Players of the game and grades from Nebraska's 17-3 win over Kansas State

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Center Jacob Hickman. NU's thoughtful, positive leader had a nice game, played banged up (again) and lobbied head coach Bo Pelini to go for a fourth-and-1 – which Nebraska did, and picked up. It was the right call, considering the moment.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Larry Asante. His forced fumble was the clutch play of the game, and one of the best of Asante's career. A perfectly timed hit. Asante played well otherwise, too.

GRADES:

QUARTERBACK: C+ Sharp first quarter, toughness on several runs, nice play on the touchdown pass to Mike McNeill, an awful three-minute stretch, and back to fair for the second half. That's my notes on Zac Lee. At this point, you pretty much know what you're going to get. Lee's a willing soul who makes too many mental gaffes.

RUNNING BACK: C+ Roy Helu was close to busting a few big runs, but he never quite found consistent daylight. Sometimes he tries to hard to bounce the play outside. He dropped a surefire first down pass from Lee, as well. Tyler Legate didn't block as well here as he did vs. Kansas. Traye Robinson and Rex Burkhead were OK in spot duty. Burkhead looked surprisingly healthy for a guy who broke his foot just a month ago.

OFFENSIVE LINE: B It's a little hard to block against 10, 11 men in the box, against as weird front, vs run blitzes, but NU's unit did OK. Pass blocking was generally good. Keith Williams whiffed on a block that led to a 14-yard sack of Lee, but Lee's long playfake and curious run toward the sidelines didn't help matters.

WIDE RECEIVER/TIGHT ENDS: B+ Pretty good game all around. The blocking was there, no dropped passes, decent routes. This was one of the better games of the year for Ted Gilmore's bunch.

DEFENSIVE LINE: B+ The front four had a hard job Saturday night, and handled it pretty well in the second half, especially against the run. Ndamukong Suh persevered and finished with a big night – nine tackles, 1.5 sacks. Liked the work from Barry Turner, too, whose pursuit and strength has been pretty good all year.

LINEBACKERS: B+ Again – better in the second half, in some ways, because Phillip Dillard and Will Compton shut down the running game, especially Grant Gregory's quarterback draw. On first glance, the pass coverage seemed OK, too.

SECONDARY: B The two plays by Asante makes up for an otherwise so-so night. Anthony West played well in place of an injured Alfonzo Dennard. Nickel/dime backs Eric Hagg and Dejon Gomes struggled some. Too many underneath routes were open. NU seemed confusing with Banks' basic delayed slant pattern.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A Terrific work by Adi Kunalic, Alex Henery and the kick/punt coverage units. Arguably their best game of the year. Henery has some wedge, doesn't he?

GAME MANAGEMENT/PLAYCALLING C+ Shawn Watson's playcalling got a little too conservative in the second half after NU's second touchdown, and whether that's his call or Bo Pelini's – it's still the wrong call. Bo dialed up some timely blitzes that also left Nebraska vulnerable to broken plays, which was officially, it seemed, part of the game plan by Bill Snyder.

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