Final take: No excuses on this loss for Nebraska

EVANSTON, Ill. - There is no spinning or sugar-coating this one. Nebraska's 21-13 loss at Northwestern on Saturday was bad.

Yes, I get the Wildcats are now 3-0 and playing very well under Pat Fitzgerald, but they did just about everything to allow the Huskers (0-2) a chance to win this game, starting with two interceptions.

The Huskers also ran 23 more plays than the Wildcats and outgained them 442 to 317. Nearly every final stat favored NU.

"It's inexcusable we only had 13 points in that game," head coach Scott Frost said after the loss. "To play like we played and only have 13 points, that starts with me. Guys were in good position to put points on our board. The discipline in our program starts with me. When you have negative things happen on drives, it's tough to finish them."

And those same old friends, "the little things," showed up to Evanston on Saturday. Penalties, turnovers, special teams blunders, you name it. They all played a factor on Saturday.

Sure there have been plenty of bad losses like this in the past, but this one is different. This is year three of Scott Frost, where things like this should be corrected and not costing the Big Red games. Things like formation and alignment penalties are inexcusable. It started on the first drive Saturday, as the Huskers had things going early but stalled the drive with a false start and a holding call.

"I told them it's my fault," Frost said. "I told them it's on me, and it is. We talked all week about not making the mistakes to get ourselves beat. These guys played their butt off. Our defense played their butt off. Other than giving up a punt return and a kick return and short fields, I thought the defense played really well. They forced a few turnovers and got us 7 points."

Were the offense's problems as simple as making a change at quarterback? It sure seemed like this offense operated at a better pace when Luke McCaffrey replaced Adrian Martinez late in the third quarter. Should've they have gone to McCaffrey earlier in the second half? Probably so.

I'm sure Frost won't show his hand on what he's doing this week at quarterback, but I'd be very surprised if McCaffrey doesn't get the start over Martinez vs. Penn State.

"I feel for Adrian. That's a tough position to be in," Frost said. "He's poured his heart and soul into this. Those guys are going to compete. I'm comfortable with both of them in the game. I thought we just needed a spark, and we gave Luke a shot. He deserves it."

When NU got their 2020 schedule, everyone knew the first four games were going to be tough.

The Huskers were underdogs to Ohio State, Wisconsin (game canceled), and Northwestern. It's hard saying if they'll be a dog again vs. Penn State, but this schedule will present its challenges, and it's going to tell us a lot about this team when they come back home to play a struggling Penn State team.

"In football, you are going to get knocked down, and in life, you are going to get knocked down," senior cornerback DiCaprio Bootle said. "It's just about how you are going to get back up. If you get knocked down 10 times, as long as you get back up 11. That's something I live by. You got to get yours more than you get got. We just have to continue to practice hard and go out there and believe."

***Today, I would be very surprised if Luke McCaffrey doesn't get the start vs. Penn State. I thought Dedrick Mills said it best after the game about McCaffrey. He said the offense just runs at a faster pace when he's in the game. They gave Martinez plenty of rope Saturday to get through his struggles, and the bottom line is he wasn't getting it done.

Everything was hard for Martinez on Saturday. Even on some of the early success the offense had in the game, it required two straight fourth-down Martinez runs to move the chains.

***Frost said they knew about the Cameron Jurgens injury for the entire week after the game but kept it quiet. We don't have a timeline at this point on when he'll return.

***One of the plays I had the biggest problem with was going to Wyatt Liewer on a critical third down with a slant play. No. 1, the throw was way too hard by Martinez for Liewer to handle, but mainly there has to be a better option in that situation.

***Redshirt freshman Ronald Thompkins also did not travel. Word is he was out for internal discipline reasons.

***It was good seeing Zavier Betts, Omar Manning, and Marcus Fleming get some good time on Saturday.

Fleming showed what type of guy he's going to be. It just comes easy for him. Betts also added two catches. Half the battle with this young group is getting them lined up. Catching the ball is the easy part. I think you will see the Huskers live with some of these mistakes because the bottom line is they are athletes, and they need to be on the field.

***Hello, Luke Reimer. Now hand him a Blackshirt. 10 tackles and a forced fumble was a nice way to start things out for him. He needs to be a starter. Also, Will Honas did not play Saturday due to injury.

***Ty Robinson, Casey Rogers, and Pheldarius Payne all played well upfront from my vantage point as well.

***Safety Myles Farmer showed a lot of promise in his first start. This type of experience should go a long way and giving him a boost in the future.

Rushing offense: C

Yes, Nebraska put up 224 yards on 43 carries, but it's going to be hard to consistently win in the Big Ten when 67 percent of your rushing offense comes from QB runs and scrambles. Nebraska tried to get Dedrick Mills going, as he had 19 carries but finished with just 59 yards. Don't underestimate the loss of Cameron Jurgens at the center position, either.

Passing offense: D

The Huskers looked pretty out of sorts in the passing game on Saturday. Adrian Martinez was off. He missed on guys downfield and had a costly interception in the end zone. Luke McCaffrey also had a costly pick near the goal line on a tipped pass. It was good to see the young guys playing more, but I felt like they were having difficulty getting a rhythm in the passing game. Martinez finished just 12-of-27 for 125 yards. McCaffrey nearly outdid those numbers in the fourth quarter, going 12-of-16 for 96 yards. The Huskers left a lot of yards and points on the field in the passing game.

Rushing defense: B

Take away the 41-yard run early, and Northwestern had just 107 yards rushing on 37 attempts (2.9 yards per carry). This, too, was probably a strong enough effort to win the game on Saturday. The Huskers caught a big break as well by not seeing Northwestern's starting running back Isaiah Bowser, who was out with injury. He had been averaging 24 carries per game.

Passing defense: A-

Nebraska forced two turnovers and only allowed a long passing play of 21 yards on Saturday. Not too bad considering both Deontai Williams and Cam Taylor-Britt were out the entire first half. This type of effort should've been good enough to win the game. Peyton Ramsey finished 16-of-27 for 169 yards.

Special teams: D-

A missed field ago, a botched punt by Robinson that nearly was a turnover, lost yardage in the punting game, and two key returns set the stage for the second half for Northwestern. That about sums it up. This was a bad day for NU on special teams. William Przystup cost the Huskers valuable yards in the punting game (27.6 net yard average on five punts), and when he kicked it far, the coverage team was nowhere near the ball carrier to make a stop. Connor Culp also can't miss field goals inside 40 yards. That would've given the Huskers a 9 point lead potentially. I also can't figure out why the return game always seems like such an adventure for the Big Red. Every fielded punt and kick return felt like an adventure 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-Tuesday's at 7 pm.