Kenny Larabee photo, KLIN
Huskers Ill-Prepared After Injury and Interceptions
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On an absolutely beautiful Halloween weekend Saturday, Memorial Stadium became a house of horrors for the Nebraska Cornhuskers as they were dominated by the #17 ranked Illinois Illini 26-9. The inauspicious streak of losses to ranked teams has now grown to 20 games. At one point since joining the Big Ten, Nebraska was 6-1 against the team from Champaign, but have now lost three straight contests to the perennial bottom dwellers. The roles have reversed as Illinois is now 7-1 and solidly in first place in the division race at 4-1, while the Huskers fall to 3-5 and 2-3 and are dropping quickly to the cellar.
I was feeling somewhat positive going into this game and saw an upset as entirely plausible. Despite a score on Illinois’ opening drive (on a well-conceived pick play that went for 46 yards), the Husker defense forced punts (and three 3 and outs) on the Illini’s next four possessions, while the Nebraska offense had generated 215 yards and a 9-6 lead on their initial four possessions. This was remarkable in that the #1 rated Illinois defense was only giving up 8.9 points and 221.1 yards total per game. With 7:29 to go in the second quarter and a chance for the Huskers to add to their lead, the game (and the season) turned on a couple of plays.
On first down from their own 30, Casey Thompson threw a pass on a wheel route to a wide open Rahmir Johnson that was dropped as Johnson’s eyes saw nothing but green ahead. It was a well-conceived play and could have given the Huskers a two-score lead. Instead, two plays later, Thompson was hit as he threw and the wounded duck was picked off and returned to the Husker 11-yard line. Two plays later, Illinois was up 13-9 and the Huskers were on the wrong end of a potential 14-point swing.
With Thompson injured, the Huskers generated just 34 yards on 24 plays in the final 36 minutes of the game. Nebraska had 29 yards in the second half and held the ball for just 9:55. It was the ultimate display of ineptitude as Chubba Purdy was 3 for 8 for 15 yards, threw a pick and was sacked twice. Illinois, who has given up just 17 second half points all year had no worries, even when Nebraska recovered an Illini fumble in field goal range at the 23-yard line. Purdy promptly extinguished the threat by throwing across his body on one of the worst passes you will ever see.
How bad are the remaining signal callers on the bench that Purdy was the best alternative? Has Logan Smothers entered the portal yet? With Thompson sidelined, any hope of winning any of the final four contests becomes even more remote. Consider that Nebraska has not defeated any of the remaining fours teams (Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa) since 2018.
I had been encouraged by how the team had progressed under head coach Mickey Joseph and thought that he had a shot at gaining the job permanently if he got the team to six wins and bowl eligibility. With the loss today and the loss of Thompson, I think any chance of retaining Joseph has vanished unless he agrees to stay on to coach wide receivers under a new regime.
Casey Thompson went 7 for 15 for 172 yards with a touchdown toss to go along with two picks before exiting. In the first quarter and a half, there were receivers open repeatedly yet he struggled to hit his targets. Trey Palmer, who set a Husker record in the last game with 7 catches for 237 yards was missed more than once by Thompson as Palmer finished with one catch for one yard on a ball thrown by Logan Smothers. Anthony Grant (3 catches for 27 yards) had 29 yards after the catch. Alante Brown (2 catches for 47 yards) had a 32-yard reception in the second quarter, the longest reception of his career. Brown’s previous long catch was a 22-yard reception at Rutgers on Oct. 7.
Tight end Chancellor Brewington had a 45-yard reception in the first quarter, marking his longest reception at Nebraska. Another tight end, Travis Vokolek had a 56-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter, marking the longest reception of his college career. Vokolek’s previous long catch was 38 yards at Oklahoma in 2021. The touchdown was Vokolek’s second career touchdown at Nebraska and his second in the past three games even though it looked like he was carrying a refrigerator on his back after he broke free on the sideline.
Anthony Grant rushed 12 times for 61 yards with a long run of 22 yards on the Huskers first possession. Even though he averaged 5.1 yards a carry, he often failed to hit the hole and go north and south and was often cornered when he tried to break it outside against a very swift defense. Thompson had 10 yards on two carries and the rest of the Husker rushing attack totaled -11 yards on 11 carries. The offensive line remains a mess.
Defensively, the Huskers played reasonably well, despite being hung out to dry by the offense. Even though they were on the field for 20:05 in the second half, the defense gave up just 6 points, both of which were set up by offensive turnovers. In fact, Illinois scored 13 of their 26 points as a result of turnovers. Chase Brown, the nation’s leading rusher was held to 149 yards on 32 carries, and if you would have told me before the game that Nebraska would hold him under his season average, I would have anticipated a much tighter game. Illinois quarterback Tommy DeVito was 20 of 22 for 179 yards and two touchdowns. His 91% completion rate was a Memorial Stadium record for visiting quarterbacks with at least 20 attempts. Even with those gaudy numbers, the defense played with intensity and grit and only gave up a couple of chunk plays and only 5.2 yards per play compared to Nebraska’s 5.1.
Luke Reimer was back after missing the Purdue game and led the team with 9 tackles, increasing his career total to 217, and moving him into the top 30 on the Nebraska career tackles list. We could use several more Reimers on the field, even though he did have a boneheaded late hit out of bounds. Marques Buford and Myles Farmer each contributed 7 tackles with Buford having a TFL. The defense had 8 tackles for loss in the game. Isaac Gifford (6 tackles) had a seven-yard sack in the second quarter, marking his first career sack. Quinton Newsome (4 tackles) had two tackles for loss, including a 12-yard sack, a career high in tackles for loss. Newsome also added a fumble recovery in the third quarter, the first of his career.
Special teams play was uneventful other than a blocked extra point and giving up a 24-yard punt return. Timmy Bleekrode had a 26-yard first quarter field goal and Brendan Franke had touchbacks on all three of his kickoffs. Brian Buschini averaged 48.2 yards on six punts with a long of 55 yards. Tommi Hill had an 18-yard kickoff return (7 yards short of a fair catch placement) and the Huskers again had zero punt return yardage on 6 kicks.
As mentioned above, with the loss to Illinois and the uncertainty of the availability of Casey Thompson, the future looks rather bleak. Next week’s opponent, Minnesota, hammered Rutgers today 31-0 to move to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the Big Ten. As you recall, Nebraska eked out a 14-13 victory over the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway. The Gophers are likely to follow the same strategy against Nebraska as Illinois, run the ball and play keep away with the Huskers. The Huskers have a chance if they can find someone to take the ball from center and not give it to the opponent. I’m not sure who that may be at this point. Keep whatever faith you have left and Go Big Red!!!
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