‘Chasing 3,’ and the plays that contributed to Nebraska’s loss to Illinois

The Husker quarterback had been unceremoniously dropped to the turf on a play that had no time to develop. An Illinois linebacker blitzed untouched up the middle, sacking Raiola for a fifth time to set off intense celebrations from the visiting Illini. Some players stood at midfield, gesturing and yelling at the Nebraska sideline; others exchanged hugs and handshakes with their beaten foes.

As the Illini exited the field, many stopped to wave goodbye to the Husker faithful. What was a cathartic, hard-earned win for Illinois felt like a gut punch for Nebraska — and the Huskers will have an extra day to stew over it this weekend. Let’s drop into coverage:

For several months, the Nebraska football team has been motivated with one goal in mind: chasing three points.

The concept arose after a 2023 season in which Nebraska lost five one-score games, four of which were three-point margins of victory. The mantra soon became a documentary series that chronicled Nebraska’s offseason improvements and in-season progress toward that goal.

A 3-0 start to the season was a step in the right direction, but none of those games were decided by a single score. Friday night’s game was — and it showed that the Huskers are still chasing.

It’s about the fine margins in such games and the small things that can turn close losses into narrow wins and vice versa. And for Nebraska, the miscues began piling up.

Specific plays that contributed to NU’s one-score loss included:

* Quarterback Dylan Raiola missing a wide-open Luke Lindenmeyer late in the fourth quarter.

* A missed field goal from kicker John Hohl on the very next play.

* A near-touchdown pass to Isaiah Neyor which was instead wrestled away for an Illinois interception.

* Continued struggles in perimeter blocking, particularly from Nebraska’s wide receivers.

* A booming 53-yard punt from Brian Buschini that was immediately neutralized by a 37-yard punt return.

* Nine total penalties, including two occasions where Nebraska was whistled for “grasping and twisting the facemask” of an opponent.

* A first-quarter play where running back Rahmir Johnson forgot where he was on the field. Open in the corner of the end zone, Johnson wasn’t a mere inch or two out of bounds — he was several feet over the line by the time Raiola’s pass came his way. What could’ve been a touchdown instead became a field goal, and that four-point swing could’ve made the difference.

No one individual play doomed Nebraska to defeat, but they all contributed to another one-score loss.

After a fairly even 60 minutes of football, the overtime period was one-way traffic in Illinois’ direction. 

Nebraska lined up with five defensive backs and only had five men at the line of scrimmage against six Illinois blockers on the first snap. Both linebackers rushed the interior, leaving a huge gap to the outside which running back Kaden Feagin exploited for a 21-yard gain.

It’s easy to second guess, but could Nebraska have lined up to play the run more effectively on that snap?

On Illinois’ touchdown play, wide receiver Pat Bryant lined up in the backfield as a fullback before rolling to the end zone. Safety Malcolm Hartzog didn’t pick up the receiver while Isaac Gifford ran into traffic in the middle of the field, leaving a wide-open touchdown grab.

The frustrating thing is that the play design was highly similar to a touchdown the Huskers allowed earlier in the game.

On Illinois’ third-quarter touchdown pass throw to Tanner Arkin, both the tight end and a fullback ran routes toward the side of the end zone. Linebacker John Bullock was right on the scene to cover the player in front of him, but he was left wondering why no other Husker defender was near him with two Illinois receivers in the area.

As for the Nebraska offense, well, there was no time to turn things around.

A false start from redshirt freshman Gunnar Gottula, who had performed well filling in for the injured Turner Corcoran didn’t help things. Neither did poor pass protection on first down nor Raiola’s decision to try and escape pressure rather than sailing a pass out of bounds on second down.

On the final fourth-down play, the Illinois defense had hit Raiola before his receivers even reached the first down marker.

It was yet another uninspiring overtime performance from a Nebraska program that has failed to score in its last eight overtime games (Miami 2015, Wisconsin 2016, Northwestern 2017, Northwestern 2018, Colorado 2019, Michigan State 2021, Wisconsin 2023 and now Illinois.)

Nebraska’s overtime struggles may have predated head coach Matt Rhule, but they’ve still continued under his leadership.

A Nebraska defense that began the season with aspirations of being among the nation’s best suffered a major setback against Illinois.

It was not a great night for a Nebraska pass rush which had made a habit of generating pressure with base four-man rushes in previous weeks. A strong Illinois offensive line, combined with a mobile quarterback in Luke Altmyer, meant NU didn’t generate the same impact up front.

The Huskers also struggled to stop the run and get off the field in the second half. Illinois went 5-for-9 on third-down conversions, also moving the chains twice on fourth down while averaging 5 yards per carry in the half.

Altmyer threw as many touchdowns (three) as he did incompletions in the second half as the Illini held the ball for over 18 minutes.

Going up against a Big Ten opponent for the first time, Raiola still operated the Nebraska offense at a high level. What stood out from his performance was the frequency of throws into tight windows — something that was a necessity due to the tight coverage from the Illinois secondary.

Raiola also had much less time to throw than he did in any of Nebraska’s other games this season as the Illini pressure kept him from progressing through his reads. Illinois often rushed five players on third down, leading to plays where Raiola threw behind Isaiah Neyor or forced a pass to a tightly contest Carter Nelson.

Raiola was sacked five times and pressured far more often than that.

“It wasn’t anything different,” Raiola said of playing a Big Ten defense. “Just same old football, it’s not a different kind of football playing in the Big Ten than playing in other conferences.”

As Rhule has often reminded his players, nothing is given in football; everything is earned. So while Nebraska’s hot start to the season may have ignited talk of a 7-0 record heading into a clash with Ohio State, it was never going to be that simple.

A slip up was highly likely, whether against Colorado, Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers or even Indiana. The loss has hit Nebraska in Week 4 — so what comes next?

Will it be a sleepy Saturday morning in West Lafayette, or will the Huskers make quick work of a Purdue team that was embarrassed by Notre Dame last week?

For now, the chase is still on.