Just prior to halftime, Colorado was called for roughing the passer. Why didn’t the referees move the ball from the 22-yard line, where the play started?

Perhaps in the heat of the moment (you were screaming at the TV, right?) you missed the fact that Zac Taylor crossed the line of scrimmage before he threw the ball. Thus, he got flagged for an

illegal pass and created an offsetting-penalty situation.

Was Taylor held back from opening up the playbook and prevented from taking deep shots down the field?

Yes and no. Nebraska coaches noticed on film that Colorado was a heavy blitzing team, and so they drew up a game plan where Taylor needed to get rid of the ball quickly because his protection wouldn’t last long. Of course, that doesn’t allow for many deep throws.

Taylor acknowledged the Buffaloes didn’t come with as much pressure Friday, but, “it was something I had in my head just to get rid of it, because that’s important. Towards the end, when we kind of figured out what they were doing, we took one or two shots down the field and had guys make plays for us.”

Why was every first-down play a run? Is that mixing it up to confuse the defense?

It’s not so much confusing the defense as it is playing to your strength and going with what you think are the best matchups. The Huskers might have a West Coast offense, but this one’s success is predicated on a strong running game.

Friday, 21 of NU’s 33 first-down plays were runs.

“We feel like we can get at least 4 yards every time we run the ball,”  NU’s Taylor said. “We want to stay in a manageable down-and-distance (situation). We’ll throw the ball first down sometimes, but we feel like if we get to third-and-2, third-and-1, then we’re right where we want to be. We feel confident we can get third-and-2 all day, so it doesn’t bother me when we run the ball three straight downs to get the first down. I understand what the thinking is there. It’s worked for us, for the most part.”