Nebraska embarrasses itself in Indiana. Question everything in year two under Matt Rhule

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Question everything.

Everything you know and think you know about Nebraska football after Saturday's shocking 56-7 loss at Indiana. Question everything.

Question the opponent. Was that really Indiana, the Hoosiers, or was that Ohio State?

No, actually it didn't look like Ohio State, the next enemy for Nebraska. Saturday at Indiana's Memorial Stadium seemed to be the kind of pure dominance you would expect if Matt Rhule's team played the Indianapolis Colts.

As absurd as that sounds, this was somehow more bizarre. Nebraska committed five turnovers, including three while going 0-for-5 on fourth down. The Huskers handed the ball off just seven times to No. 16 Indiana and its potent offense.

Final: Indiana 56, Nebraska 7.

This is a blot on Nebraska's season that will remain no matter what happens later this season.

– Mitch Sherman (@mitchsherman) October 19, 2024

The game gives that away. This is the opposite of complementary football. That means losing football. This is an embarrassment for Nebraska on a level reminiscent of this month 20 years ago, when Bill Callahan, in his first of four seasons with the Huskers, led a team to a one-loss loss to Texas Tech, losing 70-10.

If you remember the game where a true freshman quarterback was sent to the Wolves in the second half, then I'm sorry. It was hard to forget. It remained a blot on Nebraska for years. Fans of smaller teams in the Big 12 repeated the result to mock the Huskers, who for years had touted programs with similarly lopsided results.

The images from Saturday won't fade anytime soon – of Indiana running backs Justice Ellison and Ty Son Lawton charging through the second level of Nebraska's defense; from Kurtis Rourke hitting passes in front of poorly positioned defenders; by freshman Dylan Raiola forcing throws into extensive coverage and accosting quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas on the sideline in frustration after an Indiana defensive back ran 78 yards with an interception to open the second half.

Go deeper

Time to take Indiana seriously? Hoosiers make a case for Nebraska's misery against ranked teams to continue

“We’ll take that,” Rhule said. “We allow it to hurt. We won't say much, I hope. We're going back home. We get up tomorrow and get to work next week. Because no matter what the score was, we lost. Whether you lose in overtime or with the score we lost today, it's just a defeat. It’s a terrible loss.”

Oh, but it's not just a loss. Not 56-7 at Indiana, which last won a Big Ten game by such a margin in 1945 and hasn't won more than eight games in a season in more than 50 years.

It's more than a loss. It's something that lingers and blunts the momentum that has been slow to build for Nebraska this season after a brilliant first half in a 28-10 win over Colorado six weeks ago.

Something has been wrong with the Huskers since Week 2, even though they came into Saturday's game 5-1. With the exception of a strong second half at weak Purdue, they rarely looked in sync.

But Rhule said after the Bloomington debacle that he didn't see the signs.

“I can usually see things coming,” he said. “I’ll tell you right now, I didn’t see that coming.”

So does Rhule have his finger on the pulse of this team?

Question everything.

“As I told the guys there, this happened under my watch,” the coach said.

Rhule continued to blame the loss in his postgame interview. He apologized repeatedly to the fans who traveled to Indiana and to those who invested their time and money in Nebraska football.

By the way, money is more important than ever in this ZERO world. I don't think AD Troy Dannen and his lieutenant in charge of football, Haven Fields, had that in mind as they watched the final seconds from the far edge of the Nebraska sideline on a beautiful sunny afternoon Saturday.

“It was bad football,” Rhule said. “I am not embarrassed by our players, but I am ashamed of the work I have done to get our team ready. I have to do a better job next week and in the weeks after.”

Question it. Nebraska has little chance against Ohio State, which took a break this weekend after its first loss of the season and held a one-point lead at Oregon. The Huskers are expected to start November at 5-3, just like last season when they lost their Final Four and missed a bowl game for the seventh straight season.

This season, Nebraska swaps Maryland and Michigan State for UCLA and USC, leaving Wisconsin and Iowa at the bottom. The Bruins picked up their second win of the season on Saturday – on the road against Rutgers – and have a week off before traveling to Nebraska.

There is no sure sixth win out there.

After nineteen games at Nebraska, Rhule seemed a little shaken Saturday.

“We’ve been together for about a year and a half now,” he said, “and this was the first time it was like this.”

Defensively, Nebraska couldn't get off the field, allowing 6.5 yards per Indiana rush and 9.3 per pass attempt. The Hoosiers beat Nebraska in every quarter and every phase. They were better prepared after both teams enjoyed a week's rest. IU scored on its first drive, then stepped into the corner, perhaps trying to trick Nebraska's error-prone special teams into a mistake.

Jacory Barney caught the ball at the 1-yard line and ran out of bounds.

Starting at the 1, Nebraska gained 2 yards on a Dante Dowdell power run and then put the ball in the air on eight consecutive plays on two possessions.

“We wanted to get into big (offensive sets),” Rhule said. “We wanted to let the ball run. We wanted to play action. We wanted to be violent.”

Question that when you consider offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield's strategy early on.

“I don’t know if we’re going to win,” Rhule said. “Just fall back and throw everything down every play. We need a running game to do that.”

Five running backs carried 20 times for 49 yards with a lost fumble by Dowdell following a successful fourth-down conversion in the red zone as the Hoosiers led 7-0.

“It’s burning,” Raiola said. “But we just have to learn from it and move on.”

Wide receiver Jaylen Lloyd said: “It’s tough. There’s nothing we can do at the moment.”

None of the seniors on the squad were made available to the media following the loss.

Junior defensive end Jimari Butler said the Huskers' confidence took a hit when Indiana made a big play.

“Sometimes,” Butler said, “the games don’t go the way we want them to and we kind of beat ourselves up.”

Why? The defense is made up of experienced veterans. Of course, few of them have much experience winning at the college level.

Listen to what Indiana coach Curt Cignetti told the Hoosiers before kickoff.

“You’re going to start to get rattled and frustrated,” IU linebacker Jailin Walker said, echoing Cignetti’s message. “So we knew once we got them in that element, it was time to really step it up.”

And that’s exactly what the Hoosiers did. From the end of the first quarter to the start of the fourth quarter, they scored touchdowns on six consecutive possessions – not including a 25-second drive at the end of the first half.

It was a dark day for Nebraska. Where do the Huskers go from here when a giant of college football, a team far more talented than Indiana, stands in front of them?

“I just think our guys will bounce back,” Rhule said. “I never doubted the character of these boys.”

The Huskers had been practicing long before the trip to Bloomington, he said, and they didn't stop when events began to intensify on Saturday.

“They are resilient,” Rhule said. “And they want to fight.”

Until Nebraska proves it, when it's backed into a corner and needs a big answer, question that too.

Question everything.

(Photo by Dylan Raiola: Rich Janzaruk/USA Today Network via Imagn Imags)