Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule met with the media following the Cornhusker’s 17-9 victory over the Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday afternoon. When asked about the performance of the passing game, Rhule stated that the plays were there to be made.
“We’re not going to play in fear, the passes were there. A lot of our passes were like, hey it’s a pass with a quarterback draw. The pass might happen and I said at one point we’re starting to get a little bit on hey we’re running the ball, we’re better when we are mixing it. We come out of a wheel route and Alex (Bullock) is wide open. We didn’t quite hit it today. I don’t know how we’re going to get better if we don’t call it and work through it.”
Nebraska had its lowest passing yard output of the season, with starting quarterback Heinrich Haarberg going 8-17 for 85 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions
Through Nebraska’s first seven games, the Cornhuskers are averaging a paltry 134 passing yards per game. Rhule also made it clear that he will never shy away from the opportunity to make a big play.
“I don’t worry about things that, like three quick passes and our defense is tired. When the time of possession is tilted in our favor or when it’s close or even. The defense isn’t tired. I don’t worry about those things. If I was thinking that way I probably wouldn’t and I would say hey just run the ball, we have a lead. But we took the shot to Malachi (Coleman). We had some other shots in the game we thought we were going to have and made a couple of plays.”
Rhule went on to say that the Cornhuskers will continue to be aggressive on the offensive.
“I just think we have to continue to be aggressive and we just have to coach our way, and work our way through these phases of, you know what, hey it’s not super pretty right now just keep playing.”
Nebraska will take the field next against the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday, October 28, at 2:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. Find a photo gallery of the victory over Northwestern below.