Takeaways: Nebraska 17, Northwestern 9

LINCOLN-Here are our takeaways from Northwestern’s frustrating 17-9 loss to Nebraska in Lincoln that dropped the Wildcats’ record to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten:

Northwestern failed to capitalize on three short fields in the first quarter: Northwestern’s defense came up with two turnovers and Hunter Renner boomed a punt to the Nebraska 1; as a result, the Wildcats’ first three drives began in Husker territory. But the offense couldn’t take advantage of their golden chances and came away with just three points.

On the first play of the game, Devin Turner picked off Heinrich Haarberg on a throw over the middle to give NU the ball at the Nebraska 44. Brendan Sullivan fumbled the ball on the first play, threw an incompletion on second and then was sacked on third down. The Wildcats ran three plays for -5 yards and had to punt.

Renner’s punt was downed at the Husker 1 and, after a Husker three-and-out and a punt out of their own end zone, the Cats took over on the Nebraska 47. They ran three plays for just five yards and had to punt again.

Finally, Rod Heard II picked Haarberg off and returned it to the Nebraska 13, giving Haarberg more interceptions (2) than completions (1) at that point. But again the Wildcats went in reverse, running three plays for -14 yards, including a holding call and another sack of Sullivan. Fortunately, Jack Olsen bailed them out and drilled a 45-yard field goal to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.

“We gotta find ways to turn [opportunities] into seven points,” said interim head coach David Braun. “We can point back and be frustrated in the result, but we have to go back to our processes.”

Sullivan had a tough day: Sullivan, making his second start of the season, again looked shaky directing the offense and was sacked eight times. Ironically, he still produced better numbers than Nebraska’s Haarberg.

Sullivan finished the first half 2-for-6 for 10 yards, and was sacked twice for 14 yards in losses. So the Wildcats wound up with a net of -4 yards when he dropped back to pass.

He improved greatly in the second half to post respectable final numbers: 12-for-23 for 176 yards. He threw a 66-yard strike to Bryce Kirtz after he stepped up in the pocket to elude the rush.

In his defense, he was under heavy pressure all day. He was sacked eight times for 51 yards in losses as the offensive line just couldn’t protect him from the merciless Nebraska rush. He had one interception, but that was on the last play of the first half, when he threw the ball up for grabs deep in the Nebraska end.

Braun said that he never thought about pulling Sullivan out of the game in favor of Ryan Hilinski or another quarterback.

“It wasn’t a consideration,” said Braun. “I’m proud of Sully. He left it out on the field. That’s all we can ask.”

Northwestern’s defense came to play: The Wildcats knew they would have to create some takeaways to have a shot at pulling off the upset of the Huskers, and they came up with two interceptions in the first quarter.

They wanted to establish their physicality, and Turner, Coco Azema and Bryce Gallagher all came up with some teeth-rattling hits.

In all, Nebraska generated just 248 yards of total offense. The Huskers punted seven times, turned the ball over twice and scored three times on their 12 possessions, not including the end of the game.

The Wildcats allowed one sustained drive (10 plays for 77 yards) and made one big mistake on a 44-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Coleman when they bit on a play-action fake by Haarberg. Other than that, they played pretty well.

Braun praised his defense for having “11 guys swarming” and for “playing with a demeanor and edge to them.”

Azema praised the play of the safeties – himself, Turner and Heard – who came up with two picks in the first five minutes of the game and delivered “knock-back tackles all game.”

But in the end, Azema offered no excuses for coming up short.

“At the end of the day, they had more points that we did, and that’s all that matters,” he said.

Kicking game shines in loss: Northwestern’s kicking game had perhaps its best game of the season against the Huskers.

Renner was outstanding all day. He dropped four of his six punts inside the Nebraska 20-yard line, including a 50-yarder to the 1 and 45-yarder to the 5. Three of his boots traveled over 50 yards.

Placekicker Jack Olsen kicked a season-long 45-yard field goal and added a 37-yarder in the second. He barely missed a 54-yarder that was dead-on but a yard or two short.

Braun had one word to describe Renner, who was a weapon for the Wildcats on a day their offense struggled.

“Awesome,” he said, before praising Olsen. “Really proud of the way our kicking game executed.”

Cats come up short in the red zone: How’s this for a misleading stat? Northwestern had three trips into the red zone against the Huskers and converted all three into points for a perfect 100% mark.

The problem was, they were all field goals. The Wildcats got the ball at the Nebraska 13 in the first quarter and could manage just a field goal. They reached the Nebraska 21 and had to settle for another Olsen three-pointer.

Most galling of all was when Sullivan hit Kirtz for an explosive 66-yard pass to the Nebraska 9. The Wildcats, trailing 17-6, had to settle for a field goal after three plays netted just three yards, while a touchdown would have gotten them to within two points of the lead.

Kirtz said the sequence was “frustrating” for the team.

“You always want to capitalize on a big explosive play like that,” he said. “It definitely hurts… It’s hard to bounce back from that.”