HUSKERS RECAP – They Listened to Wally!: NEBRASKA 28 PURDUE 10 Matt Rhule Dylan Raiola Peacock Sucks

In the halftime recap, I posted the video below and begged Nebraska to take Wally Riggendorf to heart:

Not everyone wants to watch a video, so here you go. (But you are missing out.):

“Now, let’s analyze what’s been working for us.

[Long pause]

NOT A GOD DAMN THING’S been working for us. Like this goddamn suit doesn’t work for me… and this stinking tie… and this goddamned shirt. IT DOESN’T WORK FOR ME. YOU KNOW HOW TO PLAY WINNING HARD-NOSED FOOTBALL? YOU PLAY FOOTBALL LIKE ED GENERRO PLAYED FOOTBALL. A guy who gave his life for this football team. He was a 140-pound halfback, and HE PLAYED LIKE A GODDAMN WILDMAN! NO! LIKE A GODDAMN RAMPAGING BEAST! And that’s the way you got to do it! YOU GO OUT THERE! YOU TEAR THEIR FUCKING HEADS OFF, AND YOU SHIT DOWN THEIR NECKS! Let us pray.”

This is what needs to happen at halftime when the game has devolved into another Big 10 facetime-for-refs laundry show and Purdue has decided to eat 15 yards anytime a Husker receiver gains a step on anything farther than a screen.

I’m not going to dive into the first half again because it was too depressing, so here’s the link a second time. We’re just parachuting right into 6:52 of the 3rd quarter after it seemed the curtains might closing following a 13-play 8:08 Boilermaker drive for a field goal off the post and a 3-0.

Following that, fellow Corn Nation scribe Todd Wolverton leaned over and, not unlike many other Husker fans in that moment, said “If we don’t drive right down and score now, we may be screwed.”

We all love to panic prematurely and say this 3 or 4 times a game in flop sweat types of back and forth contests. It’s part of college football fandom. Was he right? Who knows? It felt right to me at the time, especially given the Husker penchant for not getting out of their own way in tight games.

What I do know is the Huskers put it on the ground and drove 70 yards in 9 plays with Raiola dropping a 6-yard TD pass to Jahmir Banks for a 7-3 lead. Banks hauled in 5 passes for 82 yards to pace the Huskers and, as always through 5 games, Raiola spread the wealth finding 8 different receivers on the day on his way to a 17-27 257 1 TD line.

(The Boilermakers contributed 30 yards of penalties as part of 8 (?) of the 15-yard variety they added to the effort. Is that a record? I don’t know. But they were all pretty blatant, especially a leg-yank and step-over-the-guy-for-no-reason earned by a Boiler after a beautiful 1st-down-saving open field tackle. Baffling.)

We talk about Dylan’s arm, but the thing not too many of us have never witnessed is this kind of touch on passes of all distance and angles.

The Banks touchdown opened the gates and the Huskers 2nd half offense ended with three straight paydirts; Banks’ six being followed by a Dowdell 1-yard blast and a Jacori Barney 25-yard jaunt. Barney was the Huskers leading rusher on the day with 66 yards on 4 carries followed by the suddenly rediscovered Emmett Johnson who carried 8 times for 50 yards and also hauled in 3 passes for another 48 to edge Barney for total yards on the day 98-94.

Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

The running back pecking order really ought to undergo a change before next week.

The final cherry on top was a John Bullock pick-6 which was about the only thing missing from his 2024 defensive trophy case of sacks, tackles for loss, pass break-up and 4th downs stuffed. He is playing like someone has added a couple mph’s to his top speed and has gone from an undersized-for-FBS Creighton Prep kid to a 35-year-old-looking Sons of Anarchy enforcer with speed.

Purdue scored a meaningless touchdown with barely a minute to play – fine, it pissed me off; leave me alone – but that 28-3 run from 6:42 of the 3rd to 6:15 of the 4th effectively ended the contest.

Now.

Rutgers then Indiana. And they ain’t Purdue.

Can we be the team from that stretch for 40 minutes?

Can we rip their heads off and shit down their necks or not?

And if we can, will we be able to watch or will Peacock be freezing screens and telling us we have too many devices in use? #peacockishotgarbage

Go Big Red.

Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Purdue Boilermakers

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