Nebraska Football: PFF snap counts and grades against North Dakota

The Nebraska football team came away with a win on Saturday after it looked like it wouldn’t for far too much of the day. An up-and-down performance was illustrated by the grades that Husker players managed to garner against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

One of the most interesting set of grades was how the Nebraska football team’s offensive line looked when running pass plays compared to running plays. There were also a couple of players who didn’t pass the eye test thanks to a few bad plays, who had better games than the Cornhusker faithful likely thought.

Nebraska football offensive grades

Quarterback

Casey Thompson – 63.6 (65 out of 65 snaps)

Following what was a deceptively good performance against Northwestern, Thompson had a pretty poor performance efficiency wise for the Huskers against North Dakota. While he was 14-21 for 193, and two touchdowns, he did throw a pretty bad interception. He also overthrew or underthrew quite a few receivers.

In fact, his performance would have graded out quite a bit worse if it wasn’t for his running. The Texas transfer had a couple of nice scrambles that allowed him to get a 73.6 grade running the ball compared to just 56 passing.

 Running backs

Anthony Grant – 90.2 (43 of 65 snaps)

Ajay Allen – 64.9 (17 of 65 snaps)

Jacquez Yant – 60.0 (1 of 65 snaps)

Rahmir Johnson – 59.9 (2 of 65 snaps)

Gabe Ervin Jr. – 45.2 (4 out of 65 snaps)

Thanks to Anthony Grant’s 189 yards on 23 carries and his two touchdowns, he had the best offensive grade of any Nebraska football player so far this year. He’s also managed to notch 46 yards touchdown runs in both games and has amassed the most rushing yards of any Husker in their first two games.

While the Cornhuskers coaches have talked quite a bit about a running back by committee approach, it appears that Grant has become the bell cow, considering the other backs simply don’t get many carries. Ajay Allen was really the only other back who saw much action at all, and he did make the most of it with 11 carries for 58 yards and a touchdown. Ervin had 1 carry for -1 yard and Yant and Johnson got a few snaps but nothing to write home about.

Wide receivers

Trey Palmer – 82.6 (28 of 65 snaps) – 5 Targets

Omar Manning – 73.1 (22 of 65 snaps) – 2 Targets

Marcus Washington – 67.1 (40 of 65 snaps) – 3 Targets

Alante Brown – 66.0 (38 of 65 snaps) – 2 Targets

Oliver Martin – 59.09 (1 of 65 snaps)

Brody Belt – 56.3 (7 of 65 snaps)

Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda – 53.9 (23 of 65 snaps)

Trey Palmer has quickly become the Huskers’ best receiver as he led the receiver corps with 4 catches for 82 yards. It was nice to see Omar Manning and Alante Brown contribute (2 catches for 16 yards and 2 catches for 23 yards, respectively), but the disappearing act by Garcia-Castaneda was a bit strange after his big first game. He played quite a bit but didn’t manage to garner even a target.

Tight ends

Chris Hickman – 74.8 (8 of 65 snaps)

Nate Boerkircher – 68.2 (35 of 65 snaps) – 3 Targets

Chancellor Brewington – 64.2 (40 of 65 snaps) 2 Targets

AJ Rollins – 61.9 (14 of 65 snaps)

Boerkircher was considered the fill-in for injured Travis Vokolek and he did a decent job, catching 2 passes for 32 yards and his first touchdown as a member of the Nebraska football team. Chancellor Brewington also had a catch and a five-yard touchdown. However, as a group, it’s clear that the tight end room just isn’t all that deep after Vokolek.

Offensive line

Teddy Prochazka – 78.1 (65 of 65 snaps)

Hunter Anthony – 67.6 (2 of 65 snaps)

Trent Hixson  – 64.8 (65 of 65 snaps)

Broc Bando – 63.4 (50 of 65 snaps)

Turner Corcoran – 55.4 (65 of 65 snaps)

Bryce Benhart – 54.2 (65 of 65 snaps)

Henry Lutovsky – 53.9 (15 of 65 snaps)

Despite some plays where Teddy P had some very public screwups, it turns out thanks to his running block grade, he had the best game of any Nebraska football lineman, easily. That’s why he’s still playing despite the fact that he’s also obviously still not 100 percent. It says something about the Huskers struggles up front that the second best grade was posted by someone who played just two snaps.

Nebraska football defense

Linebackers

Ochaun Mathis – 90.4 (37 of 70 snaps)

Garrett Nelson – 90.0 (57 of 70 snaps)

Eteva Mauga-Clements – 71.8 (3 of 70 snaps)

Luke Reimer – 59.1 (70 of 70 snaps)

Ernest Hausmann – 57.0 (40 of 70 snaps)

Garrett Nelson led the Huskers’ linebacker corps with 8 tackles and a sack, which happened to be the first for the Cornhuskers of the season. Not too long after that, Mathis had his first sack as a Husker and looked like he might get a few more. That’s why he grades out as the top defensive player and linebacker spot on the team for yesterday’s game. Luke Reimer played every defensive snap on Saturday and had an “ok” game with 7 tackles.

Defensive linemen

Caleb Tannor – 81.4 (41 of 70 snaps)

Stephon Wynn Jr. – 79.1 (29 of 70 snaps)

Blaise Gunnerson – 68.9 (8 of 70 snaps)

Colton Feist – 66.4 (35 of 70 snaps)

Nash Hutmacher – 64.5 (26 of 70 snaps)

Mosai Newsom – 62.0 (4 of 70 snaps)

Devin Drew – 61.4 (33 of 70 snaps)

Jimari Butler – 48.7 (9 of 70 snaps)

Ty Robinson – 48.0 (38 of 70 snaps)

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that PFFs grades for what the Nebraska football’s defensive linemen were not great outside of a couple. Stephon Wynn and Caleb Tannor had nice games. Wynn especially had a nice showing in his second game as a Husker with 4 tackles, a pass breakup, and a quarterback hurry. Tannor had 5 tackles, a pass breakup, and a hurry of his own.

Defensive backs

Phalen Sanford – 72.4 (5 of 70 snaps)

Isaac Gifford – 68.5 (45 of 70 snaps)

Myles Farmer – 65.6 (70 of 70 snaps)

Marques Buford Jr. – 65.0 (70 of 70 snaps)

Chris Kolarevic – 64.9 (28 of 70 snaps)

Quinton Newsome – 62.8 (70 of 70 snaps)

Omar Brown – 61.5 (3 of 70 snaps)

Brandon Moore – 60.8 (3 of 70 snaps)

Javin Wright – 60.1 (3 of 70 snaps)

DeShon Singleton – 60 (3 of 70 snaps)

Tamon Lynum – 60 (3 of 70 snaps)

Tommi Hill – 55.7 (70 of 70 snaps)

The Huskers defensive backfield had yet another pretty bad game for most of the contest against North Dakota. There were a few guys who shone every now and then but the fact that Phalen Sanford had the best grade thanks in large part to only playing five snaps tells a big tale here.

The defense in general is going to need to start getting much better grades if the Nebraska football team wants to start winning against FBS opponents.