Bada-Boomed: Huskers Cruise Past Rutgers 42-24

What a way to welcome the newest members of the Big Ten to Lincoln.

Behind a record breaking game performance by Ameer Abdullah & a new career mark by Kenny Bell, the Nebraska Cornhuskers never trailed as they defeated the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 42-24 in Lincoln on Saturday.

Abdullah, the SR from Alabama that had been seemingly forgotten about in the Heisman Trophy chase, notched a school record 341 All Purpose yards, breaking the previous record held by Roy Helu Jr. against Missouri back in 2010. His combination of 225 rushing yards, 90 return yards and 26 receiving yards along with 3 rushing TD's were the main cogs on offense.

Tommy Armstrong had a decent day, throwing  for 163 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Kenny Bell had 6 catches for 63 yards on the day. His 6 catches puts him #1 on the all-time receptions list at Nebraska, surpassing Nate Swift on the list.

The Huskers (7-1, 3-1 B1G) got on the scoreboard first midway through the First Quarter, as Armstrong notched his lone rushing TD of the game to put the Huskers up 7-0.

The Scarlet Knights (5-3, 1-3 B1G) evened the score at the end of the 1st, when QB Gary Nova hit Wideout Leonte Carroo on a scrambled pass that turned into a 71 yard TD to make the end of the quarter tied at 7.

Big Red owned all the scoring in the Second Quarter, as Ameer Abdullah broke off two big runs for Touchdowns. First off, he nailed a 53 yarder just 1:41 into the frame, then added a 48 yarder on the next Nebraska possession. Sam Cotton hauled in a 8 yard pass from Armstrong to make the score 28-7 Nebraska. Before halftime, Gary Nova was knocked out of the game on a Maleik Collins pressure. Collins landed on Nova's knee, and he was replaced by Chris Laviano the rest of the game. Nebraska took the 28-7 lead into Halftime.

Rutgers opened the second half scoring with a 41 yard FB by Kyle Federico. Nebraska answered with a scoring drive that ended with a Armstrong to Jordan Westerkamp 4 yard TD pass. However, Rutgers ended up winning the quarter with a Desmon Peoples 3 yard TD that came off of a fumble of Armstrong taking a center snap. That made the score 35-17 for Nebraska after 45 minutes.

In the final quarter, Abdullah capped off his huge day with a 23 yard rushing TD. Rutgers did have one long drive at the end of the game, going six plays in 53 yards and finishing with a Robert Martin four yard rushing TD that gave us our final of 42-24 Nebraska.

While Rutgers had 160 yards in the first quarter alone, they ended the game with 348 total. Nebraska had 455 yards of total offense, with a majority of that coming in the second quarter at 148 yards.

Nebraska's Defense was led by Randy Gregory. The All American DE produced a blocked FG, five tackles, three QB hurries and the lone sack for the Huskers . Nathan Gerry did have the lone interception of the day for Nebraska, while Zaire Anderson was the only Blackshirt to register double digits with 11 tackles.

Nebraska stays at home next week with a game versus the Purdue Boilermakers. Rutgers will head back to Jersey to host the Wisconsin Badgers in an early game next week.