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Nebraska’s night turned from better to worse against USC as they landed their 29th straight loss against a ranked team. Now, after a 17-21 loss against the Trojans, Matt Rhule, too, is 2-24 against top-ranked teams. On the other hand, the Trojans keep their all-time winning streak of 6-0-1 against the Huskers. But they didn’t just stop at that. Lincoln Riley’s team made sure the Huskers remember this loss for years, and their move? Rubbing it in after the win against them. Despite leading for three straight quarters, Nebraska couldn’t capitalize on USC’s passing woes. Even with quarterback Jayden Maiava completing just 9 of 23 passes for 135 yards, the Trojans managed to steal the win. But USC didn’t stop there — they twisted the knife with a brutal post on X, sharing a photo of a popped balloon captioned “Aw Shucks” alongside the final score and the cheeky remark, “what’s poppin’ 📌.” ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad With this loss, the Huskers fell to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in the SEC. Things turned drastically in the fourth quarter; the Trojans took their first lead when Maiava threw a 43-yard pass to Jaden Richardson. After which the Huskers made a penalty, which moved the ball to the 6-yard line, and then King Miller rushed in for a TD. After the Huskers got the ball back on fourth-and-1 on their own 27-yard line, Emmett Johnson slipped and fell while taking a pass from TJ Lateef before he could get the yard, and ended their only chance to make a comeback. Matt Rhule’s offense struggled to gain momentum, especially after Dylan Raiola went down with an injury. Despite Johnson rushing for 165 yards on 29 carries, the passing attack went flat without Raiola, as he finished the night game completing 10 of 15 passes for 91 yards. And even backup QB Lateef only completed 5 of 7 passes for 7 yards and 18 rushing yards with a turnover on downs at the Huskers’ 27-yard line. Even Lateef was nothing but disappointed. “I had bad footwork on that play; I’ll fix that,” he said. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad Even the defense was off the hook after allowing 202 rushing yards despite the Trojans playing without their two top RBs. This not only puts Nebraska into a tough spot but also highlights Matt Rhule’s inefficiency against ranked teams. As he spent his entire tenure at Baylor going winless against Top 25 teams, his last victory against a ranked opponent came in 2016 at Tempe against Navy. “Obviously this is a very bitter pill for us to swallow. We had a lot of opportunities to win the football game. Really the third quarter, the drives there just put us out of whack, and we were never really able to get back in rhythm offensively to make the plays you have to win the game,” Rhule said. Now, with this loss, Nebraska also lost its QB1 to injury. Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports Matt Rhule on Raiola’s injury Things turned against Matt Rhule’s team after Dylan Raiola went down with an ankle injury in the third quarter. Raiola fumbled the ball and fell backward after he was sacked for a 10-yard loss. After which, he grabbed his right leg while the trainers were checking up on him. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad Later, he was seen walking off the field with the help of two trainers into the medical tent. But despite that, he was jogging into the sidelines to see if he could make a comeback into the game. Despite his urge, the medical team didn’t allow Raiola’s return. Even Rhule stood by it, putting his hopes on Lateef if he’s needed next week against UCLA. “I just didn’t see the respectable thing to do would be to put a guy out there who can’t run,” Rhule said. “TJ has a bright, bright future, and I thought maybe he might be able to make some plays. You can’t put a kid (Raiola) out there who can’t defend himself. I told him, ‘I love you too much to have you play when you’re hurt like this.” For now, Rhule doesn’t have any update on Raiola’s condition. It will be interesting to see how things go for them next week.
