Nebraska Football Falls to Wisconsin 35-28

First Quarter

Well, that was not ideal.

Wisconsin 7 Nebraska 0

Alante Brown fielded the kickoff and the Husker offense started on their 26 yard line. Samori Toure wide open! Markese Stepp is the first running back on the field.

False start. Drink.

SAMORI AGAIN! First and goal.

TOUCHDOWN STEPP!!!! He fumbled the ball, but was across the goal line first. Upon review, you could see he was down just short of the goal line.

Second and goal. THIS ONE COUNTS!! Freshman tight end Thomas Fidone was in blocking on the play.

Nebraska 7 Wisconsin 7

Braelon Allen is explosive. Within two runs, he has the Badgers at midfield. Once the Blackshirts showed they could slow him down, Mertz was asked to pass and found Jake Ferguson. On third and five, the Badgers were inches short. The Badgers brought in a fullback. First down.

Mertz loaded up for a home run ball and Myles Farmer was beat, but the receiver dropped the ball. After a short Allen gain, it was third and nine. Fourth down and six. Rather than kick the 50 yard field goal, Chryst opts to go for it.

Incomplete. Husker ball. Cam Taylor-Britt knocked the ball out of the receiver’s hands.

Marvin Scott sighting. He caught a pass for nine (Omar Manning was deep, but not open). Broc Bando is playing right tackle.

Brody Belt sighting and the Huskers are past midfield.

Travis Vokolek sighting.

Near disaster as the snap hits Omar Manning in motion. Adrian recovers. That play essentially killed the drive and Nebraska went backwards. Punt. Touchback.

Caleb Tannor was injured. Nebraska is shorthanded at backup linebacker.

On third and one, Allen slips a couple of tackles and takes it over 70 yards to the end zone.

Wisconsin 14 Nebraska 7

AUSTIN ALLEN gets Nebraska to midfield in one play! He’s tall. Drink.

OPTION! Gain of 20.

Second Quarter

Brody Belt powers the Huskers to another first down (one run and one option pitch). MOAR Belt! Red zone.

Stepp takes over and gains one. The third and one is stuffed.

Fourth and two. Frost goes for it. Incomplete.

Badgers take over on their six yard line. They gain four and on third and six. SACK by Garrett Nelson!! Punt.

The punt was downed near midfield, but the Badgers earned a personal foul penalty and Nebraska gets to start the drive at the Badger 33.

Omar Manning catches one for nine yards. Adrian keeps for the first down.

Red zone. VOKOLEK!!

First and goal at the five. Stepp gained one.

Second and goal. Adrian missed a wide open Zavier Betts.

Third and goal. There was some pre-snap confusion by Nebraska but Adrian found Samori Toure for the touchdown!

Nebraska 14 Wisconsin 14

Big play to Jake Ferguson (incredibly well blocked by Wisconsin) gets the Badgers onto the Husker half of the field in one play. More chunk plays move them to the 12 yard line.

A holding call on Wisconsin moved them back (but the officials missed a facemask on Farmer).

Third and 13. Incomplete. Mertz was rushed by Damien Jackson.

The 33 yard field goal was wide left.

OTHER TEAMS CAN MISS FIELD GOALS TOO!!

Nebraska 14 Wisconsin 14

The Huskers have 2:32 to work with.

Stepp gains three, followed by an incomplete pass to Toure (good play by the Badger defensive back). No gain on third down by Stepp. Timeout Badgers with 1:40 left.

The punt is short (sigh) and Badgers take over on their own 40 yard line. They have two timeouts left.

A short gain and incomplete pass bring up third and eight.

Incomplete. Punt.

Oliver Martin fair catches at the nine and the Huskers have 50 seconds.

Smothers comes in the game, presumably to run the ball and run out the clock on the half. That burns Smothers’ redshirt for the season, which seems like a weird thing to do.

Halftime

Nebraska Notes from Halftime of Today’s Game at Wisconsin:

• Senior receiver Samori Toure had three receptions for 73 yards and a 4-yard touchdown in the first half, including catches of 42 and 27 yards on Nebraska’s first drive. Toure now has six receptions of better than 40 yards this season. He entered the game averaging 21.8 yards per catch in 2021.
• Toure is 27 receiving yards from posting his fifth 100-yard receiving game of the season. A fifth 100-yard game would tie the Nebraska school record, held by Stanley Morgan Jr. who had five 100-yard games in 2017.
• Tight end Austin Allen had a 34-yard reception in the first quarter marking his eighth catch of the season of longer than 20 yards. He entered the game leading all Big Ten tight ends by averaging 13.8 yards per reception.
• Quarterback Adrian Martinez passed for 158 yards and rushed for 12 yards in the first half, accounting for 170 yards of total offense. He needs 103 total yards in the second half to set the Nebraska career record for total offense, currently held by Tommy Armstrong Jr. (10,690).
• Martinez needs just seven yards of total offense to move into the top 10 in total offense in Big Ten history.
• Outside linebacker Garrett Nelson had a six-yard sack in the second quarter, giving him a team-leading five sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss this season. Nelson has had at least one tackle for loss in 12 of his past 14 games dating back to the 2020 season.

Third Quarter

Adrian Martinez did come out for the second half but is definitely not 100%. He did find Austin Allen for a chunk play followed by a short Marvin Scott gain.

INTERCEPTION! The Badgers returned the ball to the Husker 35. The throw was a bit lage and Oliver Martin waited for the ball rather than going after it, allowing the Badger defensive back to undercut it.

Red zone.

Touchdown Badgers – Mertz threw a 17 yard pass to Kendric Pryor (Braxton Clark in coverage).

Wisconsin 21 Nebraska 14

Betts made a nice sideline snag for a first down. Marvin Scott does not have much room to manuver in the run game. The Huskers moved past midfield and Brody Belt entered the game. On third and eight, Adrian found Allen for a first down.

Another first down at the 23 yard line – Levi Falck!

AUSTIN ALLEN TO THE ONE YARD LINE!! Great pass by Adrian!

TOUCHDOWN ADRIAN!!

Nebraska 21 Wisconsin 21

The Badgers leaned on Graham Mertz on the last drive, but they go back to Allen on this one. He limps off the field.

Bummer. On third and three Pryor makes a big play to get past midfield. A screen to Ferguson and big run by Allen set up goal-to-go.

The Blackshirts held on first and second down but Allen powered it in on third down. Touchdown Badgers.

Wisconsin 28 Nebraska 21

A muffed kickoff by Alante Brown backs the Husker offense up to their own six yard line. #SpecialTeams

Austin Allen caught a pass for a great gain, but Turner Corcoran was called for holding (fortunately not in the end zone), backing the Huskers up to the three yard line. Alante Brown took the screen for eight, setting up second and five. Marvin Scott gains four.

Fourth Quarter

First down by Adrian at the 16 and then he gains five more on an option.

Interception. Hey, at least it was probably a longer throw than the punt would have been?!? (Sigh) Badger ball at midfield.

The Badgers move down the field behind Allen and Ferguson but are called for a false start at the 35. Ben Stille batted the pass down. Third and 10 – Ferguson gains nine.

On fourth and one, Chryst again goes for it. HE LOSES YARDS!!!!! Luke Reimer!!!!! Hutmacher, Thomas and Robinson deserve credit for stuffing the line and letting their linebacker get to the play.

Adrian finds Allen for the 15+ yard gain in the middle of the field and then finds Toure on the Wisconsin side of the field.

He passes Tommy Armstrong, Jr. as the all-time leader in offense at Nebraska.

Marvin Scott has a huge run, but it is called back for offensive holding (Corcoran again), erasing a huge run and bringing up third and 13 behind midfield. He finds Allen again for 11. On fourth and two, Adrian looked like he wanted to run, had nowhere to go and AUSTIN ALLEN IS WIDE OPEN FOR 32 YARDS!!!

First and goal.

Whatever happens, this team never stopped and never quit. They had reason after reason to throw up their hands and make excuses but they never did. If a team takes on the personality of their head coach, this is why Scott Frost is being given another chance when most coaches would be sent packing.

Second and goal. TOUCHDOWN MARVIN SCOTT!!!!

Nebraska 28 Wisconsin 28

The Badgers land a few body blows and then Braelon Allen finds the end zone. Touchdown. Raise your hand if you thought the stars of this show would be big-play offenses. Then put it down. No one saw this coming.

The entire Big Ten West hopes Allen goes pro as soon as he can. We’ve seen some talented Wisconsin backs, but he looks special even in that company.

Wisconsin 35 Nebraska 28

The Badgers kick out of bounds and give the Huskers good field position (35 yard line).

With three minutes left, the Huskers get to midfield and past with some excellent throws by Adrian. As the clock goes under two minutes, the Huskers are at the 30 yard line.

The 23 yard line (first down).

Brody Belt gains nothing as the clock goes under a minute.

He throws the ball out of bounds but flag was thrown for pass interference on Allen. Then Benhart gets called for holding and gives the yards back.

First and 20 with 30 seconds.

Second and 20 with 23 seconds.

Third and 20 with 17 seconds.

Fourth and 20 with 12 seconds. Incomplete. The defensive back got to Betts early but no call was made on this one.

With four seconds left, the Badgers get the ball back.

Final. Wisconsin 35 Nebraska 28

Ouch.