This is becoming all too familiar for Nebraska Cornhuskers fans. After starting the season 5-1 and looking well on their way to bowl eligibility, the Cornhuskers have dropped four straight games. Now for a second straight season, they are in danger of a collapse that will keep them searching for bowl eligibility for another year.
This week’s latest loss saw the Huskers fall to the USC Trojans 28-20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The game included a missed defensive pass interference call on the final play of the game in the red zone. While Huskers fans are certainly unhappy with the missed penalty, it is far from the only reason that Nebraska failed to come out on the winning side for the fourth straight week.
The loss also continues a trend for the Cornhuskers of losing in November. Since the 2021 season, the Huskers are an abysmal 1-12 in November games including 0-6 under head coach Matt Rhule. The Huskers’ lone win in that span was a 2022 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Under Matt Rhule, the Huskers last season were in a similar spot, entering the month of November with a 5-3 record, needing one win to achieve bowl eligibility. Instead, the Huskers would lose four straight games, three of them by a field goal and all within one score. While the long-time head coach has shown he can build programs, the programs now continuously struggle in November, and 0-6 record under his watch is becoming a mounting concern.
Below, CornhuskersWire offers five takeaways on the latest of those six losses to USC
Holgorsen’s up and down day
It was an okay day for the Nebraska offense, it was by no means a great day but it wasn’t terrible either. Dana Holgorsen in his first game as the Huskers OC flashed the brilliance that he’s had throughout his career but also flashed the issues that have hampered him at previous stops. The Huskers’ offense on Saturday when they got into rhythm was able to be effective, but those drives were far few in between. There were a handful of strange play calls throughout the game from Holgorsen as well. As a whole, the Huskers had 310 yards of total offense in the game with 191 passing yards and 119 rushing yards. Nobody expected it to be a quick turnaround for the Huskers and offense and in all likelihood, it’s going to be a struggle as the season comes to an end.
Raiola’s tough day
After just having two interceptions in his first five games of the season, it has been a tough road the last few weeks for Huskers starting quarterback Dylan Raiola. Over his last five games, Raiola has two just two touchdown passes to eight interceptions. Raiola on Saturday against the Trojans was fine but nothing remarkable, he was 27-for-38 for 191 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions including one on the Huskers’ final play in the endzone. Raiola on the season now has completed 65.5% of his passes for 2,112 yards and 11 touchdowns while throwing 10 interceptions. We’ll see if the talented true freshmen could finish the season off strong over the next two weeks.
Huskers have little answers for Jayden Maiava
The USC Trojans made the switch at quarterback before this weekend’s game going from Miller Moss to Jayden Maiava and it worked out quite well for the Trojans. Maiava after throwing a pick-six early in the game responded well, picking the Huskers’ secondary apart at times, completing 25-of-35 passing attempts for 259 yards and three touchdowns. Maiava also showed he can pick up yards with his legs, adding 20 yards and a touchdown on five carries.
Ceyair Wright’s homecoming game
If there was any positive from Saturday’s loss for the Huskers, it was the performance of cornerback Ceyair Wright. The Los Angeles native against his hometown team, growing up just miles away from the Los Angeles Coliseum. Early in the game, Wright got his storybook moment as he stepped in front of a poor Jayden Maiava throw to pick it off and returned it 46 yards for a touchdown. Then in the fourth quarter after USC took a 21-20 lead, Wright blocked the extra point, keeping it to a one-point game. He also finished the game with four tackles.
Can the Huskers find a win in their last two games?
After being 5-1, the Huskers now have their backs against the wall with two games left to play with a 5-5 record. Still awaiting the Huskers is a 5-5 Wisconsin Badgers team and a 6-4 Iowa Hawkeyes team. While neither team has been overly great this season and both are quite beatable, recent history will be against the Huskers.
While Wisconsin has won 10 in a row against the Huskers, Iowa has won seven of their last eight with a 24-17 win for the Huskers in 2022 under interim head coach Mickey Joseph being the lone win for the program. Entering next weekend, both the Badgers and Huskers will be entering on losing streaks.
Wisconsin’s current three-game losing streak features losses to No. 4 Penn State (28-13), Iowa (42-10), and No. 1 Oregon (16-13). That being said, the Badgers took the top-ranked Oregon Ducks down to the wire on Saturday and should be bringing quite a bit of confidence into their matchup next week at Memorial Stadium.
Iowa was off this past weekend but will return to action against Maryland next Saturday. The Hawkeyes have had ups and downs all throughout the season, their longest winning streak of the season being just two games.
If the Huskers can find their form from earlier this season, they could very well pick up win No. 6 and could even win both games. That being said, after the last four games, there’s no reason to believe that the Huskers can refind that form either.