Nebraska came out of the Indiana loss with a familiar lesson and a new challenge staring it in the face: moving the ball only matters if it turns into points.
On Tuesday, offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen said the Huskers were close enough to win Saturday’s game against No. 7 Indiana, but not sharp enough where it counted most.
"One more touchdown, you win the game," said Nebraska offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen on Tuesday.
He repeated that point in different ways as he broke down what happened. Nebraska, he said, controlled possession and pushed the ball well enough to hang around with the Hoosiers, but the offense never found the extra score that would have flipped the result.
“Yeah, I mean, we moved the ball,” he said. “It wasn’t easy, but we moved the ball, controlled the ball, kept a really good offense off the field a lot of the time… Just didn’t end up with enough points… One more touchdown, we win. Those opportunities were there.”
The run game got a boost from freshman running back Jamal Rule returning, and Holgorsen said he liked what he saw early. Nebraska finished with 130 rushing yards, though he pointed to negative plays and five sacks as part of why the ground total didn’t look stronger.
“I knew it was going to be hard,” he said. “We didn’t think we’d get 83 plays… That game versus that team, you usually get like 60, but I did think that we’d throw it a good bit… I was happy with how the run game looked early, man.
I mean, we were running the ball. With that said, in order to win that game, we were going to have to throw it.”
“We had 130 (rushing) yards,” he continued. “There were some negative plays that made that run total not look as good as it was, in my opinion.
We took five sacks. One was on the offensive line; four weren't… That hurts your rushing totals a little bit.
For the most part, I thought our run game plan was good; it was solid. Those guys ran hard.”
Holgorsen also singled out Jacory Barney Jr., calling it his best game as a Husker. He said the offense did a better job distributing the ball instead of leaning on one target to carry everything, and he liked the way several players fit into that mix.
“I knew Jacory would bounce back,” said Holgorsen, discussing his return from injury and how the offense didn’t seem to solely rely on Kwazi Gilmer to move the ball down the field. “I thought that was Jacory’s best game since I’ve been here.
He looked fast; routes were crisp. He caught the ball well.”
“Luke (Lindenmeyer) just continues to be that security guy, does a lot of checkdown stuff,” Holgorsen continued. “That was good getting Nyziah (Hunter) involved. We obviously did that purposefully earlier in the game to try to figure out how we can get him the ball, and he took advantage of that… Got enough guys for sure to move the ball around.”
Now Nebraska has to reset for another major test, this one on the road at Oregon. The Ducks were ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP poll, are sitting at 3-2, and Holgorsen made it clear he expects a serious challenge from their defense, especially up front.
"They're really good," he said. "They have a lot of guys back from last year.
That front four is as good a front four as I've ever seen... Active linebackers.
Good, solid tackling safeties and cover corners. I mean, they're just really good."
"So, here we go. Another tough test," he continued.
"I think our guys will be excited about the challenge, the opportunity. We could've won that game last week.
Can't pout about it. Got to get better from it; got to move forward.
And this is another awesome opportunity to go play at a high-profile place with really, really damn good players and coaches."
Nebraska’s trip to Eugene comes with a 10 p.m. CDT kickoff at Autzen Stadium, and the game will air on FOX. Holgorsen and the Huskers will find out quickly whether the offense can turn all that movement into something more meaningful against one of the toughest fronts they’ll see all season.
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