Remaining Four Games

How do we end this season?

  • The close loss to Ohio State propels this team to win out and end 9-3

    Votes: 7 9.3%
  • We lose one more time and end 8-4

    Votes: 14 18.7%
  • We beat UCLA next Saturday and one of the remaining three to end 7-5

    Votes: 33 44.0%
  • We just win one more game to end 6-6 and go to a bowl

    Votes: 7 9.3%
  • We lose all four games and end 5-7 with no bowl

    Votes: 14 18.7%

  • Total voters
    75
There is no reason why we can't win every game left on our schedule.  It all depends on what team shows up.  If the team that played OSU shows up, we win.  If the team that played Indiana shows up, we lose.

It would just be so awesome to have 7 or 8 wins going into the Iowa game.

 
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Before the season I expected 8 wins this year and to be 6-1 heading into the OSU game.  Nobody expected Illinois or Indiana to be near as good as they are. We as a fan base have to realize that we are only in year two of the rebuild and culture change, we are going to have head scratcher games and we are going to see our freshman QB play like a freshman QB in arguably the toughest conference in college football. I believe this week we get over the hump against UCLA and finish the season 7-5. I dont think we will beat USC (just a gut feeling) and I for some reason I feel either Wisky or Iowa will beat us in one of those head scratcher games. Either way I think we have seen overall team improvement just not to the level we had hoped/expected. I'm still drinking the Rhule-aid and am still optimistic this season can end on a high note that gives us momentum on the recruiting trail and for next season. 

 
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Don't think it's worth its own thread, but some things I want to see in the final four games:

  • Malachi Coleman. He has 3 games left to still redshirt, and in my non-expert view he was pretty close to Alex Bullock in terms of blocking ability. Teams know when Bullock is in it's likely a run or screen, and if it's not they're still confident in coverage because he's limited. Now imagine if Bullock was 6'4 and had legit track speed - you have to treat that differently. 
  • Emmett Johnson. I know his numbers haven't been great the last few games, and I get the size/speed appeal of Dowdell. But if you're going to keep talking about us needing to break longer runs, he has to be playing more than Dowdell. I can only recall one awkward hurdling broken tackle by Dowdell, and he ran himself out of bounds on another open run trying to turn the corner. I doubt EJ is single handedly the savior of the running game, but he has broken some tackles and has 5 20+ yard runs in his career. Dowdell has 1.
  • Connect on a deep throw at least once per game. Rewatching games I actually don't hate the number of shots we're taking, but we just need to hit on a couple of them. The first quarter catch by Neyor was a start (even though it was overturned), but we had the miss to Banks, what looked like a miscommunication between Barney and Raiola on another, the "OPI" on Neyor - our offense will feel completely different if we can hit a few of those per game. 


    Related, I know other teams know about Jaylen Lloyd's speed and play him accordingly. But we have to be able to get one of those jet sweep wheel routes open, or single coverage in the slot, right?


 
I mean, every team they play the rest of the way is pretty f#&%ing lame.

Favored vs UCLA

Favored vs Wisky

Maybe a TD dog at USC

Even at Iowa
I respectively disagree.  I think UCLA is actually closer to even.  Their schedule has been brutal.  Wisconsin has been so lopsided that I won't count that as a favorite and I think the Badgers are improving.  USC's offense is going to put a lot of pressure on the Nebraska defense.  Winning in Iowa City when it's brick outside is never easy.  7-5 to me is the ceiling, need at least 6-6 to show progress.  

 
I respectively disagree.  I think UCLA is actually closer to even.  Their schedule has been brutal.  Wisconsin has been so lopsided that I won't count that as a favorite and I think the Badgers are improving.  USC's offense is going to put a lot of pressure on the Nebraska defense.  Winning in Iowa City when it's brick outside is never easy.  7-5 to me is the ceiling, need at least 6-6 to show progress.  
I am just talking about gambling lines.

NU -7 vs UCLA

My guess, NU -3.Wisconsin

 
Interesting point from this article:

https://mikefarrellsports.com/college/matt-rhules-nebraska-crockpot-recipe-will-outlast-curt-cignettis-microwave

I think IF we win this game and play like we did against OSU, I don’t see why we can’t win out.

Has our culture really changed? We can find out this weekend.
Interesting article and sure hope he is right.  If Rhule can slowly build it back up then that would be a big win.  Ironically the two upstart high flying coaches could be his worst losses. Colorado last year and Indiana this year.  We avenged Colorado quite nicely.  Too bad Indiana has such a pompous a$$ for a coach. It would be nice to root for an underdog but they are making a lot of enemies.  We must win vs UCLA this weekend to show that Rhule has made progress with his rebuild.  It’s a must win.

 
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Malachi Coleman. He has 3 games left to still redshirt, and in my non-expert view he was pretty close to Alex Bullock in terms of blocking ability. Teams know when Bullock is in it's likely a run or screen, and if it's not they're still confident in coverage because he's limited. Now imagine if Bullock was 6'4 and had legit track speed - you have to treat that differently. 


I've been interested in seeing this myself.  I don't recall him playing against Rutgers, I'm disappointed he won't be available for all 4.  I wasn't grading tape, but I thought he flashed dominance at times last season, and I think he added quite a bit of size this offseason.  

 
Just get to a freaking bowl game.  How many hundreds of hours of practice time has this program cheated itself out of by not doing that since 2016?
This is killing the program.  A chance to let some of the younger guys get quality reps...But to your point figure in 8 years we have missed approx 96-120...

 
I've been interested in seeing this myself.  I don't recall him playing against Rutgers, I'm disappointed he won't be available for all 4.  I wasn't grading tape, but I thought he flashed dominance at times last season, and I think he added quite a bit of size this offseason.  
Same.  I know Rhule had talked about RS him, but 4 games left to play.  He did seem to get better as the year went on and IIRC, started to turn into a physical blocker.

 
If they don’t beat UCLA, they will be tighter than a bulls butt during fly season. They fall apart under pressure. This is a must win for a bowl game. 

 
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