Husker Offense Works to Improve

Lincoln - The Nebraska football team began its on-field preparations for the Huskers' Saturday matchup with the Pitt Panthers during a two-and-half hour practice on the Memorial Stadium FieldTurf on Tuesday afternoon.

Nebraska Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Jay Norvell said the Huskers focused much of their attention on continuing to improve offensively before Saturday's 2:30 p.m. kickoff at Memorial Stadium against the Panthers on ABC regional television.

Norvell said quarterback Zac Taylor and the offense were eager to get back to work, while looking for improvement in several areas.

"We are anxious to get back to work. We've got to do a better job running the ball on first down," Norvell said. "We had some dropped passes on Saturday night.  We had six dropped passes and three tipped balls.  We are proud of Zac's performance and the way Cory Ross bounced back. We're just strapping it up and get ready to go again this week."

Norvell also emphasized the importance of Nebraska's skill-position players to finish big plays to help improve the Huskers' offensive performance.

"We've got a young group of skill players on this offense.  We knew we weren't going to be perfect early.  We've got a lot of work to do and a lot of improvement to make.  We're steady at it and we'll just keep rolling," Norvell said. "Guys have got to make plays. We've got to protect and we've got to make plays and we've got to beat tight coverage, it's about that simple.  We'll just continue to work on that and continue to battle through it. We've just got to do things that allow us to win games, and continue to improve on the things where we're struggling."

Norvell said although the Huskers were not pleased with their offensive performances in the first two contests, Nebraska was certainly happy with the outcomes of the first two games.

"We've got to catch the ball better. We've got to make plays.  We only made two plays last week over 15 yards, and that's not enough for this offense," Norvell said.  "We're not pleased but we are 2-0, and we were 1-1 last year. What's the most important stat? I'll take the last one."

The Huskers will continue their preparations for Saturday's game with Pittsburgh on Wednesday, with Nebraska assistant coaches and players available after practice.