Fearless But Frustrated: Huskers Let Hoosiers Off the Hook

The fear going into a FOX Big Noon game against Indiana, winner of 21 consecutive games, was that Nebraska would buckle under pressure and collapse when it reached the national spotlight. Those fears proved unfounded. Nebraska proved that it belongs in the national discussion, at least until next week’s game at Oregon, and could be at least a dark-horse candidate for the 12-team playoff.

The Huskers held the ball nearly twice as long as Indiana, ran 83 plays from scrimmage to the Hoosiers’ 44, outrushed them by a 2-to-1 margin and made nearly twice as many first downs (25-13).

The good news is that the Huskers played with no fear. The bad news is that they couldn’t finish. Not often enough when they were in the red zone. And most regretfully, not in the fourth quarter, when they had an upset of the defending national champions squarely in their sights. The 5-1 Huskers (2-1 Big Ten) did everything they needed to do except win.

Nobody in scarlet flinched from the spotlight. With a 17-6 lead and 12 minutes to go, all Nebraska needed was one more push to lock things down.

Could Gunnar Gottula have helped provide that push? We’ll never know. Gottula played the first half at left guard and mysteriously disappeared at halftime, and nothing was said afterward about whether he suffered an injury.

There was nothing fluky or shadowy about this Husker effort. It reminded me a lot of the 2024 game at Ohio State, a 21-17 loss to the eventual national champions, where Matt Rhule’s team nearly doubled up the Buckeyes in rushing yards, but were penalized twice as often and couldn’t make a big play on defense when they desperately needed to.

Marsh Uncovered — Indiana wide receiver Nick Marsh heads for the end zone after being left uncovered on fourth-and-1 midway through the fourth quarter. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Alas, the moment was too big for Rhule. It was too big for placekicker Kyle Cunanan, and it was far too big for right tackle Tree Babalade. The whole program needs to learn how to finish against a highly rated opponent.

Rhule again burned a precious timeout in a questionable situation and then he asked his team to convert a fourth-and-nine at their own 44-yard line with nearly five minutes left in the game. Both decisions backfired.

Nevertheless, Nebraska led for the majority of the game, but as the game’s final minutes melted away, nobody could deliver the kill shot for the Big Red.

Anthony Colandrea appeared to have done just that with his spectacular 39-yard touchdown run with 12:01 left in the game, but that play was nullified by two colossal coverage busts by a Blackshirt defense that otherwise played a tremendous game.

Junior wideout Nick Marsh, along with counterpart Charlie Becker, raised havoc in the Nebraska secondary. Marsh caught six passes for 187 yards, with touchdowns that covered 75 and 44 yards. Becker had three catches for 52 yards. On Marsh’s 75-yarder, he split Victor Evans III and Caleb Benning on a post route and outran them both to the end zone. On his 44-yarder, nobody covered either Marsh or Becker on a fourth-and-1 play, which won’t do against a team like the Hoosiers. The Huskers sorely missed safety Jamir Conn, who was injured on the first play of the second half.

Colandrea could create no heroics on the Huskers’ final three drives, completing six of 13 passes while under a lot of pressure. But then, if the Huskers had taken care of business at the end of the first half, they wouldn’t have needed any heroics to win the game.

Dana Holgorsen called a superb first half, and had Nebraska in position to stretch its one-touchdown lead to 14 points with less than a minute to go before intermission. At that point, Holgorsen appeared to lose confidence in his run game. With first and 10 at the Indiana 17, his balanced drive suddenly lost its balance. An incomplete pass, a false start by Babalade and two more incompletions left Nebraska with a 40-yard field goal attempt to increase the lead to 10, but the Huskers couldn’t even grab the consolation prize as Cunanan pushed the kick wide right with a 20-mph wind at his back. Rhule called it a “bad snap, bad hold, bad kick.” On the TV replay, it looked like the snap was profoundly offline, nearly hitting holder Kamdyn Koch in the shoulder. But Koch did a great job getting the ball down with the laces turned properly. Cunanan was not in sync when he made the kick, however, and Nebraska lost three badly needed points.

It may be time to replace Jack Wills at long snapper. And frankly, why not give John Hohl a chance to replace Cunanan, whose range and reliability are shrinking by the week?

Indiana’s Nico Radicic made a 35-yard field goal with the wind in the third quarter from nearly the same spot on the field. It was the difference in a game where small margins were gigantic. And Indiana remains undefeated.

In happier kicking news, NU punter Archie Wilson continues to steadily improve. The sophomore from Australia averaged 57.3 net yards on three kicks. He belted a career-long 68-yarder, and nailed a beautiful 44-yard punt against the wind that was downed at the Indiana 1-yard line.

Jacory Barney Jr. carries the ball during the first quarter. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The disappearance of Gottula, who has spent the majority of the season at tackle, became more significant as the second half wore on and Babalade struggled. On the final Husker drive, Babalade was badly outflanked by defensive end Tobi Osunsanmi in the final two minutes, who got the Hoosiers’ fifth sack of the game to shut down Nebraska. Would Gottula have given up that sack? We’ll never know.

Under Curt Cignetti, Indiana continues to make clutch pass plays on the road to win close games, as it did twice last season. What can Rhule learn from him?

“It took everything the players and coaches had to find a way to overcome,” Cignetti said. “I give Nebraska a lot of credit; they’re a real good football team. It’s a great win on the road. It was hard-fought. A win like that has a lot of value. I told them, good teams find a way to win a game like this, they win at the end, and that’s what we did.”

Though they lost, the Huskers give every indication they’re on the climb. How will they respond to this gut punch? Will they finish as well as did Iowa last season? The Hawkeyes won six of their last eight after they narrowly missed upsetting Indiana at home in a very similar game. Nebraska’s resilience will be tested against a backloaded schedule. But if the Huskers truly belong, they’ll break through against at least one rated team.

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, following us on Twitter/X, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.

Add us as a preferred source on Google