Questions abound as a stunned Matt Rhule apologizes for Nebraska’s latest loss

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Matt Rhule looked stunned.

As the Husker head coach tried to wrap his head around exactly what went wrong in Nebraska’s 56-7 loss to Indiana, it was too soon to offer any explanations.

The physical one-on-one pregame drill which had helped Nebraska set the tone against Purdue and Rutgers meant nothing on Saturday. An extra week to prepare for the Hoosiers didn’t move the needle, nor did the gameplan the Husker coaching staff created for the game.

All Rhule could do was take responsibility and apologize for the loss, and he did just that.

“It’s a bad loss, and again, I apologize for that loss,” Rhule said.

Soul searching can be done over a bye, but it can hardly be done ahead of a road visit to one of the best college football teams in the country. Questions abound after Nebraska’s loss to Indiana with little time for the Huskers to answer them.

Let’s drop into coverage:

Were the first six weeks of the season simply a mirage for the Nebraska defense? The Huskers were so thoroughly outplayed by Indiana that it overshines the strength they’d shown this season to date.

While defensive coordinator Tony White’s 3-3-5 scheme has flummoxed opponents at times, the opposite transpired on Saturday when Indiana executed its gameplan and the Huskers had no response.

Quarterback Kurtis Rourke is a talented passer, but the way Indiana utilizes his strengths makes him even better. The Hoosiers faked the run on nearly every passing play with Rourke getting the ball out quickly the majority of the time.

Such a setup often makes defenders hesitate or commit to the run when a downfield throw is coming, and Indiana exploited Nebraska’s inability to stay disciplined.

Rourke’s lone touchdown pass came on a play where the run fake was so well-executed that Marques Buford came flying from the edge at cornerback, vacating space which allowed a simple screen pass to turn into a touchdown.

“They put us in a run-pass bind with their RPO game and a couple of big plays,” Rhule said. “They attacked us in man with some crack screens, which is the same stuff we do, they blocked us well on the perimeter and I thought a lot of it was that we didn’t tackle well.”

Indeed, the missed tackles piled up in a game Nebraska couldn’t afford them to, and they started almost immediately.

With Indiana facing a third-and-1 on its opening possession, Tommi Hill’s arm tackle was too slow, allowing IU’s Justice Ellison to cut inside and evade the diving DeShon Singleton who instead tackled the air on a 43-yard gain for the Hoosiers.

On Ellison’s touchdown run later in the drive, defensive lineman Ty Robinson got an arm around Ellison with two teammates converging on the scene, yet the running back kept his legs churning and fell into the end zone.

Then on Indiana’s touchdown which gave it a 28-7 lead, defensive back Isaac Gifford crashed the box looking to make a key run stop. With seven Husker defenders and six Hoosier blockers, the advantage was in Nebraska’s favor — but Gifford filled the wrong gap to set up Ellison with a one-on-one run at Singleton which ended in a 31-yard rushing score.

According to ProFootballFocus, Nebraska missed 11 tackles in the loss.

Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola has scarcely looked like a freshman all season, but that changed this past weekend.

The Husker coaching staff wouldn’t have wanted Raiola to attempt more than 40 passes against the Hoosiers, but that’s what the situation called for – and Raiola took a beating while doing so. The freshman was sacked twice and took many more hits as Indiana discovered the formula to slow him down.

With Nebraska backed up to its own goal line, Indiana rushed four players and Raiola had enough time to hit tight end Thomas Fidone II for the first down.

The next third down Indiana faced, the Hoosiers blitzed six with an unblocked rusher up the middle getting into Raiola’s face before his receivers even reached the line to gain.

Raiola was pressured a season-high 16 times in the loss, going 6-of-14 passing for 53 yards when the Hoosiers brought pressure. When Nebraska kept a clean pocket, though, Raiola went 21-of-29 passing for 180 yards.

Raiola was sped up and clearly felt the pressure at times, a situation he’ll need to learn from as the season progresses.

“A lot of those quarterbacks, those five-star kids, nothing has ever been hard for them,” Rhule said. “That was hard today.”

With Nebraska forced to lean on its passing attack as it chased the lead, a big play or two could’ve helped the Huskers get back in the game — but Indiana wasn’t going to let that happen.

The Huskers’ downfield passing attack, which has been a notable strength of the offense in previous weeks, was completely neutralized.

In terms of the players Raiola looks to for big plays, the average depth of target for Jaylen Lloyd (19.5 yards), Isaiah Neyor (14.6) and Jahmal Banks (12.9) shows that all three wideouts have been capable of creating explosive plays. Fidone and freshman Jacory Barney Jr., meanwhile, have been the players Raiola targets for shorter throws.

With Indiana covering the downfield routes and only allowing simple throws in front of them, Fidone and Barney accordingly hauled in 14 of Nebraska’s 28 receptions.

While Raiola has averaged a depth of roughly 7-10 yards per throw this season, his average depth of 5.8 yards per target against Indiana was the second lowest he’s posted all year behind the Colorado game.

The Husker wideouts could’ve helped their quarterback by creating more separation down the field, but even the simple catches didn’t quite play out how Nebraska would’ve hoped.

“There’s nothing that’s happening that is easy and routine,” Rhule said of the Nebraska offense. “You’ve got a one-on-one, you’re throwing a bubble (screen) out there and we’re catching it. They’re running for 20 yards on the same play and we’re getting tackled for no gain.”

Just as Indiana didn’t want to give up any big plays over the top, neither did Nebraska.

The Husker cornerbacks routinely gave Indiana’s wideouts a 5-to-7-yard cushion at the line of scrimmage with Buford and Ceyair Wright being targeted heavily in one-on-one coverage.

Nebraska tried different solutions such as playing with two deep safeties, pressing Indiana at times and trying to bring pressure when it could, but the Huskers were often caught trying to keep the ball in front of them.

That was evident in Indiana’s second possession of the game which began at the NU 45-yard line. Malcolm Hartzog, not wanting to get beat deep, backpedaled all the way past the 30-yard line to provide a big cushion for a throw which resulted in a first down.

Later in the same drive, Buford lined up near the line of scrimmage but quickly backed off before the snap. As a result, Buford was caught flat-footed at the back of his drop and the short throw went for 11 yards.

Sometimes, though, Rourke just threw the ball to spots that Nebraska’s defensive backs couldn’t reach.

On the first play of the second quarter, for example, Wright blanketed Elijah Sarratt in tight coverage. Rourke released the ball before Sarratt even broke for the sideline, knowing their timing was right, and the result was a 28-yard gain.

With another strong passing offense set to face the Huskers next week, their strategy and positioning in the secondary will be worth evaluating in practice.

Once again, an opportunity to earn a sixth win and clinch a bowl game has slipped out of Nebraska’s grasp.

Including last season’s results, Rhule is now 0-5 as NU’s head coach when the Huskers enter a contest with five wins. There are five more opportunities for Nebraska this fall, but the 49-point margin of defeat has led to many questioning whether the Huskers will even reach the six-win mark at all.

One thing’s for sure, anything can happen on a week-to-week basis in the Big Ten. Just look at this week’s results with Michigan State beating Iowa, Maryland beating USC and an Illinois team which was pushed to the brink against Purdue earning a win over Michigan.

A gargantuan test awaits against Ohio State, and the pessimism that a bowl game could be missed again is bubbling up around Husker nation.