Nebraska football's bid to end its seven-year bowl drought – currently the longest skid in college football without a postseason appearance – came up short against Michigan State on Saturday in a 20-17 loss in East Lansing.

The Huskers (5-4, 3-3 Big Ten) will have three more cracks at securing their sixth win of the season – at home versus Maryland and Iowa with a road game at Wisconsin in between – to qualify them for a bowl game in their first year under Matt Rhule.

Nebraska failed to secure that postseason bid due to an offense that:

>> Struggled to move the ball or take care of it as the Huskers were held to just 283 total yards on 69 plays, including just 154 yards rushing on 41 carries for the Big Ten's No. 1 rushing offense at 190.1 yards per game, and they had three critical turnovers in key situations.

>> Poor play from its quarterback Heinrich Haarberg (12-of-28 for 129 yards and two interceptions) and the offensive line (which allowed seven sacks in addition to the Spartans racking up 12 TFLs), plus some costly drops by its pass catchers.

>> A defense that, while it stifled the Spartans' solid rushing offense to just 63 yards, allowed four explosive passing plays of 20-plus yards (25, 28, 42 and 46) in addition to completions of 16 and 17 yards – six plays totaling 174 yards to account for 59 percent of their total offensive yards (295).

>> Special teams miscues on both the punt and punt return teams.

There was one more crucial, devastating blow to Nebraska's chances to win its fourth game in a row and sixth in its last seven and take another step toward a potential Big Ten West division crown: Poor officiating, to put it fairly.

There were a few questionable calls and non-calls throughout the game – a clear facemask against Haarberg, in wide view as looked downfield while in the pocket, went uncalled in the first half, for example.

There were far more egregious misses and decisions, however, from the Big Ten officiating crew on Saturday that ranged from questionable to absolutely baffling to simply irresponsible.

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There were a few that were controversial enough for the broadcast team at Fox Sports 1 to discuss them at length throughout the second half of the Huskers' three-point loss.

The duo of Tim Brando (play-by-play) and Spencer Tillman (color commentator) were joined on the broadcast by Fox Sports rules analyst Dean Blandino, the former NFL VP of Officiating (2013-17) and also currently the XFL Head of Officiating, to break down two of those calls. Brando and Tillman also shared some strong viewpoints on a third controversial decision from the officials in Saturday's game.

Here is what they said about those game-changing plays:

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Michigan State took a 20-10 lead on Montorie Foster's 25-yard touchdown catch less than three minutes into the start of the fourth quarter. The ball, however, clearly hit the ground as Foster had lost control after an initial grab. Replay angles had multiple clear views of the ball hitting the ground and Foster having lost control.

Big Ten replay official Tom Kissinger, however, ruled call stands on the play in what became the game's most critical turning point.

Instead of a 2nd-and-10 from the Huskers' 25-yard line, it gave the Spartans a critical 10-point lead on a day filled with offensive struggles on both sides.

Here's what Blandino said, followed by the reaction and discussion from Brando and Tillman:

BLANDINO: “This is the best look (on video replay) here. The key is, does he have that hand underneath? Does he have firm control before it touches the ground? To me, the hand is on the side, the ball is gonna touch the ground, it’s still loose, and then he’s gonna gain control as he rolls over. To me, looking at this look, this is an incomplete pass.”

BRANDO: “That’s the way we saw it, Dean. You see the hand is on the side, not underneath. When you see the cone of the ball, the nose of the ball, come down on the ground, every other call I’ve seen similar to this has been incomplete.”

TILLMAN: “As a running back, I can tell you you’re coached to put the hand on the nose of the ball as a point of contact and control. That may not be a determinant for the officials but, to me, I agree with Dean. It does not look like he has control of the football. The ground is what made it roll over, and he has control on the other end.”

BRANDO: “I will remind you, it’s a subjective call by the replay official, Tom Kissinger, handling the chores. He’s a veteran at it. We’ve seen him many, many times.”

TILLMAN: “Nothing subjective to that camera, though.”

BRANDO: “Exactly.”

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Moments later, during and after the official ruling from Kissinger was announced by head referee Jerry McGinn:

TILLMAN: “WOW! Holy Toledo. ... Oh, my.”

BRANDO: “Again, that’s why I mentioned it. That’s why I said it’s subjective. It’s subjective with every replay official that we have. That’s why, regardless of what Dean has to say or what our thoughts might be, every replay official has a different view of what constitutes a catch and, particularly, once you cross the plane.”

The decision on the replay review was the first of three significant missed calls that came in the fourth quarter.

As the Huskers looked to answer that Foster touchdown and rebound from the replay decision, Haarberg threw a pass 40-plus yards from the pocket to Malachi Coleman, who was sprinting downfield.

Michigan State defensive back Angelo Grose jumped up and into Coleman, even tracking back a few yards as the ball sailed just over the heads of Coleman, Grose and linebacker Jordan Hall in coverage. Grose made significant physical contact to Coleman's upper body and impeded his progress, eliminating his opportunity to come down with what would have likely been a completion of 35-40 yards inside the Spartans' 15-yard line facing the 20-10 deficit at the 6:15 mark of the fourth quarter.

Coleman would have had a chance to come down with what would have likely been a completion of 35-40 yards into Spartan territory. Instead, it became yet another egregious miss from the on-field officials, which was in plain sight and a clear-enough penalty that it can be argued Grose jumped into Coleman on purpose in order to limit the play to a 15-yard defensive pass interference – as opposed to a gain of more than twice that amount.

A wide-eyed, irate Rhule took his headset off, threw his hands up and pleaded with the officials, in complete shock and utter disbelief that no flag was thrown.

BRANDO: “He’s upset. He is upset.”

TILLMAN: “And I’d be upset, too. The way you’ve adjudicated the game to this point, if this is not pass interference, I don’t know what is. Now, it may be a little bit over his head, but that’s a clear run-in (by Grose). The ball’s still out of the frame.”

BRANDO: “Yeah, you cannot tell me that that’s not catchable.”

TILLMAN: “That’s pass interference.”

BRANDO: “Gotta be. Completely agree.”

TILLMAN: “Oh, man.”

BRANDO: “We feel your pain, Matt. We do on that one. We don’t care who wins, at all.”

Four plays earlier, Haarberg had connected with an in-stride Coleman for a 30-yard gain to kickstart the Huskers' drive.

On the very next play after the non-call on Grose's clear DPI, Haarberg sailed a throw over the head of Thomas Fidone, and the Spartans recorded their second interception of the day at their own 25-yard line.

The broadcast revisited the critical non-call following MSU's first play after the change of possession.

TILLMAN: “I think this is clear interference there by the free safety that’s back there, Angelo Grose. Matt Rhule, clearly, upset about it and tried to (argue) his case.”

BRANDO: “Malice doesn’t matter. Whether it’s incidental contact or not, that had to be (called) interference.”

There was another notable missed call that involved Coleman in the fourth quarter. On the Huskers' final drive, which began at the 27-yard line with 43 seconds remaining, Haarberg hit Coleman over the middle at the 37-yard line and it appeared that Coleman had possession of the ball right at the line to gain. Instead of ruling Coleman's forward progress to be the full 10 yards, the side judge marked it a yard short.

Instead of the clock stopping on first down until the new chains were set, the side judge's ruling forced the clock to tick from the 37-second mark (when Coleman caught the ball) all the way down to 19 seconds by the time Haarberg's next pass fell incomplete (a throw that sailed over Jaidyn Doss' head, but MSU was called for a hold).

That ruling was far, far less egregious than the other three mentioned previously and the final one below. But it was another on the laundry list of questionable calls and decisions on Saturday. In two-minute scramble situations such as that one, it's much more typical for officials to award forward progress for a first down and give a slight benefit of the doubt when a play is that close – which was inches, one way or another, in this case.

After having lost a total of 24 seconds between the Coleman reception and the holding penalty called against MSU on Doss, the Huskers had just 19 ticks remaining to get from their own 46-yard line and into Tristan Alvano field goal range.

Haarberg dropped back to pass, cocked his arm back to fire and swung his hand and arm forward, but the ball was jarred loose by an MSU pass rusher. Chaos ensued on the final sequence that followed as Haarberg and Co. went into scramble mode and somehow got a final play off. His downfield throw, though, would have needed to reach the end zone as the clock hit zero after the snap, and the pass was nowhere near the goal line to fall incomplete.

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Rhule, once again incensed and confused at the decision, reached his arm out while yelling toward an official several yards away. And it’s hard to blame him, especially in the wake of Blandino hopping onto the broadcast with some blunt, point-blank analysis.

BRANDO: “Dean, by the letter of the law, how do you see this? In real time, I thought it was an incomplete pass. So did Matt Rhule.”

BLANDINO: “It is an incomplete pass. By rule, the hand coming forward with control starts the forward-passing motion. And that’s a big play, and replay HAS to come in and stop the game because you make it incomplete, you put time back on the clock, it’s a big play and, really, they should have stopped it.”

BRANDO: “There have been a couple of games for Matt Rhule where, in the aftermath of it all, you receive phone calls from the Big Ten office saying, ‘Ya know, we should have done this or we may have done that, but unfortunately we didn’t.’ And when you’re building a program, sometimes that can happen.”

TILLMAN: “That’s right. And you gotta be mindful of where your program is overall. Rather than upset the apple cart and get all flustered about those situations, you do what Matt does so well – you learn from even the difficulties.”

Sound off on the controversial calls against the Huskers and all else from Saturday's loss to Michigan State with other Nebraska fans on our INSIDER'S BOARD