Jovan Dewitt didn't sugarcoat it.
"It wasn't very good, right?" Nebraska's special teams coordinator said Tuesday when asked about what he saw from that group Saturday.
"We gave up a score on special teams that ended up being the difference in the game."
After some hiccups against Colorado, the Huskers' list of special-team miscues grew against Troy in a 24-19 defeat:
* There was an illegal formation penalty on NU's first punt attempt (NU now has six special-teams flags this young season).
* A fair catch at the 7-yard line.
* A delay-of-game penalty that led to a missed field goal.
* A 24-yard punt when the Huskers had a chance to pin Troy deep in the fourth quarter.
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* No punt returns.
* Field position heavily favored Troy at times.
* And, of course, Cedarius Rookard's 58-yard punt return for a score in the second quarter.
Dewitt said there were six missed tackles on the play. "And there was two or three guys that were loafing towards the end of the play," he added. "And so that's a mentality that's got to get changed."
Considering the Huskers were trotting out a backup quarterback making his first FBS start, Nebraska coach Scott Frost said it was crucial the team get a strong showing from special teams. It didn't happen.
But Frost and Dewitt are not going into panic mode.
"I think if the coaches panic and make a bunch of changes just because of losing a couple games, the kids won’t believe in us as much," Frost said Monday. "We had the guys out there on those units that we thought were the best going into the game. Not a lot is going to change, we just need to do a better job.â€
So how correctable are the mistakes?
"It's so easy to fix," Dewitt said. "It's so, so easy to fix. Just in terms of one guy being outside a block instead of being inside a block. That ended up being a deal that cost us on a play (Rookard's TD)."
In fact, the Husker gunners did some course-correcting midway through the game.
Nebraska's next three punts resulted in returns of 8, minus-1 and 5 yards by Troy.
Details, details, details.
"The guys understood, 'I'm suppose to be here on this block,'" Dewitt said, "and they funneled the ball back into each other and it was tackled for nothing. It was that itty-bitty little thing of being inside or outside, right hand or left hand, made all the difference in the world."
Dewitt mentioned "itty-bitty" a few times Tuesday. Another example: True freshman Caleb Tannor came around the edge on a Troy punt deep in Trojan territory and he took one false step, Dewitt said.
"As you watch the film, he's maybe 6 inches away from blocking the punt for a potential score for us," said Dewitt, who also coaches the outside linebackers. "It's those little, itty-bitty things that rear their head in big-time ways, they manifest into big-time things."
The Huskers are hoping a look at the game film sheds more light on what needs to be accomplished on special teams. "Validity," as Dewitt called it.
"Now there's a realization that there's validity to what we said," he said. "'This is how I want you to step. This is how I want you to fit.' Now there's a validity in their mind that he's not just talking coach-speak.
"It's real."
After Tannor's "false step," the true freshman approached Dewitt. "He was like, 'You know what, coach? You're right. The little details matter,'" Dewitt said.
Tannor is one of several freshmen on special teams.