This didn’t just happen again, did it? Nebraska giving away another football game to an impotent Iowa team?

Oh yes it did, with even less justification than last year’s near-identical 13-10 loss.

With Nebraska seemingly in control of a 10-0 game at halftime, set to receive the second-half kickoff and the Blackshirts playing extremely well, you had to think that only a series of brutal mistakes could somehow swing the game to Iowa.

The Cornhuskers obliged, with three seniors playing an infamously central role, paving the way for the Hawkeyes to somehow stage a come-from-behind win without a serviceable quarterback.

And yes, cue the “Groundhog Day” credits. The Iowa kicking game won another 13-10 game for the Hawkeyes, who on the strength of yet another walkoff field goal — this one a 53-yarder by junior kicker Drew Stevens that stayed inches inside the right upright — are likely headed for another beatdown in a New Year’s Day Florida bowl game with their 8-4 record.

Did Iowa just overcome Nebraska, even though it was outyarded 334-164, outrushed 144-49, with a 20-5 disadvantage in first downs, while going 0-for-10 on third down and despite entering the fourth quarter with only 65 total yards? Yes, yes it did.

Nebraska, 6-6 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten, which could have clinched a winning season, now must to do that by winning a cold-weather bowl game against another midlevel team, because its offense resumed its previous identity, misfiring in critical moments in a game that it could have clinched on more than one occasion.

Matt Rhule and the Huskers squandered a golden opportunity to gain a ton of confidence and set themselves up for a momentum-filled offseason. Instead, Rhule and his staff scraped by by achieving the minimum possible that could be considered improvement over last season, although qualifying for a bowl was a big step for a program mired in a losing mentality. Thank heaven that the inept Luke Fickell brought his swooning Wisconsin team to Lincoln last week.

Nebraska had opportunities to put this one away, but the Huskers couldn’t close the deal. They missed their chance to pull away at the start of the second half, and allowed themselves to be sucked back into the rock fight that Iowa wanted.

Possibly the most brutally unexpected mistake came from senior John Bullock, the Huskers’ best linebacker, who had star Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson dead to rights, apparently wrapped up at the sideline, but allowed him to get away and beat the rest of the Husker defense to the end zone for a stunning 72-yard touchdown reception on the first play of the fourth quarter to tie the game. Although he finished the game with only 45 yards rushing, Johnson gave Iowa just enough offense to maintain a pulse. To his credit, this should more properly be considered an All-America effort by Johnson, not a mistake by Bullock.

Nebraska’s other brutal mistakes came from less surprising sources: senior wide receiver Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda, who this season reprised Santino Panico in reducing the role of punt returner to punt catcher, and the ever-inconsistent Bryce Benhart, the senior right tackle who made his 52nd start, more than any other Husker offensive lineman in history, and did his part to prove that an experienced offensive line is not necessarily an effective offensive line.

No, Garcia-Castaneda did not fumble the punt. Instead of moving into good position to make the catch, he played it timidly and allowed it to bounce and roll back toward the goal line. The most generously optimistic assessment of his effort must admit he willingly gave up about 10 to 12 yards of precious field position. But he was so close to the ball that everyone else thought he muffed it, including the Husker Sports Network radio team, so you can’t blame freshman Vincent Shavers for trying to recover what appeared to be a live ball, and in the process, touching it and allowing the Hawkeyes to take possion inside the 5-yard line, although a fantastic quick-reponse effort by the Blackshirts held Iowa to a field goal.

No, Benhart did not fumble the ball on Nebraska’s last series, but he allowed Iowa reserve defensive end Max Llewellyn to speed rush around him and hit Raiola from behind, making the strip sack and the recovery all in one motion at the Nebraska 36-yard line. Besides falling back into his habit of overthinking everything in the game’s final minutes, Raiola’s biggest mistake was trusting his senior right tackle to do his job. Instead, Benhart rolled out the red carpet for the Hawkeye victory.

Another brutal mistake, a botched long snap by junior Aidan Flege on a field goal attempt that could have given the Huskers a 13-0 lead at the end of Nebraska’s opening drive of the second half, was yet another breakdown by the Nebraska kicking game which also resumed its previous identity. The Huskers allowed 25 punt return yards while getting none and allowed 56 kickoff return yards on two tries while getting only 36 on two returns of their own.

The multiple miscues by the kicking game surely will finally convince Rhule to change things up at special teams coordinator. He should immediately reassign Ed Foley to in-state recruiting coordinator and hire Bill Busch, and see if Busch can get a jumpstart on the 2025 season with 15 bowl practices. If Busch turns him down, Rhule should look for another good option. To retain Foley in his present role would be coaching malpractice, as would retaining wide receiver coach Garret McGuire and former offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Marcus Satterfield. Nebraska’s offense and kicking game this season did a poor job of playing complementary football, to put it mildly.

A decent case could be made for sacking Donovan Raiola, but it won’t happen. His offensive line made slow improvement over the past two seasons, and at times had the Hawkeye defensive line on its heels, but couldn’t consistently keep up the pace. You could say approximately the same thing for running backs coach E.J. Barthel. Nebraska’s running game has frankly disappointed over the course of this season, although it showed some promise at the end.

Will Dana Holgorsen return for another season as offensive coordinator? An affirmative answer would be the best news Nebraska football could get in the next week.

Holgorsen is good, but it became evident against Iowa that he’s not a miracle worker. He depended too much on an east-west short passing attack, something Iowa’s defense generally feasts on, and which betrayed Holgorsen’s understandable lack of trust in the Husker offensive line. Technically, he lost a head-to-head contest to Iowa defensive wizard Phil Parker, who himself was outcoached by his Nebraska counterpart, Tony White. But if Raiola doesn’t miss a wide open Jalen Lloyd on a deep route early in the game, or if Nebraska senior Isaiah Neyor can catch a ball that went right through his hands at the Iowa 25-yard line late in the fourth quarter, Nebraska likely wins and Holgorsen’s stock would have continued to climb.

Should Rhule have deliberately run out the clock at the end of the fourth quarter? Should he have played for overtime? That’s really not a serious question, given Nebraska’s history in overtime games the last decade. No, with decent field position, you trust your players to make plays to win the game. In the final minutes of the game, Nebraska’s players let their coach down, showing that they’re not yet ready to make big plays at crunch time.

The month of December looms as an opportunity for making improvements in a scattershot, underachieving Husker offense and kicking game. Handled properly, the Huskers could gradually weed out the brutal mistakes from their portfolio, and learn to grab opportunities to pull away from Big Ten teams who hope for nothing more than rock fights.

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