Nebraska walked into the national spotlight and did just about everything except cash in.
Against Indiana, the Huskers controlled the game in ways that usually travel. They held the ball nearly twice as long as the Hoosiers, ran 83 plays to Indiana’s 44, outgained them on the ground by a 2-to-1 margin and finished with almost twice as many first downs, 25-13.
They didn’t blink. They didn’t fold.
And for long stretches, they looked every bit like a team that belongs in the conversation.
But the conversation changes fast when you can’t finish.
The 5-1 Huskers, now 2-1 in the Big Ten, spent too much time leaving points on the field and too many chances hanging in the air. They led for most of the afternoon, including a 17-6 edge with 12 minutes left, yet couldn’t land the blow that would have sealed it.
Nebraska had Indiana right where it wanted it. Then the game slipped away.
There were moments that defined the loss. Dana Holgorsen put together a strong first half and had Nebraska in position to extend a one-touchdown lead to 14 before halftime.
But with first and 10 at the Indiana 17 and under a minute left, the drive lost its rhythm. An incompletion, a false start by Tree Babalade and two more incompletions forced a 40-yard field goal try.
Nebraska didn’t even get the three. Kyle Cunanan pushed it wide right with a 20-mph wind at his back.
Rhule called it a “bad snap, bad hold, bad kick.”
The replay suggested the snap was badly off line, nearly striking holder Kamdyn Koch in the shoulder. Koch still did his part to get the ball down with the laces turned properly, but Cunanan never looked in sync. Nebraska gave away three points it badly needed.
And that wasn’t the only kicking issue in the game. Indiana’s Nico Radicic drilled a 35-yard field goal with the wind in the third quarter from nearly the same spot on the field, and in a game decided by razor-thin margins, that mattered.
It may also be time for Nebraska to rethink the snapping situation. Jack Wills drew that kind of attention, and the kicking spot is now under the microscope as well. The case for giving John Hohl a look is getting louder by the week.
The final stretch brought more frustration. Anthony Colandrea appeared to have delivered the knockout with a spectacular 39-yard touchdown run with 12:01 left, but that sequence was wiped out by two massive coverage busts by a Blackshirt defense that otherwise played a strong game.
Junior wideout Nick Marsh and Charlie Becker did the damage in the secondary, with Marsh torching Nebraska for six catches, 187 yards and touchdowns of 75 and 44 yards. Becker added three catches for 52 yards.
On the 75-yard score, Marsh split Victor Evans III and Caleb Benning on a post route and outran both defenders to the end zone. On the 44-yard touchdown, neither Marsh nor Becker was covered on a fourth-and-1 play.
That’s the kind of mistake that gets exposed against a team like Indiana. Nebraska also missed safety Jamir Conn, who was injured on the first play of the second half.
Nebraska still had a chance to recover, but Colandrea couldn’t conjure anything on the final three drives, completing six of 13 passes while under heavy pressure. The Huskers had opportunities before that, too, and the first half miss at the end was only part of the story.
The offense had been rolling, but with the ball at the Indiana 17 late in the half, Holgorsen leaned away from the run game and the drive stalled. Nebraska settled for the field goal try that Cunanan missed, a swing that loomed larger as the game wore on.
Special teams had one bright spot: Archie Wilson. The sophomore punter from Australia keeps getting better, and against Indiana he averaged 57.3 net yards on three punts. He launched a career-long 68-yarder and dropped a gorgeous 44-yard punt into the wind that was downed at the Indiana 1-yard line.
Still, the bigger issue was what happened up front and in the closing minutes. Gunnar Gottula played the first half at left guard, then vanished after halftime, with no explanation offered afterward about whether he was injured.
His absence became more noticeable as the game went on and Babalade struggled. On Nebraska’s final drive, Tobi Osunsanmi beat Babalade badly in the closing minutes and collected Indiana’s fifth sack to end the Huskers’ last real threat.
Would Gottula have prevented that? There’s no way to know.
Rhule also burned a timeout in a questionable spot and later asked Nebraska to convert a fourth-and-nine from its own 44 with just under five minutes remaining. Both calls backfired.
Even so, Nebraska did enough in the middle of the game to put Indiana under real pressure. The problem was the same one that keeps showing up against elite competition: the Huskers didn’t finish.
Not in the red zone. Not on special teams.
Not when the game was there to be taken in the fourth quarter.
That’s the lesson Nebraska now carries into next week’s trip to Oregon. The performance showed a team that can stand in the spotlight. The result showed a team that still has to learn how to close.
Indiana, meanwhile, keeps finding ways to do exactly that under Curt Cignetti. The Hoosiers are now undefeated, and Cignetti’s message afterward sounded like a coach who knows his team has made a habit of surviving tight road games.
“It took everything the players and coaches had to find a way to overcome,” Cignetti said. “I give Nebraska a lot of credit; they’re a real good football team.
It’s a great win on the road. It was hard-fought.
A win like that has a lot of value. I told them, good teams find a way to win a game like this, they win at the end, and that’s what we did.”
Nebraska lost, but the bigger picture is still moving in the right direction. The Huskers look like a team on the rise.
The question now is how they handle a punch in the mouth like this one. Their schedule gets heavier from here, and if they really are ready to belong in the national discussion, they’ll have to prove it against a rated opponent sooner rather than later.
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