This week and beyond

Husker Football
1

Another disappointing loss with the offense playing poorly again.

Wisconsin lost to Northwestern 24-10 today, so Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern and Nebraska are all 5-5. Minnesota is currently trailing Purdue, so they’ll likely drop to 5-5 as well, and all would be 3-4 in conference standings, too.

I think Iowa has now locked up the Big Ten West title, though there may be some tiebreak scenarios I haven’t worked through yet, the only division team they’ve lost to was Minnesota.

I don’t know if Wisconsin’s loss today is good or bad for the Huskers, it shows Wisconsin is beatable, but Nebraska seems to have forgotten how to win games.

Mike Nolan

2

Iowa still needs to win one more of the last two against Illinois and Nebraska to clinch, though they can still win the division with some other help even if they lose out.

If Iowa loses out and Nebraska wins out, the Huskers take the title unless Minnesota also wins out against Ohio State and Wisconsin.

Nebraska wins the two-way tie. Minnesota wins the three-way tie. Both of those scenarios are decided by head-to-head results.

The winner of the Illinois-Northwestern game would also likely be part of the tie in these scenarios. (Northwestern would also have to beat Purdue.)

If Iowa and Nebraska finish in a three-way tie with either Illinois or Northwestern, Nebraska wins on the head-to-head sweep.

If Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota finish in a four-way tie with Illinois, Nebraska wins on division record. Technically, Iowa would be eliminated first on head-to-head results by being swept by the other three and then Nebraska would win the remaining three-way tie based on division record.

If Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota finish in a four-way tie with Northwestern, Minnesota wins on head-to-head over Nebraska after Iowa and Northwestern are eliminated on the four-way head-to-head results.

That covers all of the scenarios where both Nebraska and Iowa have a share of the title.

There are paths to victory for every team except Purdue if Iowa loses out, even for Iowa itself. For anyone else except Minnesota, their winning scenario involves Nebraska losing at Wisconsin as well.

Otherwise, Iowa can be tied by Wisconsin or Minnesota, but not both and possibly neither (if Wisconsin loses to Minnesota who loses to Ohio State). Similarly, Iowa can be tied by Illinois or Northwestern, but not both and possibly neither (if Illinois loses to Northwestern who loses to Purdue). That’s nine combinations, one of which is Iowa still winning outright at 5-4. The other eight combinations are Iowa plus:

  • Wisconsin and Illinois (Wisconsin wins on division record)
  • Wisconsin and Northwestern (Iowa wins on head-to-head)
  • Wisconsin (Iowa wins on head-to-head)
  • Minnesota and Illinois (Illinois wins head-to-head)
  • Minnesota and Northwestern (Northwestern wins on division record)
  • Minnesota (Minnesota wins on head-to-head)
  • Illinois (Illinois wins on head-to-head)
  • Northwestern (Iowa wins on head-to-head)

Northwestern is the longest shot, needing seven games to go right for them:

  1. Northwestern beats Purdue
  2. Northwestern beats Illinois
  3. Illinois beats Iowa
  4. Nebraska beats Iowa
  5. Wisconsin beats Nebraska
  6. Minnesota beats Ohio State
  7. Minnesota beats Wisconsin

Of course, everyone else except Iowa needs a minimum of four games to go right for them.

3

Nice work,Steve.

I posted your analysis on the Northwestern list.

4

Two word response. Just WIN.

One game at a time. Stop making stupid calls and stupid mistakes and getting penalized for dumb things. Run the ball. It’s cold and harder to catch passes this time of year. Practice outside in the cold and protect the ball at all costs. AKA – Just WIN!

Go Big Red!

5

“Losing is a disease” (The Natural)

I’m not sure the Huskers have the personnel to win consistently yet, and I do include the coaching staff in that. I see improvement over the Frost era, but more is needed.

Mike Nolan

6

What’s being lost in the noise of what seems like a million turnovers is that the Huskers were only penalized once (15 yds for pass interference) in the past 2 games. I’m not happy about the score but it DOES appear that they have improved in at least one key area.

Jerry

7

If you’re shooting yourself in the foot, does it make a difference whether it’s the left foot (turnovers) or the right foot (penalties)?

8

I didn’t watch it, but it seems like the Patriots might have screwed up their goal line offense in Germany even worse than the Huskers did on Saturday. INT from the one, bench the QB, put in backup who throws another INT. Sounds familiar.

9

Agree. Our turnover/ penalty problems over the past several years are more than a few players or even coaches. For worse, it’s a characteristic of the program now. I don’t have the psychological brains to figure it out but it’s there and will be there until something snaps or the program outgrows it.

Overall, I do see some improvement generally in the team this year. It’s not anything I can quantify, more like just a gut feeling from a fan. This team probably isn’t as talented as in recent years but they’re playing a little better - according to the record anyway. Maybe Rhule IS developing future talent. We’ll see.

10

https://twitter.com/HuskerVB/status/1724107557302628651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1724107557302628651%7Ctwgr%5Edeee0da636d17671102d77009f224933ec113bb2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvolleytalk.proboards.com%2Fthread%2F92301%2Fnebraska-2023%3Fpage%3D374

Best regards,

Ted

11

Rhule is backing his OC on the call(s) towards the end of the game, so it sounds like he’s not gonna make a change there.