KANSAS CITY, Mo. — What did you expect?
Not that traffic. No, sir.
It took the fashionable World-Herald mobile over five hours to go from Omaha to Arrowhead Stadium — including a couple of pit stops because of the old scribe in the front seat.
Traffic on Interstate 29 at midday Thursday was at an excruciating crawl. A snail's pace if the snail was asleep. But it wasn’t because of orange barrels.
It was all those Nebraska license plates. The cars with Husker flags. The giant vans with images of the Huskers and Kansas City Chiefs. Hundreds of cars carrying Nebraska football fever, nearly the length of an 180-mile drive.
Man, the red people were present and accounted for at One Arrowhead Drive.
I had forgotten. It had been too long since Nebraska played a game in KC.
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And it was glorious.
The night belonged to red. Nebraska beat Cincinnati 20-17, but the story was Husker Nation, 70,000-plus strong. Cheering, screaming, stomping, booing (the Cincinnati band), doing the Y-M-C-A dance and causing a general ruckus with the Bearcat offense.
The good folks of Chiefs Kingdom in the press box had forgotten, too. They couldn’t stop talking about how Nebraska red had the look and feel of the best atmosphere in the NFL.
Afterward, Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield acknowledged the Husker fans’ presence and impact on the game. You bet they helped pull their team across the finish line.
It was a reminder of the power of red.
“Operation Arrow Storm,” as the team coined this game, was the perfect storm to remind everyone of the power — and potential — of Nebraska football.
Meanwhile, down on the field, there was a different kind of reminder.
While Husker Nation was in championship form, the team has a considerable road to get there.
They’re getting closer, although for some Husker fans the process can seem like Thursday’s stop-and-start parade on I-29.
There was a lot to like in Nebraska’s opener.
Big plays by confident athletes. More speed on the perimeter. Better blocking up front. A hard-charging running back with moves. A defensive unit flying to the ball.A kicker who put a 52-yarder through the uprights and boomed kickoffs into the end zone. An ambipedal punter with poise and inside-the-10 touch. Punt returns without fair catches.
Solid play, all around.
But just enough penalties, missed tackles, near turnovers and other assorted mistakes to turn a comfortable victory over a Big 12 opponent into a situation where it appeared NU was going to break its fans’ heart again.
John Butler’s defense looked unprepared to handle UC’s switch to up-tempo. Time and again, the Bearcats’ mobile quarterback gashed the Blackshirts’ middle. Had they not practiced against this enough?
Stop. Start. Stop. Start. It could have put a damper on the evening, except for one small detail.
The Huskers won.
You can call them lucky. I’ll call them 1-0.
We’ve seen the other side of the coin, right? Too often.
The simple rule of early-season college football is that every team is going to have first-game mistakes. And it’s always better to complain about a win.
Look, Matt Rhule has a good football team. It’s probably not going to be a great team this season. But it can be a very good team.
It may be limited by depth and talent in some places, but it’s a team that should get better each week. The schedule, with varying degrees of difficulty and a couple of well-placed bye weeks, should lend itself to a stair-step season.
This team has smart coaches and better talent, with some real playmakers. The key will be weekly growth. That looked like a growth spurt on Thursday night.
I see several potential one-score games. And a Nebraska team better equipped to win them. And as a wise man pointed out, NU has won the last two one-score games.
Making that a habit is what this season is all about. Confidence through success. Momentum via winning. Rhule and staff coached with an urgency Thursday that said they understood that and desperately needed the win.
I know an entire fanbase that needed it more.
Winning is hard. Winning is fun. The unforgettable experience on Thursday night at Arrowhead was a reminder of how much fun college football — and Nebraska football — can be.
Looks like there’s more fun ahead.
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