Now, no doubt Nebraska’s latest special teams gaffe was a crucial piece of a crushing loss. It was a disaster of a play. It was clearly put in the wrong spot. Call it a dagger right to Nebraska’s heart, if you want. But coaches routinely fall back on the “series of plays decide games, not just one” way of thinking to shield their players after tough losses.
It’s curious to see Frost, whose offense has been a non-starter so often since the 2018 season ended, direct so much blame in the postgame to one specific specialist.
Games can be won or lost on special teams, absolutely. Nebraska has proven this. Nebraska has also helped special teams mishaps cut deeper than they should. Saturday showcased that plainly.
The following is going to read like disjointed notes about the offense scribbled in a notebook. Bear with me. My brain is broken, I think.
Frost’s offense has been held to 20 points or less now 12 times in 37 games. Nebraska was held to 20 points or less nine times in Mike Riley’s 38 games.
Nebraska had the ball for 23 minutes and 18 seconds in Saturday’s second half, ran 48 plays against what was a clearly gassed defense, and scored 10 points.
After going up 20-13 midway through the fourth quarter, Nebraska went three-and-out on its next two possessions with a chance to ice the game.
Under Frost, Nebraska has had the ball with at least four minutes left on the clock in regulation or in overtime, with a chance to tie the game or take a lead, on 15 different occasions.
Nebraska has failed to score a point on 14 of those possessions.
It has one field goal, the game-winning kick against Northwestern in 2019, converted by safety-turned-emergency-kicker Lane McCallum.
On those 15 possessions, Nebraska has averaged 3.8 yards per play. It has an 8.8% sack rate on those possessions (the national average in 2019, the last full season, was 7.0% for context) and five interceptions.
The thing you hear folks say about rebuilds is that a team will go through a cycle if it’s on the right track. Lose big, lose small, win small, win big. Nebraska looked a team hoping to move from the ‘lose small’ to ‘win small’ camp, and considering its performance against Oklahoma a week ago, many expected that step was right there for the taking.
Late against Michigan State, it looked like Nebraska was taking it.
Instead, the Huskers had three drives in the final four minutes against the Spartans with a chance to go win the game, and they averaged 3.6 yards a play, punted once, sat on two timeouts to go to overtime despite only needing a field goal, and then turned the ball over on the opening possession of overtime.
Already this season, Nebraska has had five drives at the end of a game with a chance. It has averaged 2.9 yards a play.
The team’s inability to run the football when it needs to sticks out like a sore thumb. The offensive line is approaching the danger zone. Everything is on the shoulders of the quarterback. Adrian Martinez has to be rolled from the pocket on fourth-and-short to have a chance at making a play. Nebraska has been unusually incapable of capitalizing on opportunities. Saturday was the latest example of the defense being left out to dry.
Adding in real possessions in the last four minutes of the second quarter to get a feel for how effectively Nebraska is operating its quick-strike offense, Nebraska has failed to produce points on 38 of 49 possessions.
(That 49 number includes a little judgment, excluding such drives where, for example, Nebraska got the ball with 7 seconds left in the second quarter or was running out the clock in the fourth quarter.)
Tempo was supposed to be a weapon, now it only seems to draw false starts.
