The Nebraska football team drove right down the field with its first offensive drive and took an early 7-0 lead that made it look as though the offense was going to have a big day versus Michigan State. Then they blocked a Spartan punt to make it 14-0, and the race was on, right? Well no.
Leading up to the Week 6 contest between the Huskers and MSU, the focus was on two areas in particular. NU's run defense had to do better than it did in its previous game against Michigan. So far, the Spartans have 15 yards on 16 carries. John Butler checked that box in the first half, at least.
Nebraska football offensive line has worst half of the season against Michigan State
The second issue that Nebraska absolutely needed to fix during the bye week was an offensive line that allowed Dylan Raiola to get sacked 7 times and couldn't create any running room for Emmett Johnson and company. Head coach Matt Rhule hinted at both of his press conferences that he believed they'd fixed things. He was either lying or very wrong.
After 9 plays for 48 yards and a touchdown on the Huskers' first drive, NU managed -4 yards on 17 plays in drives 2 through 5. They allowed 3 sacks against a defensive front that hadn't sacked a Power 4 opponent all season. Nebraska's longest run of the day is 14 points, and Emmett Johnson is averaging just 4.1 YPC.
And when the offensive line wasn't allowing sacks, it was committing idiotic penalties or snapping the ball past the quarterback for a huge loss.
At halftime, the Nebraska football team should consider itself very lucky to be leading 14-7. With the Huskers stating the hallf with the ball, they can try and pull it together and get some breathing room.