Ty Robinson said it was a team loss on Saturday, as the Huskers try to find a way to win in these final important games.
Ty Robinson was among those who raised the volume in his voice as the Huskers headed to the fourth quarter this past Saturday.
This is the type of game we love, he told his teammates. This is the kind of Big Ten game we want to be in, he shouted. It was a huddle before the final 15 minutes similar to one the team had at Illinois, when Robinson thought the Husker defense played some of their best ball.
The cruel twist connected to this beautiful game, and the thin margin between joy and sadness on a given Saturday, is that such a sideline conversation is either one of those moments you would have read all about around here on Sunday OR passing postgame conversation based off a few hurtful tilting plays. The latter, here.
Nebraska led 10-7 at the moment of the gathering. The defense had just stuffed Maryland on fourth down moments earlier. And then Jeff Sims fumbled on the first play of the fourth quarter at the NU 21. The defense held in three plays. Also three points for the opponent on a platter, though.
The next offensive series: a pick in Husker territory. Nebraska’s defense again responded, forcing a fumble inside the 5, thanks to a Javin Wright hit and Robinson recovery.
The pre-fourth quarter gathering words were not for nothing. The Huskers drove 92 yards 5 yards from the end zone. It seemed like a celebratory Saturday may come after all. Then Chubba Purdy threw an interception on third-and-goal.
The Blackshirts had been dinged here but had still impressively held Maryland to 10 points. Then came a 75 yard Terrapins drive on 12 plays for the game-winner. Enough of a soul-denting drive to let everyone walk to the locker room taking responsibility even on a day when NU turned the ball over five times.
«It’s a team loss. On defense, I can say we let up too many big plays,» Robinson said. «We knew it was going to be a passing game. When it happens and you know you prepped for it all week and it still happens and you’re shocked, I don’t know what else to say.»
Indeed, the Husker defense expects better out of itself than that final series when it picked up its first penalty of the day on a third-down pass interference and also had a rare crack on run defense that allowed a painful 21-yard gain.
Still, most outside voices are going to look at the offensive woes and settle their glance there. It’s fair if we’re frank about it. It’s also important inside the walls, as Nebraska’s head coach was clearly getting across in his postgame session Saturday, for everyone to look at what he can do a little better.
It’s the only way forward, with much riding on if Nebraska can win at least one of its final two games against teams the Huskers have largely struggled against through the past two coaching eras in Lincoln.
«I think for me it’s important to remind them how much I respect them and care about them, and how some guys are really hurting, and how some guys I’m sure are like, ‘Man, I let the guys down and if I hadn’t done this,’ but it’s the man in the arena, the guy that has the guts to go out there…» Rhule said. «So I just encourage them that at the University of Nebraska I expect us to finish the game on offense but I also expect us to finish the game on defense. This shouldn’t be anything but a team.»
There wasn’t any yelling and screaming after that loss, the coach said. He believes guys laid their heart and soul on the field but he also hopes they gain from the lessons that come with such games of heartache, with Nebraska third three-point loss of the season keeping the Huskers at 5-5 and still needing a win to playin a bowl game for the first time since 2016.
Rhule added that focuses on each person thinking of what they could have done different. «Not, ‘Oh, you should have done this.'»
And come back this week ready to go, as Nebraska heads to Wisconsin to play a primetime game on NBC against a 5-5 Badgers team also licking its wounds and not yet bowl eligible in the first year of the Luke Fickell era up there.
According to Badger247, Wisconsin safety Hunter Wohler said after a 24-10 loss to Northwestern this Saturday, «Where to go right now, I don’t know. But we’re going to have to find a way. We’re going to have to figure it out and we will. … We just have to play better. We come out soft. We come out flat. We have zero energy on the other side of the ball. And we get whupped around the field. … We have to be better. We’re soft, we’re not physical, we’re not doing the things that coaches ask of us. And we go out there and expect to win, and that’s not how this game works.»
The Badgers have lost three in a row and four of their last five this season, yet have won nine a row against the Huskers dating back to the regular-season game in Lincoln in 2012. Wisconsin trailed most of the game in Lincoln last year but scored in the last minute to win 15-14.
On Nebraska’s side of the fence, Rhule said it’s about changing the turnover battle, not having penalties (which Nebraska has been good at of late), running the ball and stopping the run, annoying the quarterback, fourth-quarter shutouts and winning the middle eight minutes of the game.
«The things that we talk about are really what winning and losing is about. Our guys are learning that lesson – sometimes really good, sometimes really bad … But if they can learn everything there is to know about winning and losing in these times, they’ll be really good in the end.»
Rhule told his team to expect the same type of close game against Wisconsin as it was against Maryland, needing to make that one more play in the end.
«But I really do believe that that’s the message. I believe that our seniors, they’re winners,» Rhule said. «And I know how badly they want to win, how badly they want to finish with a win and get to a bowl game and all those things. Sometimes you have to overcome these circumstances and show back up when you’re kind of crushed to get there. And I expect our guys will do that.»