“I’m making it very clear right now, to our team and to our coaches, what’s expected all this coming Saturday. And if Northwestern is just way better than us, then so be it, right? So be it. But if fans spend their money this week to show up and watch a team diving on the ground to make tackles and guys getting pushed back in the quarterback?
Just like them, I’d boo us.
So, we better show up. Hold it – let me say that we will show up. Okay, how about that? We will show up.“ – Nebraska Head Coach Matt
Rhule near the end of Monday’s presser.
Matt Rhule showed up for Monday’s weekly press conference, not to face the music, but to fire up the orchestra himself. He started with, “Really, really, bad loss on Friday night. What else to say about it? 7-6 at the half and got outplayed in the second half. So it starts with me. I preach ownership, and I did not have a team prepared to be the more physical team.”
When asked if the team seemed flat, he wouldn’t put that on the players saying he thought they showed great energy in the warm-up and on the sideline pre-game. They looked like the stronger team early, driving 70 and 69 yards on two of the first four while forcing Minnesota to punt on four of their first five.
But both of the Huskers drives ended in field goals, and Minnesota’s one scoring drive netted them a touchdown set up by Darius Taylor’s 71-yard dash. Taylor, an excellent running back slowed by injury in 2025, had only rushed for 253 yards in 6 games at only 3.8 YPC with a long run to date of 14 yards. That defensive breakdown sent the Huskers into the half down 7-6. In my halftime recap, I said Nebraska had fallen into another Minnesota mudfight.
Then the second half started, and that description quickly turned into second half ass-whooping.
“I don’t know to say to you guys, it wasn’t good enough. I mean, I’m pissed off. I’m pissed off at the coaches, pissed off of myself. I’m mad. So, yeah, I don’t know how to say it any other way other than that.” – Rhule
And just like that, we had our soul-searching, gut-punch, social media meltdown game of the year. And they really do seem to be annual, don’t they?
Indiana 2024
Iowa 2023
Northwestern 2022
Illinois 2021
Minnesota 2020
You may argue about a couple of those – no problem. The fact that there are multiple nominees some years says something. And we could definitely keep going back a couple decades.
But watching what appeared to be a sub-standard Minnesota team just completely impose their will in the second half was tough to stomach. They couldn’t get hands on a freshman quarterback who had all the foot-speed of a Manning not named Arch. And they allowed him a 16-20 passing night after he had been sub-60% in three of his last four games including a 49% effort the previous week against Purdue.
The Gophers began their first drive of the second half at the 11:19 mark, and over their next three drives, they took the clock down to 3:10 in the 4th quarter. They held the ball for approximately 16 of those 23 minutes and scored 17 points. They marched through the Huskers defense, especially on the first one which ate up 8:43 and took them 98 yards in 14 plays after a brilliant Archie Wilson 49-yard punt to the Gopher 2, providing Nebraska with one of their few highlights.
Rhule said the Huskers never quit, but there was definitely some negative body language on the sidelines. As he said, “(We’re) constantly trying to teach our players nothing’s happening to you. You know you’re not getting sacked, you’re giving up sacks, you’re not missing tackles, you’re not making the tackle. So we have good players. They’ve shown that they can do it. Go do it. And that’s a that’s the growth of this team that has to happen this week. There comes sometimes in life, there’s moments where you have to stand up.”
Ok, a better effort is needed, time to stand up, got it. But what do you when just about everything goes wrong?
And for those going on full blast about the offensive line – a week after their best game against a team whose defensive line was supposed a standout on the QB rush – the QB protection was disastrous. However, Rhule was quick to point out that not all the sacks were on the line and added that Dylan Raiola probably saved “four to five more” with his scrambling.
However, Raiola shouldered blame as well by causing a few of them by holding the ball too long and failing to step up in the pocket and find open receivers. The running backs missed on about three. And it must be noted Rocco Spindler (injury) and Elijah Pritchett (ejection) both left the game early and the leaks sprung noticeably larger without them.
It’s not an excuse, just facts. And it’s definitely not an excuse, when one of the lineman was ejected for targeting by leaping on someone he’d already pancaked – in the 2nd quarter of a 7-3 game, a little early for frustration freakouts. I don’t think leading with the hands is targeting and did not warrant an ejection, but the Big 10 zebras are who they are and it was still worth the 15 yards which sunk most any chance at a touchdown and required a 17-yard Raiola scramble to get the field goal back in chip-shot range.
Offensively, Emmett Johnson did his friends and family at the game proud by battling for 100 total yards with 14 for 63 on the ground. But, in the face of Minnesota’s constant blitz packages, they could never spring him for anything longer than 12 yards, thus failing to slow the assault on Raiola. It was Rhule’s first game as Huskers coach in which they failed to get a touchdown.
While most of the abuse was saved for the offense, the defense was basically just sliced and diced in the 2nd half by an offense which, to date, had shown very little explosiveness of playmaking skills. Yet, they opened holes, found open receivers, ran through missed tackles, and when the Huskers did stop them, here came some laundry, such as Donovan Jones’ PI call on an Andrew Marshall interception. Ball back to Minnesota.
The coverage still appeared solid as most of the completions were of the underneath variety coming after the Huskers rush failed again and again to sack or even hurry freshman Drake Lindsey. It’s a little scary to think what might have happened with a mobile quarterback.
But when the curtain fell, Minnesota HC P.J. Fleck had downed the Huskers for the 6th straight time. P.J. Fleck annoys me as whom anyone who knows me is aware – it’s hard to remember a coach who craves attention and the spotlight more. But he is a fantastic coach, who makes do in a stadium which holds just over 50,000 fans and came up 3000 short of that against the Huskers, because he understands one thing – blocking and tackling before all else.
That was your ball game.
Rhule didn’t hold back giving credit where it was due, and once again, it was Mike Ekeler’s special teams crew – and who in the hell expected it to turn around this fast? Perhaps, this was one sign of how bad things could have been with the special teams of previous seasons throwing in some of their anti-magic at that downhill snowball which was Minnesota?
“Special teams, I thought showed up. Credit Jacory (Barney) and that punt return team. They (Minnesota) punted the ball out of bounds. You know, pre-game warm-up, they’re kicking the ball out of bounds. You punt, stop the ball at the two, great. Archie had a 54 yard punt with his right foot. Jeremiah Charles, Roman Mangini, Bryce Turner, those guys are playing their tails off. Jacory at the end of the game – game’s over – he says, I want to be the punt returner, goes out, has a nice return. So our defense and offense have to produce the way the special teams does.”
Contrary to what some might think, it doesn’t get any better next week. The Wildcats are almost a mirror image of Minnesota (“Northwestern plays the same way,” said Rhule.) and he reiterated that not worrying about an opponent because they are not a huge brand can get painful in the Big 10. Said Rhule, “You better respect every team you play, especially when you’re in Nebraska – people like getting excited for you.”
“They’re really physical. They play really, really hard. They run the football at a really high level. You know, they lost the first game of the year. Then they lost to Oregon, and since then, they’re on a tear. You know how hard is to shut people out in college football? They shut out Purdue last week. Coach (David) Braun’s done a great job since getting there. They play really, really sound defense. They’ve got a great pass rush. They’re physical up front.”
Sound familiar?
The good news may be is that Rhule has done this before – last year’s embarrassing 56-7 loss to Indiana was followed by a 21-17 loss to national-champion-to-be Ohio State, one of their closest wins of the season. And much better than expected Northwestern isn’t in the CFP conversation, so at least there’s that.
But can Rhule punch the restart button once again? And does he have the magic switch to flip some physicality back on?
NOTES and QUOTES From Monday’s Presser
- Rocco Spindler’s finger surgery went well and he has been cleared to play with pain tolerance being the issue. The thought of a painful finger on an O-lineman makes me cringe and I fully believe Rocco will be suited up and out there.
- “You don’t get to just leave your feet & dive at people’s ankles & think good things are going to happen, right? Run your feet, strike, get off blocks and make tackles.” – Matt Rhule
- One of the not-for-the-first-time messages Rhule is trying to hammer home is, “You better respect every team.” It’s clear he believed that was missing.
- Along with, “Every team is going to be ready to play us.”
- This team says their brotherhood is what will allow them to overcome adversity. We won’t see it play out behind closed doors and practices, but that adversity is here. Can they rally back on their own motivation and not rely on their coaches to provide it?
- How that question is answered may determine how the remainder of the season plays out.
