There’s no telling how beating the Wildcats would have changed things for Riley. He very likely would have still been in trouble.

But winning as many of these last four games as possible, and looking good in the process, could have made it interesting. At least you could have provided some debate.

OK, maybe.

But now? Moos has seen three NU games: the Huskers getting embarrassed at home by Ohio State, the Huskers not playing well but hitting on a couple of two-minute drill drives to overcome Purdue, and then this stumble against solid Northwestern.

If Moos wanted to know what the Riley Era has been like, it was all laid out for him on Saturday afternoon.

Perhaps in one play, too.

Nebraska found a semblance of a run game on Saturday. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t much, but Devine Ozigbo going 23 times for 72 yards was better than last week.

The flip side to that was Lee was on a bad streak. Lee has been terrific lately, efficient and confident and aggressive hot. But the junior is a streaky passer. And now the interceptions were back.