September 20 is the date that Matt Rhule and the Nebraska Cornhuskers would remember for the longest time. But obviously not for the good reasons. The Huskers had pinned high hopes on their QB Dylan Raiola who came off as the threat to rival QBs like Shedeur Sanders. But not anymore! His threat got derailed. All thanks to Rhule and his poor game of action. Maybe the HC had put down the high roller chips but forgot Raiola’s still a frosh. Meanwhile, the QB fell prey to 86000 Nebraska fans’ brutal attacks even after being compared to two NFL bigshots.

There have been no second doubts about Raiola’s talent as the QB. Analyst John Fanta too acknowledges the fact, “Dylan Raiola is extraordinary. So poised under pressure, delivering dimes in the process and incredibly smooth in how he runs the Nebraska offense. Huskers got an absolute gem of a prospect. Golden opportunity for them to get to 4-0.”

Well, Raiola is full of confidence, often compared to ‘Patrick Mahomes’, but let’s not forget—he’s only 19. It seems like Coach Rhule may have put a little too much pressure on the young QB. To make matters worse, Illinois linebacker Dylan Rosiek, who shares the same first name, gave Raiola a rough time with a sack. And Raiola’s woes hereby continued!

On Friday, the freshman QB landed an intentional grounding penalty that pushed Nebraska to a 3rd-and-42. He was coming off pretty well with 24 of 35 for 297 yards and three touchdowns in the initial games, until one game decided to gnaw at the player. When Raiola’s tight end teammate  Luke Lindenmeyer broke free behind the defense, Raiola tried his hands at lifting a pass. It definitely would have given the QB an edge only if backup kicker John Hohl hadn’t missed the chance.

As the QB got squeezed between his poor luck and mistakes, what Rhule could have done was talk things out and give the essential vocal tonic at the moment. Instead of giving him a breather, he kept on burning timeouts leaving Raiola entangled in “feel low” juju. It was clear Raiola was having a tough time, and honestly, Rhule should’ve put in the backup QB. It felt like a missed chance to help the young quarterback. At that moment, Rhule just didn’t come through as the coach Raiola needed. And that was only the beginning—the real drama unfolded post-game when Raiola failed to prove himself in front of a MASSIVE crowd!

Dylan Raiola’s rough night comes with fan backlash

On Friday, the Memorial Stadium in Lincoln witnessed a footfall of 86,936 people. While it was easy to avoid the crowd at the stadium as he had the chance to seek refuge in the locker room, how could he escape the online thrash? The Huskers fans are not willing to overlook Rhule’s mistake. They are frustrated that their fav QB Raiola threw an incomplete pass and was sacked twice.

While the QB struggled to function under pressure without absolutely no kudos from the HC, his moves came off as lazy to a fan. “Raiola with absolutely no urgency at the end. Running backwards, rolling out casually almost getting sacked again, then another sack,” the fan came up with a critical review. However, if you think that this loss and the brutal blows from the fans were successful in its attempt to break his morals, then you are mistaken. 

In the post-game press conference, Dylan Raiola was spotted rather with a positive attitude as he now focuses on the upcoming games, “Let this one hurt for a day or two and move on from it.” He has his reason to reign with confidence, after all, he has found himself in the same line with NFL bigshots, Caleb Williams and Trevor Lawrence, and possesses “the same level of comfort in the passing game.”

In case, you want to get some updates beyond the match scores and the ongoing season, you can check out the Think Tank podcast with Dawg Sanders for better knowledge in topics like NIL and NFL.