Matt Rhule uncertain on Jeff Sims' status after ankle injury

Nebraska quarterback Jeff Sims went down with an ankle injury in the fourth quarterback of the Huskers’ 36-14 loss to Colorado. Matt Rhule did not want to risk putting him back in the game.

At that point, the game started to get away from Nebraska and Rhule. Sims turned the ball over three times to that point and the Huskers used two more quarterbacks in relief.

Rhule provided the latest with Sims and evaluated his play after the game.

“I don’t know anything other than you know,” Rhule said. “They said hey look maybe like a high ankle (sprain). Then he wanted to go back in and I didn’t see any point of putting him in there you know? Obviously you know, all of us have to take care of the ball better.

“A few places that we’ve been at have been pretty loud and so some of our speed sweep snap times, we’ve never had those issues before.” 

Rhule mentioned how the communication up front led to turnovers and miscues on offense, so he didn’t put all of the blame on Sims prior to his injury.

“We felt like we were starting to control the line of scrimmage, but the silent cadences in the gun with the motion really hurt us and kind of took some of that away from us,” Rhule said. “So I really have to do a deeper dive to look into sort of everything that happened.

“But you know, Jeff will be the first guy to say, well, you know, we can’t have that many turnovers, especially down in the red zone where and turn the ball over twice inside our own 30, which led to points.” 

Sims was nine-of-15 passing for 106 yards, had one interception, two fumbles, as well as 10 carries for 67 yards and a rushing touchdown.

“So again, that’s why I say I know everyone’s gonna be you know, as they should, you know, upset and panic and all those things,” Rhule said. “We’re better. We’re better than we’re showing. But, that’s just words, you know, and we have to put that into action.”

FOX sideline reporter Jenny Taft said on the broadcast it was an ankle injury for Sims as he was getting taped up on the sideline. Sims got up from the bench and started moving around and Taft reported he was getting ready to come back in the game.

But as Rhule alluded to, it didn’t make sense at the time. Sims’ status for Week 3 is uncertain to this point, but it seemed like he could’ve went back in if necessary.

For now, it’s back to the drawing board for the 0-2 Huskers.