COLUMBUS, Ohio - After ugly wins against Illinois, Purdue and Indiana you knew this Nebraska team had some potential issues that could show up against a high caliber opponent like Ohio State.

As the No. 10 Huskers (7-2, 4-2) left the Horseshoe on Saturday night, those problems showed up and some in a 62-3 defeat to the No. 6 Buckeyes (8-1, 5-1). Everything that could've gone wrong did, on top of losing starting quarterback Tommy Armstrong in the second quarter with a head injury.

Saturday was a reminder that Mike Riley is still building this Husker program. Going into this game very few gave NU a chance to beat the Buckeyes as a 17 point underdog, but nobody expected a 59 point beat down.

"Obviously it sucks and it hurts, but we'll stick together like we have through everything else, these seniors and this team has been through," senior linebacker Josh Banderas said. "We'll take our time on Sunday and watch the film and learn from it. Then come on Monday we have to prepare for the next game like we've done for every game."

And with daylight savings time hitting on Sunday, for good measure the Huskers will get an extra hour to think about this beat down in Columbus.

"We were beaten thoroughly in all the phases and it really didn't remind me of our team," Riley said.

Riley's right. This didn't look like the Nebraska team we saw that earned national respect just one week ago with how they played at Wisconsin.

This didn't look like the Blackshirt defense that had started to settle in as one of the better units in the conference. That's probably what's most disheartening. Most of us thought Nebraska was done with these blowout type losses on the big stage.

"The most important thing as a coaching staff we can do is give the players the corrections or the technique or whatever it might be to put themselves in a positive situation so that we can play better next week," defensive coordinator Mark Banker said.

Next week a 7-2 Minnesota team comes to Lincoln that beings a three game stretch of Nebraska, Northwestern and Wisconsin. At home, this should be a game Nebraska wins.

10-2 and 7-2 in the Big Ten West is still very much a realistic finish to this season. That's what Nebraska now has to gun for. They will be picked to beat the Gophers and Maryland in Lincoln the next two weeks before their Black Friday Showdown against an Iowa team that lost 41-14 at Penn State and plays No. 3 ranked Michigan next week.

"I think it will be up to the coaches and the leaders on the team to really kind of get back to having a good week of practice and preparation and emphasizing the fundamentals of what we need to do to win a game," Riley said. "It's been a couple of weeks now since we've won, and this of course was in a whole different fashion then a game we've been in the whole year by a long shot.

"My thought is this team will respond. It's all right now to say that, and I know it probably doesn't look very good now in the world that we know it. We've played through hard games and hard times and played our best ball in quarters of games. I'm just going to continue to believe that's going to be the case how we continue to respond to get ready for the next ball game."

Now on to the breakdown...

***It was a very tough moment to see quarterback Tommy Armstrong on the field not moving after a head shot he took in the second quarter. The good news is Armstrong returned to the field in street clothes after being examined at the hospital.

***The quarterback situation is very scary right now if Armstrong is out next week and Ryker Fyfe is the only available option. Will they burn the redshirt of Patrick O'Brien if it got to that? Or would they move Zack Darlington back at quarterback?

***It was a great moment during pregame with the Foltz family, as several Ohio State players and coaches spent time with them on the field as they gave them an OSU helmet with 27 Buckeye stickers on it.

***The Buckeyes had a touchdown or a field goal on every single drive other than when they muffed a punt. They had 10 total drives and they all led to points on top of two pick 6's by their defense.

***When Armstrong went out of the game, it was pretty ironic seeing Husker legacy Joe Burrow quarterbacking Ohio State's offense in the Horseshoe knowing how bad he once wanted to be a Husker.

***All of the concerns we had about this team in tight games against Indiana, Purdue and Illinois all showed up tonight. Those were obviously wins for the Big Red, but some of those issues that haunted this team in those games, showed up in even a bigger way against Ohio State.

***The fear for me going into this game was Ohio State would finally look like Ohio State. After a month of sub par Urban Meyer football, it appears this Buckeye team is poised to make a run at Michigan and the College Football Playoff.

Rushing offense: F

The rushing offense was basically abandoned once the Huskers got down big. However, when the game was tight, it was the worst production we've seen on the ground this season. The Huskers had just 78 yards on 24 carries. There were no runs longer than 17 yards.

Passing offense: F

Nebraska's passing offense really struggled on Saturday. It was basically deep shots down field that had a very low percentage of being completed. Credit the Buckeyes, as their coverage was textbook for most of the night. However, it didn't feel like the Huskers had much of a game plan on how to attack OSU. NU finished 9-of-33 for 126 yards and two interceptions.

Rushing defense: F

Tackling was an issue, as even when Nebraska had Ohio State stopped they found ways to get leaky yardage. The Buckeyes were basically right at their average of 238 yards on 42 attempts.

Passing defense: F

Nebraska's secondary got beat deep more than we've seen all season. The Buckeyes also picked apart NU's zone defense on multiple third and long plays early in the game when it mattered. The pass rush was also non-existent, as Barrett had all day to throw. Barrett looked more like the guy we thought he'd be going into the season, finishing 32-of-44 for 352 yards and four touchdowns.

Special teams: D

The kickoff return game continues to be a major issue, as the Huskers are losing so much field position with their lack of return game. They did get a solid game out of punter Caleb Lightbourn and special teams did force the only turnover in the game for Nebraska. Ohio State did not punt once in the game on Saturday.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET's Big Red Wrap-Up Tuesday's at 7 pm.