Steven M. Sipple: During gloom of pandemic, NU fans should emphasize positives of ugly win | Football

Nebraska’s special teams were a mixed bag of good and the usual bad. Even that’s progress (because it’s often mostly just bad). On this day, Frost felt Levi Falck’s punt block on Purdue’s opening possession set the tone for the game. Sophomore walk-on Simon Otte of York pounced on the bounding ball at the the Boilermakers’ 1-yard line, and Dedrick Mills hammered his way into the end zone a play later. 

Nebraska had a lead. That advantage grew to 17-0 and 20-3 and 34-13. The Huskers never relinquished the advantage. Yes, more progress. 

“We still have things to clean up,” Frost said. 

Um, yeah. As stated previously, journalists try to avoid assumptions. But I’ll go ahead and assume many Nebraska fans braced for the worst as gifted Purdue wide receiver David Bell sprinted to the end zone on an 89-yard catch-and-run touchdown that pulled the home team to 34-27 behind with 12:16 left in the game. Husker defensive backs Cam Taylor-Britt and Marquel Dismuke collided on the play and were sprawled out on the rutty stadium turf as Bell sprinted away.

Here we go again. If Nebraska fans were thinking that, who could blame them? 

Right after that play, the penalty flags really started flying. What’s more, the teams were jawing at each other. It was sort of fun. Hey, at least it was football — a game being played during a pandemic. Maybe the nation wasn’t transfixed, but loyal Nebraska fans keenly understand the importance of Frost’s program getting any “W” it possibly can.