Nebraska had No. 7 Indiana on the ropes Saturday afternoon, and for a stretch it looked like Matt Rhule was finally about to get the kind of win that changes the conversation in Lincoln.
Instead, the familiar ending arrived.
Indiana scored 14 points in 4:48 and escaped with a 20-17 victory, leaving Nebraska to sit through another brutal finish and another number that hangs over the program: a 31-game losing streak against top-25 opponents.
The Huskers were 12 minutes from ending that drought and looked positioned to do it. They led 17-6 after taking control of the game, but the defense cracked in a hurry. Nick Marsh slipped behind the secondary for a 75-yard touchdown, and then, on a critical fourth-down snap, Nebraska lost him again as he was left wide open for what became the winning score.
Nebraska had its chances before that collapse, too. With 6:42 left in the first half, the Huskers put together a 16-play, 52-yard drive that ate clock and moved them to the edge of the red zone.
The drive produced nothing, though, because Kyle Cunanan missed a 40-yard field goal. In a one-score game, that miss loomed large.
The offense never found another gear after building the 11-point cushion. Nebraska managed only 60 yards on 19 plays before its final possession, and the lack of punch made the late breakdown even more costly.
The loss keeps Nebraska’s drought against ranked teams alive, and the program is still waiting for a breakthrough win of real weight. The Huskers haven’t beaten a top-seven opponent since their win over Michigan State in 2015, and this would have been their biggest victory since beating Oklahoma in 2001, when the Sooners were the reigning national champions.
That’s the backdrop for every near miss now: a program that keeps getting close and keeps walking away empty-handed.
Nebraska’s last win over a ranked opponent came on Sept. 17, 2016, when it beat No. 22 Oregon 35-32 behind Tommy Armstrong Jr. Since then, the skid has stretched across four coaches, starting near the end of the Mike Riley era and continuing through Scott Frost, Mickey Joseph and Rhule.
The schedule still offers chances to break through. Nebraska has a road trip to Oregon coming up, and Ohio State and Iowa are waiting in the final two weeks of the season.
Rhule’s own record against ranked teams adds another layer to the frustration. In 134 games as a coach, he has two wins over top-25 opponents, both from his Temple days, with the last coming 10 years ago against No.
20 Navy. His record against top-25 teams breaks down to 2-5 at Temple, 0-11 at Baylor and 0-10 at Nebraska for a total of 2-26.
The late-game trouble has shown up elsewhere, too. Rhule is now 2-9 in games decided by four points or fewer at Nebraska, and the Huskers have lost eight straight home games decided by three points or fewer.
For Nebraska, Saturday was another reminder that the finish line remains the problem.
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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 🡒]
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Indiana brings a slight edge in the all-time series, but the larger storyline is what Nebraska has not been able to do often enough against ranked opponents lately. Those are the games that have defined the conversation around the Huskers, the ones that can reset expectations in a hurry or deepen the doubt if they go the wrong way. With both teams unbeaten and a national broadcast spotlight back on Lincoln, this one feels less like an ordinary Big Ten crossover and more like the kind of afternoon that can change how a season is viewed. [Read more 🡒]