Late-Season Drive
- Sean Brennan
- Oct 30
- 10 min read
Nebraska wins ugly against Northwestern – we’ll take 'em any way we can
Down to every man, woman and child, Nebraska fans were pissed about the 24-6 loss to Minnesota, and rightfully so.
That includes this guy, he of the two thumbs pointed straight down and a 1,900-word diatribe to go with it.
I noted last week that the Huskers were “Un-Pretty in Pink,” which was a nice way of saying they played like complete ass. Saturday against Northwestern, things stayed ugly. But what do you know? This time, being unpretty worked out. Well, it worked out well enough to scratch out a disjointed 28-21 win over Northwestern that moved the Huskers to 6-2 and secured a bowl berth for the second-consecutive season.*
*It still feels weird to see this as a cause for celebration rather than a referendum on just how far things have fallen, but that’s the state of Nebraska football in 2025. So … YAY! … I guess.
Things started off well, with NU taking a 7-0 lead after its opening possession. And then Big Red stalled. Then they got good again, following a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half. And then they got worse, again, as Northwestern rallied to tie the game up at 21. That’s a long way of saying that by the time Dylan Raiola threw a bad interception midway through the 4th quarter, things had that all-too-familiar, ominous feeling of doom.
In keeping with the theme, that paragraph I just wrote was ugly, too. But sometimes you just have to push through it. One of my best friends eschewed the television broadcast to lift weights and listen to it on the radio. Another took a walk around a lake. Like I said, Nebraska did what it had to do to push through it, too, going on a 13-play, 64-yard drive to take a 28-21 lead and holding on – literally; cornerback Andrew Marshall got away with defensive holding on Northwestern’s final play for the win.
It’s the finest of lines that often make the difference in big-time college football. Particularly when you are winning ugly. After all, it might (and I stress the word might) have taken just one game – 60 freaking minutes in the aforementioned loss to Minnesota – for Penn State to stop themselves from pressing “confirm” on their Matt Rhule purchase and instead press the “back” button on their browser to continue shopping for other options.
As for Saturday, after quarterback Dylan Raiola’s misread and misguided 4th quarter interception, it appeared Nebraska was headed for the wrong side of the fine-line ledger. A Northwestern linebacker appeared – to Dylan, at least – out of nowhere, picked off the pass and returned it to Nebraska’s 34. It seemed as though Dylan just didn’t see him. Ah, but the fine line works both ways. Four plays later, Northwestern quarterback Preston Stone (note perfect name for a guy playing for the super expensive, private University of Northwestern, by the way – does Preston wear penny loafers? – possibly) threw an ill-advised interception to Javin Wright. Sometimes their guy doesn’t see ‘em, either.
You know the rest: the 13-play, 64-yard drive was the prettiest ugly drive of the season, capped off by that tough sumbitch Emmett Johnson’s 4-yard, these-boots-were-made-for-walkin’ touchdown run. Dylan atoned for that interception and a mostly ugly game of his own by going 4-for-4 on third down passes, all of which accounted for chain-moving first downs.
Call it what you want: ugly, a rollercoaster, disjointed, lucky. But that is what Northwestern does and what a lot (most?) of successful Big Ten teams do. The Iowa Hawkeyes, of course, have mastered the blueprint: win the turnover battle, dominate the special teams, and wait around for your opponent to make a mistake. It all makes me want to vomit (a round of puking emojis on me – put ‘em on my tab), but Iowa has beaten us nine of the last 11 times mostly working from that exact recipe. No, I don’t think Nebraska should aspire to be Iowa, but I suppose it’s nice to know they have it in their back pocket. The experience could come in handy on Black Friday against the Hawkeyes. Maybe they can even beat them at their own game for once.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves (until we eventually do) and instead take a look back at the Northwestern game in Four Downs, with a bonus fifth down in dishonor of a team you probably love to hate. Hut, hut, hike!
FOUR DOWNS
1. This year’s special teams – and special teams coach Mike Ekeler – are the difference between 6-2 and 4-4
This is an opinion that has been pointed out over several platforms – memes, video snippets, podcasts, articles and hopefully talks between farmers in diners in small town Nebraska, too – but it’s an opinion worth driving home, because the difference between this year and last has been worth two wins, and possibly even three.
Ekeler, who Matt Rhule wooed away from Tennessee in the offseason, is the eighth highest paid special teams coach in the country at $625,000. For reference, Iowa, who, as we said, smartly pays close attention to its special teams, pays their guy $725,000. Northwestern, as an uppity private school who recruits guys with names like Preston Stone, does not have to release information on the salaries of its coaches. Texas employs the top special teams earner at $1.2 million.
A native Nebraskan (Ekeler was born in David City and graduated from Blair High School), he is a certified football psychopath. As far as psychopaths go, that’s an acceptable one. Check out video of him going apeshit on the sidelines Saturday and a picture of him suited up for Kansas State in the early ‘90s. Acceptable certified football? Hell yes. More importantly for the Huskers, since Ekeler arrived, gone are the days (go find some wood and knock on it) of bad snaps, bad holds, bad blocking, bad coverage – seemingly bad everything. Since probably the days of Bo Pelini, Nebraska’s special teams has bowed its head in accordance to Murphy’s Law.
This year? Not so much. Not at all. There have been long kickoff returns and long punt returns; a blocked punt for a touchdown and a recovered fumble on a kickoff that led to a score; kicker Kyle Cunanan hasn’t been perfect but he’s been solid; Ekeler’s shift to an Australian-style punting strategy with Australian punter Archie Wilson has allowed teams to return just two punts all season – for a total of -2 yards; and for the love of God exactly zero punts or kicks have been blocked (Nebraska had 10 blocked last season alone, which seems like something that could only be accomplished when you find a glitch in a video game).
While Ekeler is the general, this week’s hero is reserve running back and star kick returner Kenneth Williams, and what a story he is: it sounds like he kinda just showed up at Lincoln High one day after his family moved to Nebraska from Detroit in the summer of 2022. He played well for the Links on the football field, but also finished third in the Class A 100-meter dash with a time of 10.52. Lightly – or not even at all – recruited, Williams asked to walk on. And guess what? When a guy runs a 10.52 in the 100 meters, you give that guy a chance. Kudos to the former coaching staff. The underdog currently leads the nation with an average of 34.7 yards per return.
2. The two ‘other’ coordinators stepped it up, too
As important as special teams coaches are, it’s rare to see one take the spotlight away from either the offensive or defensive coordinators. That being said, Dana Holgorsen and John Butler – since we’re playing the salary game, Holgorsen makes $1.2 million and Butler $1.1 million) – deserve some credit for this ugly win, too.
I vented my frustration last week, and the more I thought about it, I should’ve vented even more. Holgorsen’s playcalling in the Minnesota loss was truly some of the worst I’ve ever seen. But to Dana’s credit, he pulled his headset out of his ass on Saturday and relieved pressure on the porous offensive line by feeding Johnson (Nebraska ran it 39 times and passed it just 22 times) and, more importantly, giving Dylan quick route options in the pass game. It helps when your receivers are out of their breaks before your quarterback is on the ground. Who knew? The offensive line looked … (gritting my teeth) … better … particularly their run blocking. But let’s be honest: the bar was extremely low.
On the defensive side, for the most part Butler – again – had his guys in the right position. And again, whether they make the plays is sort of out of his control. But the cherry on top were two ballsy blitzes on the Wildcats’ final two plays that forced Preston Stone into two incompletions. I’m keeping the faith.
3. Not all heroes are featured on the SportsCenter Top 10. Williams’ kickoff return and and Nyziah Hunter’s mission impossible toe drag on a 3rd quarter fade route for a touchdown – holy shit, we finally completed a fade route! – are the exceptions, but we’d be remiss to not point out Emmett Johnson’s performance on Saturday. He accounted for 29 touches for
145 yards, even though his longest carry was for just 15. “Workmanlike” is typically the operative word used to describe such games, but it doesn’t quite feel complementary enough. He gets the game ball. And how about offensive lineman Rocco Spindler, who played with a broken hand he suffered against Minnesota in which a bone was sticking out through the skin? Or Vincent Shavers, who made six tackles despite playing with a broken thumb. Take a look at these two. You can find those two up “In Da Club,” their upper body appendages at 50 (per)Cent.
(Apropos of absolutely nothing: Hunter might also be the only wide receiver – or defensive back, or linebacker, or running back, for that matter – in the country who actually wears his pants below his knees as the equipment was intended. I apologize if you are not interested in such matters. I’m just here to notice things.)
4. The win over Northwestern is ginormous if for no other reason than it wraps up any and all drama about whether Nebraska will qualify for a bowl game, and it’s not even Halloween yet. This one is self-explanatory to anyone who closely follows Huskers football. The last two Novembers were saturated with talk about whether or not the Nebraska would get to the magic number of six. Quite frankly, it was exhausting. The win over Northwestern spares us from going through it yet again.
5. In honor of the least impressive national championship team of all time, 1990 Colorado, let’s do a 5th Down, too. Ladies and gentlemen, the 1990 Colo-Fraud-o Buffaloes: their record includes a loss and a tie (that’s more black marks in one national championship season than Nebraska has in its five national championship seasons combined; the 1970 Huskers did have a tie), and needed an all-time
gaffe from the referees – who allowed them to run five plays instead of four in the closing seconds and were suspended afterwards – to avoid losing to a 4-7 Missouri team midway through the season. And if that wasn’t enough, they needed even more outhouse luck in the Orange Bowl, when a 92-yard punt return by Raghib “Rocket” Ismail that would’ve won the game for Notre Dame was nullified by an extremely questionable clipping call. And if that wasn’t enough, they had to share the title with Georgia Tech,
(Can you tell I’ve been wanting to get that off my chest on some sort of public forum? I can finally check that off the ol’ f*** it list, so thank you.)
Anyway, in dishonor of that weak-ass national chump-ionship team, Dispatch editor Jim Minge requested a fifth down and some “crystal ball” predictions for the remainder of the season. Let’s go.
A win is a win is a win, but beating Northwestern 28-21 doesn’t exactly have me brimming with confidence heading into the final four games. In more optimistic times, I might have been rope-a-doped into thinking otherwise. Here doggie, doggie. But the Minnesota game was a reminder that until we see sustained excellence over period of time, this program is and will be a week-to-week, game-to-game, Jekyll and Hyde rollercoaster. And, over his first two seasons at Nebraska, it’s worth point out that Matt Rhule is a putrid 1-7 in the month of November. Not exactly encouraging.
Injuries are starting to mount (granted, you could say that about most teams in the country). More concerning still is the offensive line. There was some improvement against Northwestern, but USC will be a completely different animal. Bigger and more athletic. I think that one’s competitive. But still … loss. UCLA just got their asses handed to them by Indiana, but Indiana seems to hand all teams their asses these days. The Huskers learn from the Northwestern game and when things get ugly … win.
Nebraska gets a bye week after that before playing at Penn State and thank God; without said bye week, Nebraska would have to travel from Lincoln to Los Angeles and then cross-country to State College, Pa. within the span of eight days. The bullet’s not completely dodged, however, because on the flip side the bye week allows for 13 days of Matt Rhule “will he or won’t he” talk before his homecoming against the Nittany Lions. (Ice cold Coors Light cold hard fact of the day: The Lions are “Nittany” because Mount Nittany looks over the Penn State campus. You’re welcome. I’m here for you like that.) But I think the travel and distractions prove to be too much. Loss. The season ends against Iowa on Black Friday. Cue more puking emojis. The Hawkeyes look good; they mopped the floor with Minnesota on Saturday – the same Minnesota that did us so, so dirty – to the tune of 41-3. Sure, we just proved we can win ugly, but I don’t think we’re ready to out-Iowa Iowa. Not with this offensive line. Loss.
Yes, I hate myself. And yes, sometimes I look myself in the mirror and wonder what happened. It’s all pretty pathetic, but I’m not the only one. Once upon a time, I was a pretty positive Huskers fan. But a line of demarcation was crossed at some point in 2021. I kinda just brace myself for the worst. I’ve just been hurt too many times.
It all starts Saturday night against USC. Nebraska got what it wanted – a night game in Memorial Stadium where they will wear black uniforms (and thank God for that, too; wearing all black uniforms for a game kicking off at noon would’ve been stupid) and the crowd will be encouraged to wear all black, too. By kickoff, I’m sure I will have created some scenario in my heart in which the Huskers pull it off. But that athletic USC defense against our bad – and beat up – offensive line? My head just doesn’t see it happening. …
Nobody would be happier than me to be wrong.
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