Nebraska’s dreams of a bowl appearance in 2018, never terribly realistic in the first place, were dashed with last week’s loss at Ohio State.

Now the Cornhuskers (2-7, 1-5 Big Ten) can play spoilers for somebody else’s postseason ambitions. Nebraska hosts Illinois (noon ET Saturday, Big Ten Network) at Memorial Stadium with the Fighting Illini (4-5, 2-4) trying to become bowl eligible. Big Red can all but put an end to that ambition, but the hosts will have to contend with a much better team from Champaign than the 2-10 train wreck from last season.

Nebraska will debut its “Memorial Tribute” alternate uniforms to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. It’s fitting, with Veterans Day next week and with Big Red playing in Memorial Stadium, named for Nebraskans who died serving in the nation’s wars. This design harkens back to Nebraska’s uniforms from 1923, the year Memorial Stadium opened, with some modifications for the modern game. I’m not too crazy about the helmets but otherwise this appears to be a clean, suitable look compared to a lot of other alternate uniform combinations. Call me old-fashioned but I hated Ohio State’s black jerseys with red numbers last week.

Anyway, aside from the new unis, here are 5 other things I’d like to see from the Cornhuskers against Illinois:

No more calamities on special teams

We have pretty much run out of ways to describe how bad Nebraska has been on special teams. Give the Cornhuskers credit for creativity — one week they allow a punt return for a score, the next they miss a crucial field goal, the next they fumble away a return. Against Ohio State, the Cornhuskers topped themselves, getting a punt blocked for a safety and botching a kickoff so egregiously that the ball actually went backward. Fans are not even waiting for a competent performance from this unit anymore; they will settle for one that does not kill Nebraska’s chances of winning.

Be wary of Illinois offense

Few would have anticipated entering the season that the phrase “watch out for that Illinois offense” would be said without sarcasm. Last season Illinois was 127th of 129 FBS teams in scoring and total offense. In 2018 it has been a very different story. The Fighting Illini are still not great but at least this offense is respectable, ranking 66th in FBS in scoring (29 points a game) and 59th in total offense (416 yards a game). Illinois is coming off of a 55-31 win over Minnesota, the program’s best scoring effort since 2011 and its most points in a B1G game since 2010.

Take advantage of a bad defense

As much as Illinois has improved on offense, it has taken about as big of a step backward on defense. This development might seem shocking because head coach Lovie Smith comes from a defensive background, but in truth the Fighting Illini has been sliding backward on defense for a couple of years. In fact, oddly enough the last time Illinois had a decent defense was in its one season under Bill Cubit. This season, Illinois is 116th in FBS in points allowed at 36.9 per game and has allowed fewer than 400 yards in only two games: Against FCS foe Western Illinois and B1G doormat Rutgers. Maryland had 431 rushing yards against Illinois and Wisconsin ground out 357 so look for big days on the ground for Devine Ozigbo and Adrian Martinez.

A four-quarter game

In the past three games, Nebraska has scored a combined 87 first-half points but just 42 in the second half. In a few games before that the Cornhuskers scored more in the second half but they were usually well behind by then. Nebraska has rarely put together a full four-quarter effort and coach Scott Frost must be looking for that.

A standout on D

Linebacker Luke Gifford has probably been Nebraska’s best player all season. He’d get my vote for team MVP, anyway. But last week against Ohio State the senior had three tackles, just one more than his season low. The team only had three tackles for loss and one sack. Linebacker Dedrick Young had a nice game with 10 tackles, and to be fair the Cornhuskers forced three Buckeye turnovers. But overall nobody really stood out on defense and Nebraska needs to have that to slow the Fighting Illini.