Nebraska football fails the physicality test against UCLA

Do you think it's hard to play football with a monkey on your back? Instead, try packing a 500-pound gorilla.

On a dreary, gray day at Memorial Stadium, every Nebraska Cornhusker on the field seemed to be wearing one of these unwieldy monkeys during the game. From the first whistle, the Big Red were on their heels, playing not to lose, and they made it look just as dreary and unattractive as it usually is.

Saddled with the gorilla, a defense that won its duels against Ohio State began losing its duels against UCLA.

Under the gorilla's saddle, an offense that had been declining week after week continued to look inept.

With the gorilla saddled and a coaching staff stuck in neutrality, the Huskers are overthinking every detail and playing slowly.

The result? A 27-20 loss to UCLA, a team that came into the game with a 2-5 record and one of the worst rushing offenses and pass defenses in the country.

The “moral victory” last week in Columbus, Ohio, meant nothing at all. Here's clear evidence that the Huskers can downplay their opponents under Matt Rhule just as they did under Scott Frost. Rhule lost more capital among Husker fans in this game than in the loss to Indiana two weeks earlier. Rhule's team wasn't ready to play. If he doesn't take care of himself, Rhule, now 10-11 at Lincoln, will be on his way to earning a reputation as a good public speaker, which, if he has done a good job off the field of building a winning culture, will keep his reputation cannot fulfill the field. On his best day, at least at this stage of his career, Rhule is a questionable game manager. His decision to rush for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal at the 5-yard line, trailing 27-14 with 11:37 left, after unnecessarily taking a timeout, reeked of indecision and desperation .

And so over the last two seasons, the Huskers fell to 5-4, but worse, 0-7, in games where they could have gotten rid of the proverbial monkey and become bowl eligible. This mark of shame is not a frost residue. It's all due to Rhule and his staff, who have now endured two weeks of increasingly intense clamoring for several assistants' jobs after one of Nebraska's worst coaching performances in the last decade. That shouting will be justified because this was a terrible performance by the Big Red that left Memorial Stadium in depressing silence while the Husker coaches' perplexity was felt all over the field.

The biggest of the many problems facing the Huskers is that they are nowhere near able to develop the “Body Blows” personality that Rhule talked about right after he was hired. This was a game where Nebraska should have had the edge physically. That advantage was nowhere to be found, at least not on the Nebraska sideline. Consider that entering the contest, UCLA ranked last among BCS teams in rushing offense (64.6 yards per game), but outscored Nebraska 139-113. The Huskers continue to absorb body blows on the offensive line instead of dishing them out. That's unacceptable this late in Rhule's second season, especially considering Rhule's size, talent and experience on defense and the fact that Donovan Raiola was acquired primarily because of Rhule's physical style of blocking. The third-year O-line coach doesn't make it. His players — who, despite injuries at left tackle, are still among the top half of the most experienced ranks in college — don't move their opponents off the ball with any regularity.

Combine that with another shaky performance from young Dylan Raiola and you have a missed opportunity of epic proportions. The highly touted rookie is losing confidence and becoming more hesitant every week.

Raiola was just three-for-10 in the first half, then started the second with a pick-six that gave UCLA a 20-7 lead. He quickly followed with the play typical of the Huskers' current three-game loss – a four-and-two situation at the UCLA 41, where he gave up a safe throw to Emmett Johnson (who was immediately wide open). the flat), that would certainly have given the Huskers a first down. As he looked for an open receiver downfield, he rolled to his right and almost certainly could have scored another first down. Instead, he abruptly moved forward and at the last possible moment, Raiola turned a poorly thrown pass that sailed behind Isaiah Neyor, who got his hands on it but dropped the ball. Poor decision making, poor mechanics, poor throwing, turnovers on downs.

To his credit, Raiola rebounded to lead two touchdown drives and ended his 15-quarter touchdown pass drought when he hit Neyor for an 8-yard score in the third quarter. Perhaps his best and worst moment was his determined fight for the goal line with a 27-14 deficit in the fourth quarter, but a crushing hit from a UCLA defender took him out of the game.

Raiola completed 14 of 27 passes for 177 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. UCLA ranked 118th nationally in passing yards allowed (268 yards per game), but the Huskers managed just 209 yards.

The Blackshirts were just as much to blame as the offense. Neither platoon was ready to play from the start, and the only reason Nebraska came close in the end was because UCLA gave the Huskers a touchdown with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, one of three penalties the Bruins incurred over the course of the game received on the day.

Marcus Satterfield is outclassed weekly by defensive coordinators around the conference. He's obviously not the answer as an offensive coordinator, but the shocking thing about this game was that Tony White often looked just as clueless as his offensive counterpart. The Huskers immediately jumped out to a 10-0 gap and had been outscored 148-2 by UCLA at that point with 1:36 left in the first quarter. The Bruins had 248 total yards at halftime, and when Ethan Garbers hit the Blackshirts with a 48-yard touchdown pass midway through the third quarter to make it 27-7, the outcome was decided.

It was pretty much a repeat of last year's Michigan State game. The Spartans entered the game 2-6, but the Huskers (also 5-3 at the time) found a way to blow their best bowl opportunity of the season. It feels like it just happened again, only in front of a home crowd.

Now Rhule and his staff will focus on recruiting in the coming week before preparing for a road trip to Southern California, while reflecting on the severity of Raiola's injury. After leaving the game, he attempted to re-enter the game but collapsed on the field, appearing to hold onto his right hip or lower back.

It's just another burden for an increasingly unstable team to bear as it attempts to qualify for the bowl for the eighth time under Rhule's leadership.

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