Raiola exits with injury, Huskers slip up against UCLA

LINCOLN, Neb. - Nebraska’s search for a 54th bowl game appearance will continue for at least another two weeks.

Nebraska fell to DeShaun Foster's UCLA Bruins 27-20 on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. UCLA entered as the 133rd rushing offense in the nation and put up 113 on the ground in the win. 

Now, the Huskers have to sit on the loss for two weeks, with a bye week upcoming.

“We’re obviously very disappointed. A tremendous missed opportunity for us,” Head Coach Matt Rhule said. “That was a game we had every opportunity to win. Even when we got down, we clawed our way back in it. Didn’t make the plays we needed to make. Credit to them."

“Had every chance to go win that game, especially in the first half, and came up short,”  Quarterback Dylan Raiola said. “We’ll let it sting for a couple days, we have a bye week this week. We’ve got to figure it out and there’s really no other way around it other than attacking it head on.”

Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola wet 14-27 through the air for 177 yards with a touchdown and a pick six - the pick six came on the first play of the second half, to put Nebraska behind by two scores. Then came the fourth quarter, when Raiola was hit while scrambling near the end zone - he would try to re enter the game, but stumbled entering the field.

Raiola shared more postgame.

“I thought I could go, I thought I could fight through it. I just went out there, and it kind of locked up on me. From that point try to come back, but we trust Heinrich (Haarberg) in those situations, and I thought it was best for the team. I could possibly hurt them if I went back out there, Heinrich did a really good job.”

Matt Rhule described the hit as one to Raiola's back and Raiola noted he plans to come back for check up's on the injury in the coming days. 

Now, the Huskers will take time to reflect and regroup, as they head for their second bye week, ahead of a west coast trip to USC.

“We’re going to find out who’s willing to stand up for the challenge in the locker room,” Defensive Lineman Ty Robinson said. “We have a great group of guys who will face the challenge head on and we’ll try to work on getting those pieces to click faster.”

“If I know one thing about this team, we’ll come back. From anything,” Defensive back Isaac Gifford said. “I’ve been through a lot of games like that and never backed down from it. And I know there’s guys in that locker room that won’t either.”

Nebraska falls to 5-4 with the loss and visits USC on Nov. 16.