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After talk of commitment to run game, Huskers sputter badly against new-look Illini defense | Football



“I mean, that’s what we see from our defense. That’s not what loses this game. It’s us. We lost this game.”

In the end, it looked a whole heck of a lot like so many other Nebraska games in recent years — NU’s best running plays came when quarterback Adrian Martinez was flushed from the pocket and forced to run on a called pass play.

“Honestly, I think we did what we had to do. We’re only as successful as the guys up front,” Stepp said. “So we’ve got to adjust accordingly. I think we ran hard. We played to the best of our abilities.”

Stepp, the USC transfer, finished with three carries for 10 yards and Nebraska’s first touchdown. Ervin got 12 carries and finished with 33 yards. Johnson came on late and ran four times for 11 yards. The group’s longest run was Ervin’s 12-yard cutback with Nebraska backed up against its goal line in the first quarter.

Those 19 total carries were just two more than Martinez had by himself, a week or so after NU offensive coordinator said the Huskers wanted to find a back they could give the ball to 20 to 26 times per game.

Once Illinois scored 28 consecutive points, any hope of Nebraska sticking to the ground went out the window as Martinez alternated between airing it out and running for his life.

“I think early on, we needed to find that run game a lot quicker,” Jurgens said. “We went to the pass. We need to get that run game going a lot faster.”



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