Carriker Gut Reaction: Nebraska 20, Cincinnati 17

'There's things to improve. There's things to get better. Yeah, that's what game ones are for.
I just wanted to get a win.

'Yeah, I predicted 35 to 20. I'll take 20 to 17. I'll take 2 to 1. Not that that's possible. I'll take 3 to 2. I take a win because imagine if we didn't. Now we're rolling into Michigan."

Watch Adam's postgame Gut Reaction show below, and scroll down for more transcribed excerpts.

"I wish we would have run power and just more physical football, not even because that's

what Nebraska has historically done for a long time; it's what was working. Cincinnati's got a stud nose guard, okay, but the rest of their defense isn't that big."

"Archie Wilson ... he played Australian rules football. In his first American football game of his life tonight. He pinned Cincinnati inside their nine-yard line. He pinned them inside their 15, their 20, their 10, multiple times. It was huge."

"Cincinnati is scrappy.
They're better than last year. ... Bearcats have the ball they're driving with 34 seconds to go. They drove down the field. Credit to them. Malcolm Hartzog intercepts the ball in the end zone to seal the win for Nebraska. The Huskers are your 2025 Kansas City Classic champs."

"We're going to be 3 and 0 by the time we play Michigan. I'm legit excited because we really needed this win. This was almost like a fragility test of this game, because if we lose, all this talk, all this hype, all this national college football playoff stuff, which I'm not a part of yet. ... I don't know what would have happened. They found a way to win. Things to work on. They made the clutch play with the game on the line. Kudos to them."

On Dana Holgorsen's play-calling

"They have a reason they're doing things there. That third down play call that I alluded to ... it was just an inside zone from the shotgun. I was like, this is awful. What are we doing? Bam, fourth down RPO looks the exact same hit the hit the little dunk pass over the top for the touchdown. So he's trying to do things to set up other plays. Sometimes if you look at one play in a vacuum, you're not looking at what he's setting up, whether it be the second half or the very next play or the very next series or the very next drive. A lot of times an offensive coordinator will call a play, OK, just to see what the defense does and how they react. Like a quarterback might hand off, carry out a fake. He really isn't interested if the zone run play works. Of course, he wants it to, but he's watching. Is that end going to keep contain if I run a boot with the quarterback or if I run a play action pass and hit a guy in the flat? So sometimes they're setting up other things."

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