On a cold, clear Friday night in Champaign, the Illinois Illini came back from a seven-point deficit, scoring 21 straight points to defeat the Nebraska Cornhuskers 24-13. Despite outscoring their opponent for their ninth straight game, the Huskers lost their fourth straight game while Illinois extended its winning streak to four games. It was a game with two teams headed in opposite directions. For some inexplicable reason, Nebraska was favored on the road against the Illini after suffering three straight fourth-quarter collapses. Illinois head coach Bret Bielema, who lost his father last week, completely outplayed Nebraska’s Matt Rhule and improved to 4-1 against the Huskers.
Nebraska had led in the fourth quarter in every game this season until Friday night, when Illinois led 14-7 heading into the final stanza. Since their 20-17 fourth-quarter loss to Indiana on October 10, where the Huskers played pretty well for 3 1/2 quarters, they have managed to play worse in each successive game. While last week’s last-minute loss to Washington was inexcusable, this week’s play was disgustingly indisciplined and ineffective. The Huskers entered the game ranked 119th in the nation in penalties, then made several fatal errors with 11 penalties for 82 yards. To make matters worse, the Huskers had four 11-play drives in which they scored no points.
It’s no surprise that they totaled 426 yards to Illinois’ 376 when you’re unable to end drives with scores. In fact, on the aforementioned 11-play drives, the Huskers failed to even reach the red zone. A key metric that measures offensive efficiency is yards per point (YPP). The lower the number, the more effective the offense. A YPP of 13 is elite, while anything above 16 is problematic. The number of participants in the Nebraska YPP program on Friday was 32.8!! Last week against Washington it was 38.7 and during the four-game losing streak the Huskers’ YPP is 26.8. This is inexcusable and a recipe for a losing campaign. Even if the Huskers had managed YPP in the last 4 of 16 games, with the yards they gained, they would have averaged 22.6 points per game, potentially winning three of those games.
Despite the penalties and offensive inefficiency, several coaching decisions were made. All three running backs averaged 5.2 yards per carry, so why on a 4th and 1 at the Illinois 25 yard line, when you’re down 7 points, do you throw the ball? After the turnover on downs, Illinois then drove 75 yards to go up 14. Nebraska completed a 51-yard touchdown prayer to Jacory Barnet to cut the lead to 21-13 with 10:51 left in the 4th quarter and attempted a two-point conversion. What analysis strategy suggested this was a good idea? When Nebraska then fell behind 24-13 with just 7:46 to play, they embarked on a long 11-play drive (even huddling on occasion), then on a 4th-and-3 from the Illinois 34-yard line, threw the ball downfield incomplete. Offensive coordinator Dana Holgerson was moved to the booth to develop this strategy?
The Blackshirts entered the game ranked 14th in defense (15.6 points per game), then gave up the most points to an opponent this season, against an offense ranked 65th in scoring. Nebraska led the nation with a third-down conversion percentage of 21.4% before allowing Illinois to convert on 8 of 15 chances (53.3%). The defense held Illinois to 84 rushing yards, including just 11 yards in the first half, the sixth time this season NU has held its opponent to fewer than 100 rushing yards.
Last week it was WR Chris Lawson who had a career day against the secondary and this week it was Illinois receiver Collin Dixon who tormented mid-season All-American Andrew Marshall. Marshall’s draft status may have taken a hit as Dixon finished with eight receptions for 129 yards and two touchdowns. The defense had carried the weight over the last three games while the offense and special teams struggled. On Friday, Nebraska finally managed to play some complementary football when all three teams stunk. At least the Huskers remain the only FBS team without a lost fumble this season (sarcasm intended).
For the second straight week, quarterback Anthony Colandrea threw the ball more than 40 times and finished 32 of 43 for 284 passing yards. He also added 27 rushing yards to account for 311 total offensive yards, bringing his career offensive total to 11,183 yards. He wasn’t as unpredictable as last week against the Huskies, and he protected the ball better. He still has trouble locating open receivers at times because he seems to lock on to a target instead of moving forward in his progression. Colandrea played his best ball on a 10-play, 98-yard drive in the second quarter, NU’s longest drive of the season in terms of yards. On that drive, Colandrea completed 4 of 5 passes for 38 yards while the Husker running backs ran 5 times for 50 yards. It was balanced and effective and the playcall made sense. I wonder why they have trouble maintaining this kind of consistency.
Receiver Jacory Barney Jr. had six catches for 93 yards, with his 51-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter tying the longest reception by a Husker this season. WR Nyziah Hunter tied his career high with six receptions for the second straight game and finished with 32 receiving yards, but untimely offensive pass interference was one of the drive killers. WR Quinn Clark had a career-high three receptions totaling 20 yards. Tight end Luke Lindenmeyer had five receptions in the game, increasing his career total to 66, placing him in third place on NU’s career tight end receptions list. Kwazi Gilmer added 4 catches for 58 yards, but also added a few more drops to his resume.
Jamal Rule again led the team in rushing with 15 carries for 69 yards, running angry at times. Isaiah Mozee contributed 31 yards on 6 carries and Mekhi Nelson had a 15-yard TD on his solo run, his fifth rushing TD this year. The running game was solid, but penalties continued to put the offense behind the sticks and disrupt the run/pass balance.
The defense was led by Vincent Shavers, Jr. who made 7 tackles including a TFL. Caleb Benning and Dwayne McDougle III each made 6 stops, and defensive end Jordan Ochoa had a 10-yard sack in the second quarter, the first complete sack of his career. He had already shared a sack against Akron in 2025. Cam Lenhardt also had a sack among his 3 tackles. Defensive leader and linebacker Owen Chambliss left the game in the third quarter when he re-injured his shoulder and did not return. Fortunately, the x-rays were negative. His presence was missed as Illinois scored 10 points in the fourth quarter in his absence.
Special teams were a major group. John Hohl, who replaced Kyle Cunanan last week as placekicker, missed field goal attempts of 45 and 54 yards and the Huskers are now 5 of 12 in field goal attempts for the year. Archie Wilson averaged 43.0 yards on just two punts with a long of 51. The special teams’ biggest mistake was allowing the holder to rumble 29 yards to the NU 2-yard line on a 4th-and-12 fake field goal that ultimately gave the Illini a 14-7 lead.
Matt Rhule is now 24-23 in his fourth year at Nebraska, but just 2-11 in November with Rutgers, Ohio State and Iowa still to play. After managing to get seven wins last year, six wins or less this year (after a 5-0 start) will be completely unacceptable to fans. But can Nebraska really afford to fire Rhule and eat his $47.9 million base salary, not including the millions owed to the rest of the coaching staff? What will happen to a promising 2027 recruiting class if the ax falls and Nebraska faces another slow rebuild? Are we stuck with just a bigger Mike Riley? The natives are restless and if the Huskers don’t find a way to pull off a few wins down the stretch, it could get even uglier. As always, Go Big Red!!
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