The Huskers fall apart late to give Illinois the win. The defense looked like a top 100 defense instead of a top 10 defense. Nebraska played a bad game, there is no other way to put it.
- For some reason Mazzccua did not play in a game where he was very much-needed even though coaching staff said he was available. The defense forced Raiola to time and time again score to keep up with Illinois on the scoreboard. The run game was non existent, completely and utterly non existent. With a third string left tackle and a backup right guard, Illinois shoved around the Cornhuskers up front all night. You cannot rely on a freshman quarterback, who played well tonight, continuously dig the team out of a hole.
The catch that wasn’t, was really a catch. The ball was secured against the receivers face mask while the receiver was in the end zone. That is a completed pass for a touchdown and cannot be challenged by the defender afterwards. The receivers did their job tonight, securing many completions on well placed balls from Raiola for the most part. Raiola needs to get better at leading receivers on short to mid level crossing routes.
Penalties, sloppy play and getting shoved around were major factors in this close loss that we are all too familiar with. Midway through the third quarter when our defensive line strapped on their roller skates and got shoved around like a wobbly shopping cart, we all felt that pit in our stomach of “here we go again”. Especially when we lined up to kick a modest range field goal and it was wide left from the moment it left Hohl’s foot.
Nebraska needed to show us that they can stop a Big 10 style offense and play a clean, full game. None of the above came to fruition, as the Huskers best start since 2016 came to a screeching and deflating fault this week as the 400th sellout was one all of Husker nation would soon rather forget.
