Five burning questions heading into the bye week

Nebraska was left with far more questions than answers following Saturday night's 34-7 blowout loss at Minnesota. Now the Huskers get two full weeks to try and figure things out during its first bye of the season.

Here are five of the biggest questions still facing NU going into the bye week...

Nebraska’s first bye week of the season comes at a good time not only because of the team’s laundry list of injuries but also because of the mental fatigue that Huskers seem to be dealing with right now.

Head coach Scott Frost said he planned to give the players a few days off to regroup and recharge both physically and mentally this week. Some of the comments by the Huskers following the Minnesota loss confirmed that was a good idea.

“We’ve been together since Aug. 2,” tight end Austin Allen said. “We’ve had fall camp and seven straight weeks. I think we just need to get away from each other for a bit. We get so locked up in this. If you get to relax sometimes… I think that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to relax.”

While the 2019 calendar provides teams a rare two bye weeks on the schedule, it felt like Nebraska’s first came much later than most. While the Huskers played seven games before their first off-week, Northwestern, for example, has already had both of its byes.

In fact, Michigan State is the only other Big Ten team yet to have a bye through the first seven weeks. The Spartans are also off for the first time this week.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that Adrian Martinez wasn’t able to play at Minnesota due to the injury he suffered the week before vs. Northwestern.

What was a bit concerning, though, was that the sophomore quarterback traveled to Minneapolis but didn’t even suit up for the game.

Martinez was at least seen in pads on Wednesday and didn’t have any brace or noticeable limp as he walked past reporters following practice. Frost and his staff kept the situation close to the vest all week, but it turned out Martinez’s status was worse than some expected.

He’ll have had three full weeks to recover by the time Indiana comes to town on Oct. 26. Will that be enough time for him to take the reins of the offense again?

While there was plenty to be upset about, the aspect of Saturday night’s loss to Minnesota that bothered Frost the most was how completely dominated his team was up front on both sides of the ball.

The Gophers’ offensive line had their way with the Blackshirts’ front seven, bowling them over to the tune of 322 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

On offense, the Huskers couldn’t get anything going in the running game and quarterback Noah Vedral was sacked four times, often coming from just a four or even three-man pass rush.

It’s one thing to get beaten up like that against teams like Ohio State. It’s a totally different situation when it’s Minnesota.

Can Frost and Co. suddenly find a way to make Nebraska a stouter team during the week off? Or it the lack of physicality just a bad characteristic of this year’s Huskers?

Nebraska couldn’t afford to lose any more of the limited offensive weapons they had, and then Wan’Dale Robinson went down with a left leg injury midway through the second quarter.

The dynamic true freshman only played 16 snaps before his injury, but he’d posted six rushes for 24 yards, two catches for 10 yards, and a 23-yard kickoff return.

The Huskers’ offense is struggling so badly right now that being without a player like Robinson, who has emerged as their most consistent rushing and receiving threat, would be a major blow.

The good news was that Robinson tweeted after the game that he’d “be good” in reference to his injury, and he was seen walking from the locker room to the team bus without crutches.

Hopefully two weeks will be enough time to get the former four-star close to 100 percent for a suddenly very important Indiana game?

Bye weeks are often times when coaching staffs change some things up with lineups, depth charts, and position rotations. Nebraska might need some new wrinkles in multiple areas.

We saw the Huskers make some adjustments over the course of the Minnesota loss. Some of the more notable included replacing starting left tackle Trent Hixson with Broc Bando and playing several receivers like Kade Warner a season-high number of snaps.

It’ll be interesting to see if some of those personnel adjustments stick through the bye week. Also, will NU try to implement any schematic changes to try and bolster their performance on either side of the ball?

When talking about the failed fake punt he called, Frost admitted that he “had to try something” to get the offense going. We’ll find out if he tries anything else going forward.