Nebraska coaches and players have lamented this week the fact that the Huskers through five games have far too often found themselves in third-and-long.
That’s true, but maybe even more pronounced is NU’s struggle on third-and, well, let’s call it manageable.
The Journal Star compiled third-down data from the Huskers’ first five games and came up with the following tallies:
All of that adds up to the Huskers’ current third-down conversion percentage of 31.7 percent, dead last in the Big Ten and No. 122 out of 129 in the nation.
But here’s the rub: NU’s actually been better than its opponents on third-and-long (5-of-22 combined), both in the number of times it’s found itself in the situation and in conversion percentage.