I still had hope going into the later parts of the season that my long-time favorite team of the Nebraska Cornhuskers could actually be a decent team.. well they are a decent team... I had hopes that the might be one of the best teams in the nation and some of their performances looked on point earlier on in the season. The first true test they had of their position which at one point was in the top 20 in the nation, came when they face Illinois in week 4. It was a close game but the higher ranked Illinois came away with a victory 31-24. Nebraska exited the top 25 shortly thereafter and they deserved to get the boot. They briefly made an appearance back in the top-25 after defeating Purdue and Rutgers rather convincingly.
They had another chance to cement their place in the tops today when they faced number 16 ranked Indiana and I, and the many other Cornhusker fans were glued to the screen to see if they could pull it together and scrap their way back in the top-25 in the nation. Boy were we in for a surprise.
If you didn't see the game or even know anything about it let me tell you this: I have seen very few games that have been as completely one-sided as this one. Indiana looked absolutely flawless and Nebraska looked like they didn't even belong on the field. I honestly don't think this was even a question of Nebraska having bad luck or a bad day either, they just aren't very good and Indiana looked phenomenal. Perhaps they deserve an even higher ranking than 16. Their undefeated record would indicate that they are definitely doing everything right and they have blown out almost everyone they have played including an embarrassing 77-3 loss they handed to Western Illinois. To be fair to Western, they have never had a real football program that I am aware of and it was expected they were going to lose this game badly. The bookies favored the Hoosiers by 44.5 points, which isn't something you often see.
I had expected that a team like Nebraska, who actually does have clout in the football game mostly based on legacy and who have been in the top-25 at one point this year would do substantially better than they did though and the experts in Vegas thought so as well when they assigned Indiana a mere -185 favorite to win with a spread of less than one TD. The actual experience was very different than I had expected/hoped.
You ever been watching a game, any sport will do, and feel as though at any point, things could turn around for 'my guys"? Well that is how I felt about half-way through the 2nd quarter when Nebraska did what they usually do and slowly but surely trudged their way down the field for an eventual TD bringing the game to 14-7. It was slow paced but it got there and this is something that Nebraska does on a regular basis. I was thinking "ok boys, just stick to this gameplan and tighten up on defense and we got a shot at this!" Those hopes were dashed as in the next 6 minutes Indiana went on to score back-to-back touchdowns ending the half at 28-7. Teams don't often come back from this sort of deficit, especially not teams like Nebraska that are teams that intentionally move the ball 3-4 yards per carry and tear up the clock in the meantime.
Nebraska had to alter their offense in the 2nd half in order to have a chance at this and alter it they did.... and threw 3 interceptions in the process.
In the second half it seemed as though every time Indiana touched the ball they were going to do something great and any time Nebraska touched the ball something terrible was going to happen. The end score is one of the worst losses by a previously top-ranked team in the entire season for any team.
To make matters worse for Nebraska and their season, they have 4th ranked Ohio State at home next week and nobody is expecting Nebraska to win that one and while the odds haven't been posted yet as far as bookmaking is concerned, I would imagine that the Buckeyes will be favored to win by at least two TD's.
There is basically zero chance that Nebraska can make it back into the top-25 for the rest of the season and after the absolute beating they received at the hands of the Hoosiers, I think it is clear they definitely don't deserve it. At least they were less terrible this year than they have been for the last 10 or so :)