Nebraska had the kind of afternoon that can fool you for three quarters. The Huskers owned the line of scrimmage, controlled the clock and kept reigning national champion No.
7 Indiana from settling in. Then the fourth quarter arrived, and the game slipped away.
The 20-17 loss at home Saturday ended what had been close to Nebraska’s first win over a ranked opponent in a decade. A burst of late momentum and two touchdowns flipped the whole thing, quieting the red-clad crowd after a charged-up atmosphere that head coach Matt Rhule described this way: "I thought it was electric," head coach Matt Rhule said about the atmosphere postgame.
"It was electric and had an effect on them. They used timeouts in crucial times, it was really hard to hear and I'm just disappointed we didn't win that game for everybody."
Even in defeat, a few Huskers made the kind of plays that kept Nebraska in position to pull it off. Here are five who stood out.
Nyziah Hunter gave Nebraska a different look in the passing game and added one of the day’s biggest moments. Junior receiver Kwazi Gilmer came in as Anthony Colandrea’s top target with 387 receiving yards and six touchdowns, and he still produced with three catches for 31 yards. But senior Nyziah Hunter was the one Nebraska leaned on more heavily this time.
Hunter finished with five catches for 43 yards and scored on a 10-yard run late in the first quarter, which was the only touchdown either side managed in the first half. He also moved around the formation, lining up wide and motioning through Colandrea’s backfield for sweep looks that forced Indiana to defend the width of the field. That opened things up for Jacory Barney Jr., who led Nebraska with nine catches for 123 yards.
Anthony Colandrea had to carry a lot of the weight, and for most of the afternoon he did. Nebraska needed its senior quarterback to play well just to have a shot, and he delivered a strong line: 25 completions on 43 attempts for 255 yards, plus 47 yards rushing.
The one play that will linger came midway through the third quarter, when Colandrea threw a red-zone interception to Hoosier Jamari Sharpe. He answered it with a 39-yard touchdown run early in the fourth, but that wasn’t enough to cover for the missed chances around him.
Colandrea said the frustration was obvious after the game: "I think it sucks," Colandrea said postgame. "I felt like we did a good job driving down the field.
We got to be able to score in the red zone. We were down there I don't know how many times, but we got to capitalize.
We got to score touchdowns. That's a big thing we talk about."
Nebraska’s defense also had its moments, especially against Indiana’s run game. Vincent Shavers Jr. and Anthony Jones Jr. helped set that tone up front, as the Blackshirts held junior Turbo Richard and redshirt senior Lee Beebe Jr. to just 12 yards on seven carries in the first half. Richard and Beebe finished with 41 rushing yards combined, and Shavers added three tackles and a sack while Jones contributed three tackles, a pass breakup and a quarterback hit.
Jones summed up the physical nature of the matchup after the final whistle: "Yeah, that was a physical game," Jones said postgame. "They strapped their chin strap up.
I think we stopped the run at a really high level, and then they kept trying. We can respond at a really high level.
I think we're going to dive into the details, watch this film, get better from it and continue to trust our process moving forward."
Indiana still found explosives through the air, with Josh Hoover piling up 263 passing yards on 12 completions and the Hoosiers hitting four plays of 35 yards or more. But Nebraska did enough against the run to keep the game within reach.
Luke Lindenmeyer was a steady outlet when Nebraska needed one. The senior tight end, usually more of a role player, caught seven passes for 45 yards and kept the offense moving on a day when Colandrea had to scramble and work underneath. His longest catch went for 12 yards, a small but useful piece of Nebraska’s 25 first downs.
The Huskers had the ball for nearly 40 minutes and still couldn’t find enough in the fourth quarter to reclaim the lead or force a tie. Nebraska finished with just 128 rushing yards, and Lindenmeyer’s work helped support a pass-heavy attack that almost held up long enough.
Next up is Oregon on the road next Saturday. Kickoff time and broadcast coverage have not yet been announced.
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Instead, the late moments belonged to Indiana, and Nebraska again found itself on the wrong side of a one-score game. It is the sort of defeat that lingers because the opportunity was there, the margin was thin, and the details in the final period made all the difference, leaving the Cornhuskers with another frustrating lesson about how small the gap is between progress and disappointment. [Read more 🡒]