‘It looked like the same movie’: Mistakes, sloppy play cost Huskers in season-opening loss to Illinois | Football

After a three-and-out from the Huskers, who called only two rushing plays between the 9:15 mark of the second quarter and the final 35 seconds of the third quarter, Sitkowski hit Deuce Spann for 45 yards over Marquel Dismuke’s coverage and set up a short touchdown run for a 30-9 lead with 4:01 remaining in the third quarter.

The game turned on the Tannor penalties, without a doubt, but it didn’t fully feel like an avalanche until late in the third quarter.

Looking back at it after the game, captain and junior tight end Austin Allen called it, “A death blow. I mean, I don’t know what to say about that. We’ve got to pick it up as an offense from that point and we can’t let that put us in the ground.”

It did. Or at least put the Huskers too far down to complete the comeback. Following the penalties, Illinois reeled off 28 straight points. They had the ball for 16:14 of the 20:10 from the early second quarter through the middle of the third. They out-gained Nebraska 178 to minus-1 while piling up the four straight scores.

“The one thing I’m really disappointed in is we didn’t respond very well coming out of halftime, letting them go on a 75-(yard) drive,” Frost said. “We needed to make a stand right there. Late in the game, I thought the guys fought, but very disappointing.”

Nebraska did indeed try to mount a comeback. Martinez raced 75 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the ensuing drive, led a 91-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter and actually got the ball back with less than a minute left and 87 yards to go needing eight points, but nothing came of the drive.