Nebraska totally collapses, chokes 2-possession lead in loss to No. 7 Indiana
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Nebraska spent the first 3-plus quarters of Saturday afternoon’s game proving that, just maybe, it belonged back in the discussion at long last of teams that matter in college football.
Then the Cornhuskers did what they’ve done for too long, which is unravel at the biggest moments and lose to a program that does matter a lot right now in the sport.
That’s what happened in Week 6 on a day in Lincoln that looked so promising and turned so awful so quickly. Defending national champion Indiana came to town, struggled for the better part of Saturday’s nationally televised noon ET game on Fox, then showed why it has become one of the “it” teams in college football.
It was a study in recent contrast, because Nebraska football used to matter a lot and Indiana football didn’t matter at all. That whole dynamic has switched course so quickly, kind of as quickly as the Huskers’ 17-6 fourth-quarter lead disappeared after a pair of Josh Hoover touchdown passes to Nick Marsh.
Right after Nebraska had taken that 11-point lead with 12:01 left in the game, the possibilities were endless for the Huskers as they were trying to get to 6-0 and knock off the champs. But Hoover to Marsh happened twice in a flash, first on a 75-yard TD hookup exactly 10 seconds after Nebraska went up by 11 points.
Then with a little over 7 minutes left, Hoover hooked up with Marsh on a 44-yard scoring strike to shockingly give No. 7 Indiana a 20-17 lead. That ended up being the final score, and so it was IU that improved to 6-0 while Nebraska fell to 5-1 with the program’s latest nightmarish loss in a really big spot.
Naturally, there was a ton of reaction on social media as the Huskers flopped in the fourth quarter and let another opportunity to become relevant slip away.
Here is just some of the reaction from a wild Saturday in Lincoln that had a brutal ending for Big Red:
Indiana is still on a good path to a shot at a repeat national title with its comeback win in Lincoln, but it’ll have to get to the College Football Playoff first to make that repeat happen. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the Hoosiers’ chances to make the Playoff come December:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
