Do you think it’s hard to play football with a monkey on your back? Try packing a 500-pound gorilla instead.

On a dour, gray day at Memorial Stadium, every Nebraska Cornhusker on the field seemed to carry one of these bulky simians throughout the game. From the kickoff, the Big Red were on their heels and playing not to lose, and they made the game as dreary and unappealing as it usually is.

Struggling with the gorilla, a defense that was winning its face-off against Ohio State began to lose its face-off against UCLA.

Struggling with the gorilla, an offense that is regressing from week to week continues to look inept.

Saddled with the gorilla and a coaching staff stuck at a standstill, the Huskers overthink every detail and play slowly.

The result? A 27-20 loss to UCLA, a team that entered the game with a 2-5 record and one of the worst rushing attacks and pass defenses in the country.

Last week’s “moral victory” in Columbus, Ohio, turned out to be meaningless. Here’s hard evidence that the Huskers can minimize their opposition under Matt Rhule, just like they did under Scott Frost. Rhule lost more capital with Husker fans in this game than he did getting blown out by Indiana two weeks earlier. Rhule’s team wasn’t ready to play. If he’s not careful, Rhule, now 10-11 at Lincoln, will be on his way to developing a reputation as a smooth talker that, while he’s done a good job establishing a winning culture off the field, won’t be able to keep his promises. the land. On his best day, at least at this point in his career, Rhule is a questionable game manager. His decision to go for a fourth-and-goal touchdown from the 5-yard line, trailing 27-14 with 11:37 to play, after needlessly burning a timeout, reeked of indecision and desperation.

And so the Huskers fell to 5-4, but much worse, 0-7 over the last two seasons in games where they could have rid the proverbial monkey and become bowl eligible. This mark of dishonor is not a vestige of Frost. It all depends on Rhule and his staff, who, after turning in one of Nebraska’s worst coaching performances in the last decade, must now endure two weeks of increasingly intense yelling for the work of several assistants. Those howls will be justified, as this was a dreadful effort from the Big Red, who shrouded Memorial Stadium in an oppressive silence as the Husker coaches’ bewilderment was evident all over the field.

The biggest of the many problems facing the Huskers is that they are nowhere near developing the “body hitting” character that Rhule talked about right after he was hired. This was a game where Nebraska should have had a decided physical advantage. That edge was nowhere to be found, at least on the Nebraska sideline. Consider that UCLA entered the competition ranked last among BCS teams in rushing offense (64.6 yards per game), but outscored Nebraska 139-113. The Huskers continue to absorb body blows at the line of scrimmage, without distributing them. This is unacceptable at the end of Rhule’s second season, especially considering the size, talent and experience of the defensive line, and the fact that Donovan Raiola was retained by Rhule largely for the physical blocking style he favors. The third-year coach in line o can’t do it. His players — who, despite their injuries at left tackle, are still in the top half of college’s most experienced trios — aren’t getting opponents off the ball with any degree of regularity.

Add to that another shaky performance from young Dylan Raiola, and you have a missed opportunity of epic proportions. The highly touted freshman is growing less confident and more hesitant each week.

Raiola was just three of 10 in the first half, then started the second with a pick six that gave UCLA a 20-7 lead. He quickly followed up with the type of play that has characterized the Huskers’ current three-game losing streak — a fourth-and-two situation at the UCLA 41 where he left a safe draw to Emmett Johnson (who was immediately wide open ). in the apartment) which certainly would have given the Huskers a first down. As he looked for an open receiver downfield, he rolled to his right and again, he almost certainly could have run for a first down. Instead, he stopped abruptly and at the last possible moment, Raiola returned a poorly thrown pass that sailed behind Isaiah Neyor, who got a hand on it but dropped the ball. Bad decision making, bad mechanics, bad throwing, turnovers on downs.

To his credit, Raiola recovered to lead two touchdown drives and ended his 15-quarter touchdown passing drought when he hit Neyor for an 8-yard score in the third quarter. Perhaps his best and worst moment was his determined run to the goal line trailing 27-14 in the fourth quarter, but a devastating hit from a UCLA defender knocked him out of the game.

Raiola completed 14 of 27 passes for 177 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. UCLA entered the game ranked 118th nationally in passing yards allowed (268 yards per game), but the Huskers could only manage 209.

The Blackshirts bore as many reproaches as offenses. Neither field was ready to play from the start, and the only reason Nebraska was close at the end was because UCLA gifted the Huskers a touchdown with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, one of three that the Bruins accumulated throughout the day.

Marcus Satterfield gets outplayed every week by defensive coordinators across the conference. He’s obviously not the answer as an offensive coordinator, but the scary thing about this game is that Tony White often looked as clueless as his offensive counterpart. The Huskers immediately found themselves in a 10-0 hole, and by that time, with 1:36 left in the first quarter, they had been outscored 148-2 by UCLA. The Bruins had 248 yards at halftime, and when Ethan Garbers burned the Blackshirts with a 48-yard touchdown pass to make the score 27-7 midway through the third quarter, the outcome was decided.

It was pretty much a replay of the Michigan State game last year. The Spartans entered this game 2-6, but the Huskers (also 5-3 at that point) found a way to waste their best opportunity of the season to go bowling. It’s like it just happened again, only in front of a home audience.

Now, Rhule and his team will focus on recruiting during the upcoming bye week, before preparing for a road trip to Southern Cal, and they’ll do it while questioning the severity of the injury by Raiola. He attempted to re-enter the game after leaving, but collapsed on the field while appearing to hold his right hip or lower back.

It’s just another load to bear for an increasingly unsettled team as it enters its eighth swing under Rhule’s watch to become bowl eligible.

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