Peterson: Unforced Errors, Key Injuries Lead to Nebraska's Loss to USC

Nebraska lost Dylan Raiola for the rest of the season in Saturday night's loss to USC. But curious decision-making reared its head once again.

Matt Rhule's in-game management came back to bite Nebraska once again in the 21-17 loss to USC. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Nebraska fell to USC on Saturday night, 21-17, in one of those losses that had all the hallmarks – the good and the bad – of a game that will haunt this fanbase for years. It was a perfect night for football. Memorial Stadium filled to the brim with a fanbase ready to get over the hump and pick up their first win over a top 25 team in close to a decade. Ultimately, it was a game filled with opportunities for the Huskers; some they took advantage of, others less so.

Consider:

The night itself: As my I-80 Club co-host Jack Mitchell put it on our recap podcast Sunday morning, Nebraska essentially built a great atmosphere from scratch. Unlike the Colorado game in 2024, there was no real hatred for USC. Fans hadn’t been circling this game for an entire year. Not only did the university promote the Blackout going back into the offseason, but they pushed and pushed the fanbase to embrace it as well. By the time early chatter came out of Lincoln on Saturday afternoon, the word was out; there was barely and red to be seen.

The Nebraska pass defense again played out of its mind: As Mike’l Severe pointed out on 1620 the Zone’s Severe Reaction on Sunday morning, the 135 passing yards from Maiava were the fewest a Lincoln Riley-led offense has had since he took over as Oklahoma Sooners head coach in 2017. For just the second time all season, Maiava was held without a touchdown pass. His 39.1% completion percentage was the first time in his career that he finished below 50%. Wide receiver Makai Lemon was held to just 18 yards on two catches, 90 yards below his average coming into the game. Time and time again, Nebraska’s defensive backs – with help from the pass rush – confounded the Trojans' air game. Plainly put, when adjusted for opponent, it was one of the finest days by a Nebraska pass defense this century.

Emmett Johnson’s continued emergence as a force in the run game: Johnson rushed for 100+ for the second straight game, and third time in the last four. His 29 carries were a career high, besting the 27 he had… one week ago against Northwestern. His 165 rushing yards also nudged him past 1,000 for the entire season. And he still has four games left.

Dylan Raiola’s season came to an end: Raiola finished 10-of-15 for 91 yards, including a touchdown pass on the first drive of the game for Nebraska’s offense. And while the pass protection mostly held up fine all game long, two defenders crashed through at the absolute worst moment. Not only was Raiola sacked, but he also broke his fibula. To make matters worse, Nebraska had eight men protecting Raiola, and USC was still able to get multiple bodies into the pocket.

Didn't realize this until the rewatch, but on the play DR gets injured, NEB has 8 in pass protect.

8. pic.twitter.com/ZtT8eXqBOe

— Eric (@stewmanji) November 2, 2025

He’ll miss the remainder of the 2025 season, leading the way for true freshman quarterback TJ Lateef to show what he's got. That Raiola was knocked out on a sack was not lost on anyone; a constant refrain the last month was in regards to keeping Raiola healthy. At a certain point, the dam was going to break, and an opponent pass rush would get to Raiola.

It did.

Nebraska’s rush defense was gashed all night long: The odd thing was that Nebraska was still able to get stops from time to time. Sometimes, it was because they made plays. Other times, it was because Lincoln Riley curiously decided to throw. According to Game on Paper, USC rushed the ball 26 times on early downs. They were successful on 14 of them, a rate of 54%. Their 20 passes on early downs were successful just five times; a 25% success rate. As good as the Blackshirts were against Maiava through the air, they had difficulty containing him on the ground. He finished with 62 yards on 11 carries, scoring a touchdown as well. Led by King Miller’s 129 yards on just 18 attempts, the Trojans became the third opponent* this season to surpass 200 yards on the ground.

*Nebraska is now 1-2 this season when allowing an opponent to rush for 200 or more yards. Cincinnati rushed for 202 on 30 carries in the opener, while Michigan put up 286 yards on 33 carries in Nebraska's first loss. Minnesota and Northwestern also finished with 186 and 172 rushing yards.

And yet, it was a moment in the third quarter that’ll stick with me for far longer than the result of the game ever could.

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Holding a 14-6 lead midway through the third quarter, Nebraska had the ball facing a fourth and one on the USC side of the field.  

Dylan Raiola's injury led to the first extended action for TJ Lateef. The true freshman finished the game with 25 total yards. | Cory Edmondson, KFGE

To this point in the game, Nebraska had managed things like a traditional Big Ten West team; conservative play calling on offense resulted in multiple missed third down conversions, but they were playing into the strengths of their defense. In particular, they were playing into the weaknesses of the opponent’s play-calling. USC head coach Lincoln Riley couldn’t help himself at times, calling passes when the moment called for rushes. His QB Jayden Maiava continually faced pressure – more pressure than we’ve seen from Nebraska’s pass rush throughout much of the 2025 season – and his passes were often off target.

Two minutes earlier, Nebraska had wasted a timeout, presumably because head coach Matt Rhule was upset about a no-call. Nebraska’s Turner Corcoran had blocked USC’s Jide Abasiri past the whistle, which resulted in Abasiri turning around and shoving Corcoran to the ground. Usually in these situations, the second man, Abasiri, gets caught and flagged. In reality, both guys should have been flagged, resulting in offsetting penalties and nothing else changing.

Nebraska picked up a first down and was lining up to resume the drive before Rhule called the first timeout of the second half.

“Why?” you heard NBC announcer Todd Blackledge ask.

Days later, the only reason seems to be the anger Rhule felt in that exact moment. He wanted to chew out the officials a bit longer.

The drive continued. TJ Lateef, in for an injured Dylan Raiola, had his first carry of the game go for six. On second and four, backup running back Mekhi Nelson picked up two. And on third and two, Lateef’s screen pass to Emmett Johnson was a little high. Johnson wasn’t able to pick up the third down, which set up the fourth and one.

Current tight end and former quarterback Heinrich Haarberg lined up under center. Lateef originally lined up at running back before Haarberg motioned him over to wide receiver. With five seconds on the play clock and some hard counts coming, Matt Rhule and Nebraska did what they absolutely could not do: they called their second timeout in the last two minutes.

On fourth and one midway through the third quarter, Heinrich Haarberg lined up under center before Nebraska called their second timeout of the drive. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

With more than 20 minutes of game action remaining, Nebraska was down to one timeout left in the entire game.

The issue with that situation was not the decision to kick a 52-yard field goal that ultimately fell short. It was not the decision to line Haarberg up under center to try and draw them offside. It wasn't even that they avoided handing the ball off to Johnson, who, to that poin,t was past 100 yards rushing. Whether or not Nebraska kicked it, went for it, or even punted, the issue at hand was that Nebraska once again faced an in-game situation where the sideline was not ready to go. A situation where they were not ready to answer the moment with a definitive decision.

We’ve seen this too many times in the Matt Rhule era. The 2023 opener against Minnesota, when Anthony Grant* was on the field late and fumbled the ball. The late-game management against Maryland and Wisconsin in back-to-back weeks that same season cost Nebraska chances to win. Ditto the loss the Iowa on Black Friday.

*In the weeks leading up to week one of the 2023 season, Rhule openly spoke about Grant’s fumbling issues. “When the ball is in his hands, Anthony is elite running the football,” Rhule said. “Anthony has put the ball on the ground too much. No matter how talented you are, if you fumble the football, you can’t play for us.”

Or how about against USC last season? In a situation that’s a funhouse mirror version of what we saw Saturday night, Nebraska couldn’t decide if they wanted to run a fake punt, called a timeout to presumably go for it on fourth down, and then they took a delay of game and punted the ball to the Trojans.

In the end, I’m not even saying those timeouts cost Nebraska the game. When the Husker offense took over with 3:27 left and 96 yards to go, the odds were stacked against them. An extra timeout or two most certainly would have helped the situation, but with a freshman QB in his first situation like this, what could you really expect? Barely running three plays on that side of the 2:00 timeout was a great reminder of how difficult things were going to be; Lateef just wasn’t ready* for the moment.

*This isn’t a criticism of Lateef, by the way. His performance on Saturday night showed the coaches didn’t really trust him. But with a whole week of first-team reps ahead of Saturday night's matchup with UCLA, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t markedly better in his first start.

The issue instead is that situations like those outlined above continue to find Nebraska. And Nebraska's coaching staff continually picks the wrong way to go.

Why does this keep happening?

Better yet, can it be fixed? Or is this something we’re going to have to bake into things, if we haven’t already, moving forward?

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Five plays after that missed field goal, USC scored a touchdown. They added a two-point conversion, and the game was all knotted up at 14. It was the start of a 15-3 run for the Trojans that finished off the football game.

Dylan Raiola’s year is done. Elijah Pritchett was injured as well. Nebraska turned the ball over deep in USC territory. The Trojans were gashing Nebraska’s run defense left and right.

And through it all, I woke up today still thinking they should have left Memorial Stadium victorious.

That Nebraska lost on a potential night of all nights is going to sting for a while. Make it 29 in a row to teams in the AP Top 25.

With an incredible atmosphere at Memorial Stadium, the loss to USC will linger for Nebraska fans. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Nebraska’s four-point loss to USC is another in the long line of “what could have been?” moments this program has too-often failed to grasp. Big Emmett Johnson runs, as they so often have been this year, were often followed by pass plays that were going nowhere. They had the ball in USC territory midway through the third quarter, but seemed paralyzed by what to do on fourth and one. They had the ball with 3:27 left in the game, yet only got three plays off before the 2:00 timeout. The timeout usage has continued to be too loose overall.

With three games left in the 2025 regular season, including the season-finale against the Iowa Hawkeyes, Nebraska still has the opportunity to grab hold of one of those moments.

It's time for them to get out of their own way and prove that they can.

Agree or disagree, if you have a comment for Josh, send him an email: joshpeterson.huskermax@gmail.com

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