Memorial Stadium was rocking. I’m not sure I’ve heard it louder and more raucous since Ndamukong Suh steamrolled over Colorado’s Cody Hawkins and into that same endzone where Anthony Colandrea scampered to give the Huskers a 17-6 lead over defending national champion Indiana with 12 minutes to play.
Then it happened… yet again.
AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Lucy Cignetti pulled the football away from the Huskers’ Charlie Brown, and the same dadgummed thing happened yet again. The 31st straight
loss against a ranked opponent. Yes, 31. Dating back over ten years.
In some respects, this validated that Matt Rhule had improved the Nebraska football program this season. This isn’t the same team that lost ugly to Iowa and Utah last year. Did Joel Klatt resurrect that “close” line on the Fox broadcast?
Close? Yeah, but close only counts in horseshoes, cornhole and nuclear war. We’ve had enough of close. We’re tired of close being as good as it gets around Nebraska when it comes to football.
We’re halfway through the season, and the schedule doesn’t look quite as daunting as it did last summer. The Pac-12 exports coming up next simply don’t look nearly as scary as they did over the summer…. especially if Oregon’s Dante Moore is still sidelined. Bert’s Illinois squad seems to have some issues, and Rutgers is, well, even more Rutgersy than usual.
It’s too easy anymore to just waive the white flag and say it’s hopeless.
There’s no hope. Eff everything. Go Big Red.
Avoid that, friends. There is hope. Nebraska came up short against Indiana, but everybody’s come up short the last two seasons against Indiana, other than Ohio State and Notre Dame. Let’s let the season play out. Nebraska is 5-1 at this point, and I’d argue there are as many as five more winnable games on the schedule.
Win the majority of those, and we’d have the best record for a Nebraska team in the last decade. Is it where we’d want Nebraska to be? Nope, but it’s the next step towards getting there.
With that, it’s on to the report card, and as always, your feedback is welcome in the comments.
QB: If not for Anthony Colandrea, Nebraska is not in this game. Period. But there’s only so much that Colandrea can do by himself. Five sacks didn’t help things any, but remember, the Hoosiers are the defending national champions. Grade: A
I-Back: Jamal Rule started slowly, but showed some power at key points of the game. Would have liked to have seen a few check-down dumps to a back in the flat. Mekhi Nelson’s screen pass was a huge play leading to Colandrea’s 4th quarter touchdown run. Grade: B-
WR: Nyziah Hunter was targeted a couple of times downfield, which is something that can be done more in future weeks. He shouldn’t be a swing pass only guy at the line of scrimmage. But better blocking would have done this offense a world of good. On the play just before the deep interception (really an arm punt in that situation), Colandrea was sacked when both Quinn Clark and Luke Lindenmeyer couldn’t hold off Indiana’s Josh Burnham. Not going to win when seven blockers can’t hold off four pass rushers. Grade: C+
OL: Just would have liked to have seen a little more blocking up front. Grade: C+
DL: Down Riley Van Poppel, the defensive line did an admirable job shutting down the Indiana rushing game. 41 yards from Turbo Richard and Lynn Beebe is a damn good effort. Grade: A
LB: Owen Chambliss had five tackles and Vincent Shavers, who’s been playing much better the last couple of weeks, had three. Nebraska’s rush defense held up admirably in this game. Grade: A
Secondary: I thought the secondary played well, overall. That 75 yard “IN YOUR FACE” touchdown pass that answered Colandrea’s touchdown run was just precisely placed and pretty well defended by Dwayne McDougle; that simply is one of those things that happens when you are facing an NFL draft pick. Jamir Conn’s injury might have hurt worse if Caleb Benning hadn’t played as well as he did. Grade: A
Special Teams: Let’s give a huge shoutout to Nebraska’s punt squad, starting with Archie Wilson who averaged 57 yards per punt. FIFTY-SEVEN? And the coverage was excellent downfield. Punt returns were what they were, and Indiana didn’t try to exploit Nebraska’s tendency to return kickoffs that shouldn’t be returned, putting all five kickoffs deep into the end zone. But it might be time to try John Hohl on field goals, as Kyle Cunanan has the yips. Turning the 15 yard gap between the 25 and the opponent’s 40 yard line into four down territory is a problem. Grade: B+
Overall: B+ Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Didn’t. It’s become a tired meme, but Nebraska just has to pull themselves off the turf and try to give that same effort next Sunday morning in Eugene. I like Nebraska’s chances against the Ducks if this Nebraska team is pissed off about letting the Hoosiers pull that game out of the fire.
For some reason, I don’t expect Nebraska’s previous quarterback on the field, barring injury.
