Nebraska Football: What we learned in loss to Northwestern

Nebraska football fell to Northwestern on Saturday by a score of 21-13. What did we learn about the Cornhuskers in the loss?

There was optimism heading into this game that the Nebraska Cornhuskers could get the job done against Northwestern and win their first game of the season. That did not end up happening, as the Huskers lost by eight points and moved to 0-2 on the year.

With the game in the rearview mirror, what did we learn about Big Red in their second loss of the season?

Defense is developing

The defense has been a weakness for awhile now, but they played incredibly well on Saturday. It was the offense that led the team down.

The Blackshirts picked off Northwestern quarterback Peyton Ramsey twice, hurried him nine times, and sacked the Wildcats signal caller once. Luke Reimer was flying all over the field with 10 tackles and the lone sack of the day while Myles Farmer also impressed on the gridiron.

All in all, the defense surrendered 21 points, but at times weren’t put in the best of situations. if the offense had played even just a tad better, this probably ends up as a victory for the Huskers. The team finally saw their defense rise to the occasion and the offense couldn’t do their part.

Quarterback woes

Heading into this season, the Huskers seemed to be in a good spot as far as the quarterback position was concerned. Adrian Martinez struggled last year, but there was a lot of optimism this year that he’d be able to turn things around and get back to playing like he did as a freshman in 2018.

The Cornhuskers also have Luke McCaffrey, who showed a lot of promise in limited action last year. The two were going to be a nice one-two punch under center and while neither has been TERRIBLE, they haven’t played as well as Nebraska was hoping.

Martinez went just 12 of 27 for 125 yards and an interception, but added 102 yards with his legs on 13 carries. He didn’t look great on Saturday and the patience has run out amongst Big Red Nation. McCaffrey went 12 of 16 for 93 yards and an interception while rushing for 49 yards on the day.

Nebraska won’t be able to win these kind of games until their quarterbacks can step up and make plays when needed to the most.

Wasted opportunities

The Huskers got into the red zone six times during this game. That sounds great, right? At minimum, they get 18 points out of that and at most, they get 42 points. Well, the Huskers came away with just 13 points in those six trips.

The offense was looking good at first, putting up points in three of their first four trips in the red zone. They had two field goals and later added a touchdown. The missed opportunities were the missed field goal in the first half and two interceptions thrown in the second half. The one thrown by McCaffrey was a 2nd and Goal on Northwestern’s four-yard line. Oof.

It was frustrating to see Nebraska come up short in half of these red zone appearances and it’s why they lost the game. The offense was playing okay, but when push came to shove, they couldn’t punch the football into the end zone. It’s hard to win games when teams can’t do that.

Next up: Nebraska finally gets to host a game, as the Penn State Nittany Lions come to Lincoln for an 11 AM CST match-up. Can the Huskers avoid an 0-3 start?