Watch coach Bo Pelin at the postgame press conferencei:

Fourth quarter. 1:53 left. Nebraska trails Iowa State 9-7.

A light rain falls as the Huskers take over at their 18-yard line. They need three points. They need 50 yards maximum to enter Alex Henery field-goal range.

No miracle necessary, just a few completions, a few first downs against the nation's 88th-ranked defense.

Yet look around Memorial Stadium, a place the Cyclones haven't won in 32 years. Behold a startling view:

Empty seats. Open rows. Everywhere.

More than 85,000 people showed up for kickoff. Some 5,000 had filed out before Zac Lee took the first snap of the final drive.

That image illustrates Husker football seven games into Bo Pelini's second season.

NU has staggered into a crisis of confidence that reaches beyond those seats and into its palatial locker room.

Walk arm-in-arm out of that tunnel all you want, as the Huskers did Saturday. Build a fortress around your sideline and preach Us Against The World.

But unless somebody steps up, takes responsibility and starts to restore belief in this offense, Nebraska will invent new ways to crumble.

Right now, there's no one to trust in that huddle, no one to stop negative momentum, no one able to cross the goal line without fumbling.

The Huskers lack a lot of things — an All-Big 12 wideout, anyone? Near the top of the list, though, are intangible traits you don't notice until they're absent: poise, leadership, toughness.

You saw it when Iowa State ripped the ball away from Husker ball carriers. You saw it when spirals bounced off Husker hands. You see it every week when Lee hesitates and checks down to short receivers for minuscule gains.

Up and down the east sideline Saturday, coaches shouted, “Make a play, make a play.”

Nebraska's offense hasn't developed anyone with that capability, no quick-strike option, no one who seems to want the ball. That's on Shawn Watson.

“We've got a younger group of guys,” Watson said. “We've got to bring them to detail. It's really that simple. We have got to keep coaching them.”

I feel for Watson, especially after a day like Saturday, when NU was as sloppy as a toddler with a Popsicle — eight turnovers in 13 possessions?

But this offense is not young. This offense is not inexperienced. This offense lacks vision and discipline and willpower.

It spends far too much time seeking defensive weaknesses, far too little time identifying its own strengths and conceiving fresh ways to utilize them.

Watson's offense continues to let Lee tiptoe on the zone read (just as bad an idea this week as it was last week); to play receivers who can't actually receive the ball; to call rushing plays that take far too long to develop; to make Cody Green stand on the sideline.

I know, I know, Lee wasn't the problem Saturday. And Green may not be the answer.

But the refusal to put the freshman on the field for a single snap — Watson can't incorporate him into a special package? Even as a decoy? — shows fear. Fear of the unknown.

If Nebraska is going to climb out of this dark hole, fear is no road map.

Watson said Lee “managed” a great game. Probably true. But quarterbacks can afford to be only managers if surrounded by athletes capable of taking a 5-yard pass and scooting 60.

Nebraska doesn't have those threats. So a quarterback has to do more, take more chances, make tougher throws.

Lee isn't that guy, at least not the Lee we've seen against BCS competition.

Two weeks after Pelini's best moment as head coach — a shocking rally at Missouri — he's moving backward at an alarming rate.

Call Saturday a fluke. Call it bad luck. Call eight turnovers the craziest thing you've ever seen at this venerable stadium — you'd probably be right.

But Iowa State, without its starting quarterback and star tailback, might be the worst team to dance out of Lincoln with a victory since 2-5 Kansas State shut out Nebraska in 1968.

If those empty seats were any signal, that's not a piece of history America's greatest football fans cared to witness.

Or believe.

Contact the writer:

679-9899, dirkchatelain@owh.com

• Highlights: Iowa State at Nebraska



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• Analysis: Postgame with Mitch Sherman

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