Nebraska lost 27-20 to UCLA on Saturday, in what amounted to an extremely disappointing performance from the Huskers. The Bruins outplayed and outplayed the Huskers for most of the afternoon, at one point leading 27-7. There’s no other way to put it: in front of a home crowd, with bowl eligibility on the line against a 2-5 team, Nebraska laid a huge egg. I screwed the dog. I choked the chicken. I dropped the ball. No matter how you want to say it, they didn’t get the job done and Husker fans are left wondering how much progress has actually been made this season.

Now let’s move on to the main takeaways.

Bravo to that

Common fan tailgate. THE Joint Fan Podcast hosted our first ever tailgate Saturday before the UCLA game. Lots of friends, listeners and supporters came and we had a great time (and the rain even held off for us!). Thank you to everyone who helped us build this community over the past year. We love doing it and we’re just getting started.

Special thanks to Certified Piedmontese, Chick-fil-A and owner Charlie Colon, and White Elm Brewery for generously donating food and drink to this effort. We were well stocked and the Common Fan partygoers were well fed!

Return attempt. I don’t know about you, fellow Common Fan, but I’m really tired of moral victories. At some point, Nebraska will have to overcome the obstacle. Come from behind to win a game. Beat a team you’re not supposed to. Beat a team you’re supposed to. Something. Nothing. So it’s a little irritating to even write this. BUT the team fought on Saturday and they didn’t give up. After a shaky first half where the Huskers felt like they were lucky to lose 13-7, things quickly took a turn for the worse. UCLA had a pick-6 on the first play of the 2nd half, then held Nebraska at midfield on 4th down and immediately came down and scored again. Suddenly it was 27-7 and it felt like things might get out of hand. The Huskers recovered to make it 27-20, and they had the ball with a chance to win in the end.

There was so much missing from this performance that it’s hard to know where to start. But credit to the Big Red for not folding when it looked like things were going to get away.

I didn’t like it

Organization-wide failure. Matt Rhule said the team played with championship spirit against Ohio State. This game was a turning point, one that the Huskers could build on for the rest of the season and beyond. Whatever Nebraska showed in its valiant effort in Columbus, we saw the opposite Saturday in Lincoln. As things slipped against the Bruins, I couldn’t help but think about what I wrote in my The keys to victory article:

“The Huskers are 5-3, one win away from being bowl eligible for the first time since 2016. UCLA is 2-5. UCLA has a first-year head coach. Although they have shown improvement in recent games, UCLA is not the better team. Conversely, Nebraska is the team with the second-year head coach whose culture is firmly ingrained. Nebraska will play at home. Nebraska is favored (most betting lines currently have the Huskers favored by about seven points). THERE IS NO REASON FOR NEBRASKA TO LOSE THIS GAME.

And sure enough, that’s exactly what Nebraska did. They came out flat to start the game, let a very pedestrian offense score on the first three drives, and looked completely lost on offense for most of the afternoon (more on that below). I don’t understand how this happens. Where is the team that dominated Colorado? Where is the team that went blow for blow with Illinois and put Ohio State down to the wire? Where is the team that fought its way to tough wins over Rutgers and Purdue? It’s like you never know what you’re going to get from one week to the next.

This offense is so serious. The offense just isn’t good enough. They have no identity, don’t do anything particularly well, and never seem to have any answers. They talk about getting into the running game, but they don’t. We watch other teams plan successful plays and drives against a very good Blackshirt defense, and Nebraska’s offense never seems capable of doing the same. Running backs miss open routes. Wide receivers continue to struggle with blocking. The list is long. We’re at the point where Coach Rhule is going to have some very difficult decisions to make this offseason. Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield is among the the highest paid OCs in college football. Their offense was historically bad last year, and so far in 2024, they rank 100th in the nation in offense, 99th in total offense, 104th in rushing offense, and 67th in passing offense. Since the start of conference play, the offensive operation hasn’t been much better than last season (and that’s saying something). Satterfield has had nearly two seasons to make things happen at Nebraska and hasn’t, and nothing in the historical record suggests things are going to improve.

Get coached. UCLA had a bye week before playing Nebraska, and Coach Rhule made a comment in the postgame press conference about how the Bruins did some things differently than they had shown up to this point in the season. The most basic common fan could have told you this was going to happen. It’s like we’ve heard coaches give this explanation time and time again. How are other teams able to pull off their bye week magic when Nebraska never seems able to? The Huskers had a bye week before getting beaten 56-7 by Indiana. It would appear that Nebraska’s coaches are not able to use the extra time to create new challenges in the game plan. Rhule’s comment reminded me of when Scott Frost said after the 2021 loss to Illinois that Nebraska had to throw half of its playbook out the window because the Illini lined up differently than what they expected. the Huskers expected. Why does it seem like other coaching staffs are capable of playing this chess match from week to week and making adjustments in the game, but Nebraska never does? The same old things seem to happen over and over again, no matter who the coach is. It’s infuriating.

QUESTIONS

Is the team getting worse every week? Nebraska’s 28-10 thrashing of Colorado seems like a lifetime ago. Even the loss to Illinois felt like an evenly matched battle between two good teams. Where did this offense go? What happened to the mental edge the Huskers seemed to be playing with early in the season? Nebraska was ranked in the top 25 at one point this season. They went from 5-1 and all to play, to 5-4 and hoping to figure out how to make a bowl game. I would venture to guess that most fans didn’t expect the season to go without a few bumps in the road, but the way this season has unfolded represents a special kind of hell for Husker fans . We finally felt like we were turning a corner in year two under Matt Rhule. The first results confirmed this. Suddenly, after three straight losses, we’re faced with the same old problems that have plagued Nebraska football for a decade or more.

FINAL THOUGHT.

I don’t even know what to say at this point. I’m certainly not giving up on Matt Rhule, and Nebraska can still make a bowl game. 6-6 would represent progress after nearly a decade without a bowl game, but I would venture a guess that most Husker fans would be disappointed by 6-6. There was so much positive momentum at the start of the season, and the first half of the year confirmed that positivity. Now it feels like the team is lost in the desert. The players probably need a week off as much as anyone, but it will be a long two weeks for common fans.

One thing I’m sure of is that Husker Nation will continue to show up. At this point, it’s a toss-up or bust. We can (and will) talk about everything that went wrong during eight months of the offseason. For the next three games, let’s take full advantage of what’s left of this college football season and do our part to ensure the boys in red get at least one more win.

As always, GBR for LIFE.

MORE: QB Grade: Nebraska Football’s Dylan Raiola vs. UCLA

MORE: Huskers Today: November 4, 2024

MORE: Nebraska-USC game gets 3 p.m. CST kickoff

MORE: Coach Tim Miles stops by SMQ to talk Bob and Jay off the rim after Nebraska football debacle at UCLA

MORE: Dave Feit: A close look at Nebraska’s offense

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by adding your favorites Nebraska Cornhuskers on SIby subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTubeand visit HuskerMax.com every day.