Things got pretty hot in Memorial Stadium! Maybe Matt Rhule and the Cornhuskers thought that it would be a smooth ride for them to beat Illinois taking inspiration from their victory against Colorado Buffaloes. Just when the Cornhuskers finally found a reason to celebrate, they got hit by a massive blow. Well, their wide receiver Isaiah Neyor got a snub from the referee who canceled his touchdown.

And BOOM! This was enough for the Red Army fans to switch on their revolt mode as they took to X splurging out their rage for the blatant bias and Illinois enjoying that extra-favor. 

Huskers’ hopes were dashed with Isaiah Neyor’s slip-up

When Matt Rhule’s army stepped into the field on September 20, getting snubbed was probably the last thing that crossed their mind. But poor Nebraska! Their rivals for Friday evening, Illinois was the beneficiary of the controversial ruling. And who was the protagonist of the fallout? It was none other than the Huskers WR Neyor. But what’s the fuss all about?

Right when the Huskers stepped into the second quarter, they got hit by the bitter surprise. Their Patrick Mahomes doppelganger, QB Dylan Raiola was spotted throwing a touchdown pass to Neyor. While the fans were already cheering for Huskers, pretty sure about its results, within split seconds their emotions changed to a big ‘OH NOOOOOOOO!’ The ball was ripped away from Neyor’s grasp while he was falling to the ground.

And what an absolutely eureka moment for Illinois as their defensive back Torrie Cox Jr. made the most out of the moment with Neyor not in his power mode and took the ball away. Whether it was an interception or a touchdown? After multiple replays, the referee took the points off the board for Nebraska and the points went to Illinois for interception. 

Fans lash out at referee’s decision 

The fans were enraged to find that Neyor’s efforts going to vain. As one of the Cornhuskers loyalist’s anger was evident from his comment, “They call was completely horses- – -.” According to another Nebraska fan, Cox Jr.’s contact with Neyor was enough to give the points to the Huskers, but to him somehow the school referees were not in the mood to see the Huskers rise, “And they let the rub with contact go on the field side, same down. Freaking JV high school refs.”

The decision on Neyor’s move has been so frustrating that it made a fan question the eligibility of the referees, “How are refs still terrible? Can we not outsource this to AI at some point? Why are these guys so bad at their job every single year?” A fan has been under the strong belief that the game would be in Illini’s favor as the referee has turned a blind eye,  “Lots of one sided calls in Illinois favor refs are terrible.”

The September 20 match has been a long-awaited one but somehow the referees killed the spirit, “Biggest game on Friday and we have high school refs. WHAT IS THIS.” Let’s see if Isaiah Neyor’s snub turns out to be costly at the end, or if Matt Rule and Co. recovers from what appears to be a favoritism attack. They are already bearing the pressure of the costly mistake they made that allowed Illinois WR Pat Bryant to snag a touchdown in the very first quarter. 

Woah! That’s some crazy stuff. If you want to know about something other than match updates, you know where to dig in. It’s the Think Tank podcast with Dawg Sanders that explores interesting concepts like NIL and NFL.