Five burning questions heading into Northwestern week

Tanner Lee was the star of the show in Nebraska’s 25-24 comeback victory over Purdue on Saturday night, throwing for a career-high 431 yards and the game-winning touchdown pass in the final seconds.

It marked the latest notch in an impressive upward trend for the junior quarterback, who has been one of the few relatively consistent pieces for the Huskers during an otherwise tumultuous 2017 season.

For NU to keep its momentum going over the final four games and lock up a bowl berth, it’s going to need Lee to continue to be as good as he’s been the past few weeks, if not better.

Can he keep the bar as high as it is right now the rest of the way?

Maybe the biggest concern for Nebraska in its win over Purdue was how poorly the offensive line played from start to finish.

The Huskers couldn’t run the ball whatsoever, gaining 40 yards on 27 carries (1.5 yards per rush), gave up three sacks and constant pressure on Lee, and committed five penalties for 45 yards on the night.

Injuries played a role in the disappointing effort, as center Michael Decker and right guard Tanner Farmer both ended up leaving the game.

Even so, there’s no arguing that the o-line must be significantly better in order to keep NU’s bowl hopes alive.

The last time Nebraska played a game at Memorial Stadium, the stands had cleared out en masse by the fourth quarter as Ohio State ran over the Huskers in a 56-14 blowout.

At that point the fan enthusiasm and optimism seemed to be as low as it had been in years, as the season already seemed lost just seven games in with little reason for hope for the future.

Saturday night’s win was fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but if nothing else it showed the Huskers hadn’t stopped fighting and were still determined to make the most of the opportunities they had left this year.

Will that be enough to bring back the Big Red faithful to fill the seats and create a formidable home field advantage once again?

Nebraska had hinted all week that true freshman Jaylin Bradley was in line for a major uptick in the offensive game plan vs. Purdue.

That certainly held true, as Bradley led the Huskers with 42 yards on seven carries and added three catches for 31 yards. Coming into the game, the former Bellevue (Neb.) West had just seven rushes for 23 yards all season.

Junior Devine Ozigbo still led the team with 10 carries on the night, but he managed a dismal eight yards. Junior Mikale Wilbon, NU’s third-leading rusher, ran the ball one time for three yards.

That once again poses the question of how Nebraska will divvy out its running game work going forward the rest of the season.

Has Bradley done enough to earn a major role in the backfield rotation? And will the strengths he showed vs. Purdue outweigh his biggest weakness (pass protection) enough to see steady playing time?

Much of the talk from Nebraska’s players and coaches after the Purdue win was how the game could potentially be a turning point for one final surge to end the season.

As ugly as the game was for much of the night, the fact is the Huskers went on the road as five-point underdogs and tied the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in school history with a last-second touchdown.

So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that NU could use that victory as a springboard to make the same kind of run to end the year that it did in 2015.

The Huskers started that year 3-6 but went on to win three of their next four games, including an upset of No. 6 Michigan State and maybe their best overall performance of the year in win over UCLA in the Foster Farms Bowl.