In a season that looked for a time like it would never happen, and in a game that saw four turnovers and a 3rd quarter deficit, Nebraska (3-5) finally found a way to finish strong in a 28-21 victory over Rutgers (3-6) on Friday night in Piscataway, New Jersey, to end the shortest, and longest, regular season in recent Husker history.
In terms of total yards, it was not a contest. NU outgained the Scarlet Knights 620-252, and 365-59 in the second half alone. The great equalizer, both Friday night and throughout the 2020 season, was a toxic combination of turnovers and poor special teams play. Junior quarterback Adrian Martinez lost two fumbles and tossed a pair of interceptions. Rutgers won the field position battle by 20 yards, returned a kickoff for a score, and successfully faked a punt. In spite of themselves, Nebraska prevailed.
“We made too many mistakes, that’s just been too common in our program,” head coach Scott Frost recalled after the game. “We’ve got to get that fixed, but it was better in the second half. They played smarter in the second half, and I was really impressed with the fight.”
Dedrick Mills, the workhorse senior running back, led the Big Red ground game with 191 yards on 25 carries. He broke free in the 4th quarter for 50 yards, the team’s longest play from scrimmage all season. Mills also added 45 receiving yards on a career-high six receptions.
Martinez also had his way with Rutgers’ defense, overcoming his four turnovers with 157 rushing yards of his own. He threw for a score and rushed for two more. In the pass game, Martinez completed an efficient 24 of 28 passes for 255 yards, a season-best.
“No quit, that’s really the mentality of this team,” Martinez explained postgame. “2020 hasn’t been easy. There’s been lots of ups and downs, but our team hasn’t given up. I haven’t given up. I obviously made some big-time mistakes, and I was going to keep going out there and slinging it knowing that I was capable and that the guys had my back.”
While Nebraska’s offense was trying to get out of its own way, the Blackshirts held the Scarlet Knights in check despite being forced into difficult field position. Twice in the first quarter, Rutgers started near midfield, but could only come away with one field goal from those two possessions. Three more such situations in the second half yielded no points at all.
Seven Husker defenders had a tackle for loss in a team effort. Redshirt freshman inside linebacker Nick Henrich, starting in place of injured teammates Collin Miller and Luke Reimer, led the team with 12 total tackles. Fellow ILB Will Honas had eight total tackles, and a team-high five solo stops.
Junior cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, who this week was named second-team All-Big Ten, intercepted a 4th quarter pass from Johnny Langan to end Rutgers final offensive possession with 7:35 left in the game.
Rutgers struck first after securing an Adrian Martinez somersault fumble on the opening drive. Their first offensive play was their best of the night, a 50-yard pass from Art Sitkowski to Bo Melton. They got no closer than the 18 yard line, settling for a 36-yard Valentino Ambrosio field goal and a 3-0 lead. They would not reach the red zone again.
After trading punts, Martinez fumbled again, though more conventionally this time, and again the opportunistic Knights pounced on it. Back on offense, Rutgers could not take advantage of the great field position, going three and out. The Blackshirts were at their best on third down all game long, holding RU to just two conversions on 13 attempts.
After another Husker punt and a second Ambrosio FG put Nebraska down 6-0, Martinez and the offense finally found paydirt, going 75 yards in nine plays. Levi Falck and Jack Stoll each grabbed first downs on receptions of 15 and 11 yards, respectively. Then Dedrick Mills rumbled for 43, tackled at the 2-yard line. Four plays later, do-it-all sophomore Wan’Dale Robinson took an option pitch and slammed his body across the goal line, putting the Big Red on top 7-6 with the Connor Culp extra point.
Though Rutgers caught Nebraska off guard with a fake punt on 4th & 14, the defense bowed up and stuffed RU on 3rd and 4th down, with outside linebackers Damian Jackson and Garrett Nelson meeting the backs at the line and holding firm.
The ensuing Nebraska possession ended in another turnover. After finding Robinson down the sideline for 38 yards on 3rd & 20, Martinez forced a pass into the end zone and was picked off by Chris Izien.
“It starts with me as the head coach,” Frost lamented. “The details, the special teams, the ball security, the dumb penalties have cost us all year. We’d have a better record right now if we weren’t doing things like that to ourselves.”
Taking possession at their own 20, Sitkowski engineered Rutgers’ best drive of the game, completing 3 of 5 passes for 39 yards to get across midfield. On 4th & 1 from the NU 33, Isaih Pacheco slipped through the defense for a touchdown. After a 2-point conversion, the Scarlet Knights took a 14-7 lead into the locker room.
Down at the half, Taylor-Britt described the team discussion. “We talked to the team as a whole, and just asked them ‘What’s your why?’ Why are we here? We got this game late in the season, we didn’t know if we were going to have a game. Everybody just had to play together as a team.”
After the break, Nebraska took off, playing their best half of football all year. They scored on touchdown drives of 90, 96, and 92 yards, the only FBS team to do so in 2020. The first was eight plays, seven on the ground for 77 rushing yards, the last 41 coming on a touchdown for Martinez to tie the game. The drive was indicative of things to come, as NU racked up 6.3 yards per carry by the final whistle.
RU had one last bright spot, and it was a 98-yard kickoff return touchdown for Aron Cruickshank. If that name sounds familiar, it is likely because Cruickshank also returned a kickoff for a touchdown against Nebraska in 2019. For Wisconsin.
Again trailing by a touchdown, Nebraska again turned the ball over on a second Martinez interception. The four turnovers by the NU signal caller could have doomed his team’s chances, but his defense bailed him out and forced another punt. Again, the punt was downed inside Nebraska’s 10-yard line, but the Husker offense was ready to go the length of the field. Again.
Nebraska averaged 7.2 yards per play, and this drive emphasized their versatility like no other. Mills and Martinez carried seven times for 50 combined yards. Martinez completed all four of his passes, including a 22-yarder to true freshman Alante Brown and a 14-yard TD strike to Robinson in traffic at the goal line on 3rd & 12. It was the only 3rd down the Huskers faced on the 96-yard scoring drive.
Now tied again at 21 apiece and headed into the 4th quarter, momentum was squarely on the side of the Big Red. Another Rutgers punt led to another long touchdown march, this time 92 yards. Dedrick Mills busted loose for 50 yards on the second play of that drive, leading to a Martinez TD on a QB sneak to put NU on top for good at 28-21.
Martinez praised his offensive line, saying, “those guys were hungry, and we could rely on them, especially down the stretch. They were playing hard, following their assignments, and got the job done.” The job was done without senior left tackle Brendan Jaimes, who opted out of the season finale to focus on preparing for the NFL Draft. That meant true freshman Turner Corcoran got the start at LT.
Cam Taylor-Britt’s INT gave Martinez the ball back with 7:35 to go, and Nebraska proceeded to run 15 plays by converting on a pair of 3rd downs and a 4th down to seal the victory.
Rutgers had played their first eight games with Wahoo native and former Husker Noah Vedral as their starting QB, but a leg injury suffered against Maryland last week kept him from facing his former team.
There is a chance Nebraska could play one more game this season, but as of this writing there is not another game scheduled. Stay with KLIN for the latest Husker news.
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