‘Another great opportunity’ for Martinez off 4-pick loss
Adrian Martinez stepped to the podium on Monday, like he does after every Nebraska game, win or lose. He talked, like he does every Monday, about flushing the previous result, good or bad, and moving on to that week’s opponent.
But with Martinez coming off a fourinterception game in a loss to Purdue, a closer examination of the quarterback’s words was warranted.
Martinez entered the Purdue game with just three interceptions all season, then threw the four against the Boilermakers and nearly a fifth that would have been returned for a score.
The junior signal-caller completed 48% of his passes against the Boilermakers, the first time this season he’s been below 50%, and just the third time all season he’s been below 64%.
“Verdu (NU quarterbacks coach Mario Verduzco) has a rule, the 24-hour rule, and I do my best to stick to that,” Martinez said. “For me, it’s all about focusing on the present moment, and yeah, that was a tough loss, a tough moment for myself.
“But I have another great opportunity.”
That opportunity comes Saturday in the form of No. 6-ranked Ohio State, which has spent most of the past six weeks steamrolling its competition.
Nebraska’s offense will likely need to play its best game of the year, or something close to it, for the Huskers to have a real chance to pull the upset.
“I know how close we are to playing, I guess you could say, how we’re capable of playing,” Martinez said. “We’ve hit that stride a couple times this year, and at other times we haven’t been in sync. It’s a matter of better execution from all of us. It starts with me and my decisionmaking; our o-line, receivers, running backs. It’s 11 guys on the field. We know we’re capable of that, it’s just a matter of executing. We don’t feel we’re far from that.”
There’s the other side, too. Frost said he looked up at Memorial Stadium’s giant video screen before the game and saw that Martinez was second in the Big Ten in total offense behind Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud. Stroud and Martinez are the only players in the league averaging more than 300 yards per game.
“He’s doing so many good things,” Frost said.