No one hates Nebraska being on a bye more than QB Dylan Raiola

For Dylan Raiola, this will be the longest bye week ever. He won't be able to get back on the field this weekend to get Nebraska's 30-27 loss to Michigan out of his system.

Instead, he and the rest of the Cornhuskers have to sit and stew. They will watch some film. They will practice. They will rest and recover. But the loss will stick with them until Michigan State comes to Lincoln on October 4. 

"It actually sucks...you've got to taste this loss for two weeks. You hope to go into the bye week with a win and hoo-rah and all that, but it's the challenge and adversity that we face right now," Raiola said. "Whether we handle it right or we don't, which I believe we will. It's about us, there's something about that locker room. What everyone else says doesn't really matter. We [have to] rally around each other and go make a run at this thing."

​Through four games, Raiola has been one of the top quarterbacks in the country, throwing for 1,137 yards and 11 touchdowns with just one interception. He is completing 75.6 percent of his passes and his 77.0 QBR rates 25th in the nation. 

One-score woes have to change

​Nebraska is now 3-11 in one-score games (eight points or fewer) under Matt Rhule. In the two-plus seasons that Rhule has been running the program, the Cornhuskers have been involved in one-score games nearly half the time. 

The truth is, Nebraska is a few points from a completely different narrative, but the record is what it is and that has Rhule rightfully frustrated.

Winning close games is a necessity to survive in the Big Ten. As the weather gets colder, and the offenses slow down, the games will come down to a single possession or a defensive stand. It's a mentality as much as anything. As we saw on the field Saturday, there isn't much that separates Nebraska from Michigan, but the Wolverines are 9-1 in one-score games over the same period of time. 

Rhule understands that mentality has to change. Instead of Nebraska being a 'couple of plays away', the Cornhuskers have to make those plays.

"What I've asked our guys not to do is not to settle for the narrative of we're just a couple plays away," Rhule said. "That's a deadly, deadly thing when you start saying things like that."