Brian Rosenthal: Huskers still a work in progress
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STILLWATER, Okla. — And here we scribes, watching Oklahoma put the finishing touches on a Missouri meltdown, were coming up with scenarios in which Nebraska could clinch a Big 12 North Division title this coming weekend.
Namely, one scenario. Beat Missouri. That would do it. Simple, right?
Tsk, tsk. Haven’t we learned by now that nothing’s simple in the Big 12 North?
Now, just like the scene beyond the west end zone at Boone Pickens Stadium, everything’s a mess.
Oklahoma State’s home field, you see, is under construction. A work in progress.
Just like Nebraska, apparently.
Weren’t the Huskers past this stage, you ask? Weren’t the second-half road collapses against very beatable foes a thing of the past?
Well, here we go again. Don’t put away the hard hats just yet. Nebraska, it seems, is not back. There’s clearly work to be done, judging by the No. 20 Huskers’ 41-29 setback Saturday to unranked OSU.
What’s worse? The loss? Or the way the game unfolded?
“Nothing was going right,” Nebraska wide receiver Nate Swift said. “It seemed like we got on them early, and we just couldn’t do anything in the second half.”
First, the big picture: Nebraska, knowing fellow North front-runner Missouri had lost to Oklahoma, had a golden opportunity to create separation in the division. Major separation.
“It’s something we regret,” Nebraska senior Andrew Shanle said. “We came into this game, and we didn’t make the plays we needed to. It wasn’t our day.”
As for the national scene, Nebraska will deservedly drop out of the Top 25. Good. It’s like a timeout for a child who’s acting up. The Huskers need some time to think about their recent mistakes. Saturday, there were plenty.
Sure, coaches and players will talk all week about how their Big 12 North title hopes are still alive. That’s very true. Missouri will be singing the same song this week, meaning Saturday’s 11 a.m. game at Memorial Stadium is still a biggie.
But is the big picture really that much in focus? Or is anyone else out there getting blurred vision?
“We just have to get better,” Nebraska coach Bill Callahan said. “I am not pleased with our efforts today. We can play better, we can coach better, and that was pretty evident today.”
Nobody’s off the hook on this loss.
* Special-teams play continues to falter before our eyes. The big mystery, of course, is why Nebraska seemingly has nobody on the roster who can boot the ball into the end zone on kickoffs. That ability would’ve been especially nice in the final minute of the first half Saturday; instead, OSU returns a squib kick 39 yards to set up a touchdown.
* The Kansas game wasn’t an aberration for the defense, after all. The secondary was burned again. A beat-up linebacking corps couldn’t consistently get off blocks. Neither could defensive backs, for that matter. The chunks of yardage on the ground were nothing short of alarming.
* A running game that set the tone for a 16-0 lead mysteriously disappeared in the second half. Nebraska coaches inexplicably shied away from Brandon Jackson, who’d run for nearly 100 yards in the first quarter alone. And they did it long before Nebraska surrendered the lead. It’s like they were playing from behind with a lead. That doesn’t work.
* Of course, perhaps it could’ve worked had the passing game been clicking. It wasn’t. Receivers ran wrong routes, bad routes. They dropped passes. Protection broke down. Zac Taylor was sacked five times. He overthrew receivers.
“We didn’t match them,” Nebraska offensive coordinator Jay Norvell said. “We didn’t get enough big plays.”
Nebraska players insist there was no Texas-sized hangover. But did Texas beat the Huskers twice? That’s tough to gauge.
We do know that, in this race-for-the-North scenario this time a year ago, Nebraska folded in a three-game skid that ended with a meltdown against Kansas.
Eerily, the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game sometimes resembled that debacle.
This mess isn’t that bad. But there were enough problems Saturday to put a clean-up crew on standby.
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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