Nebraska is back from its bye week and the second half of the season is here, with the Huskers sitting at 5-2 and still in position to put together something much bigger than a nice start. The upside is obvious: a strong finish could leave Nebraska ranked, with a long shot at an at-large College Football Playoff bid. But this stretch also has the feel of a make-or-break run, because the Matt Rhule era has already had its share of lingering questions when the calendar turns.
Three of those questions stand out above the rest.
The first one is simple enough to say and hard enough to solve: why has Nebraska’s offense gone quiet in the third quarter?
The Huskers have been solid in the fourth quarter for most of the year, but the third period has been a problem nearly from the start. Nebraska has scored only four touchdowns in the third quarter all season, and two of them came against Ohio in the opener. That matters because the recent losses to Indiana and Oregon were close enough that even a field goal in the third quarter could have changed the ending, at the very least sending both games to overtime.
The numbers tell the story clearly: Nebraska has led at halftime in all seven games this season, but it has not been able to keep the offense rolling after the break. If that doesn’t change, the ceiling for the last five games stays much lower. If it does, 9-3 or 10-2 suddenly becomes realistic.
A similar second-half issue has shown up on the other side of the ball, even though Nebraska’s defense has mostly handled the third quarter well. The Blackshirts have given up just 16 points in the third quarter this season, with three shutouts in that period and North Dakota as the only team to score a touchdown there.
The trouble has come later. In the fourth quarter, the Huskers have slipped in key moments, and the last two games showed it.
Indiana hit Nebraska with two long touchdown passes on blown coverage, and Oregon put together a 20-play, 82-yard march that drained almost all of the final six minutes and finished the game. Nebraska was outscored 25-7 in the fourth quarter before the bye week, a sharp drop from earlier in the season when it blanked Maryland and Michigan State in the final period.
That leaves Rob Aurich with a straightforward challenge: can he get the defense back to the version that finished games cleanly?
The last big question is whether Nebraska’s run game was just a non-conference illusion.
After three weeks, freshman Jamal Rule was leading the nation in rushing yards among freshmen, and Mekhi Nelson had given the Huskers a strong one-two punch. Since Big Ten play began, though, the ground game has lost its punch. No Nebraska running back has reached 100 yards in a game during conference play, and quarterback Anthony Colandrea has been the team’s leading rusher in three of the four Big Ten games.
Colandrea’s only 100-yard rushing game came in that stretch, and he was just seven yards shy of leading the Huskers in all four conference games. The concern is that too much of his production has come on scrambles rather than designed runs.
If Nebraska can build a real rushing attack with purpose instead of relying on broken plays, the offense can get back to being one of the most effective units around. If not, the final five games could turn into a grind.
In Other News...
Nebraska Fans Are Running Out Of Patience With Matt Rhule
Nebraskas frustration with Matt Rhule has been building for a while, and the latest comparison only adds to it. While the Cornhuskers keep searching for a breakthrough win, Scott Frost is already in his second season at UCF with more victories over ranked teams than Rhule has managed across four years in Lincoln, and Luke Fickell, hired the same year as Rhule, has also stacked up multiple ranked wins with Cincinnati.
The pressure only grows after a close loss to Indiana, a game that again left Nebraska without the kind of signature result fans have been waiting for this season. The Cornhuskers have stayed competitive, but until they finally get over the hump against a ranked opponent, the patience around Rhule is likely to keep wearing thin. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraskas Bye Week Put Even More Heat On Matt Rhule
Nebraskas bye week did not bring much relief to Matt Rhule, because the longer the Cornhuskers sat without a game, the more their own situation seemed to stand out against the rest of the Big Ten. The conferences quarterback picture has been messy, with injuries and benchings creating constant turnover, while Nebraska has been forced to live with the pressure that comes from waiting, watching and measuring itself against every other storyline around the league.
Anthony Colandreas durability has been one of the few steady notes in that chaos, and it only sharpened the contrast as other programs kept dealing with instability at the most important position. Add in Scott Frosts recent win over a Top 25 team, and the broader backdrop becomes even less forgiving for Rhule, whose program could have used the bye week as a reset but instead saw the conversation drift further toward what Nebraska still needs to prove. [Read more 🡒]
Blackshirts Are Taking Heat For A Much Bigger Nebraska Problem
Nebraskas defense has been easy to point at after the last two losses, especially with the Blackshirts under scrutiny for the way late-game drives slipped away against Indiana and Oregon. But the bigger picture is a little messier than a simple defensive breakdown. The unit has put together strong stretches, held up well statistically and gotten important efforts from key players, even while the games still ended with frustration attached.
The criticism sharpened when Oregon drove for the winner, with Dylan Raiola facing little pressure on the final march, but the problem in those losses did not stop there. Nebraskas offense struggled to do enough, and special teams errors added more weight to the margin for error, leaving the defense to absorb more blame than it probably deserves. If the Cornhuskers are going to turn these narrow losses into something better, the fix will have to be broader than just the Blackshirts. [Read more 🡒]