Ohio State spent the two weeks leading up to its game against Nebraska, including a week off, finding new ways to pressure opposing quarterbacks after the Buckeyes’ defensive line generated zero sacks and one tackle for a loss at Oregon. Nebraska knew the pressure was coming.

So head coach Matt Rhule, offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield and the rest of the Cornhuskers’ offensive staff walked into Ohio Stadium with a plan: Check out the Buckeyes’ defense.

It didn’t work.

Nebraska’s true freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola dropped back to throw a screen pass on 13 of his 41 dropbacks in a 21-17 loss to the No. 4 Buckeyes, accounting for 31.7% of his dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus.

Raiola completed 11 of 12 attempts on those dropbacks, but managed just 31 yards and just two first downs. The Cornhuskers didn’t block well enough on the perimeter and Ohio State’s defenders routinely made tackles for loss.

“I’m going to be very humble when I say this,” Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said Monday. “I completely understand why people are frustrated. Complete. At the same time, I would say: block that front without throwing up a few screens and tell me: OK – I mean, they are dominant, absolutely dominant.

“There are some kids that feel really bad on our team because they see how hot Sat or I or whoever is. And they know they missed an assignment, and if they had blocked the man-to-man defender, the ball would have gone about 50 (yards).”

Rhule continued, “Other than that, there are some things built in, like, ‘Hey, we’re doing this play.’ If they don’t bring lightning, we’ll throw in an umbrella.’ That’s what most people do. And (we) threw the screen, and we just couldn’t make the block. We look at everything. We have to get better as coaches. It always starts with us. One thing you can’t do in our building is you can never say the players weren’t good enough. You can never say, “Ah, so and so, he’s not good enough.” So, yeah, it wasn’t good enough. The screen play wasn’t good enough.”

Perhaps most notably, Nebraska had two screens on its final drive, and Rhule acknowledged Monday that he understands why people would be frustrated by that — after all, neither worked.

Now, it’s important to note that the Huskers, like Rhule did this week, opened up a potentially game-winning drive with a go ball to the wideout Jahmal Banks — which came back due to an offensive pass interference penalty — and then they threw a backside in-cut against Cover 2 that resulted in a now-waived targeting penalty, which at that point was a 19-yard reception plus 15 additional yards resulted in free yards.

Suddenly the Huskers found themselves with a new set of downs at their own 46-yard line with 3:14 left, a timeout remaining and a four-point deficit to erase.

But then the head-scratching screens came into play. After a false start: Ohio State University linebacker Cody Simon tackled two consecutive Raiola dump-off passes to the running back Emmett Johnson for a loss of yards.

“They played the man and we went on screen,” Rhule said. “I wish we could go back to these things. But yeah, I mean, the screen play wasn’t bad for us, but in this game it wasn’t very good for us.”

Nebraska began a day with a plan to combat Ohio State’s pass rush. The Buckeyes still had three sacks and 13 tackles for loss at the end. And the Huskers ended up just 31 yards off screens, according to PFF.

“It wasn’t good enough. It hurt us in crucial situations. We have to get better,” Rhule said. “We went into the game with a plan and thought we should be able to do it, but in the crucial moments at the end of the game it didn’t work out.”