The Weekly Rundown: Can the Huskers get up for eight straight games?

Nebraska will play their eighth game this week at Minnesota. We start your Monday off with the Weekly Rundown column, as we hit on that and more.

You have to feel pretty good about these things right now:

RB Rahmir Johnson: There's no question who the top running back is on the roster after seven weeks. Rahmir Johnson deserves a lot of credit. He stayed patient, and when he got his chance he took advantage of it.

Most importantly, Johnson plays within the offense and does his job both as a back and as a receiver. He had one of the more complete games we've seen from a back in the Scott Frost era against Michigan.

More potential offensive line shake-up: We will wait for the official word from Frost on Monday, but you have to expect we could see some shake-up this week on the offensive line after Teddy Prochazka went down with a leg injury on Saturday.

All signs point to going back to what we saw to start the season with Bryce Benhart at right tackle and Turner Corcoran at left tackle.

Michigan: Nebraska has now played three undefeated teams ranked inside the AP top 10 in Oklahoma, Michigan and Michigan State. Today, the Wolverines are the most complete football team Nebraska has faced this season. They can run it, throw it, and they are elite on defense and special teams.

Turn off the lights: It's hard to start new traditions at Memorial Stadium, but "Turn off the lights" sure appears to be here to stay.

Nebraska fans so badly wanted their own fourth-quarter stadium anthem. They tried "Let me clear my throat," but that came and went about as fast as the Snuggie. "Turn off the lights" featuring AC/DC's Thunderstruck just feels different.

Saturday was one of the better moments we've seen in Memorial Stadium in a while. The way Michigan tried to get involved also added to the scene. Both teams walked towards midfield like two prizefighters getting ready to step into the ring for the 12th round.

These were my surprises of the week:'

RB Jaquez Yant: Freshman running back Jaquez Yant ran the wrong way on a key second-and-short run play. We didn't see him again after nine snaps. Will that change this week?

QB Cade McNamara: I'll admit, I had my doubts about Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara, but I came away very impressed after Saturday night. He operated the Wolverine offense in one of the more hostile atmospheres we've seen in years.

He also made several key third-down throws on underneath routes and he connected on a couple of big deep shots. He has to be considered in the All-Big Ten discussion now as well.

Three top 10 losses for NU: Remember when we thought the first part of Nebraska's schedule was the more manageable?

Nobody could have predicted that Michigan, Michigan State and Oklahoma would all be ranked inside the top 10 and undefeated after seven weeks of college football.

And how about Iowa ranked No. 2 in the AP poll? The Big Ten is as deep as we've ever seen it in 2021 when you add Ohio State and Penn State to that discussion as well.

Questions still surround these things:

The decision not to take early points: It's easy to second guess it now, but knowing what we know, should Scott Frost have taken the points on NU's opening drive?

It's hard to say what type of impact that would've had on the game, but NU was shutout 13-0 in the first half vs. Michigan.

Big Ten refs: Yikes. We saw some really bad calls on both sides of this one. JoJo Domann's pass interference on a ball being thrown away? How about Austin Allen's touchdown where NU had five in the backfield because Oliver Martin didn't step up to the line of scrimmage? That TD should not have counted.

You can go on and on. Saturday was a really rough night for the officiating crew.

Minnesota: Minnesota is a very hard team to read after five games. They have been hit very hard at the running back position.

All-Big Ten running back Mohamed Ibrahim is out for the season and his back-up Trey Potts was hospitalized for six days after the Gophers 20-13 win at Purdue. He was just discharged from the hospital this week.

If they don't have Potts, they will be down to their third running back.

Moving forward, this has my attention:

Nebraska in the final 7 minutes of close games: With 7:29 left against Michigan State Nebraska had a 20-13 lead. With 7:08 left against Michigan, the Huskers had a 29-26 lead.

How can Nebraska better manage the final seven minutes of a football game? In their last two losses, the Huskers seemingly had control at the final seven-minute mark, but failed to close.

5-16 in one-score losses: It's hard to ignore Nebraska's record under Scott Frost in one-score games. The Huskers are 5-16 since 2018, suffering more one-score losses than any team in college football over that time. For Husker fans, this stat has to be torture.

18 lost fumbles for Adrian Martinez: Another stat you cannot ignore is since 2018 Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez has lost 18 fumbles, which is the most of any active player in college football. There are times in the game where he just tries to do too much or holds the ball longer than he should, and that's where the fumbles are happening.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET's Big Red Wrap-Tuesday's at 7 pm.