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| Nebraska coach Bo Pelini watches from the sidelines during the first half against Kansas last Saturday in Lawrence. Kansas State travels to Lincoln, Neb., on Saturday for a 6:45 kickoff with the Cornhuskers, televised nationally on ESPN (Ch.32). Associated Press. |
"You can't pick out a position and say there's a weak link in their defense, their structure or personnel... they're balanced in terms of their effectiveness.
"Their numbers verify that."
K-State travels to Lincoln on Saturday for a 6:45 p.m. kickoff for a game that will decide the Big 12 North and the title-game opponent for Texas next month. The added carrot for the Wildcats is that bowl-eligibility is also on the line.
Anything less than a win and the Wildcats' season will be finished.
"I've never been a part of something like this," KSU center Wade Weibert said. "I've been a part of games when it was winner-takes-all, but never one when it was live or die."
The Wildcats (6-5, 4-3) face a tall order against the Huskers (7-3, 4-2), who enter the contest having won three s t r a i g h t games over Baylor, Oklahoma and Kansas, while the Wildcats are coming off a home loss to Missouri.
The Huskers haven't always looked good offensively, but it's been enough due to the dominant Nebraska defense that has limited opponents to 274 yards and just 10.7 points a game this season.
Nebraska, which surrenders 179 yards passing and 94 yards rushing a game, is led by quite possibly the best player in the nation in 6-foot-4, 300-pound defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.
Name the award and Suh is a candidate for it this season, even with some talk of the Heisman Trophy. The Portland, Ore., native is Nebraska's second-leading tackler with 56 stops and five sacks, while getting most of the fan-fare. However, Jared Crick, the other defensive tackle who lines up next to him, might be just as good -- with a team-high 60 tackles and nine sacks.
"He's an extremely fine player -- he wouldn't be a preseason All-American if he wasn't," Snyder said. "But I'm not sure the other one is very far behind. You look at the numbers and the other one gets more of the numbers. Someone can say they double- and triple-team Suh, but you can't afford to do much of that because of the other guy."
But Suh was neutralized against Kansas last weekend as he was held to just three tackles with no sacks and no tackles for loss.
Nebraska coach Bo Pelini think Suh is poised for a big game against the Wildcats, who prefer to run the ball more, rather than throw it like KU.
"Just out of the nature of their running game, he's going to see some double teams and some gap schemes and things like that," Pelini said this week. "What his stat sheet is at the end, I don't know. (K-State) is a little more balanced run and pass. I'd say they're a run-oriented offense, but they still throw the ball some. He'll have his opportunities."
Offensively, Nebraska has had its share of issues this season, ranking 11th in the Big 12 and 84th nationally. Believe it or not, K-State actually ranks higher in just about every offensive category, but just barely.
The Huskers have a solid running back in Roy Helu Jr., averaging 96 yards a game this season with nine touchdowns.
"He runs aggressively, runs hard and isn't a guy that is going to get you lost-yardage plays," Snyder said. "He has speed and he selects running lanes very well, where he can pick holes. He's patient and can still accelerate when he finds the right creases."
It's at quarterback, though, where Nebraska has had its troubles as the Huskers have been switching between junior Zac Lee and freshman Cody Green of late. Both QBs have completion rates near 59 percent. Lee has 11 touchdowns and six interceptions in eight starts, while Green has two scores and two picks in two starts.
Snyder said what does make this offense still scary is that the Huskers do present a somewhat balanced attack, capable of spreading the ball around and running between the tackles.
"They're in that transition stage and we're probably getting Nebraska at a bad time. I don't know that there's a good time to get Nebraska, but the fact that they're making that transition makes you think they still have the capacity to do both," Snyder said. "They can be in that spread offense and can still tighten it down and run the ball more aggressively."
No matter what happens, Snyder is just hoping for a more focused approach by his team this Saturday -- not an easy task considering the stakes and that only two K-State teams have claimed victory in Lincoln since 1968.
"You have to take the game seriously," Snyder said. "You want there to be a tremendous amount of focus as you prepare, but you want it to be in a confident way, not in a way where the youngsters are uptight. What you want and what you get is not always the same thing."
