Nebraska 39 Illinois 19: A Reality Check

So those problems we thought we'd solved on offense? Yeah, not so much.

This will be a quick recap because I've got a lot of work to do and I'll go further in depth on this game tomorrow, but basically the long and short of it is that Nebraska did to us what we did to Miami (Ohio) last week. It was clear from the onset that the Illini were outclassed and outgunned in this game.

We all knew the defense would be problematic against this Nebraska offense, and it was. The Illini defense was gashed for 329 rushing yards, with the Nebraska offensive line opening huge holes and swallowing Illini defenders up. Ameer Abdullah finished with 225 yards and two touchdowns by himself.

What we had hoped to see was an improved Illinois offense keep the Illini in the game and give them a chance. That did not happen. Nathan Scheelhaase looked like the skittish Scheelhaase of old, and like the Scheelhaase we saw in the Washington game. A lot of it is on him, as he panics when things aren't going well and is slow to make decisions. It's also the fact that the offensive line couldn't do much in pass protection.

Really, the only bright spot for the Illini on Saturday was Josh Ferguson, who continues to be a one-man offense. Ferguson finished with 197 total yards and a touchdown.

So it was nice to see that Ferguson continues to be a weapon for this team, but in the end the only thing we learned today is that we should probably table any talk of a possible bowl game and instead focus on winning our first Big Ten game in two years instead.

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