1 week Ago By Sam McKewon World-Herald Sports Editor
NIGHTFALL IN DANVILLE, Ill. — The state of Indiana is in the rearview mirror for 2024, and Interstate 74 narrows to one tight, winding, dimly-lit lane just across the state line. You slow the vehicle to 30 miles an hour.
You grip the wheel a little tighter. You shorten your movements. This is not the open road.
The wrong turn, at too high a speed, would put a vehicle into a concrete wall. That’s where Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule finds his role this week after a 56-7 loss to Indiana. As poorly as NU played — in every phase — Rhule doesn’t have a bye week to reset his team’s confidence.
He may not have seen the Bloomington Buzzsaw coming, but he knows Ohio State looms on the horizon. A Husker team unaccustomed to winning consistently could go right into the wall with a repeat performance in Columbus, and the Buckeyes won’t show much mercy. Rhule signed up for the possibility of these Nebraska collapses where little – especially on defense – goes right.
It’s like a sudden allergic reaction takes hold. Seasoned media and fans know the symptoms. >> Inexplicable special teams gaffes, like not knowing to let a kickoff go into the end zone for your team’s first drive.
>> Tackling attempts and pursuit angles that don’t work unless defenders had the power of flight. Blackshirts unable to disengage from blockers as if magnets were embedded in their shoulder pads. >> “Quarterback in the headlights” syndrome, in which a Tanner Lee or Casey Thompson or Dylan Raiola stares at a field of smothered receivers and must choose between sacks or perilous passes into coverage.
Raiola — and this is meant as a compliment — has found a third category of dump-it-off throws to backs and crossing slot receivers. Those accounted for 15 of his 28 completions Saturday. Sixty-one yards, on those 15 catches, isn’t much, but it’s more than nothing.
“I didn’t have any issues seeing what they were doing,” Raiola said. “It was just a matter of executing.” This is true, yet not particularly encouraging, for Raiola is a certain kind of quarterback, increasingly rare for college, who stands tall in a pocket and scrambles mostly to buy an extra second.
He runs like a former baseball catcher, which he is, and in that way he’s more like classic dropback guys — Troy Aikman, Vinny Testaverde, Jameis Winston — than a Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams or even Patrick Mahomes, who rushed for 820 yards and 22 touchdowns at Texas Tech. Raiola stands at -89 yards for the season. He’s not a runner.
That’s fine. Neither was Matthew Stafford, and he’s headed to the Hall of Fame. Stafford also played at Georgia and threw to A.
J. Green. Winston threw to Kelvin Benjmain.
Aikman threw to Flipper Anderson. Testaverde had Michael Irvin and Brian Blades. All those guys had NFL running backs on their college teams.
NFL linemen. Three or four tight ends. A pro-style offense is a lot of fun — when you have all the pieces.
If not? You saw it on Saturday. NU brought Raiola’s arm. Indiana brought a bazooka.
IU quarterback Kurtis Rourke can run – he did at Ohio. He just doesn’t have to run. Did you see how IU’s receivers ran routes and caught passes? How, when they had to block, they blocked NU into next week? How those receivers and IU backs maintained their speed as they made cuts, evading tacklers? It doesn’t matter whether Indiana players came from James Madison, Billy Madison’s imagination or Dolly Madison’s bakery outlet.
They’re good! Nor does it matter how IU coach Curt Cignetti brought them to Bloomington. It’s 2024, the transfer portal is open for business and NU’s jockeying for position in a cutthroat league full of money. These aren’t the sleepy, liddle lamzy divey days of 2010, when the Big Ten was content with a Rose Bowl parade.
So what about Nebraska’s offense? “There’s nothing that’s happening that’s easy and routine,” Rhule said afterwards. “You’ve got a one-on-one, you’re throwing a bubble out there, we’re catching it, and they’re running for 20 yards on the same play, and we’re getting tackled for no gain.” NU’s defense faltered, yes.
But given the chance — because they had no choice — to rev up their passing attack on Saturday, the Huskers produced three second-half interceptions, one lost fumble and zero points. “I don’t know that we’re going to win just dropping back and throwing every play,” Rhule said. Forty second-half plays agree with him.
“We need a run game to go with it.” It might mean playing with more tempo — NU tried that Saturday with some success — and more tweaks with the offensive line. And it might take commitment that verges on stubbornness.
Middle runs into a phone booth, more Heinrich Haarberg totes in the red zone, something that reestablishes Nebraska’s edge on offense. Rhule believed the Huskers would do that Saturday. “We want to get in big people and we wanted to run the ball, we wanted to play action, we wanted to be violent,” Rhule said.
“We kind of had that.” On Nebraska’s second drive, he meant, that looked to be headed for points until Dante Dowdell fumbled. The Huskers’ touchdown drive had elements of grit.
Indiana answered NU’s lone score with a touchdown of its own, and Nebraska drifted away from its core plan to let Raiola sling it around. “The situation will pay off for him in so many ways,” Rhule said. As a life lesson, perhaps.
Nebraska wants to avoid asking Raiola to mount a 21-point comeback with the weapons as arranged. Why have NU’s backs and receivers seemed to regress? Nebraska expended some decent NIL coin to bring in new skill players who could play ahead of last year’s guys. Where are the dudes who routinely made plays in September? Some of these transfers are seniors; they won’t be around for NU Rhule 3.
0. Rhule and Co. want to win in Year Two, as well — why else bring in senior transfers? — and the coach had thoughtful, measured answers after the loss.
There’s the Ohio State game to consider, and the four games after it. And of course, 2025 and 2026, when Rhule’s young recruits grow old together and become, with the coaching of a well-compensated staff, the complete team Nebraska fans have waited a decade to see. That’s the plan, at least.
So patience, while Indiana rips off a historic season in Curt Cignetti’s first year. Patience, while Minnesota’s P.J.
Fleck won 11 in 2019, nine in 2021 and nine in 2022. Patience, while Northwestern, devastated with turmoil, won eight in 2023 after winning division titles in 2018 and 2020. Patience, while Illinois won eight in 2022 and might win 10 in 2024.
Patience, for the highway to success is temporarily back to one, walled lane, winding through construction, caution lights blinking. Rhule should provide a steady hand. He and his quarterback could use some help on offense, too.
On with the Rewind. Tight end Thomas Fidone: Career highs in catches (six) and yards (91) for the Council Bluffs Lewis Central product. Still no touchdowns this season, but Saturday was a start to him getting more touches.
Safety Luke Gifford: Played hard, finishing with eight tackles. He and Ceyair Wright — who, yes, got beat a few times by IU’s terrific receiver, Elijah Sarratt, brought the usual Blackshirts edge. Mikai Gbayor had five tackles, a sack and another tackle for loss, but the splash plays were a byproduct of scheme.
None of the linebackers had outstanding games. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti: He’s had a few splashy press conferences along the way, but those will probably die down now that he’s proven his point. IU plays with poise and precision, especially on offense.
And if you attended the game, you saw the size of IU’s home roster was only slightly larger than that of NU’s travel roster. So if Nebraska had 74 guys, Indiana probably had 80. The Hoosiers travel light and tight.
Indiana offensive line coach Bob Bostad: The one assistant coach Cignetti kept when he took over for the fired Tom Allen. Good decision. The former Wisconsin offensive and defensive line coach has IU’s line playing really well.
The Hoosiers’ big guys climb to the second level of a defense quite well. Indiana receivers: Cignetti remarked in his postgame press conference that Indiana had its first dropped pass of the year. No kidding! Sarratt, Miles Cross, Myles Price and Omar Cooper grabbed everything that came their way.
Indiana linebackers Aiden Fisher and Jailin Walker: Dudes. They combined for 17 tackles, totally gumming up the middle of the field for the Huskers. 5-20: Nebraska’s record, since joining the Big Ten, when it rushes for fewer than 100 yards.
The Huskers’ second such loss of 2024 happened on Saturday; NU rushed for 48 yards in the 31-24 overtime loss to Illinois. Of the Huskers’ five wins, they’ve all happened in the last seven years: At Purdue in 2017; vs. South Alabama in 2019; at Rutgers and Iowa in 2022; and vs.
Rutgers in 2024. Margin of victory in those games? One, 14, 1, 7 and 7 points. 2-18: NU’s record since joining the Big Ten when attempting 40 or more passes.
The two wins are telling: One is, again, that 2017 win over Purdue, when Tanner Lee threw 50 passes and the game-winning touchdown to Stanley Morgan with 14 seconds left. The other? Jordan Westerkamp’s Hail Mary catch against Northwestern in 2013. That’s the list.
Nebraska threw it 40 or more times five times in 2015 — lost ‘em all. Teams that throw the ball a lot are usually behind. Nine: Times, since joining the Big Ten, that Nebraska has allowed at least five rushing touchdowns.
IU’s performance on Saturday is the latest; prior to that, NU allowed five rushing touchdowns against...
Georgia Southern. Wisconsin’s 2011, 2012 and 2014 teams make the list; the 2012 Badgers, in that 70-31 Big Ten Championship win, rushed for eight scores. 65%: Opponents’ red zone touchdown rate after Indiana scored touchdowns on.
..all.
..seven.
..possessions inside NU’s 20-yard line.
What had been a top-20 red zone defense in terms of touchdown rate tumbled to 97th. The Huskers’ own offense made four trips inside Indiana’s 20 and scored once. For the season, NU has made 28 trips into the red zone and 16 times.
That 71.43% scoring rate ranks 126th nationally and last in the Big Ten. Eight: Years since Nebraska lost a game by at least 49 points.
You have to go back Nov. 5, 2016, when NU lost 62-3 at Ohio State, to find a loss so lopsided. Surprised? Me too.
The Huskers’ 2017 team — far worse than this one — dropped games by 42, 33 and 42 points, but none by 49. Since 2000, Nebraska has lost two games by a more lopsided margin than Saturday: The 2016 Ohio State game; and the 2004 Texas Tech game. Each week, I ask fans on my Facebook page for their takes on the game.
Selected and edited responses follow: Steve Lundeen: “I am afraid that a bowl game may be a daunting task. I am disappointed — I really thought we could compete at this level. It’s the same old things from Nebraska, turnovers, poor blocking, dumpster fire special teams.
” Patrick Curry: “Indiana is a good football team, but this was one of the worst performances by a Nebraska football team ever. To become bowl eligible will require an upset, because we might be an underdog in every remaining game, including UCLA, which unlike Nebraska, is improving each game.” Jerry Larmeau: “How in this world of NIL, could we not get a long snapper, kicker and some quality offensive lineman? We thought we had a running back but evidently we were shopping in the bargain box.
” >> USC can’t finish games. In each of the Trojans’ losses — to Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State and Maryland — they held leads deep into the fourth quarter. Lost ‘em all.
Saturday’s 29-28 loss to Maryland was particularly painful, as USC’s Michael Lantz had a 41-yard, put-the-game-away field goal blocked with two minutes left. The Terrapins scored the game-winning touchdown in five plays. USC gets reeling Rutgers next.
>> UCLA is the team that kept Rutgers reeling. The Bruins finally found their footing on offense, winning 35-32 as quarterback Ethan Garbers completed 32 of 38 passes for 383 yards and four touchdowns. The Bruins defense did just enough — benefiting from Rutgers’ penchant for chasing points too early with wayward 2-point conversions — to give the team its first Big Ten win.
UCLA gets a bye week to prepare for Nebraska. A plugging-holes-in-the-dam kind of week, hoping the fixes hold long enough to get out of Ohio State with a little confidence intact. NU doesn’t want Indiana to beat it twice — or OSU to beat it four times.
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