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The Northwestern Wildcats and Nebraska Cornhuskers square off in Lincoln, Nebraska Saturday headed in opposite directions. Northwestern, who ascended into the top 15 after a 27-0 beatdown of Minnesota in Week 5, has fallen off a cliff. The Wildcats have lost two straight games, albeit both to ranked teams, by a combined 68 points.
Nebraska, on the other hand, is looking up. The Huskers are a remarkably unlucky 3-4 — they've lost their four games by a combined 11 points, and have lost games in overtime, on a last-second Hail Mary, on a last-second touchdown pass, and on a late field goal — but scored 48 points last week in a win over Minnesota. And more importantly, their underlying numbers are impressive. Nebraska comes into the matchup with Northwestern with a top-25 S&P+ offense and a sturdy run defense.
Here's what you need to know ahead of Saturday's game:
Preview Links
- Northwestern will be missing starting defensive tackle C.J. Robbins, who was ruled out for Saturday on Northwestern's Week 8 injury report.
- Northwestern's Week 8 depth chart features a lot of changes on the offense line.
- Former Northwestern linebacker Nate Williams was in attendance for Northwestern's homecoming loss to Iowa, and tried to dissect what went wrong.
- Nebraska SB Nation site Corn Nation gave as some great insight while also managing to troll Northwestern fans.
- Here's what Pat Fitzgerald had to say about Nebraska at his weekly press conference.
- What the heck has gone wrong for Northwestern? Our Josh Rosenblat has a theory.
- Three matchups to watch on Saturday.
- "Being honest with yourself is always the first step in fixing a problem." - Kevin Trahan on the need for some objective self-assessment at Northwestern.
- Ian McCafferty breaks down Iowa's counter play that killed NU's defense.
- Three things to know about the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
- Pat Fitzgerald seems to think turnovers are a big problem for Northwestern's defense. But in reality, the problem is literally everything else.
- Northwestern is sliding in our Big Ten power rankings. They're also no longer a top 25 team.
- Henry Bushnell and Jason Dorow preview Northwestern-Nebraska on our bi-weekly podcast.
- Northwestern still could reach double digit wins, but our Henry Bushnell almost feels as if the season is over.
Broadcast Information
Start time: 11 a.m. CT
TV: ESPN2
Watch Online: WatchESPN
Mobile: WatchESPN App
Radio: WGN 720 AM, WNUR 89.3 FM
Listen Online: WGN, WNUR
Line: Nebraska -7.5