Nebraska football is searching for answers as its season quickly slips away. Nebraska is now 5-5 after four consecutive losses and its hopes of reaching a bowl game for the first time under Matt Rhule are in serious jeopardy.
After Nebraska’s third straight loss, an embarrassing showing at home against UCLA, the Cornhuskers made a big change. They demoted offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield and brought in well-known play caller Dana Holgorsen to try to revive an offense that had completely fallen apart.
The offense showed signs of life on Saturday, but it still wasn’t enough to get Nebraska over the hump against a very beatable USC team. Nebraska dropped that one 28-20 and now has games against Wisconsin and Iowa to try to get to that six-win barrier.
Ahead of the big matchup against Wisconsin, Holgorsen called out some of his players when explaining one of the biggest problems with the offense, according to Reice Shipley of Awful Announcing.
“I said you guys are fairly big kids,” Holgorsen said. “I know 17 isn’t a big kid, but he’s a tough kid. But there are some good sized kids out there. You know, 16, 18, 4, 29, I mean these guys are big bodies. I’m like, why are you not blocking worth a crap on the perimeter? It’s embarrassing. Being a receiver, they are like, ‘I want touches, throw me the ball.’ The first thing I said to them was if you don’t start blocking out there then you aren’t going to get the ball thrown to you.”
Two of the players Holgorsen mentioned are starting wide receivers Isaiah Neyor and Jahmal Banks, who are the team’s only two wideouts with more than 400 yards on the season. Holgorsen did add that last week’s loss to USC was one of the team’s better outings on the perimeter, but it is still a work in progress.
Will Nebraska find another win to become bowl-eligible?
Nebraska has now lost four games in a row with a chance to become bowl eligible after finishing just one game shy of the postseason at 5-7. The Cornhuskers just dropped a very winnable game against USC which would have gotten them over the hump in that regard.
Now, Nebraska has an uphill climb to get into the postseason. It has games against two Big Ten mainstays, Wisconsin and Iowa, both of whom have quality teams. Nebraska won’t be able to overwhelm them with its physicality and the two opponents both have defenses that can shut a struggling offense down.
With the way Nebraska is playing, it is almost hard to see them getting a win in either game. A home date with Wisconsin is a winnable matchup on paper, but the Badgers will also be very desperate at 5-5 and don’t have the same level of pressure to deal with after losing four consecutive games.
Nebraska’s offense will have to find the form it had earlier in the season when it got off to a 5-1 start. If it can’t, it will be another very disappointing end to the season for Matt Rhule and company.
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