The damage beyond repair for the night, Greg Austin brought his offensive linemen to the sideline for one last huddle.

The scoreboard showed zeroes on the clock and an ugly 34-7 score glowed in the night's mist. The numbers were just as stomach-turning for Nebraska as you dived deeper into the statistical domination Minnesota had displayed. It wasn't just the Gophers running over the Husker defense. It was Nebraska's O-line giving up four sacks against mostly base fronts, and managing just 3.5 yards per carry to Minnesota's 6.6

The message from Nebraska's O-line coach, though, was not about what was already lost. It was about the days that would be just ahead.

"He told us it was a moment that we need to realize it's time to either quit or get better," said Husker sophomore offensive lineman Broc Bando. "And I'm going to get better."

Junior offensive tackle Matt Farniok, a team co-captain, expressed confidence still in how his teammates would respond, even as he carried great frustration at how the night had played out for an offensive line that has struggled to find a reliable rhythm since Week 1.

"We show that we can do it, but we aren't consistent in how we do it," Farniok said. "And that just comes back to getting our fundamentals and basics right. That's all it really comes down to ... especially in the run game. We as an O-line, it doesn't matter what's going on, we need to get more movement and create bigger holes for our running backs because it's a talented bunch ... And we need to start making them look that way."

Farniok spoke of not just knocking someone back, but staying on blocks. He's noticed lately too many examples of defenders falling off what could have been a productive block to still make the play. Potential 10-yard gains become 2-yard gains in such cases.

While the snaps from center Cameron Jurgens were much improved this weekend, the Huskers struggled all night to block Carter Coughlin and Sam Renner, among others on the Minnesota D-line. After left guard Trent Hixson was driven back into quarterback Noah Vedral's feet on one play, Nebraska coaches brought in Bando to take the rest of the snaps there.

"Right now we're having to pick and choose run plays and try to scheme too much instead of just winning up front," Scott Frost said.

He recalled with disappointment one play when Minnesota got a sack with a three-man front, even overcoming the lack of a holding call. To go further with it, the Husker coach said that his team is relying entirely too much on the QB run right now, which isn't ideal now that both Adrian Martinez and Vedral are nicked up.

Farniok is still ambitious despite the struggles. What can this Husker O-line find to hang its hat on?

"Every downhill run," he said. "I know we're a physical group. Our failures come from just us, technique-wise. That's something you can always work on, and you can always fix. I know that us as an O-line, we're going to get that right..."

Farniok spoke of fight. That isn't the part that is lacking in his eyes.

"No matter how you feel, no matter what's going on, you have to be willing to fight, lay it out on the line ... and I know that we have the right mindset ... There's not a question in my mind that if I asked any one of those guys, 'Hey, go sprint through this brick wall, they're going to do it.' They might fail, but they're going to keep sprinting through that brick wall because that's the way they're built and that's the way they think. The mindset and physicality of us has never been a problem."

Farniok repeated a few times as he stood in the bowels of TCF Bank Stadium that it's technique and fundamentals that are making this O-line fall short. In his mind, it's not that everyone is failing on the bad plays. It's one or two guys messing up, with the errors being passed around.

"We're making the right climb, but we have to make sure we're not shooting ourselves in the foot along the way."

The struggles, though, have been enough that Nebraska has scored just three touchdowns total over the past three weeks, with the offense averaging just 9 points a game in those contests.

Nebraska's 4.30 yards per rush ranks just 74th nationally, and the 19 sacks allowed ranks 115th. Those numbers, combined with Bando moving up with the top unit on Saturday, will make people wonder about the competition perhaps heating up on that O-line in the days ahead.

"Competition is always there," Farniok said on if he thought there might be a fight for jobs.

Bando sees it as a good thing. "Brings the best out of everything," he said.

Right now, more than ever, it is a necessity in the search for solutions.