Players of the game and grades from Nebraska's 31-17 win over Kansas:

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Quarterback Zac Lee. He managed the offense, made good throws downfield, ran the ball for yards and first downs, and carried the team in the fourth quarter. For one week – Zac's back.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Cornerback Prince Amukamara. For most of the game, he locked down on Dez Briscoe, whose biggest receptions came in the slot or while Amukamara was blitzing. Prince was the biggest bright spot in the secondary.

GRADES:

QUARTERBACK: A- A marked improvement of Lee's work for the last month. He generally made the right reads, threw decent deep balls to Niles Paul and crucially scrambled for 53 yards. It was Lee's best game of the year, considering the opponent and the circumstances – and even he knew it.

RUNNING BACK: B+ Roy Helu still looks to bounce too many runs to the corner of a defense, but when he does get there – watch out, as always. Big props to Tyler Legate, too, who blocked well for the second consecutive week as he led Helu into the hole.

WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS: B A workmanlike effort in the blocking department, great work from Paul at receiver and some clutch plays by Mike McNeill at tight end. McNeill left the game, it seemed, with a concussion. Brandon Kinnie made a nifty catch. Khiry Cooper drew a key personal foul. OK, he didn't do anything to earn it, but still – right?

OFFENSIVE LINE: C+ Fair, although another personal foul on a poorly-executed cut block sure didn't help. The line finally started plowing some earth in the fourth quarter; before then, it was hit-or-miss, dependent on Helu's ability to hit the corner. From the naked eye, Jacob Hickman had a nice game.

DEFENSIVE LINE: C Kansas punked Nebraska's best unit by using a quick quarterback draw from Todd Reesing to negate the pass rush. From there, the front four played it much more safely. Barry Turner was twice sent into coverage on a zone blitz, with awful results – but that's not necessarily his fault. Ndamukong Suh was neutralized. But, then, that was the plan. And it worked.

LINEBACKER: B- Phillip Dillard was the only linebacker who played any significant snaps. He played OK. Didn't tackle the best. Got burned on a long pass play in which the ball was dropped by KU's Jake Sharp. Dillard got tested today by KU's varied offense.

SECONDARY: D+ Yes, this group deserves that grade. NU's unit was plum outplayed by KU's group of receivers, especially Kerry Meier, who had Dejon Gomes spun all around all day. Gomes did force a key fumble, but that was the secondary's best play of the day. Reesing actually missed four or five passes; otherwise, the day would have been even longer.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A Alex Henery hits three field goals, NU gets kickoff returns from Paul and Tim Marlowe to help set up touchdowns, and the kick coverage was strong. Good day all around.

GAME MANAGEMENT/PLAYCALLING: B- Shawn Watson's offensive playcalling was generally strong. He managed a solid balance between the 20s. In the red zone, he needs to create a better sequence of success for the Big Red, but we liked the mixture of power and playaction. Nicely done. On defense – we're still not wild about the zone blitzes on 3rd-and-long. Twice, the Brothers Pelini hurt their own cause when KU burned them with first downs. We also question NU's insistence on keeping its dime defense in the game when Kansas countered with a large running back, Toben Opurum. It turned out OK, we suppose, but Nebraska needs to pay Kansas State's running game more respect.

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