The Nebraska football team entered the game against Penn State coming off an emotional high after a win over UCLA and a bye week that the team was supposed to use to get ready to knock off the Nittany Lions. While the Huskers looked like they were prepared to rumble to start the game, things seemed to spin out of control almost from the first drive.
Despite Penn State being 4-6 on the season, a game last week where they almost knocked off Indiana showed this team still has plenty of talent. In the end, they're still on another level than NU, even without Drew Allar and under an interim coach.
What were the things that stood out the most in the 37-10 loss for Nebraska?
John Butler has no answer for Nebraska's run defense problems
Easily the most frustrating thing about the Huskers' season is that when NU loses, it's not hard at all to figure out why. While NU's defense got some good grades overall on the season, the run defense has gotten worse as the season has gone on.
On Saturday night, that run defense was its usual ineffectiveness, best demonstrated when the Huskers turned the ball over on downs on their first drive. Penn State got the ball with 98 yards to drive to score. Kayton Allen's 50-yard run was the highlight of that drive as the Nittany Lions went up 7-0 and never really looked back.
Allen finished with 160 yards on 25 carries and 2 TDs. Nate Singleton added 44 yards and 2 TDs on 7 carries. In all, Penn State finished with 231 yards, 4 rushing touchdowns, and a 5.9 YPC.
This isn't going to get better this season, but defensive coordinator John Butler needs to figure things out for next year, or be on the hot seat.
Emmett Johnson is still an absolute stud
There are a lot of reasons why Nebraska lost on Saturday. Emmett Johnson is absolutely not one of them. He had another game where he looked like one of the best running backs in the country more often than not.
Saturday's performance included a 52-yard run that looked like it was setting up the Huskers to open with a touchdown on their first drive, until they didn't. He finished with 103 yards on 19 carries (5.4 ypc) and was a dependable dump-off option for TJ Lateef. He added 8 catches for 48 yards.
TJ Lateef is still an enigma for Nebraska
For his second-ever start, Saturday night wasn't that bad. But it wasn't the masterpiece he put together against UCLA. Granted, no one should have expected that kind of outing against the Nittany Lions.
One of the biggest questions is just what's going on with the deep passing attack with Lateef. He did throw downfield a bit more in the second half, but most of the first half was lots of dump-offs and short screens.
The coaching staff has talked a lot about trusting him entirely. The game plan doesn't match those words. It will be interesting to see what Nebraska can do next week against Iowa.