Nebraska 13 Northwestern 10: Recap and Evening Games Thread

Ready for a wild one?

Mood check

Ben Stille gets the start in place of the suspended Khalil Davis. One person is reporting that redshirt freshman receiver Miles Jones is suited up. Jones played one game in 2018 before a shoulder injury ended his season.

Nebraska won the toss and deferred.

First Quarter

Aidan Smith started at quarterback for Northwestern. Aaaaaand they start the game with a delay of game penalty. Chalk one up for the Husker fans.

The Blackshirts forced a three and out. To quote our Fearless Leader Jon WOOOOOO!

The Huskers fielded the punt near midfield. The Husker sideline was given a warning.

JD Spielman, Dedrick Mills. Husker false start on third and one (Cameron Jurgens). Drink. Damned near an interception on a shovel pass deflected by Spielman toward a Wildcat defender. Three and out. Isaac Armstrong dropped a nice punt right inside the 10 yard line.

Marquel Dismuke has been in on a couple of good tackles thus far. The Wildcats converted a third and five but then big Darrion Daniels brought down the runner for a tackle for loss and the defense put up the stop sign again. Spielman fielded the punt at the Husker 30.

Gif break. No reason for this one, I just laughed when I saw it.

Game plan thus far. Dedrick Mills and more Dedrick Mills. Mix in some Jack Stoll and Kanawai Noa. Wan’Dale Robinson was brought down for a loss. Adrian Martinez keeper. Third and eight.

WANDALE ROBINSON GETS LOOSE. TOUCHDOWN NEBRASKA. LET THOSE BALLOONS GO! It looked like a poor snap and a broken play, but Wan’dale worked some magic and ran 42 yards for his third career touchdown.

Here’s the Spanish language announcers on the TD

Nebraska 7 Northwestern 0

JoJo Domann tackle for loss. Gang tackling is a pleasant sight - when it’s our team doing it. Three and out for the Wildcats.

Three and out for the Husker offense. Bummer.

The punt was downed inside the five yard line. A Northwestern player made a bad bad bad decision to try and pick it up and muffed. The Wildcats did recover. (It didn’t matter as it appeared a Husker had touched the ball first and it was a dead ball at that point).

Second Quarter

Carlos Davis has also been racking up the tackles. Shoutout.

Braxton Clark and Eli Sullivan sighting on third down. Northwestern punt. Sigh. Husker penalty (block in the back). Drink.

Northwestern roughed Martinez on the drive. That was a bad mistake for a normally disciplined Wildcat team and it moved Nebraska near midfield. Martinez finds Austin Allen while throwing on the run off the wrong foot. Now THAT’S the 2AM Husker fans have come to know and love.

Martinez keeps on third down but doesn’t convert (fourth and two). At the twenty yard line, Scott Frost decides to let Lane McCallum attempt the 35 yard field goal. Good! It was straight down the middle and the Husker fans celebrated a bit more loudly than normal.

Huskers 10 Northwestern 0

Northwestern brought the kickoff out to the 50 yard line, by far their best field position of the day. Alex Davis and Will Honas sighting. Third and nine. Aidan Smith converted on a keeper. Bugger. The Blackshirts haven’t been spying him and he’s made them pay a couple times. Mohamed Barry didn’t let it happen again - tackle for loss when Smith took off. Third and thirteen. Fourth and nine. Field goal unit. The 40 yard attempt was good.

Nebraska 10 Northwestern 3

Wan’dale Robinson brings the kick out of the end zone with me yelling “NO NO NO”. He was brought down at the 19.

I FORMATION!! Gain of one. I think I’d keep that one out of the game very much today. The Wildcats are the kind of defense that can stop those plays. The Huskers need to use their speed advantage instead.

Austin Allen drop (pass was a bit low but catchable). Third and nine. Wan’dale is leveled on third down. Punt. NW ball at their 30 yard line.

Twitter is reporting that Carlos Davis is headed to the locker room. Deontre Thomas is on the field in his place. Wildcat completion to midfield. More dinking and dunking. Dicaprio Bootle knocked a pass away and then leveled a received and forced another incompletion. Third and 10. Incomplete. Wildcats go for it at the Husker 37. Or not. Delay of game. Punt. Fair catch at the 10.

The Husker offense has 1:14 to work with. Compete to Spielman. Incomplete to Mills. Wyatt Mazour sighting. Martinez sacked. 50 seconds. No gain. Husker punt. NW ball on their 42. Aidan Smith is sacked by Ben Stille and Caleb Tannor to end the second half.

Halftime

• Robinson’s 42-yard run for a touchdown was Nebraska’s seventh rush of longer than 40 yards this season, a total that leads the nation.
• Quarterback Adrian Martinez completed eight passes in the first half, giving him 307 career pass completions. He is the seventh Husker with more than 300 career pass completions.
• Junior JD Spielman caught two passes in the first half and has caught at least one pass in 27 straight games.

Third Quarter

Huskers got the ball at the 25. Maurice Washington enters the game for the first time. The Husker offense goes backward on a three and out. Punt. Northwestern has very good field position ~their 42 yard line.

All of Husker Nation is wondering - WTF is up with the offense?

Northwestern meanwhile is moving the ball and are quickly past midfield and threatening to enter the red zone. The run plays up the middle that the Blackshirts were stuffing for no gain are now going for six or more. Aidan Smith enters the red zone on a keeper. A pass interference on JoJo Domann puts the Wildcats in business at first and goal. We’ve seen this before, right? A Wildcat QB finds his footing confounding a Nebraska defense. Sigh. Touchdown Wildcats.

Nebraska 10 Northwestern 10

The Husker offense comes out firing and Adrian finds Wan’dale at midfield. Martinez got tangled up with one of his offensive linemen(?) and limped to the line of scrimmage. Mike Williams sighting. Maurice Washington is going nowhere on his runs up the middle. STOP CALLING PLAYS WHERE MAURICE WASHINGTON RUNS UP THE MIDDLE. Fourth down at the NW 45. Punt. Out of bounds at the NW 11.

The officials missed an offsides on NW on the punt that would have made it a fourth and one and instead called Nebraska for false start. I suspect Frost might have gone for it.

Bowman turns Lamar Jackson inside out and gets NW out to the 35. NW is in full attack mode and has the Blackshirts on their heels. NW false start on third and nine. I’ll take it. Wildcat punt. Cam Taylor-Britt fair catch at the 23. (Twitter is reporting that Spielman is out for the rest of the game.)

Sorry folks. Giphy is broken. You’ll have to put up with my writing.

AND WAN’DALE SAVES THIS OFFENSE’S ASS. Martinez and Mills were being swarmed and Adrian (or maybe Dedrick) flipped (probably fumbled) it to Wan’dale who broke it all the way down to the NW 23. He dropped a likely touchdown pass on second and 10 but made a nice play to get a few yards on third down. The 29 yard field goal was MISSED.

Nebraska 10 Northwestern 10

ALMOST interception by Lamar Jackson but the ball was airmailed. Colin Miller was pressuring Smith and forced the errant throw. The Blackshirts forced the third and seven and Chinander sent several after Smith, but he made a nice completion to the opposite side for the first down. Cam Taylor-Britt forced a fumble (went out of bounds) and JoJo forced an incomplete pass on third down. Punt. Downed at the nine.

Martinez hyperextended a knee on a keeper that failed to convert the first down. Shit.

Punt.

Those of you screaming for Noah Vedral get your wish. He’s likely to come in on the next series. End of third quarter.

Fourth Quarter

NW fair catch at the 40 yard line. Martinez comes out of the medical tent without a helmet and goes right back in - in a lot of pain. Both McCaffrey and Vedral are warming up. If Vedral goes in, we can hope it is a minor injury to Adrian. If they send in McCaffrey, we might have to assume the trainers are giving a bad report back to the coaches.

The Wildcats get out to midfield but are denied there.

The punt took a Husker bounce and Noah Vedral trotted onto the field. Martinez is out for the rest of the game (as reported by sideline reporters).

After a nice run by Vedral on his first play, the offense went nowhere. Punt. Out of bounds at the NW 40. Good field position for the purple team.

The Blackshirts are going to have to score points for Nebraska to win this one.

JoJo Domann got called on a horseshit horse collar penalty and now Northwestern moved past midfield. It did look bad, but it wasn’t a horse collar. They got Dicaprio Bootle on PI (MORE BULLSHIT) and Carlos Davis on roughing the passer (the only thing I saw is that Davis’ helmet made contact with Smith’s). NW ball on the 25. THEN THE REFS MISS A HUUUUUGE HOLDING CALL where Mo Barry practically got his jersey pulled off. The Wildcat field goal missed.

I don’t like yelling about refs, but this series was complete and utter horseshit by the guys in black and white.

Husker ball at the 20. A nice first down run by Vedral results in a lost helmet and Luke McCaffrey came in for a play. WHAT? Vedral picks up the first down on the next play.

Bad snap. Drink.

Fortunately it took a good bounce and Vedral picked it up in stride and able to throw it away. Huskers still had to punt. Wildcat ball at their 25.

The Blackshirts forced another fumble, but NW recovered. The Wildcats were called for a chop block, backing them up. It was followed by a false start. The Blackshirts forced a punt deep on the Northwestern side of the field. The Huskers came after the punt, but the Wildcats got it away. Cam Taylor-Britt fair caught at midfield. The offense went nowhere and Jack Stoll was hurt on a third down play that had no chance of conversion. Punt.

Who’s left? Who is on offense and isn’t limping? Get your ass over to coach and report.

We are down to 1:30 in the game. Wildcat ball.

LAMAR JACKSON INTERCEPTION!!! Nebraska ball at midfield.

WANDALE reception inside the red zone.

AND. THEN. PENALTY. (False start)

DRINK.

41 seconds.

Vedral scrambles and scrambles and sets up the 25 yard field goal with three seconds left.

LANE MCCALLUM WITH THE FIELD GOAL. HUSKERS WIN!!! HUSKERS WIN!!! HUSKERS WIN!!!

The entire city of Norfolk is likely to party the night away.

Whew.