Huskers fall to 3-5 after close loss to Northwestern

A 20-plus carry back over each of the first five games, he only ran 22 times over the last two weeks as the Wildcats abandoned the run because they had to. Yet, Northwestern showed its resiliency and scored on four of its final six possessions.

At the end of three quarters, Nebraska held the ball for 33:11 of the 45 minutes.

Special teams: (A-minus): Jack Mitchell scored 12 points, including three field goals, and he had 4 touchbacks. However, it appeared to have an opposite effect in this game. Northwestern made the first big blunder in the first quarter after a pair of questionable decisions.

“Now the message is that this should just make you hungry for more”, said Huskers coach Mike Riley, whose team is 1-2 in the Big Ten. The opening kickoff team looked like that. We can talk about injuries and youth, but when the team was healthy early on they were still bad and it’s up in the air if their young players were actually improving or if their increase in production was the end result of increased playing time and usage (thanks to a mass amount of injuries slowing down the teams star players). Defensively, man we played a ton of good defense. “(They’re) solid. I think they’ve been third in the league in rush (defense), third in the league in pass (defense)”.

The win bumped Northwestern to 6-2 on the season and cemented a ticket to a bowl game. Somehow, the Cats and QB Clayton Thorson were on fire against Minnesota, but the passing attack was miserable against both Michigan and Iowa once Justin Jackson was bottled up. The last time Nebraska was winless in conference home games was 1957. Northwestern’s defensive outfit, which has consistently ranked among the best in the country in both rushing and passing defense, rendered Armstrong and Co. comatose through much of the game. Nebraska Cornhuskers recorded 324.8 passing yards and 194.8 rushing yards while allowed 379.5 passing yards and 73.5 russhing yards with turnover differential of 0.5. Northwestern was able to run out the clock to win the game. Iowa smashed the Wildcats 294-51 on the ground and won 40-10.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers will play the Northwestern Wildcats at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., Saturday. Will we see that Wildcats team or will we see the program that finished the regular season with a 5-2 record, including wins against Iowa and Indiana.

“It’s tough being shut out and then losing by 30”.

In the last part of the last decade, Northwestern handed Iowa several soul-crushing losses.

So many people – columnists, lifelong diehards, alumni, inebriated fans in the D’Leon’s parking lot after games – will remind you that Nebraska’s woes “aren’t rocket science”.

“Football is a insane game”, said junior wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp.

Riley said the pressure to attain bowl eligibility at a place like Nebraska is always in the back of his mind.

“I should’ve just thrown the ball away”, he said. It’s not the first time the Huskers had trouble catching passes.