Nebraska’s offense has been an inconsistent mess all season. After ten games this season, the Huskers have lost 27 turnovers for a -14 turnover margin.
Heading into Saturday’s game, Nebraska ranked No. 128 in turnover margin out of 130 teams. Following the Huskers’ loss against Maryland, head coach Matt Rhule spoke about his frustration regarding the turnover issue.
“The first one, as you could probably tell, was pretty animated. I think you could probably tell, we made a double move and I felt like we ran a slant and go and I felt like it should’ve been pass interference. I thought he got grabbed and I was pretty animated. The quarterback sees the guy come running out of it. The second one, that’s a quarters beater. That was man. The play has to be checked, it wasn’t checked. Jaylen (Lloyd) ran right by the safety.”
The head coach said that having to play all three available quarterbacks is a less-than-ideal position to find yourself in as a team.
“I think anytime you get to your second and third quarterback, they’re not getting the same reps. The fumble obviously is a problem, we can’t have that happen. I think anytime when it’s happening across multiple players, as a staff, you have to sit there and say ‘we’re obviously not getting it done.’ The last thing I want to do is get up here and blame players. There’s certain things that have to happen, which is okay to say that, but it falls on my head to get it done.”
Rhule also said that the issues with turnovers are eclipsing some of the good the team has done this season.
“You saw the impact of us taking the ball away a few times and as I said to the guys, it’s just a shame. It overshadows all the other good things that they’re doing when you get four turnovers and you lose 13-10. That’s pretty hard to do. It means that we’re being physical and running the football and doing some other decent things, but the passing game is really just not where it needs to be for us.”
Nebraska will next take the field on Saturday against Wisconsin. A photo gallery of the Huskers’ loss to Maryland can be found below.