It’s late. I’m old, I’m tired, and Nebraska football just gave up 11 points in the fourth quarter to lose 17-14 at Oregon. If you went to bed before this one ended, you made the right call.
Nebraska led 14-6 going into the fourth quarter. Oregon’s offense had 91 yards through three quarters. Then Dan Lanning pulled Brock Thomas, put Dylan Raiola in, and our former quarterback walked the Ducks down the field twice. The second drive went 20 plays and 82 yards and ended with a four-yard touchdown pass to Jamari Johnson and a two-point conversion with 28 seconds left.
That’s two straight weeks. We lost 20-17 to Indiana. We lost 17-14 to Oregon. Two of the best defenses in college football, and we scored 17 and 14.
My son moved out of the house, but if he’d been here tonight he would’ve looked at me and said two words: pure cinema. That’s what we are. The way we melt down, the way the little things beat us, the former quarterback coming back to beat us in the final minute. You couldn’t write it any better.
What Oregon showed everyone
Here’s how I think the game went. Oregon showed every defense left on our schedule what to do against Nebraska. Stop the run, put pressure on Anthony Colandrea, and wait.
The rushing numbers:
- Mekhi Nelson: 11 carries, 25 yards
- Isaiah Mozee: 4 carries, 28 yards
- Jamal Rule: 3 touches, and I’m not sure why it was only three
- Anthony Colandrea: 13 carries, 38 yards and a touchdown — our leading rusher, again
- Team average: about 2.4 yards per rush, with three sacks for 33 yards coming off the total
Colandrea finished 18-of-33 for 164 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Nebraska had 207 yards of total offense. You can’t win in the Big Ten when your quarterback is also your running game.
The little things
We didn’t play terribly. We gave Oregon points on dumb, small mistakes. Archie Wilson’s knee went down on a punt and handed Oregon the ball in our red zone. Colandrea’s interception did the same thing. Field goals matter a lot in a game that ends 17-14.
Those are the tiny things keeping Nebraska from getting over the hump against good teams. We keep saying “could have won” and “almost.” Could be a good team. We’re not there yet, and that’s pretty obvious.
On the field, where it’s won and lost
I know what the comments are going to say. Matt Rhule is a used car salesman and should be fired. Dana Holgorsen is a terrible coach. The timeout. Blah, blah, blah.
Here’s what I see on the field.
We don’t block well enough. We’re better at blocking than we’ve been in five or six years, and it’s still not good enough to beat good teams. We’re inconsistent. We don’t finish blocks. Some of our receivers don’t block at all. On some plays they look like they either don’t know who to block or don’t want to, and if that’s the case they shouldn’t be out there.
I don’t think there’s much wrong with Holgorsen’s offense. The play calls aren’t bad. They just aren’t blocked right. What we needed against Oregon was a real running game, and we didn’t have one.
Colandrea is holding the ball. Early in the year, against teams we overmatched, he was quick. Quick processing, quick decisions. The last two weeks he hasn’t been either. Receivers are coming out of their breaks and running open downfield, and he’s electing not to throw.
The difference between him and Dylan Raiola last year is speed. Dylan waited and got sacked because he was slow. Colandrea waits and waits and waits, and sometimes he runs out of the sack because he isn’t slow. That’s how he ends up as our leading rusher for a third straight week.
The defense was pretty amazing. We gave up 20 to Indiana and 17 to Oregon, and those teams have good players. I don’t know if the defense got worn down in the fourth quarter. They probably did, because our offense couldn’t do anything except score 14 points.
Why I’m not throwing the season away
Earlier in the week everybody on social media expected us to go to Eugene and beat the hell out of Oregon. I didn’t get that. It was a night game at Autzen, on their field, kicking off at 8 p.m. their time. I thought it would be tight. I hoped we’d finally get over the hump. We didn’t, and that’s disappointing.
Then there’s the rest of Saturday. No. 2 Notre Dame lost. Alabama lost. Texas lost. Ohio State beat Indiana and lost its starting quarterback, Julian Sayin, for several weeks. If you fired every coach who lost on Saturday, half the sport would be looking for a new staff on Sunday morning.
Every week in college football is a crapshoot now. A lot of people will call that parity. I have a different theory. It applies across the whole sport, and I’m not offering it as an excuse for Nebraska. We’re paying a bunch of young players, and they get paid whether they work hard or not. A team works hard one week, wins, and the next week the attitude is “I worked hard last week.” Then they go out and lose to somebody they shouldn’t.
I look at some of our offensive players and wonder about that. The defense seems coached right and plays consistently. The offense plays well some snaps and takes snaps off on others.
What’s left
I still think we’re going to have a fairly decent year. We can probably beat the teams on our schedule we overmatch: Maryland, Rutgers, Illinois.
Ohio State? Probably not, though who knows what happens now that they’ve lost their quarterback. Iowa? Probably not, because Iowa is disciplined and plays together all the time.
That’s the big key for Nebraska. Discipline. It shows up in penalties, in bad snaps, in a punter’s knee hitting the turf. We used to be the best 3-9 team ever, losing one-score games every weekend. Now we’re a better team that still finds ways to lose them.
It’s a tough loss and a really disappointing one. I did a YouTube watch-along to stay awake for it, and I swore a lot more there than I’m going to here.
Go Big Red.