Nebraska likely to miss bowl game after loss to Colorado

When it comes to the Colorado-Nebraska rivalry, caring about your strength of schedule or resume doesn’t matter. Too many fans root for their opponents to be the most impressive they can be, because if they go 10-2 and one of those 2 losses was from my team, it makes my team look better. But with Nebraska, who cares about CU’s resume, I just want the Nubs to suffer.

Last year was a treat to watch Nebraska from afar. They had high expectations in 2018, but Colorado ruined Scott Frost’s debut by bullshitting a comeback win. The Huskers lost their next game at home to Troy, which is embarrassing no matter how good Troy is, even without your starting quarterback. They followed that by losing at Michigan, at home to Purdue (!), at Wisconsin and at Northwestern — an 0-6 start to Frost’s first campaign.

The Nubs finished 4-8, having only beaten Minnesota (mediocre), Bethune-Cookman (an FCS team), Illinois (very bad), and Michigan State (mediocre). That “strong finish” — going 4-2 against mostly poor competition — was what prompted media members to pick Nebraska in their preseason Top 25.

The same type of collapse could be coming for Nebraska again. According to stats guru Bill Connelly, Nebraska had a 79% chance of making a bowl game before playing CU, but after their meltdown, they have fallen to just 40%.

Here’s a look at the rest of their schedule:

vs. Northern Illinois

@ Illinois

vs. #6 Ohio State

vs. Northwestern

@ Minnesota

vs. Indiana

@ Purdue

vs. #14 Wisconsin

@ #21 Maryland

vs. #19 Iowa

If there’s any good news for Nebraska, it’s that they have one win under their belt (South Alabama) and they only have four more road games yet to play.

You could chalk up Northern Illinois and Indiana as sure wins, but that only brings them to 3 wins. Northwestern is probably a win too, which would be 4 wins. On the road against Illinois should be their 5th win, but the Illini have been surprisingly stout and the Nubs struggle on the road. There are 5 sure losses: vs. Ohio State, at Minnesota, vs. Wisconsin, at Maryland and vs. Iowa.

On the road against Purdue might be the swing game that determines if the nubs go 5-7 or 6-6. The Boilermakers also wear black and gold, have a freak athlete receiver and have a history of bullshit wins, so I’ll pick Purdue as of now.

I’ll take a guess that Nebraska will finish 5-7 and they will lose their final 4 games of the season. It would be funny to see them so close to a bowl with a 5-3 record, but still miss out.

And with that, I’ll leave you with this: