Will the real Nebraska football team please stand up?
Husker fans hope it wasn’t the one that showed up at Beaver Stadium in “Happy Valley,” State College, Pennsylvania, Saturday night, the one that lost to Penn State 37-10.
That was a Nittany Lion team with a 4-6 record, now 5-6.
As soon as the team got on a plane to return home, its attention would be on Black Friday’s game against Iowa at Memorial Stadium — “we’re on to next week,” Matt Rhule said. “We’ll come back.”
He meant on the field, not the flight’s destination.
There is “no time, no time, no time, to worry about what’s happened,” he said.
What happened was Nebraska didn’t look like a 7-3, now 7-4, team. Oh yes, and it wasn’t because Dylan Raiola didn’t make the trip. TJ Lateef “battled, he fought,” said Rhule.
Lateef doesn’t pass block. He doesn’t run block. And he doesn’t play defense.
Defensively, “we had to tackle, get off blocks,” Rhule said. “We did not.”
Penn State rushed for 231 yards, including 160 and two touchdowns on 25 carries by Kaytron Allen, who became the Nittany Lions’ all-time rushing leader. Nicholas Singleton also rushed for two touchdowns. Quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer threw only 12 passes, completing 11, for 181 yards and the other touchdown. Ryan Barker kicked a 26-yard field goal.
Husker fans don’t care about those numbers, of course. They care that Nebraska’s defense allowed them. For starters, that fell on the defensive line and linebackers.
The Nittany Lions “controlled the line of scrimmage,” said Rhule.
And in a few instances the secondary broke down as well.
“They caught us in some zones,” Rhule said.
The turning point might’ve been on the Huskers’ first possession. They drove 69 yards on seven plays to the Penn State 2-yard line, beginning with a 52-yard run by Emmett Johnson, his second carry and Nebraska’s third play. Johnson finished with a hard-earned 103 yards on 19 carries.
He also led the Huskers with eight pass receptions, for 48 yards.
“I thought Emmett played well, he battled,” said Rhule. “Emmett’s a warrior.”
In any case, Nebraska faced fourth-and-1 at the Nittany Lion 2-yard line and opted to go for it instead of settling for a field goal. The Nittany Lions stopped Johnson at the line of scrimmage. Penn State ball.
The Nittany Lions drove 98 yards on seven plays, including a 50-yard run by Allen and a 31-yard pass to Koby Howard — his only reception — for a touchdown. And they never looked back, scoring on their first five possessions before finally punting. A fake punt led to their final touchdown.
By then, they had the game well-in-hand.
Nebraska got on the scoreboard in the second quarter, when Kyle Cunanan’s 31-yard field goal cut the score to 14-3. The Huskers wouldn’t score again until 55 seconds remained in the third quarter, when Lateef capped a seven-play, 59-yard drive with an 11-yard run.
Lateef completed 21-of-37 passes for 187 yards. He took three sacks. As mentioned earlier, Johnson took a pounding, too, a reflection of the offensive line’s shortcomings.
Both teams punted only twice. Nebraska failed on five-of-six fourth-down conversion attempts. The Huskers finished with 318 yards of offense, Penn State 412.
To credit the Nittany Lions, their record is not reflective of their talent. Their only more-than-one-score loss came against top-ranked Ohio State (38-14). And remember, they were preseason-ranked second, behind Texas, an indication of their returning talent, after losing to Notre Dame in the semifinals of the playoffs, the point being Nebraska faced a bigger task than some expected. Plus, it was Senior Day in State College, and the Nittany Lions were playing for interim coach Terry Smith.
Even so, fans expected Nebraska to put up a better fight.
What they consider the “real” Nebraska.
