Huskers surrender late punt return TD, fall to Michigan State 23-20 in overtime gut punch | Football

Nebraska forced Payton Thorne into his first turnover of the season when Marquel Dismuke picked him off on the Spartans’ first drive of the evening. The Huskers’ first-quarter plan got thrown into the blender on their third offensive snap of the night when Martinez took a hard shot to the chin on a third-and-long quarterback run call and ended up flat on his back.

The junior from Fresno, California, was on the ground for a couple of minutes. He popped up under his own power, but then went back to the locker room with training staff and missed a series. That meant the first high-pressure game action of Logan Smothers’ career, and he took Nebraska down the field before a pair of procedure penalties on the offensive line — back-to-back false starts on Matt Sichterman and Cam Jurgens — caused the Huskers to stall out.

Martinez returned after one drive, but the Nebraska offense struggled for much of the early portion of the game.

The Spartans struck first in the second quarter after being set up with good field position.

On the third play of the drive, Thorne handed to Walker, who pitched it back to Thorne on a flea-flicker. Thorne put a perfect throw on Reed, who had run past redshirt freshman safety Myles Farmer, for an easy touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 14:08 remaining in the first half.

Martinez responded with a brilliant play of his own, turning what looked like a sure sack into a 45-yard rumble up the middle of the field to put the Huskers in the red zone. However, NU’s fourth false start of the first half put the visitors behind the sticks. Nebraska only came away with seven scores in 13 trips inside the opponents’ 35-yard line over the two weeks leading up to this game and had to settle for a 28-yard Culp field goal with their first opportunity of the night here.