It isn’t often that a five-score loss can feel accepting, but that is what happened Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Accepting, as in not disputing where this program is. The 87,000 in attendance were accepting of that fact. The 49-14 loss to No. 6 Oklahoma, however, was not acceptable.
Mickey Joseph began his first postgame as interim head coach by taking responsibility for the blowout.
“This is on me,” Joseph said. “Not my players. Not my assistant coaches. I gotta do a better job.”
Interim head coach leads Nebraska out for the Tunnel Walk for the first time. (Kenny Larabee photo)
But the three players that followed Joseph took similar accountability.
“It’s not on him, we’re players,” senior tight end Travis Vokolek said. “That’s how we look at it. We don’t point fingers in the locker room and on the field. He can say that he’s a coach, and he’s supposed to say that.
“But we all know that the players were the ones out there making plays. We’re the ones out there playing each down so it’s on us and we’ll take responsibility for that.”
“That what he’s supposed to say,” sophomore safety Myles Farmer said. “As a team, we all know it’s not on him. He’s not on the field playing.”
“We’re the ones out there,” sophomore linebacker Nick Henrich said. “Coaches can only do so much. Whatever they say, we’ve gonna buy in and believe. But we’re the ones playing.”
For all the postgame accountability in the blowout loss, the start of the game was nearly perfect.
The Blackshirts came out with energy and got a sack just a few plays into the game. They forced a punt.
On offense, Casey Thompson led a six play, 77 yard touchdown drive to take an immediate 7-0 lead.
Memorial Stadium was rocking.
But then Oklahoma’s quarterback Dillon Gabriel scored on a 61-yard draw. After a three-and-out the next possession, the Sooners would add touchdowns on six of seven drives.
The Nebraska offense, meanwhile, withered. The Huskers punted five times in the first half, and had a turnover on downs inside the Oklahoma 20.
The offensive line play, which hadn’t been great through three games but was suitable enough to help score enough points to be in games, left Thompson constantly in danger. The transfer QB was sacked four times, including on back to back players from both edges, and took multiple other hits.
Six seconds into the third quarter, Trey Palmer fumbled the football. A three-and-out followed on the next possession.
That was it for the majority of the starters.
Chubba Purdy got some run at quarterback. Gabe Ervin and Ajay Allen got more run.
The guys getting experience eventually tacked on a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but the damage was done.
Oklahoma’s 49 unanswered points are the most since Iowa accomplished the same in a 56-14 result. The Sooners had multiple opportunities to add another touchdown and surpass 2016 Ohio State’s mark of 55 unanswered, the most in school history.
“We are going to go back and look at this film,” Joseph said. “We are going to dissect this film, and we are going to find the kids that were doing what we were asking them to do, and the kids that can tackle, and that can block, and that can do the right thing, and we are going to increase their reps if they were not a starter.”
Nebraska QB Casey Thompson prepares to fire a second quarter pass. (Kenny Larabee photo)
The 1-3 start to the season hasn’t happened since 1957, when NU ultimately finished 1-9 in the first year under Bill Jennings.
Oklahoma ran up 580 yards of total offense, split between 312 on the ground and 268 through the air. Nebraska managed 327: 163 rushing, 164 passing.
Thompson finished 14-of-20 for 129 yards and a touchdown. Purdy went 7-for-11 for 35 yards and an interception.
Ervin led the running backs with 60 yards, followed by Allen with 52 and Grant with 44.
Defensively, Chris Kolaravic and Luke Reimer led the team with eight tackles each.
Now the Huskers get an off week, where Joseph says they plan to get more work done in a number of places.
“More drill work,” Joseph said. “More bump combo. More nine-on-seven. More turnover drills. More drill work and less teamwork because the teamwork does not matter if the individual work is no good.”
Nebraska will return to action for a night game when Indiana comes to Lincoln for Homecoming.
Nebraska Postgame Notes, Courtesy NU Communications
Nebraska vs. Oklahoma, Sept. 17, 2022, Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, Neb.
- The Oklahoma victory increased its all-time lead in the series to 47-38-3, and is OU’s third straight win in the series. In Lincoln, Nebraska leads the series 22-19-2. The loss was just Nebraska’s second in the last nine meetings with Oklahoma in Lincoln.
- Receiver Trey Palmer had 10 receptions for 92 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown reception on Nebraska’s opening possession. Palmer set career highs for both receptions and receiving yards, bettering his 82-yard effort against North Dakota. His previous high in receptions was eight against Northwestern.
- Palmer has caught 28 passes in the season’s first four games, believed to be the most by a Nebraska player in their first four games of the season. Both Stanley Morgan (2017) and Jordan Westerkamp (2015) had 26 receptions in their first four games played.
- Nebraska scored on its opening drive of the game for the third time in four games this season. The Huskers took a 7-0 lead with a 6-play, 77-yard drive that took 1:57. Casey Thompson connected with Trey Palmer for a 35-yard touchdown to cap the drive.
- Linebacker Luke Reimer made eight tackles in the game to give him 39 tackles on the season.
- Reimer increased his career tackle total to 198.
- Devin Drew recorded a third-quarter sack for the first sack of his career.
- Today’s game marked the 385th consecutive sellout at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska is 12-10 against Oklahoma at Memorial Stadium during the sellout streak.
- Quarterback Chubba Purdy made his Nebraska debut, leading the Huskers on their final drive with a 13-play, 82-yard march that resulted in his eight-yard touchdown run.
- Running back Gabe Ervin Jr. led the Nebraska ground game with 60 yards on 11 second-half carries.