The Nebraska football team is going bowling. For the second straight year, Matt Rhule has the Huskers looking at the postseason. While the team probably took itself out of playoff contention with last week's loss to Minnesota, it's been a long time since NU was preparing for a bowl game this early in the season.
There are still some things this team needs to fix. As Matt Rhule said after the game, the Huskers are far from perfect. But for the second time in three weeks, they didn't allow some mid-game stumbles to sink them. Here are the top takeaways from Saturday afternoon.
Nebraska's run busts aren't going away
Northwestern entered Saturday with one of the best rushing offenses in the Big Ten. Because of that, the Wildcats can be forgiven for finding ways to have success running the ball.
They didn't have anywhere near the success they hoped to have. For most of the game, it felt as though John Butler found a way to bottle them up. And then, not long after the fourth quarter started, Caleb Komolafe busted around a Huskers' defense that committed far too much to the middle of the line and took the ball 56 yards for what turned into the game-tying touchdown.
The real problem is that this is far from the first time Butler's defense has had issues plugging holes on a big run. Last week, against Minnesota, it was Darius Taylor's 71-yard touchdown run. The week before that, it was Maryland's Nolan Ray with a 28-yard run.
Against Michigan, there were a 37-yard, a 75-yard, and a 57-yard touchdown runs. It's a habit that Nebraska needs to find a way to break, but it doesn't look like the team is really anywhere close to figuring out why it keeps happening. It's not as though they're all in the same spot, or the same style. It's just something Husker fans have come to expect once a game at least, and hope the team can overcome them like it did Saturday.