Solid Game Plan, Costly Game Management: How Nebraska Football Let USC Off the Hook

by T.J. Birkel

The Nebraska football team lost a heartbreaker in Lincoln on Saturday night to #23 USC, 21-17. The Big Red led for pretty much all of the 1st half and a good chunk of the 2nd half, before surrendering the lead and falling short on their final drive. It’s a gut punch for this team and a gut punch for Husker Nation. We cover it all in the Topline Takeaways. 

CHEERS TO THAT

Emmett, Again. It’s hard to think where this Nebraska team would be without #21. Johnson continues to prove he is one of the best backs in the nation, and he absolutely carried the team on Saturday night. The gameplan ran through EJ, and he delivered, to the tune of 29 carries for 165 yards and a touchdown. He is now the first Nebraska running back to reach 1,000 yards since 2018. He seemed to have room to run most of the night, and even when he didn’t, he was able to make something out of nothing. Frankly, I felt the Huskers should have given him the ball even more. 

Gameplan. There will be some complaints about the coaching (including later in this column), but let’s at least give credit where it’s due: both sides of the ball had solid plans that worked for good chunks of this game against a very athletic and talented USC team. John Butler’s defense stifled the Trojans’ passing attack, holding quarterback Jayden Maiava to just 9 completions for 135 yards. Yes, they struggled to stop the run, but holding one of the nation’s most explosive offenses to 337 total yards and 21 points should be enough to give your team a chance to win. 

It’s less clear cut when it comes to the offense, and I’ll get into some of my complaints in the next section. But credit to…

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