The Most Overrated Thing Was …
The Nebraska loss to Illinois wasn’t a deathblow … yet.
Outside of the team’s effort to mount a comeback after getting down big, there’s little-to-nothing positive about Nebraska’s defeat.
The Huskers were favored by 7 against a mediocre program, things were supposed to start rocking in Scott Frost’s fourth season at the helm, and now the hot seat talk around the head man has turned flaming.
This was the guy who was supposed to turn the program into a superpower again, and now Nebraska once again looks totally ordinary on the way to another losing season. However …
Let’s not do this quite yet.
Nebraska isn’t going to win the Big Ten title, and it appears to be woefully lacking in big-time playmakers, but there’s still plenty of time to turn this season around. Frost still has a shot to show there might be hope, but it’s not happening until the mega-mistakes come to a complete stop.
His first team back in 2018 couldn’t get out of its own way with bad penalty after bad penalty – and all seemingly coming at the worst possible times. Against Illinois, a mistake on a punt return led to an early safety, there were issues with the kicking game, the O gave up a scoop-and-score at the end of the first half for a 16-9 Illinois lead, and true to form, the penalties were a killer.
And that’s the biggest issue in the Frost era. His teams haven’t been talented enough or good enough to overcome the monster errors.
But the Huskers get Fordham this Saturday. They get a home game against Buffalo to follow, and they still have winnable home dates against Northwestern and Purdue along with 50/50 battles against Michigan State and Minnesota on the road.
It might seem impossible after the performance on Saturday, but there’s still a shot at pulling off a run to a bowl game. It might take a whole lot to do it, but cut out the mistakes – easier said than done so far under Frost – and there really is the potential for something decent after a rough start.
It might not be what Nebraska fans were hoping for by now, but don’t bury the 2021 team quite yet.
– Bret, Nebraska, UTEP Winners & Losers
– The Super Seniors: One Really Big Thing
– UCLA’s win: Most Underrated Thing
– Learn from this already: What It All Means, Week 0
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