Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule is taking accountability after the Huskers’ dismal loss to Minnesota Friday night.
Nebraska fell to the Golden Gophers 24-6 after trailing 7-6 at halftime then collapsing in the second half, marking their sixth consecutive loss to PJ Fleck’s squad.
“It all falls back on me,” Rhule said Monday afternoon. “It’s the first time since I’ve been here that we didn’t get in the end zone. We had opportunities. We had guys open; we didn’t hit them. We had guys open; we didn’t have enough protection to get the ball to them. It was just not good enough at all. That rests on my shoulders, and if the players are who they say they are, which I believe they are, then it rests on their shoulders too.”
Offensively, Nebraska had a season-worst 213 total yards, with only 36 of those coming on the ground (counting sack yardage). In the Big Red’s previous two contests, they kept play calling stabilized between passing and rushing, but this was not the case against Minnesota.
“I’m pissed off,” Rhule said of the offensive performance. “I’m pissed off at the coaches, I’m pissed off at myself, I’m mad. I don’t know how to say it any other way than that, to be quite honest with you …
“Emmett Johnson ran the ball hard. They blitzed us, we never made them pay. We got in some big sets a couple times, we ran by. We had the ball in the red zone twice in the first half; you’ve got to score two touchdowns. Pretty simple game to me: run the ball, stop the run, protect your quarterback, affect their quarterback, don’t beat yourself with penalties. We get down to the red zone, we dive on a guy’s head, we get a targeting call. We have them stopped at fourth-and-3, we get a defensive holding. You can’t beat yourself with penalties. We haven’t taken the ball away on defense in two weeks. Those things all fall on me; I’m the head coach.”
Sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola went 16-of-24 passing for 172 yards while taking nine sacks.
“He was under duress,” Rhule said of Raiola. “So to me, that falls on Dana Holgorsen, it falls on Donnie Raiola, it falls on me, it falls on the players.”
Defensively, Nebraska struggled to stop the run all day, allowing Minnesota junior running back Darius Taylor to rush for 148 yards and one touchdown. As a team, the Gophers ran for 186 yards. Rhule said that the team practiced tackling all week, but they were unable to stop the powerful back on Friday.
“I’d like our defense to wreak havoc, to get sacks and force fumbles and all these things,” Rhule said. “I don’t think we called the game that way. I think we were very vanilla in the way we called the game, and as a result, they got in rhythm.”
Now, Nebraska has the chance to turn the page when it takes on Northwestern on Saturday.
“We have good players,” Rhule said. “They’ve shown that they can do it. Go do it. That’s the growth in this team that has to happen this week. There come some times in life, there are moments where you have to stand up, and so this is that week.”
The Wildcats come into the game with an overall record of 5-2 after pitching a shutout against Purdue on Saturday. Offensively, they’re ranked sixth in the Big Ten in rushing, averaging 190 yards per game.
“They’re really physical, they play really, really hard, they run the football at a really high level,” Rhule said. “They lost the first game of the year and then they’ve lost to Oregon, and then since then, they’re on a tear.”
Right now, the team is focused on improving for their next game. Rhule had one message for Husker fans.
“We will show up,” Rhule said.
Nebraska will welcome Northwestern into Memorial Stadium on Saturday, with kickoff set for 11 a.m. CT on Big Ten Network.
