• Photo Showcase: Nebraska-Northwestern (action)
• Photo Showcase: Nebraska-Northwestern (fans)
• Video Below: See NU coach Bo Pelini and others at the postgame press conference
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LINCOLN — Blackshirts, huh.
They took the field with 8:48 left Saturday, trailing 21-18. They had momentum — the offense had just scored. They had the crowd behind them.
Their job was simple: one stop. Get the ball back to red-hot Taylor Martinez. Avoid this upset. Keep the train to Indy on the tracks.
Northwestern ran it on first down — 14 yards. Then again for 11. Then again for 14. Then again and again, 10 more times without a single pass.
Nebraska should never give up a seven-minute, 13-play, fourth-quarter touchdown drive. It especially shouldn't happen against a 3-5 team that operates a finesse offense. Especially at Memorial Stadium. Especially with so much at stake.
Five days after receiving their sacred practice jerseys, the Blackshirts had an opportunity to validate them. Instead, they got punched in the mouth by... Northwestern?
"Sometimes in this life it comes down to want-to," coach Bo Pelini said. "I'm not saying our guys didn't want to, but maybe they wanted it a little more than we did."
What a confession. What a defeat.
This one doesn't fall solely on the defense. Not even close. But in the second half, the Blackshirts struggled to get off the field.
"We just laid an egg," said junior defensive end Eric Martin.
"You get tired every fourth quarter," senior safety Austin Cassidy said. "It's about digging down deep, pulling something out when there's nothing. We didn't do that today. The defenses here in the past have done that."
For the game, Northwestern piled up 25 first downs and 468 total yards (308 after halftime). It gained 207 yards on the ground.
The Blackshirts physically dominated Michigan State a week ago. This time, they were the nail.
Carl Pelini didn't stick around to explain what happened — he declined interviews.
He could've talked about the interior routes that picked Nebraska apart. He could've talked about the inability to stop the zone read.
Northwestern — when it wasn't turning the ball over — did whatever it wanted, converting 9 of 14 on third and fourth down.
Yes, the big play hurt — Kain Colter's 81-yard throw to Jeremy Ebert nearly broke the game open.
"They just flat-out beat us in coverage a couple times," Bo said.
But most disturbing was Northwestern's ability to pick apart Pelini's defense.
The Wildcats scored 24 points on Michigan in the first half, 24 on Penn State in the first half. But in each game, they were shut out after halftime. They tuckered out.
This time, Nebraska wore down.
"At the end, I thought our guys got tired," Bo Pelini said. "We were obviously undermanned up front. We're thin up front. ... They were just getting the push.
"It looked like we'd have them stopped for no gain and it'd leak for three or four yards."
Seemingly every time a Blackshirt collided with a Wildcat ball carrier, the pile moved forward.
Baker Steinkuhler played the best game of his career, making seven solo tackles. But he had no help.
Jared Crick is out for the year. Chase Rome and Thad Randle missed Saturday's game with injuries. The top back-up defensive tackle was Justin Jackson, a walk-on who was an offensive lineman two weeks ago. And the defensive ends? They were quiet.
The D-line was supposed to be the Blackshirts' backbone this year. Now it's a problem. And there's no more bye weeks to freshen up.
Saturday's game film will inspire Penn State, Michigan and Iowa to pound the Huskers between the tackles. And if Nebraska can't stop the run, 8-4 is optimistic.
A week ago, we thought this program had turned the corner. Instead, Nebraska just circled the block. Like upset losses to Texas Tech in 2009 and Texas in 2010, this one came immediately after an impressive win (Missouri in '09, Kansas State '10).
Why does Nebraska always lose a home game to a mediocre team? Why can't the Huskers handle success? They played Saturday like a team that had spent a week listening to people tell them how good they were. They lost their edge. Championship teams don't do that.
But there's another explanation. Nebraska still doesn't have top-flight talent, especially on defense, especially now.
Last week, Bo Pelini raised a few eyebrows when he awarded 19 or 20 blackshirts. But he can only put 11 on the field.
This time 11 wasn't enough.
Contact the writer:
402-649-1461, dirk.chatelain@owh.com
twitter.com/dirkchatelain
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• Video: NU coach Bo Pelini at the postgame press conference:
• Video: NU's Taylor Martinez at the postgame press conference:
• Video: NU's Austin Cassidy at the postgame press conference:
• Video: NU's Tim Marlowe at the postgame press conference:
• Video: Sights and sounds from the Northwestern-Nebraska game:
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