Nebraska’s stunning loss puts Matt Rhule on precipice of disaster

The Nebraska Cornhuskers seemingly turned the corner under head coach Matt Rhule. After a 5-7 campaign in his first year back from the NFL, Rhule led the program to a 3-0 start through the first three weeks of the college football season. Even after a loss to Illinois, the Cornhuskers won their next two games against Purdue and Rutgers to improve to 5-1. All they needed to do was win one more game to reach bowl eligibility for the first time since 2016.

Nebraska was then blown out 56-7 by the Indiana Hoosiers and lost 21-17 to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Surely, facing off against the two-win UCLA Bruins would help Nebraska reach their goal, right?

Well, instead, Nebraska lost 27-20 to UCLA. Nebraska lost starting quarterback Dylan Raiola to a back injury, but still had a chance to force overtime on the final drive of the game. However, backup Heinrich Haarberg's pass on second-and-15 on UCLA's own 39-yard line was intercepted to give UCLA the victory.

Nebraska also had no answers for UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers, who completed 17-of-25 pass attempts for 219 yards and two touchdowns while also running for 56 yards on six carries.

This was supposed to be a win for Nebraska. But now, their path to a nbowl game gets a lot more difficult.

Nebraska's path to a bowl game gets a lot tougher after loss to UCLA

In the next four weeks, Nebraska will play the USC Trojans, Wisconsin Badgers, and Iowa Hawkeyes. That's far from an easy path.

The USC Trojans may be 4-4 on the year, but they are far from an easy opponent. Each of their games have come down to the wire, with notable opponents being LSU, Michigan, and Penn State. They may be dealing with their "welcome to the Big Ten" moment.

As for the Wisconsin Badgers, they do have blowout losses on their resume this season against Alabama and USC, they are still a five-win program.

Then there's Iowa, which has beaten programs like Washington, Northwestern, and Minnesota. You can't count them out.

What all three teams have in common is that they are better teams than UCLA, who Nebraska lost to on Saturday. Entering the matchup, UCLA put up 302.1 yards of offense per game (125th in the country) and 367.3 yards allowed per game (72nd in the nation). This was an entirely winnable matchup for Nebraska, and yet, they blew it.

Rhule needs to make sure he's preparing during the team's bye week because this is a rather rough stretch of games they are facing to end the regular season. Remember, just one more win, and a bowl game is theirs.