Huskers Run Out of Steam in Eugene

Nebraska let a golden opportunity slip through its fingers.

After a chaotic day of college football, Nebraska was poised to enter the playoff conversation if it could beat a reeling Oregon team. However, the Huskers delivered a performance Nebraska fans have become all too accustomed to over the last 20 years. The Huskers are just one more close loss away from tying the record for most one-score losses over 20 years in college football history.

Nebraska’s defense delivered a fantastic effort, but the Huskers’ offense and special teams needed to do more to secure a win. Nebraska needs to play more complementary football in its final five games of the season. Nebraska was in position each of the last two weeks to pull off an upset win, but its all-too-familiar failures keep it from jumping back into top-25-caliber status.

Maybe it was the late kickoff, but the Huskers started the game the exact opposite of what I hoped. Given Oregon fans’ anger at how Dylan Raiola played in the UCLA game, I thought a fast start by the Huskers could quiet the crowd by halftime.

Six of Nebraska’s first seven drives ended in punts. The only other ended in an Anthony Colandrea interception thrown from its own six that miraculously didn’t result in any Duck points. Dana Holgorsen called a nearly perfect opening to drives against Indiana. Nebraska scored 10 points and ended the first quarter with 150 yards a week ago. In Eugene, it couldn’t have been any more different. Nebraska ended the first quarter with just 47 yards against Oregon.

Nebraska's offense was uninspired throughout the game, except on the final drive of the first half. Dana Holgorsen needs to find a way to spark the offense when it struggles. This Nebraska team has too much offensive talent to punt nine times in a game. The aggressiveness paid off on the 3rd-and-22 conversion late in the second quarter. However, Nebraska played too safely for much of the rest of the game.

Nebraska's key to this game was winning on early downs. Oregon entered the week ranked 112th in early-down success rate allowed. The Ducks held the Huskers to an early-down success rate of just 24% in this game. This resulted in Nebraska’s average third-down to-go distance being 8.9 yards. Nebraska did well against one of the nation’s best third-down defenses, converting 7 of 17 third-down attempts. However, this was the area where the Huskers had the biggest advantage over the Ducks. Nebraska’s inability to sustain drives, even without scoring, was a major reason the Huskers lost this game.

I thought the Huskers' overall game plan against Indiana was perfect. Nebraska held Indiana to its fewest plays run in a game since 2007. Oregon ran 76 plays from scrimmage in this game – the most a team has run against the Huskers since Colorado in 2023 (Utah also ran 76 in the bowl game last season). Matt Rhule cited defensive fatigue as a reason the Huskers struggled in the fourth quarter. Dylan Raiola led two scoring drives that used 37 total plays in the fourth quarter. The Huskers' offense needed to do more to give the Blackshirts more rest late in that game. 

Special teams have been a major struggle for the Huskers this season. Penalties have wiped out big plays in games where Nebraska could not afford to lose those points. Against Oregon, the mistakes were sometimes more subtle, but they contributed heavily to the loss. The most obvious was the bad snap that led to an Archie Wilson kneel-down. The Blackshirts responded well, allowing just 1 total yard on the following drive and only three points. 

The second area was more subtle. The Huskers insisted on returning kickoffs. Nebraska lost 14 yards by doing so instead of taking a fair catch and bringing the ball out to the 25-yard line. That’s not much, but it would’ve been 6% of Nebraska’s total yards in this game. After Nebraska’s offensive struggles in the first half, every yard mattered. Special teams made a bad day worse for Anthony Colandrea and the Nebraska offense.

The Huskers’ bye week comes at the perfect time. Nebraska needs Jamal Rule to come back healthy to get the rushing attack going. The Riley Van Poppel injury also looms large for Nebraska, as the Huskers ran out of gas and couldn't get Dylan Raiola off the field. Adding him back to the defensive line rotation will help the Huskers immensely down the stretch.

Most people would’ve predicted Nebraska to be 5-2 at this point. Nebraska had a great opportunity to be in a better position than that, but it got in its own way. Matt Rhule and the staff need to find a way to get the Huskers to win these types of close games against the better teams in the Big Ten.