'They’re Winning These Games in a Way That They Never Have': Nebraska's Win Over MSU Was a Step Forward

On the I-80 Club YouTube channel on Saturday, Jack Mitchell and Josh Peterson took in the entire game for a special Watch Party! At the end of the game, they distilled the 3.5 hours of football into an abbreviated postgame show.

What stood out? What surprised them? And what does it mean for the program moving forward? Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

Jack: They’re winning these games in a way that they never have. They just haven't. And that wasn't even the [2024] Wisconsin game, right? We talked this morning about “well, this needs to be [like] the Wisconsin game.” This wasn't the Wisconsin game where they always looked like they were going to win from the beginning; from the first second quarter. It looked like they were going to lose this, and then all of a sudden, it's just so different. Every game is so different than anything we've seen. Not always for the good, but it's so different than anything we've seen.

And I still don't know why they could not make it work on offense at all for the first two-thirds of the game. In the last third, it didn't seem to be an issue.

Josh: Yeah. And I know a lot of people kept talking about the wind, like, “Oh, when Nebraska had the wind at their back, they did this, when they didn't have the wind at their back, they did this.”

It doesn't explain what happened with the offense.

Jack: Josh, are people obsessed? What is the deal with people in the wind? It wasn’t one thing.

Josh: It was because the offensive line was terrible, and then Dylan Raiola was obviously spooked for a while, and that was causing so many problems for everything. But then, as the commenter pointed out, they had that third-down pass to Jacory Barney, and everything changed. You look at that moment onward; Nebraska ties it up. Then they get another score. They get a field goal in there. The defense is still playing really well. The defense is still flying all over the place.

I just don't understand how it, like you said, how it went from that to that.

Jacory Barney had a massive impact in Saturday's game against Michigan State. | Kylie Graham-Imagn Images

Jack: How it could have been so bad. Like, irreparably bad. How could they not have rescued it quicker if they eventually figured it all out? Part of it was the blocking was better.

Josh: Man, I'll say this, because it's certainly not a pretty win by any means, but this is another type of performance that this program needs, right? Like these types of weird "chips are down, everyone's worried," and then they were able to pull it out.

Jack: They’ve never done this. It's been forever. Everybody had bottomed out when they got that quarterback sneak, you know?

Josh: That was the low point of the entire football. And the [Dylan Raiola] interception, I guess.

Jack: I don't know what the difference was exactly. I mean, it was Dylan making a play to be honest.

Josh: Yep.

Jack: 4-1 and Maryland lost. Wow.

Josh: I know you said it now a couple of times, and I'm with you. This is going to be one that we need to figure out a little bit over the next few days because it was just so strange. But I am flabbergasted. Honestly, I am flabbergasted that they were able to do what they did, given how poorly it was going for such a large portion of the middle part of the game.

Jack: Two special teams plays, though. What are we saying this morning? This is the game they hired Ekeler for: to beat other teams. They had the catastrophic special teams plays.

Josh: Yeah, they really did.

Jack: That's the difference today.

Josh: So, the only negatives on special teams were the for the first two punts, right?

Jack: The punts into the wind. We can be somewhat forgiving. Those were not catastrophic. Michigan State had two catastrophic plays.

Nebraska special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler at the 2025 Cincinnati game — Mike Ekeler continues to have a big impact on the success of Nebraska football in 2025. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Josh: Yeah, they really did. I like this from [a subscriber] Nebraska: “The way they pulled out of the nose-dive was impressive.” It really is!

Jack: They’ve never been able to do it. Listen, we talked it to death, but the oh [crap] moment has been there for so long. And they completely pulled out of it to the point like we're like, “good lord, they're going to win by double digits." Probably should have won by 20, you know?

Josh: It’s going to be interesting to hear from [Matt] Rhule on what on earth happened. Like, what changed, and what did he see, and what did you hear from his players and all that stuff?

Jack: And here's the weird thing, like Josh. I feel more way more confident in the defense than I did going into this, and way more concerned, even more concerned about the offensive line.

Josh: Yes! That’s a great point, because things got so sideways for the offense and because Michigan State did a really good job at getting those fourth downs. At one point, they were like 2-of-10 on third and 3-of-3 on fourth downs. They did such a good job at that. Remember, I said the defense is playing well, and people were pushing back, but the defense was awesome for the most part today.

Nebraska's defense hounded Michigan State QB Aidan Chiles throughout the entire football game on Saturday. | Kylie Graham-Imagn Images

They had a couple of squirrely drives, but they finally had a pass rush. They got takeaways. And Jack, yet again, the pass defense is ridiculous. The pass defense is awesome. I feel very comfortable saying that they're really good.

Jack: If they're going to have a pass rush with it defense is going to be a problem for people.

Jack: We said that all week; if they could ever add a pass rush to this pass defense, can you imagine what it would be? Well, they did today, and it's gonna depend on the offensive lines that they face. Michigan State's offensive line… I mean, they were swimming in it just like Nebraska's was.

Josh: I popped over into the Husker channel real quick, Jack, before we leave; [a subscriber writes], “How many times have you seen any or another team claw back, take the lead, and then have the opponent punch back even harder? Nebraska did that to Michigan State today. It feels like it's been a while since we've been on that end of it.” That's a great way to describe it.

Nebraska gets off to an insane start. Michigan State comes roaring back with 21 unanswered of their own. And then Nebraska gets 24 unanswered before Michigan State got the late touchdown. It was a game of runs, you know, and Nebraska was able to battle back in a way that I definitely didn't see coming.

Jack: When did Nebraska almost self-implode? Dylan had the interception, but again, the special teams plays did it for Nebraska. They really did. We said it. This is why they hired Ekeler, and special teams won this game for Nebraska. You don't have that block punt at the beginning. You don't have the Barney return. The touchdown too on the one [that was called back for holding]. And obviously, the fumble when Michigan State gives it right back to Nebraska and they capitalize on it.

Josh: But that was the other thing, Jack, is that in the first half, they did not capitalize as much as they should have on those opportunities.

Jack: DeShon Singleton gets two interceptions. And they don't do squat with it because the offense goes straight back. And that is going to continue to be a concern. There's no doubt. There’s no doubt the ability to protect is gonna be a huge concern for Nebraska.

Josh: They're gonna have to figure out a way to scheme away from that man.

Jack: At one point during the game, I was like, it seems like Michigan State was able to better scheme play calls that throw off a team that has got a heavy rush on. Whether it's quarterback run or screen passes, and Nebraska eventually got there, but it took too long to be honest.

The offensive line is what it is, right? And if they're not, they kept doing things that played right into Michigan State's hands with that, I think. And then by the end, they weren't.

Check out the entire Watch Party below!

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