight turnovers in every awful way one can imagine.

ISU – without its starting quarterback and running back, with just 239 total yards – stunned NU 9-7 Saturday afternoon in front of crowd of pale, grim faces, who hadn't seen the Cyclones beat the Cornhuskers in Lincoln in 32 years. Who hadn't seen Nebraska commit eight turnovers in 37 years. Who had to settle with themselves, for that particular moment in time, that Nebraska had just suffered one of the more deflating, infuriating losses in its recent history.

“I'm disappointed in our football team,” a subdued head coach Bo Pelini said. “I'm disappointed. We didn't – I'm disappointed. And it starts with me...we were our own worst enemy.”

Said tight end Mike McNeill: "We knew coming in. It's something we talked about before the game. They like to try and take the ball away, they like to try and rip the ball. They did a good job of it."

Ten nightmarish Husker blunders stood out. Some were mental errors, some were excellent plays by the Cyclones, and a few were total flukes. But all of them counted against Nebraska just the same:

*A fumble by Roy Helu on the game's first play that became a 52-yard field goal by ISU's Grant Mahoney.

*An underthrown pass from Zac Lee to Mike McNeill near ISU's goal line turned into a tip drill and a Cyclone interception, snuffing out a probably Alex Henery field goal.

*Iowa State punter Mike Brandtner waited until Nebraska's punt return unit had cleared the left side of the field. Then he took off, ball clutched in his left arm, for 20-yard gain on fourth down. On the next play, Tiller froze the linebackers with a playaction fake to Jeremiah Schwartz and lofted a deep ball to Jake Williams, who beat Eric Hagg on a fly route. Hagg turned the wrong way, and Williams caught the ball in the end zone for a 47-yard touchdown.

*After receiver Niles Paul caught a long pass from Lee and seemed headed for the end zone, he fumbled while trying to stay in bounds, recovered the ball briefly at the three, then fumbled it again into the end zone, where it was recovered by Iowa State's James Smith.

*Jared Crick failed to cover a fumble late in the second half that would have set NU up in Henery field goal range.

*A second Helu fumble inside ISU's five-yard line recovered by the Cyclones in the end zone. Officials originally ruled Helu down, but reversed the call.

*True freshman Traye Robinson accounted for NU's fifth turnover when ISU defensive tackle Nate Frere ripped out the ball, again, at the Cyclones' 5. Robinson was chewed out by left guard Keith Williams as he left the field.

*Menelik Holt fumbled on a inside screen pass for the sixth turnover, marking the first time since 1976 that Nebraska had lost five fumbles in a game.

*The seventh turnover. Lee threw slightly behind Curenski Gilleylen on a post route, Gilleylen tipped it, and the pass was intercepted by Michael O'Connor.

*The final Lee interception, thrown directly to ISU linebacker Jesse Smith, the best player, along with NU's Ndamukong Suh, on the field Saturday.

Lee finished 20-of-37 for 248 yards and three interceptions – two on Nebraska's last two drives. He completed 14 of his first 16 passes, but hit only 6 of 21 thereafter. Pelini said said it was an “easy decision” to start Lee over true freshman Cody Green - “Cody's not quite ready yet” - thought Lee played well despite the interceptions.

“Zac Lee was the least of our problems today,” Pelini said. “We didn't play well around Zac.”

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There are no quick fixes, Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini likes to say. There are probably no instant leaders, either.

But after two lackluster performances, NU's offense stand to get a few more..

The consensus, really, is that Huskers' O has one who's up front, center Jacob Hickman, and two supporting players behind him. We'll get to them in a minute.

“Hick's the guy who really captains all of our calls,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. “He's a real leader.”

It's not necessarily common for a center to fill that role, although Dom Raiola and John Garrison did that years ago. But Hickman - a senior who's sampled nearly every offensive line position and thus knows the scheme as well as anyone – has been up to it.

A cerebral type, mature, already married, Hickman's a certain kind of leader, a strong, thoughtful hub of the Husker community. Ndamukong Suh happens to be that guy, too. Suh calls himself a “silent killer.” The phrase fits Hickman, to some extent, too, even if he's talking quite a bit during the game, calling out defensive line shifts.

But Hickman is not a red rump. I'd use another choice word, but we're still, you know, read by families and stuff. At any rate, he's not going to crawl down your skin. He's the good cop, the “calm down” guy.

“I get more annoyed when people yell at me than anything else, so I'd feel hypocritical if I got too riled up,” Hickman said.

But sometimes, he said, it's been necessary. Hickman stepped on the emotional gas pedal at Missouri, he said, getting the intended response in the fourth quarter. He did it again vs. Texas Tech, to no particular avail.

“I got a little frustrated,” Hickman said. “I got a little talkative.”

Who else?

“I don't really think we've had anyone stepping up and say “I'm the one taking control of this offense,'” tight end Mike McNeill said. “Hickman's done a good job, but I don't think we've had one guy who just stands out and says 'this is my offense, and I'm running it right now.'”

Said Hickman: “It really helps sometimes to have a guy get riled up like that.”

You already know Nebraska had that in 2008 with quarterback Joe Ganz.

“Nobody was quite as vocal as Joey,” Hickman said.

But the Huskers had Nate Swift, Todd Peterson and Matt Slauson, too. None of them had Ganz's swagger and personality, but each of them carried authority and experience.

Is the latter of those two traits always necessary for leadership? Not for head coaches, right? There are tons of first-timers, - Pelini included – who just have the “it” factor when it comes to commanding a group of men. They don't need to prove it at every level of football before they arrive in college.

With players, though – that's a leopard with different spots. For every Peyton Manning and Tommie Frazier, who just walks with an air of authority and confidence, there are thousands of guys who haven't properly paid their dues yet.

At a top five program, that's probably how it should be. For Nebraska, which aspires to get there again, a transformative leader wouldn't hurt. No matter what class they're in.

Besides Hickman, two names popped up from several sources for co-leaders: Roy Helu and Niles Paul. Paul does it, Hickman and Watson said, with his work ethic in practice. Helu's leadership skills are evident when you visit practice and talk to his teammates, but the junior, publicly modest, deflects all attention. Nebraska's best offensive player – the best Husker running back in a decade, from this vantage point – is thoughtful, lighthearted and sometimes deadly serious in the span of three minutes.

Is he healthy enough to put the team on his back?

“Roy's been hurt lately, which is tough,” Hickman said. “It's hard to be really in the forefront of leading when you've been hurt.”

Of course, Hickman was sick and a little hurt, too. Maybe not as much as Helu, but this season hasn't been sundaes and rose petals for No. 67.

Zac Lee was also establishing himself, Hickman said, but he's in the midst of a quarterback competition again.

“It's tough when you don't have many seniors out there,” Hickman said. “It's the nature of the game sometimes.”

Tougher still when you don't have many red rumps.

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Ndamukong Suh didn't smile much during his time with the media during Tuesday's press conference. During the week after a loss, Nebraska's football team tends to shift into shoulder chip mode.

But the do-everything defensive tackle busted out a grin when asked about one of his favorite subjects: sophomore linemate Jared Crick, who had a sack and three more quarterback hurries in the 31-10 setback to Texas Tech.

“Jared is a helluva player,” Suh said. “I'm excited to see how much more he can grow. He's just a young pup. He's got a tremendous amount of potential.”

And that talent is coming into view, a train driving closer to the station. Look at the last four games, Suh said, and Crick's improved with each one. Last Saturday, he frequently beat his offensive blocker, including Tech guard Brandon Carter, a preseason All-Big 12 candidate. The Red Raiders were not able to double-team Suh nearly as much because Crick – and defensive ends Barry Turner and Pierre Allen – were winning their one-on-one matchups.

It reminded Suh of the end of last year, when Ty Steinkuhler and Suh formed a formidable pass-rushing duo during a four-game winning streak. Like Stein – and Suh - Crick channels his fire inward.

“He's kind of a silent killer,” Suh said. “He celebrates but he's not too over-excited. He keeps himself in perspective.”

An example: Crick said Tuesday NU probably had its best pass-rushing game of the season – we constantly had pressure all day,” he said – but Tech's ability to run the ball in the fourth quarter, and near the goal-line, gnawed at him.

“Some of it we weren't expecting,” Crick said. “And down by the goal line, they beat us up front. Can't really say much more about that.”

A handful of plays aside, Crick said, the front four's confidence is higher than ever, especially against the pass. Don't want the blitz. Don't need it.

“We know we have the talent level to get to the passer without any blitz,” Crick said.

Now, Suh said, throw in a turnover. NU's All-American candidate would have gladly handed back all of Nebraska's five sacks on Tech quarterback Steven Sheffield for just one of them.

“We got after the quarterback pretty well, but we were just tackling him,” Suh said. “We can obviously strip the ball, get some turnovers. A turnover in that game would have been huge. It would have sparked us...it allows things to snowball in a good way.”

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Jacob Hickman doesn't like the circumstances that brought Nebraska's football team to a defining moment in its season. But the NU center isn't about to argue with the new offensive game plan.

“They're gonna shift it onto our shoulders this week,” Hickman said.

Meaning the offensive line. The bunch that helped produce just 70 yards rushing in a 31-10 loss to Texas Tech will be counted upon, Hickman said, to carry the load while the Cornhuskers try to settle on a starting quarterback and running back Roy Helu deals with a shoulder stinger.

“We're gonna go out there and run the ball out of every set we've got and see what works best for us,” Hickman said after practice Monday. “When they're committed to the run at that level I really like that. It's now on our shoulders.”

Expect NU, 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12 Conference, to “get big,” Hickman said, and use more heavy, tight end-laden sets that calls for the quarterback – be it Zac Lee or Cody Green – to stay under center. Against Missouri, the Huskers used a four tight-end, “W” set to score the game's final touchdown.

“There's going to be more plays that we like,” Hickman said. “We might get big some more. We didn't get big last year; that wasn't our identity. We're gonna get big sometimes (now).”

To prepare for it, the Huskers had a fully-padded practice Monday, with lots of “good on good,” head coach Bo Pelini said. Typically NU practices in shells on Monday.

“We do that now and then,” Pelini said. “I thought today was the right day.”

Lee and Green split snaps quarterback hours after Pelini said the starter would be determined as in a “gametime decision.”

Both “did some good things” Monday, Pelini said. He didn't elaborate, nor seem interested in breaking down the battle.

“Everybody wants to focus on the quarterback position, “We've got to execute around the quarterback. There's a lot of things that go into enabling the quarterback to play well.”

Hickman said he has a good rapport with both. The senior also added that the Unity Council talked Sunday about making sure the race doesn't become divisive inside the team, no matter how fans or the media might handicap it. Lee was booed by portions of the Memorial Stadium crowd on his last pass of the Texas Tech game, a fourth-down misfire that ended up in the visitors' tunnel.

You can't have picking sides,” Hickman said, “because then you'll have a situation like we had two years ago, when we had some problems with guys picking sides and not trusting certain people.”

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Nebraska's quarterback job is back up for grabs.

Head coach Bo Pelini said he wouldn't name a starter between junior Zac Lee and true freshman Cody Green until Saturday, when the Cornhuskers play Iowa State at 11:30 a.m.

“It'll be a gametime decision,” Pelini said. “Right now, nothing's changed. If and when it changes, we'll announce it.”

Asked specifically if the job is open, Pelini said, “it's always open. That's how we approach it.”

Green twice replaced Lee in NU's 31-10 loss to Texas Tech Saturday. Green's second stint in the game produced a 13-yard touchdown pass to Khiry Cooper. It also produced an interception.

“Cody did a couple good things,” Pelini said. “He didn't grade out exceptionally well. He was a young guy that went in there in a tough situation. He made a couple plays. He made some mistakes. He made a number of mistakes.”

Pelini said he's “not real big on rotating quarterbacks” but didn't rule out it as an option.

“It's hard to get a guy in a rhythm,” Pelini said. “But we'll see how it goes and how they practice and we'll go from there. There's a lot of variables. There's a lot of things that could happen. But it'd be hard for me to look into a crystal ball.”

NU, at 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12, will not be making wholesale schematic changes to the offense, Pelini said, although “you always look at personnel.”

“You've got to do what you do and do it better,” Pelini said. “You can't panic...we know how to address the situation and it's being addressed.”

Pelini said both defensive back Alfonzo Dennard and Chris Brooks are “day-to-day” and would be held out of Monday's practice.

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