Nebraska’s task against Indiana got harder before the game even kicked off.
With the final Big Ten availability report released ahead of Saturday’s showdown, defensive lineman Riley Van Poppel was downgraded from questionable to out. For a Huskers defense that already showed cracks against the run last week, losing a player who has become more involved in the rotation is a real hit.
Van Poppel’s role has grown since Nebraska opened Big Ten play. He logged just 30 snaps against Ohio, then 18 against Bowling Green and 18 more against North Dakota. But when the competition tightened, so did his workload: 46 snaps against Michigan State and 44 against Maryland.
Now Nebraska has to answer a much bigger question without him. Indiana brings one of the nation’s most productive ground games into the matchup, sitting No. 9 nationally in rushing at 252.6 yards per game. That run game has helped the Hoosiers push their scoring average past 40 points a night.
Turbo Richard has been the lead back when healthy, and he’s been dangerous. He has 587 rushing yards and five touchdowns, with an average of more than 9 yards per carry. Lee Beebe Jr. has handled the load when Richard needs a break, piling up 520 yards and four scores while averaging over 5 yards per attempt.
Nebraska’s defense has earned strong numbers early, but the schedule has played a part in that. Maryland was the first opponent to really raise concerns about how the Huskers handle the run against a team with Indiana’s level of firepower.
The Huskers are No. 16 overall defensively, but their run defense remains the soft spot. Nebraska checks in at No. 31 against the run, and that has been the same vulnerable area it was a year ago.
And even if Nebraska can slow the Hoosiers on the ground, Indiana still has more answers. The defending national champion can hurt opponents in plenty of ways through the air, which only raises the pressure on the Huskers to get sorted out quickly on Saturday.
In Other News...
Dylan Raiola Just Changed The Feel Of Nebraska's Oregon Showdown
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Thomas did enough in relief to make the next decision interesting, especially with Dante Moores status still tied to concussion recovery. For Nebraska, that means the Oregon matchup just picked up a new layer of uncertainty, since the Cornhuskers may not know until later which quarterback they will actually be facing when the game arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Let Another Big Opportunity Slip Away Under Matt Rhule
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The loss also added another layer to Matt Rhules early tenure in Lincoln, since Nebraska still has not beaten a ranked team under his watch. The bigger picture is even harsher: the Huskers have not knocked off a top-seven opponent since 2015, leaving every close call to carry the same old weight until they finally find a way to finish one of these games differently. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Let A Huge Opportunity Slip Away Against Indiana
Nebraska had enough working in its favor against Indiana to make Saturday feel like the kind of game the Cornhuskers could and should have finished. They controlled the ball longer, piled up more yards and still walked off the field on the wrong end of it, a frustrating result shaped by a missed field goal, some busted coverage on defense and a few coaching choices that only deepened the sense that a winnable game had slipped through their hands.
Injuries and absences only made the margin for error thinner, and Nebraska never quite found the finishing touch it needed once the game got late. For a team that spent enough of the afternoon looking like it had the better of the play, the loss was a reminder that moving the ball and managing possession are only part of the job when the details around the edges keep going sideways. [Read more 🡒]