The mercenary approach fails in Dublin
Nebraska's transfer-heavy team didn't show much in the way of cohesion or culture as they were pummeled by Northwestern and Scott Frost's fate was sealed.
Nebraska was favored against Northwestern by 11 points.
They lost the game, if you happened to miss it. The final score was 31-28 and the fourth quarter was so lopsided as to leave the impression of a beat down rather than a single score setback. Nebraska is fooling themselves if they watch the film and say, “we’re close.”
The Wildcats just about sealed the win with a nine-play drive spanning 4:18 of game clock in the fourth and concluding with a punt to the Nebraska four-yard line. From there the Huskers threw their second interception of the fourth quarter.
I had noted the following a week ago heading into this game:
It’s a precarious situation. They’re trusting a line who could barely run block even with the ultra-spread field of the quarterback run game and couldn’t protect to help a new quarterback execute a passing-heavy offense with transfer receivers. Without having watched Casey Thompson closely last year with the Longhorns I’d say it’s an iffy bet. Having watched Casey Thompson closely last year with the Longhorns I’d say it’s a doomed operation.
They could end up relying on hero-ball with a quarterback who was injured playing behind a bad O-line last season and is smaller and less durable than Adrian Martinez with a similar penchant for committing turnovers when asked to carry a heavy burden for the offense.
Later this week they will travel to Dublin, Ireland to play division rival Northwestern. Why are they playing this game in Ireland? I couldn’t really tell you, but it’s awfully early in the season for a school breaking in nearly all new pieces in their passing game in a more pass-heavy system. Especially against a notoriously sound and sturdy defensive program like Northwestern.
Casey Thompson and the new-look Husker offense had a pretty solid start but eventually reverted to the mean before the end and collapsed in the fourth quarter with interceptions and sacks.
Their struggles might not have mattered but for the total collapse of Nebraska’s defense, which yielded 528 yards of offense to Northwestern. All of this pointed to some interested context around the Nebraska program and the transfer game in general.
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