I took about 10 or 15 minutes before I started trying to describe yet another crushing Nebraska football disappointment. Games like this are different. Indiana 56-7? The throttlings are easier to swallow
– early on, you get the DM that today’s not their day and there will be no comeback. The soon-to-finish 1-11 Northwestern Wildcats victory in Ireland? Also weirdly not that tough to take. That game delivered the message something was rotten in Lincoln and expectations for a big jump after the 2021 “greatest 3-9 team of all-time” season should quickly be tempered if not burned in a fire pit.
This was different.
The Blackout night honestly had the sometimes tepid Memorial Stadium crowd on full blast. The offense had their flat moments. The passing game had seemed much more limited since the Minnesota sackfest. Had Dana Holgorsen raised the white flag a tad with limited pass protection and injury issues. Who knows?
But tonight, they marched methodically down the field on the opening 14-play 75-yard drive with its longest play being a Dylan Raiola to Dane Key toss for a 14-yard touchdown. They bookended that with another 75-yard push on their final possession of the half for a 14-6 lead.
And, yes, the Trojans had only 6 points at the break.
Many fans feared their offensive prowess would be unstoppable and the Huskers could be in for a sound thrashing. They managed two longer drives of their own, but the Blackshirts stiffened on both and held them to a field goal on each. And Jayden Maiava? The secondary was winning that #1 passing offense vs #2 passing defense battle as he was held to 57 yards passing at the break.
However, their running backs lead by King Miller who finished with 129 yards on 18 carries was bringing my true fear going into the game to bear – a rushing attack averaging 6.0 YPC seemed to be the real danger against a defense who had been gouged on occasion. As a group they would finish with 202 yards on 38 carries.
The Second Half
Suppose I told you the following were all true and, without knowing the income, asked you to tell me if the Huskers won this game:
- The Huskers would keep the Trojans under 30 points – only 21 in fact.
- The Blackshirts would hold the Trojans to 337 yards and hold a 33 to 27 minute advantage in Time of Possession
- Jayden Maiava’s final passing line would be 9-23 for 135 yards (39.1%) with a pick and no touchdowns.
- He would also finish with 11 carries for 62 yards and a TD – his total yardage still under 200.
- Emmett Johnson would finish with 29 carries for 165 yards and a TD.
- The Blackshirts would manage to get 3 sacks of Maiava
You’d feel pretty good about the Cornhuskers’ chances, yes?
The Huskers started the second half with the ball and thoughts were putting some points up right away would give them a huge advantage. Of course, they kicked things off with a three-&-out. But Andrew Marshall would intercept Maiava on the Trojan’s first play. The Huskers were in business in Trojan territory.
Then the lights effectively went out.
After a first down, Raiola dropped back and the pocket collapsed. He attempted to run to his right, but apparently no warnings were issued from his blind side and he was crushed from behind and fumbled it back to USC. More importantly, he suffered an apparent ankle injury and T.J. Lateef would have to take over when they once again had the ball.
I saw Raiola with his helmet on a short time after Lateef’s first series walking around, studying play charts perhaps. But shortly after, it was announced he had been removed from the game. Matt Rhule later said, “Dylan wanted to go,” but the trainers told him that while he could move around fine, he couldn’t run. Elijah Pritchett had also been injured a short time after and with the limited mobility and both starting tackles now out, it simply wasn’t worth the risk.
But the Raiola injury sucked the air out of the room. It just did. He and Emmett have become a 1-2 punch which keeps people from overloading against either one. Most of the time – yes, I watched the Minnesota game.
Oddly enough, that sack was the only one of the game for the Trojan defense.
Also, oddly, some fans had been calling for Lateef to replace Raiola at times over the last three or four games. It is often true that- and very much so at Nebraska – the backup QB is the most popular player on the team, and the fact Raiola is still one of the higher rated quarterbacks in the nation didn’t slow this much.
The fact people had only see him perform against the backups for the worst two teams on the schedule didn’t slow these calls down much. Tonight was an eye-opener.
In his limited appearance, Lateef did have a couple of nifty runs but finished with 6 carries for 18 yards. Passing-wise, he was 5-7 for 7 yards, an average of 1 yard per attempt. Did he look overwhelmed? Not too much, but going against the Trojans is not like dicing up the Houston Christian reserves. His time will come – I fully believe that – and if Raiola misses any significant time, he will get a jump on that experience. But some of those lessons will be harsh.
The Huskers lone scoring drive after Raiola departed was a 57-yard effort powered by Emmett’s 36 rushing yards on three carries and a USC 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when even the oft-blinded Big 10 referees couldn’t ignore a Trojan defender screaming at the Nebraska bench. Will Cunanan converted a 39-yard field goal for a 17-14 lead, their last one of the game. The Trojans went 75 yards in 6 plays when they got it back, that drive punctuated by a Maiava 43-yard completion and highly questionable pass interference penalty on DeShon Singleton who appeared to have the better track on and be closer to the ball – offensive PI, if anything – but no. Miller carried it in for the winning score on the next play and the Huskers didn’t seriously threaten afterward.
Ah, The Refs
Yes, they were at it again and two things stuck out this time. First was a hard double standard on how pass interference was called. In the first half, two Husker receivers were run over by defenders with their back to the ball and both were no calls. (They did finally call a third transgression when the same thing happened to Dane Key.)
In the second half, there was the one mentioned above and there was another flagged for a throw out of bounds not remotely catchable. Add 30 yards in penalties to USC’s total and remove 30 from the Huskers in a 4-point game. Might that make a difference? Who knows but I would have loved to find out.
Then there was the issue of USC starting 3-4 scuffles – I honestly lost count, but I did have a confused look on my face for the first – a dust-up after the first extra point. The real head-shaker was in the second half which started on the southeast end of the field nearish to USC’s bench. Nebraska players remained on their bench. USC?
Yee-haw, here they come. Most of that bench emptied in spurts until most were on the field with assistant coaches and trainers trying to get them under control with the refs watching every move.
Flags thrown? Zero.
Big 10 referees are the case study for the fact that college officiating needs to be nationalized as an independent organization. This week’s chorus of REFS YOU SUCK was wonderful and well-deserved.
Emmett Goes Over 1000 Yards!
There was good news! With his next to last carry of the evening, Emmett Johnson went over 1000 yards rushing, and, barring a bad injury after a large yardage loss against UCLA, he will become Nebraska’s first 1000-yard rusher since Devine Ozigbo in 2018.
Congratulations go out to Emmett along with the confidence he is nowhere near done. There are going to be a few Trojans defenders waking up very sore on Sunday morning for their efforts in slowing him down. He ran like a man possessed tonight.
