We grade the Huskers in all facets of the game against KU.

RUNNING GAME (C)

Great to see Brandon Jackson bouncing off tacklers and gaining extra yardage. Solid runs, also, by Kenny Wilson. Marlon Lucky didn’t seem to have the same vision and burst he showed last week against Troy. Cody Glenn looked to have things going but the fumble killed momentum. The Kansas front four had something to do with that.

PASSING GAME (C)

OK, OK, we know Zac Taylor threw touchdown passes of 75, 78 and 73 yards. But honestly, Taylor and the passing game seemed otherwise off the entire night. Two early throws were severely underthrown, and at least four other passes were closer to KU defenders than they were to Nebraska receivers. The two-minute drill before halftime wasn’t pretty. Protection was good the first half but broke down and was poor in the second half.

AGAINST THE RUN (C)

Surprised to see Kansas have this much success on the ground. Then again, we said the same last year in Lawrence, so maybe we should stop being surprised. Jon Cornish had 94 yards by halftime, and his 41-yard run had Kansas first-and-goal, with momentum clearly on the Jayhawks’ side. Looked like the Blackshirts had this figured out, but KU went back to the run with much success on its go-ahead TD drive in the fourth quarter.

AGAINST THE PASS (C)

Nebraska simply couldn’t generate enough pressure on Adam Barmann. The senior quarterback made great plays in the second half, as did his receivers. The Blackshirts had a thank-you card in the mail to KU tight end Derek Fine until Fine redeemed his two dropped TD passes with the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter. Nebraska did manage three interceptions in the first half — one that set up a touchdown, and one that prevented KU from scoring one. Andre Jones had some key breakups.

SPECIAL TEAMS (B)

Dan Titchener rebounded from the shanked 18-yard punt with a booming 51-yarder later in the first half, and his punts in the second half turned the field around. Kenny Wilson came dangerously close to coming out of the end zone on that third-quarter kickoff. Nice punt return by Terrence Nunn.

GAME MANAGEMENT AND PENALTIES (B)

Nebraska coaches were screaming for a timeout on the goal-line play the Huskers had 12 defenders on the field. That penalty wiped out what would’ve been a 2- or 3-yard loss. Good call to try to ice the kicker before halftime. Can’t take the timeouts into the second half, anyway.

PLAY CALLING (A)

No real beef with the play calls. The execution was simply lacking at times. Liked the idea to run with Cody Glenn. It was working, too, until the fumble. No problems here with playing for overtime.

OVERALL (C)

Wow. What a gutsy performance by Kansas. Coming out of a 17-0 hole in a night game at Memorial Stadium, especially for a team that hadn’t won here in 38 years, is wildly impressive. Nebraska? Evidently the road to Kansas City, should the Huskers get there, will be rough. There are clearly some things to fix on defense. But the Blackshirts came up with the stop when needed.