Scott Frost admits some of halftime angst toward the Nebraska offense was not warranted

Things were not going well for the Nebraska offense in the first half Saturday against North Dakota, and Scott Frost let his team know. The Cornhuskers coach had some critical words during his halftime interview, saying the team had “no rhythm.”

If he delivered a similar message in the locker room, it seemed to work. After being tied at 7 at the end of the first half, Nebraska went on to outscore the Fighting Hawks 31-10 in the second half and secure a 38-17 victory. With Frost getting a chance to exhale following his first win of the season, he admitted he might have been a bit too harsh at the half.

“Part of that was deserved and part wasn’t,” Frost said. “We only got four possessions on offense in the first half, and I didn’t realize that until after the game. We had the ball down there again and took a strip-sack. Can’t do it. When we get to league play and you get the ball past the other team’s 40, you gotta be aggressive but careful to not ever give up points. Those type of plays that give up points can be back-breakers in close games. Glad it wasn’t today.”

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After totaling just 147 yards of offense in the first half, Nebraska nearly doubled that with 290 in the second. Running back Anthony Grant also had a monster second half as he finished with 189 rushing yards and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead 46-yard score to put the Cornhuskers back on top 24-17 in the third quarter.

Despite the turnaround in the second half though, Scott Frost knows the Nebraska offense has a lot of work to do to get where it wants to be. The Cornhuskers will look to avoid another slow start when they Georgia Southern at 7:30 p.m. ET next Saturday.

“We’re still finding our way a little bit,” Frost said. “I love the guys I have on my offensive staff and they’re doing a great job coaching. I think you can see the improvement by position, but we’re still figuring it out together. Our team is still figuring it out together. The players are still figuring it out together. In some ways, I thought we made some big strides from last week, but there’s still a lot to fix.”

Scott Frost criticizes offense after sluggish first half

In his halftime interview, Scott Frost was not happy, to say the least.

“It’s bad,” Frost told Big Ten Network’s Rick Pizzo. “We have no rhythm, we don’t have anything going. We got a couple of sacks that cost us drives and we’ve got to finish. Defense has played well enough. We’ve got to get something going on offense. We’re going to talk a lot about it at halftime.”

Returning home from Dublin, Frost knows how important it is to win at Memorial Stadium. However, he called on his team to get the job done in the second half — especially considering the Cornhuskers get the ball out of the break.

“Our guys just need to execute better,” Frost said. “We’re going to come out and get the ball for the start of the second half and we’re going to take care of business.”

The offensive struggles started in that game against Northwestern when the Cornhuskers stalled and the Wildcats came back to get the victory. At the time, he cited a couple plays as the difference.

“You know, it’s one or two plays honestly,” Scott Frost said. “I can think of one drive we had the ball up four and on their 40, first and 10. I think that was the one we ended up with an interception on. So it’s one or two plays where if we if we hit a play it leads to points. And that’s this league in general. I thought, like I said, everything was great. We need to make sure that that we execute a little better in those situations.”

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.