Matt Rhule didn’t waste time trying to shrink the 17-10 loss to Washington into one simple explanation. In his opening statement Monday, he made it clear he sees the frustration, but he also sees a team that has moved far enough forward to feel the sting of a missed chance.
“It’s us. And us is you guys.
Us is all of us. It ain’t the players versus ... it’s all of us,” Rhule said at his press conference after the defeat.
“You look in the boat when it’s rocking, and you see who’s in the boat and who’s standing on the outside. The boat’s rocking.”
Rhule said the reaction around the program is tied not just to disappointment, but to the fact that Nebraska is now in position to feel like it let one get away.
“The boat is rocking not just from the disappointment,” Rhule said, “Because we’re a good enough team that can take the No. 5 team to the country to a play and feel like it was a missed opportunity. We couldn’t do that for three years.
We can do it now. We can take the preseason No. 16 team, lose on the last possession to Washington and say, ‘How the heck did that ever happen?’”
He said the Huskers have every reason to be upset, but he also pointed to the bigger picture.
“Yes, the Huskers should be disappointed,” Rhule said. “But we’ve come a long way.
We’ve got a lot longer to go. Got great players coming in.
But I’m only worried about Friday. We’re going to compete on Friday.”
Rhule also said he addressed the team by urging everyone to look at the film before rushing to judgment.
“My statement to the players, this is for our team, was everybody here is a grown man ... you have a right to an opinion. And I’m never going to tell you what opinion to have.
But let’s just all watch the tape together first. We’re football people.
So football people watch the film.
It was a game that we felt like we could win, we should win, and we would win - and it didn’t happen, Rhule said.
So watch the tape and make a decision: Is it the players, the coaches? Is it this, is it that?
And don’t reduce it down to just the fourth quarter.
“Because I think that minimizes everything that happened before that. That game should’ve come down to the fourth quarter.
Let’s make it about everything that happened previous. And I thought it was a good meeting.
I thought the feedback was excellent.”
Rhule’s read on the offense was blunt, too.
“When I look at that tape, I just see an offense trying to do too much, and pressing.”
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