Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports
Tad Stryker: That Sinking Feeling
That sick feeling of dread descended in the fourth quarter Saturday, as it has for so many Saturdays for so many years in Lincoln.
The 389th consecutive sellout crowd in Memorial Stadium experienced something akin to a slow, agonizing demise. This death comes for one reason: on a cold, windy day with a two-score lead, precisely when the Cornhuskers most need to run the football effectively, they are utterly unable to do so.
It’s a feeling Husker Nation has managed to avoid for much of the last few years, because their team often falls behind early and fails to rally from behind. It could be argued this type of game, watching your team give up a two-score lead in the fourth quarter, takes a much greater toll.
Ever since Bo Pelini left the state, Nebraska teams have usually weakened in the second half, while their opponent typically gets stronger as the game goes on.
For Nebraska fans, it was a face-to-face meeting with the undeniable truth that their team was going to let this lead and this game and this season slip away. The Huskers had no clue how to finish off a mediocre opponent that was ripe for the picking.
It was unnerving to realize that even after a coaching change, and long-overdue remedial full speed training in blocking and tackling, even after your best quarterback has returned to the lineup, that one of the worst versions of the Wisconsin football team seen in years will slowly tear your guts out, because the Nebraska offensive line has made no discernible improvement since August. Cycling through o-line coaches has made no difference; neither Mike Cavanaugh nor Greg Austin nor Donovan Raiola could get it done.
Ultimately, the 3-8 Huskers lost by one point in the final minute to a 6-5 Wisconsin team because they cannot run the football, and because they cannot stop the run. A disheartening 235-to-65 deficit in rushing yardage tells the brutal truth. Ultimately, you are what your record says you are.
That said, a team that gives up only 15 points should win, even if it’s a Big Ten game in November. Bill Busch has done an excellent job in his stopgap role as defensive coordinator; he deserves serious consideration from the new head coach. I’d like to see him retained as special teams coordinator, with Mickey Joseph staying on as wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator, and perhaps as associate head coach if the new head man has enough self-confidence. Keeping Joseph and Busch would be insurance against many of the Huskers’ best players from stampeding to the transfer portal.
Although 235 yards rushing is too much, the Husker defensive line showed improvement. Senior Colton Feist and sophomore Ty Robinson looked better, So did Nash Hutmacher, although he lost his leverage and got shoved back into the end zone on Graham Mertz’s game-winning quarterback sneak.
Ernest Hausmann, the true freshman from Columbus, has become Nebraska’s best linebacker. He had a team-high 12 tackles, 10 of them solo. He has sounder instincts and defends the edge better than his much more seasoned partner, Luke Reimer. Conversely, all Wisconsin’s linebackers excel at setting the edge and have for years.
This was reminiscent of the Minnesota game, when the Huskers coughed up a 10-point lead two weeks ago because of their lack of physicality, except that the Huskers managed to delay their slow-motion collapse until the fourth quarter this time. That was mainly due to a fortuitous third-quarter scoring drive.
The Huskers got a lot of help on their 79-yard touchdown drive which included all four of their first downs in the second half, and gave them a 14-3 lead late in the third quarter. A couple of gift penalties accounted for 30 yards on their nine-play, 79-yard touchdown drive. One of those calls was a debatable targeting call on Nick Herbig, which meant the Badgers had to play the last 17 minutes of the game without their best defensive player, who is far and away the Big Ten’s leader in sacks. The second was an equally debatable roughing-the-passer penalty that put the ball at the Wisconsin 23-yard line. Three plays later, Casey Thompson calmly waited until Trey Palmer broke free in the center of the field for their second touchdown connection of the day.
But that was the last sign of life from Nebraska’s offense. When they had to buck the 25- to 30-mph wind in the fourth quarter, the Huskers went belly up. Ultimately, they didn’t rush for a single first down in the second half. Of their 65 rushing yards, more than half came in the first quarter, mostly on Thompson scrambles.
As usual, Mark Whipple’s commitment to the run game was fleeting. The Huskers ran the ball only 29 times, including just 13 attempts in the second half, despite holding the lead much of the game. Wisconsin, which never led until the game’s final minute, ran the ball 52 times, including 28 rushes in the second half. Look for the Badgers to remove the “interim” tag from head coach Jim Leonhard, who knows Wisconsin’s identity and won’t deviate from it.
The Badgers overcame a nagging shoulder injury to their best running back, the loss of their best defensive layer to a ticky-tack call and several untimely penalties to win the game. It’s easy to see which team is mentally tougher.
With no turnovers and only two penalties on the final stat sheet, Nebraska has done a decent job of cleaning up the sloppiness that plagued it for much of the Scott Frost era. The vast majority of Nebraska’s troubles can be traced to an offensive line that Raiola promised would be hard-charging, but in reality, can be most generously described as impotent. It will have even more problems on Black Friday against Iowa, a team that has a better defense than Wisconsin.
And so 2022, a year in which Kansas and Vanderbilt both have won more games than Nebraska, has turned into a nothing more than a countdown to a press conference, one in which Trev Alberts will reveal his choice of the man he believes best suited to end NU’s long run of futility.
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