The Nebraska football team kicked off the Matt Rhule era on Thursday night against Minnesota football, hoping to erase the memories of the tumultuous Scott Frost era. In the past five seasons for Nebraska, all coached by Frost, the Cornhuskers have lost 25 games by one score. They also have 16 blown second half leads in the past five seasons. Both of those are the most in FBS in that time frame. That was the story of the Scott Frost era in Lincoln.

There were so many times where it looked like the Cornhuskers were going to get the big win that changed the perception of Frost's time with the program, but they always came up short. In fact, in 2021 Nebraska football went 3-9 and every single loss was by single digits. Eight out of nine losses were by one score. That was the theme of Frost's Nebraska teams. It wasn't that he had bad football teams, the issue was not being able to close out games. So, when Matt Rhule took over, he knew that his needed to be better in the fourth quarter. When the Huskers took a 10-3 lead into the fourth quarter on Thursday, everyone knew that a lot of questions were about to be answered regarding the progress that this team has made.

Unfortunately for the Cornhuskers, nothing has changed yet. Nebraska was in the perfect position to win the game, and they let it slip away due to costly errors. The Huskers led 10-3 and had the football near midfield with under five minutes to go. They had been running the ball well on their current drive and things were looking extremely promising. Then, the game quickly unraveled.

A fumble gave Minnesota the ball back and they marched down the field to tie things up on an incredible catch on fourth and 10. That wasn't the end of the world for Nebraska, however. The Cornhuskers got the ball back and had a chance to drive down the field to win the game. Then quarterback Jeff Sims threw an interception. The Golden Gophers took the ball back down the field and kicked a field goal as time expired to get a 13-10 win.

Unfortunately for Nebraska, that game looked exactly like the rest of their losses from the past five seasons. They now have 26 one score losses since the start of the 2018 season, and 17 blown second half leads. Forutunes have to change for Nebraska eventually, right?