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"Twitter\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tAfter struggling early in the season while re-acclimating to college football, Tanner Lee it his stride midseason. Against Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Purdue, Lee threw for 324.3 yards per game with a&nbsp;66.7 percent completion rate, tossing 10 touchdowns with just two interceptions. Against the Boilermakers, Lee orchestrated a perfect game-winning drive combining smart decision-making with special throws.\nWith the offensive line and defense in their current states, Nebraska needs Lee to be a star every game in order to have a chance to win. He wasn&#39;t one against Northwestern on Saturday.\nLee completed 21 of his 38 (55.3 percent) passes for 225 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions against the Wildcats. Unlike some of his previous turnovers, these interceptions were not flukes, and most of the failed third-down conversions were not dropped passes.\nI pulled out five plays (including all three interceptions) to break down Lee&#39;s struggles on Saturday.\nFirst Interception\nNorthwestern scored on its first drive of the game, putting the pressure on Nebraska to put together a quality drive in response. The Huskers picked up one first down, but faced a third-and-8 from their own 35-yard line.\nNebraska lines up with trips to the field side. Northwestern shows blitz with six players at the line of scrimmage. All six do end up rushing, which is more than the five blockers Nebraska will end up with. Northwestern runs a stunt, with the linebacker standing over the B gap looping around the defensive tackles. Right tackle Brendan Jaimes follows the stunt and double-teams the tackle. That leaves tight end Tyler Hoppes to block two men.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nFurther complicating matters, rather than staying in to pick up the blitz, running back Devine Ozigbo releases around the left side. Hoppes blocks the outside rusher, while Jaimes has doubled the tackle,&nbsp;leaving No. 54 (Trent Goens) untouched through the C-gap.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nLee does get the pass out, but it&#39;s well after his receiver made his break. Hard to tell if the pressure from Goens impacted the throw at all, but I&#39;m sure it didn&#39;t help and it didn&#39;t feel good afterward.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nWith the ball still in the air, safety Kyle Quiero has already cut in front of the receiver. Best case scenario here is Quiero has a case of the butterfingers.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nSadly, he does not. Quiero picks off the throw and his momentum carries him out of bounds.&nbsp;\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nLee threw late to the far side of the field to a receiver running an out-route. No bueno.\nFor whatever reason, his timing was just off throughout this game. Late throws will be a theme of this breakdown.\nSecond Interception\nThis one is juts plain bad, and to be honest, I have no idea what Lee thought he saw.\nWith less than a minute to play in the second&nbsp;quarter, Nebraska began its drive with an 11-yard connection between Lee and Stanley Morgan Jr. moving the Huskers&nbsp;up to their own 45. With 46 seconds left, Northwestern drops back into its prevent defense, rushing three. Nebraska lines up with trips to the field side, but Northwestern has five defenders on that side of the field.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nDe&#39;Mornay Pierson-El runs another one of those out-routes to the sticks. Notice the guy circled here. That&#39;s Quiero again. Notice the time and situation: first down with plenty of time on the clock and three timeouts.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nOzigbo runs free into the flat, but Lee is looking the other direction&#8230; where all those Wildcats are.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nLee fires to Pierson-El making his break, but Quiero is just chilling there underneath.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nEasy interception, and this one doesn&#39;t even lead him out of bounds because he never had to break on the ball. All he did was jump straight up and grab it.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nQuiero caught the ball at the Northwestern 45 and ran it back to the Nebraska 40 before Pierson-El managed to chase him down. Pretty solid tackle for a wide receiver, though, and great hustle by Pierson-El.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nI have no clue what Lee thought he saw there or how he could have missed Quiero, but apparently he did. Once again, no bueno.\nMissed Touchdown\nAfter settling for a field goal at the end of an 18-play drive that put Nebraska up 24-17, the defense forced a three-and-out. The Huskers ran a&nbsp;jet-sweep hand-off to JD Spielman&nbsp;for 5 yards on first down, but Ozigbo was stuffed for a loss of 2 on second. On the ensuing third down play, Nebraska missed a huge opportunity.\nOn third and 7, Spielman lines up in the slot and runs a nine route.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nIt&#39;s a play-action pass as Lee&nbsp;fakes the hand-off to Ozigbo. Meanwhile, Spielman runs right by Quiero.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nLee sees Spielman running free deep and launches, but he doesn&#39;t get much air under the ball. Quiero was beat on the play, but the location of the ball still gives him a chance.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nQuiero gets a hand on the pass and it falls harmlessly into the turf. Look how far ahead Spielman is.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nIf Lee had gotten more air under that pass, it&#39;s a touchdown and Nebraska takes a 14-point lead. Instead, the Huskers have to punt the ball away. Still, no bueno.\nThird Interception\nThis last interception wasn&#39;t all on Lee, but he still could have done better on the play.\nThe Huskers entered the red zone for just the second time thanks to a 23-yard gain from Lee to Spielman with a 15-yard penalty tacked on. Already leading by a touchdown, Nebraska has a chance to extend its lead to two scores.\nThe Huskers set up with trips right and one back next to Lee. Northwestern sends a blitzer up the middle and stunts the defensive end around the tackles.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nJaimes blocks the left end, right guard Matt Farniok blocks the left tackle, center Cole Conrad picks up the blitzer and Jerald Foster helps him out and Gates takes on the right tackle with some help from Hoppes. Ozigbo releases. That means there is no one left to block the end coming around on the stunt.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nLee sees a man in the end zone and winds up to launch the ball, but the rusher drills him before he can get it out.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nA defender, Godwin Igwebuike,&nbsp;just happens to be standing right where the ball ends up and he picks it off. At least it wasn&#39;t Quiero again, I guess.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nAgain, Lee can&#39;t do much about getting hit as he&#39;s throwing. However, the window for the throw opened up prior to when he actually decided to throw the ball. There&#39;s a chance he still could have fit the ball in there, but a safety was rotating over the top and might have had a chance to make a play on the ball. If Lee throws on time, it&#39;s a touchdown and the rusher never reaches him. Even an incomplete pass sets up an easy field goal for Drew Brown, but instead Nebraska comes up empty.\nBueno? No.\nFailed Third Down Conversion\nNorthwestern tied the game up, but Nebraska got the ball back with about five minutes to play. An illegal block on the kick return started the Nebraska drive at its own 7-yard line, but the Huskers managed to put a drive together, converting a pair of third downs and driving their way to the Northwestern 45-yard line.\nLangsdorf dialed up a play-action shot deep down the left sideline for Morgan, but he was well defended and the pass took him out of bounds. On second down, Lee hit tight end Jack Stoll for a 5-yard gain, setting up third and 5 from the 40-yard line.\nNebraska lines up with trips in a&nbsp;bunch to the left with a tight end and two receivers. Hoppes runs up and across the middle, while Pierson-El and Spielman run corner routes with Spielman running to the sticks and Pierson-El getting deeper.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nAs we&#39;ve already discussed, out-routes require precise timing and Lee didn&#39;t have it in this game. Spielman makes&nbsp;his break but Lee doesn&#39;t make the throw. With a three-man rush, Lee has plenty of time and space.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nA second later, Lee finally decides to target Spielman underneath, but once again the defender (that pesky Quiero fellow once again) reads the play and undercuts the throw.\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nThe pass probably should have been another interception but ends up as a pass break-up as Quiero can&#39;t quite snag it. Meanwhile, look at Pierson-El and where the nearest defender is to him (not nearly as close as Quiero was to Spielman).\n\nHail Varsity\n\n\nIt&#39;s hard to know for sure what the window would have been like for Lee if he had targeted Pierson-El, but it probably would have had a better chance of success than the throw Lee did end up making. If Spielman was going to be open, it would have had to be right after his break before Quiero can close on him.\nTying it All Together\nWith the current state of the offensive line and the defense, Nebraska needed Tanner Lee to build off of his recent play and put the team on his back. Unfortunately, the burden was too heavy in this game and the Huskers lost in overtime despite so many chances to win the game in regulation.\nA lot of Lee&#39;s struggles to move the ball this season have&nbsp;had to do with heavy pressure or dropped passes by his receivers. On Saturday, however, it was mostly on him.&nbsp;For whatever reason, his timing was just off in this game and his decision-making was suspect in part because of that fact. Lee missed some big throws in big moments and made some head-scratching decisions in others.&nbsp;\nNebraska could certainly stand to give Lee more help, but in order for the team to take a step forward he has to find some consistency.\nJacob PadillaJacob is in his third year with Hail Varsity covering Husker athletics. He has also written extensively for SB Nation&#8217;s Bright Side of the Sun and The Creightonian. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he&#8217;s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTwitter\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore"
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