Nebraska interim head coach Mickey Joseph assesses team's first half and penalties

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are deadlocked at 21-21 at the half against the Indiana Hoosiers. Before heading into the locker room, Cornhuskers interim head coach, Mickey Joseph, gave a few words about his team’s performance, most notably the egregious amount of penalties they’ve drawn.

“We gotta play smart… cut down on those stupid things,” said Joseph, referring to the number of penalties Nebraska has drawn. “We gotta play smarter.”

How to cut down on the penalties? Well, the Cornhuskers’ headman plans on having a chat with his team in the locker room.
“Well, I’m going to go talk to them right now and let them know how I feel about that,” said Joseph.

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Nebraska has committed nine penalties for a total of 85 yards. On the other hand, Indiana has committed seven penalties for 55 yards at the half. Two of the more significant penalties on the Cornhuskers were on left tackle Turner Corcoran. Corcoran was flagged for back-to-back unsportsmanlike conduct penalties stalling the Cornhuskers’ drive and disqualifying him from the game.

Nebraska has to clean up their play on the field if they want to come out of this game victorious. They’ve already left plenty of points off the board, and that is not a recipe for success.

Nebraska starting left tackle Turner Corcoran disqualified following unsportsmanlike penalties

On a promising drive late in the second quarter, in hopes of building on their 21-14 lead at the time, the Cornhuskers found themselves having to punt after multiple penalties stalled their drive. The two most significant ones were back-to-back unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on their starting left tackle, Turner Corcoran.

Corcoran picked up the two penalties, the first after a late hit on an Indiana defender and the second after throwing a punch. As a result of the two unsportsmanlike penalties, the Cornhuskers left tackle is now disqualified from the game. As mentioned above, it also stalled out a solid drive they were putting together, forcing Nebraska to punt. The Hoosiers managed to score a touchdown just before the half.

At halftime, the game is now all tied up at 21-21. But had it not been for Corcoran and a curious benching of starting quarterback Casey Thompson, briefly, which resulted in a strip sack recovered for a touchdown; the score of this game would look a lot different.