The Huskers won’t exactly be red-hot when they host Ohio State next weekend.
Nebraska has lost three straight games, its longest losing streak of the season (and since 2019), while the Buckeyes are winners of six consecutive contests.
The numbers have not been atrocious for the Huskers in losses to Michigan, Minnesota and Purdue over the past three games, as Nebraska has not been significantly outgained on offense in any of the three matchups. In fact, Nebraska won the yardage battle against Purdue. However, the Huskers were on the losing end of the turnover differential against both the Wolverines and Boilermakers, and have generally struggled to get enough points on the board to secure a win.
With an average of 29.9 points per game this season, Nebraska is No. 56 in the country in scoring offense, but that number is somewhat skewed by two outlier performances on offense in which Nebraska scored 52 against Fordham and 56 against Northwestern. Without those two games, the Huskers would only be averaging 23 points, which is exactly what they’ve scored in each of their past two losing efforts.
DEFENSE HAS BEEN SOLID
A chief reason Nebraska has been able to keep every game close this season is the play of its defense, which is allowing just 20.3 points per game in 2021.
Despite having lost twice as many games as they’ve won, the Huskers possess the No. 27 scoring defense in the country. No team has scored more than 32 points against Nebraska, and it has held six opponents under 30 points this year. Three teams – Fordham, Buffalo and Northwestern – have been held to single-digit scoring against the Huskers.
Nebraska’s total defense (348.4 yards per game) and pass defense (211.2 yards per game) both rank in the top 50 among FBS teams, and its run defense is just outside at No. 51 with an average allowance of 137.2 yards per game.
Sophomore linebacker Luke Reimer is second in the Big Ten with 86 tackles already this season, and redshirt freshman linebacker Nick Henrich is not far behind with 79, good for third place in the conference.