Matt Rhule addresses turnovers from Dylan Raiola in loss to Indiana

Nebraska took their most lopsided defeat of the season when Indiana walloped the Cornhuskers in a 56-7 loss in Bloomington on Saturday. A game where Nebraska turned the ball over five times and nothing seemed to go right for the Cornhuskers.

True freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola was responsible for four of those turnovers with three interceptions and a fumble in what was the worst game of his young college career. A performance that Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule added some context to during his Monday press conference.

“I think a smarter coach probably would’ve settled the game down when you’re down 35-7,” Rhule admitted. “In my mind, the long game is that Dylan’s going to have to learn to play in those moments with intense pressure, trying to get your team back in the game. So we probably could have minimized that.”

Rhule broke down all of Raiola’s interceptions from Saturday. Attributing one to a mistake by a wide receiver, another as a miscommunications on a scramble drill, and a third as a pass that was batted at the line of scrimmage. But also made it clear that those are not excuses for the costly turnovers.

“We don’t want any of those, and those aren’t excuses to them, but everything’s not kind of as it seems. I thought Dylan did a lot of really, really good things in the game,” Rhule said. “Unfortunately, the game plan we had going in, when it hit 28-7, kind of starts to alter a little bit. We were going to have to throw the ball a little more than maybe we wanted to. Indiana’s an elite pass rush team, and so our hope was to be able to mix the run and the pass when it got away from us.”

The game got away from the Cornhuskers fast, down 21 points at halftime followed by a turnover on downs and a Hoosiers’ touchdown on the first two possessions of the second half. As Rhule hopes for more explosive plays and improved execution to close out the season.

“But I don’t think people are doing anything differently, each week we’re facing better teams and we have to continue to improve and play better. That all goes together, we’re talking about the perimeter blocking, you have to be able to kick a bubble out and have a guy go for 30 (yards). We need a run to pop for 80 (yards), we can’t get tackled by the ankles,” Rhule explained.

Despite things not going their way last Saturday, Rhule and the Cornhuskers are not gonna go back to the drawing board. Determined to stay the course ahead of a matchup this weekend at No. 4 ranked Ohio State and beyond.

“My main thing in life as a coach is not to panic, not to overreact, we can’t change everything. Just keep getting better at it until they’re the best that they are. But I wanted Dylan to stay in that game in that situation. I wanted him to have to battle through all that,” Rhule said. “He went through three interceptions, he suffered through that, and hopefully we get better as we move forward. But I think he’s playing well, I really do. It might not seem that way to everybody, but when I watch the tape, I like most of everything that he’s doing and we’ll keep building off it, because the teams keep getting better and better.”