From High Hopes to Hard Lessons: Nebraska Faces a Must-Win vs. Northwestern

Two weeks ago, the fans of the then-mighty Nebraska Cornhuskers were flying high and ready to take on any and all comers in the Big Ten.

It's amazing the difference a week makes.

After last week’s pasting at the hands of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, the Huskers now face a must-win game Saturday against the Wildcats of Northwestern. Two weeks ago, Husker fans would have predicted this game would be a blowout. Today … Nebraska fans stand at the edge of a dark and foreboding abyss – the “we’ve been here before and it stinks” chasm.

Alternatively, maybe the Minnesota game was just a stinker of a day. In the words of renowned philosopher Hannah Montana, "Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days." It happens.

One good thing for the Big Red? Northwestern has had zero sacks in its last two victories. Then again, we also thought Minnesota had a bad pass rush!

The Nebraska coaching staff needs to dig deep and come up with a solid game plan to defeat the suddenly resurgent Wildcats. As we’ve seen with both Indiana and UCLA, it’s the coaching that makes all the difference between winning and losing football.

Here's the most perplexing question of all about last week's shellacking in Minneapolis ... How did one of the top two running backs in the Big Ten - Minneapolis native Emmett Johnson - only manage to get 14 carries for the entire game? Husker fans know that pounding the rock is the key to winning in the wild and windy Big Ten – SMQ is starting to wonder (actually, we've been wondering for the last two seasons) if that fact is lost on the current coaching staff.

Will they finally commit to the run game? Will they have more safety-valve plays to the tight end or quick-release passing plays? Or will they insist on doubling down with a slow-developing pass game that gets Dylan Raiola knocked on his butt NINE times in one game? Without a better plan, things might look grim for the Big Red.

We were at the Minnesota game and watched the bad offensive game plan unfold in front of us. We are keeping the faith that the Huskers will right the ship and emerge victorious in this suddenly critical game. However, we’re WAY less optimistic than we were two weeks ago – we’re not touching the point spread or the over. Here’s hoping that the Huskers regain their winning ways.

After all, Nobody's Perfect.

Nebraska 21, Northwestern 17

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