Nebraska Football Coach Matt Rhule Postgame; Cornhuskers Fall to Illini in OT

Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule met with the media following a 31-24 overtime loss to Illinois. The Huskers fall to 3-1 on the season.

You can watch the full appearance above. Below is a portion of what Rhule had to say.

Opening Statement

“Ah that’s a tough loss. To win the game in overtime. Disappointing. It’s something we certainly have to learn from.” 

On Illinois’ game plan 

“We predicted that they would come out and be spread, no huddle like they were. The second half they had long yards rushing. I think at half they ran for over 100 yards. Just like they did last week. We didn’t seem to be the more physical team. We did win the turnover battle today. Defense took the ball away twice today, could not get off the field. I thought we had a really hot offense there for a while and would love to have gotten them the ball a little more. They sat for long stretches. Obviously penalties hurt us on defense. There were three drives with the 15 yarder which is unfortunate.”  

On how this game compares to games last year

“We had good resolve last year. Tonight was disappointing. Last year I never felt like we got pushed around too much. In the second half we’re playing man to man. The guy they have man to man, they’re trying to make a play. The guy is catching the ball. Even the play they threw the ball to the big o-lineman wearing the ninety-four number. We can’t let that happen. We had them stopped. I love our guys and as I told them, you know the narrative has been ‘Hey they’re going to win all these games. We’re 1-0 every week, lock-in.’ So, we have a lot to learn from this game. I’m sure our guys will bounce back. It was a costly night. We had some big injuries. Tommi (Hill) couldn’t go. Turner (Corcoran) looked like he got hurt pretty severely. Gunnar (Gottula) went in. We’ll have to regroup.”

On the offense’s performance and stopping the run

“I don’t think the offense was much of the issue. They were loading up the box. They couldn’t cover us. I didn’t feel like they could cover us. I think the issue was, like last week, was we didn’t get the ball. Even on that last drive, we kind of pounded on the play. We just unfortunately didn’t hit on that play. The way Illinois plays. They put everyone in the box. We did run. I thought they were efficient. There will be games where people will start to play a little different against our guys and we will be able to run the ball a little better. I thought Satt (Marcus Satterfield) opened it up on that drive. Through the deep ball to (Isaiah) Neyor and then the throwback to Tommi (Hill) I thought we had a lot of plays in the bank tonight.”