Husker quarterback Heinrich Haarberg hopes to grow from the lessons of going against a defense like Michigan’s.
It was early, but not that early. Not when the score is 14-0 against a team that had allowed the opposition into its red zone only six times all season prior to this moment.
Nebraska needed a play, this play, now. Heinrich Haarberg charged ahead determined to make it. He leaped with that big body that usually gives out more than it takes in collisions. But painful as it might be for those residing within The Good Life’s boundaries to say it, Michigan has dudes.
The dudes resisted. A fourth-and-1 came with a gain of none.
“That’s on me. I can’t do that. I have to put my head down. Get six inches,” Haarberg said. «That’s one play, if I could have back any play in this game, that’s the one I’d want back just because I feel like I let my team down.”
There was enough evidence in Michigan’s 45-7 win over Nebraska on Saturday at Memorial Stadium to suggest that a score there likely would’ve been only a small uprising by the Huskers as far as the Wolverines were concerned.
But Haarberg, who is taking on more of a leadership voice now since becoming a Husker starter, took that play on Michigan’s 12-yard-line hard because the O-line did its job well enough to succeed on that play in his estimation.
Not to mention those are the plays you have to have to try to at least make it interesting against No. 2 ranked Michigan. And they’re the plays that may decide whether you win or lose moving forward against teams like Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue and Michigan State.
The third start as the Husker QB for Haarberg was an educational experience against one of the best defenses in the country. “A real growing day,” as Matt Rhule called it.
Haarberg had won two games as a starter but Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech is a different sandbox than this one.
He knew that much by his second play of the game when a pass was batted at the line of scrimmage and intercepted at Nebraska’s 29.
«Some of the last two games there’s been no hands in the air,” Haarberg said. “Michigan, that’s obviously a really experienced D-line … and they’re athletic. So credit to them for all those plays. But at the end of the day I got to get the ball through – whether that’s stepping up, stepping sideways, but finding a passing lane.”
Michigan took Haarberg the runner out of this musical. He finished with 29 yards total on nine carries. Scramble stuff was really the only stuff.
Haarberg the passer needed to be on display. There were moments that part looked better than it has. He was 12-of-17 to start and finished with 199 yards on 14-of-25 passing.
This passing game has to keep coming along, as he knows, “to keep them honest from bringing eight guys in the box.» And on Saturday he thinks it was actually one of the cleaner pockets he’s had in his three starts.
«There’s times back there where I was just sitting there and I was kind of getting a little anxious. That’s on me,” Haarberg said. “I’ve got to trust my offensive line, trust that those guys are going to block, because they are blocking. They gave me a lot of pocket today. And then also trusting the fact that defenses, they don’t want to let me out of the pocket because I’ve shown that I’m a threat on the edge.”