Purdue Post Game Press Conference
Robby Hamberg
Week 4 against Purdue has come to an end for Nebraska Football. The final Score of 28-10 would make you think this was an easy game for the Huskers, but this win did not come easy. Watching the game from home I found myself getting the same feeling deep down that we all have had the past 6-8 years. It’s going into the 4th quarter and we are only up 4, another tight one score game that we have proven time and time again that we cannot find a way to win. But then the Nebraska offense woke up, the Defense played lockdown and scored on a pick 6 from John Bullock. When Nebraska absolutely needed to make plays in the 4th quarter they did. Yes, there is still a lot of work that needs to get done, yes our special teams has much to improve upon. But at the end of the day Nebraska found a way to take a close 4th quarter game and show that they were the better team on the field. Honorable mention to the ref’s today, they found a way to make this game interesting.
Immediately following the game Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule held his usual press conference, here is your rundown of what he had to say;
– Coach Rhule said that this was a close game in the 4th quarter, but we went against the Narrative and won it. The team made the plays in the 4th quarter and Coach is proud of the team
– Though we didn’t score until late third quarter, we only had to punt the bowl twice
– Of our missed field goals one was a flat out miss, the other two Coach said were aided by bad snaps. The snaps were in the ground.
– Despite the tough first half the team didn’t flinch and was exactly where they needed to be at the half
– Coming off a heart breaking loss like last week where things did not go Nebraska’s way Rhule is impressed with how the team responded today
– Due to some of the tough officiating calls today Rhule said his guys had to tell him to keep his composure on the sidelines
– Emmit Johnson made some big crucial plays in the second half
– When Jacory Barney is in the game teams have to defend Nebraska differently due to his speed and explosiveness
– On Nebraska’s double pass play on third down Rhule said we had tried to run on previous third down conversions with little success so decided to let Raiola throw it for two chances
– The team was very locked in at half time and the players wanted to compete
– Everything went wrong that could in the first half. Emmit Johnson’s toughdown was called back on a questionable at best pass interference call. Rhule said “we did not touch him”. And if you watched the game you would know that Fidone executed that play well and never touched the defender
– Rhule is proud of how the team responded from the first half adversity
– John Hohl is a developing kicker with a big leg and needs time to grow.
– Rhule said Nebraska is a growing team. He sees the Huskers as what they are, a team that is getting a little bit better in some areas. Nebraska went on the road after a hard loss and got a win despite some adversity in the first half
– With Tommi Hill out and Ceyair Wright getting hurt mid game, Jeremiah Charles and Mario Buford stepped up and played well for the defense
– The Coach felt the defense defended the run well today against a good rushing team
– Rhule threw his headset in the white which caused his third penalty ever
– Rhule said we are not an undisciplined team and that we are doing things right and at a high level
– Today’s game was about Nebraska competing
– On the Dowdell touchdown run, that was a play that the team practiced earlier in the week
– Nobody said anything about Gunnar Gottula which is a good sign for the young OL
– Micah Mazzccua is not off the team
Rhule had quite a bit to say in the almost 11 minutes he spoke today. He seemed to have a fairly fired up demeanor about him today, but can you blame him? This is now two straight weeks of what has been largely poor officiating against Nebraska to open up conference play. As a coach he sees his team executing plays and making blocks, but flags are thrown anyway. What more can you ask for out of the team?
At the end of the day, ugly or not, Nebraska has started the season 4-1. The road ahead looks to be increasingly more challenging, but Nebraska has the ability to win a lot of games this year, and we took a small step forward today by being able to have a dominant 4th quarter. Now the question is, can we put it all together for 4 quarters, consistently?
