The grades: Minnesota 20, Nebraska 13

Amie Just weighs in with her report card from Nebraska’s 20-13 loss to Minnesota.

With quarterback Casey Thompson unavailable due to the nerve issues in his arm, the Huskers ran the ball more than they had lately — especially early.

Led by running back Anthony Grant and quarterback Chubba Purdy, the Huskers had 106 yards rushing through their first two drives. By halftime, they’d only added 4 more yards, bringing their rushing total at the break to 110.

Grant, who had 60 yards on the first drive, finished the game with 115 yards rushing on 21 carries.

Without Thompson, the passing game looked wildly different. And, frankly, that’s to be expected. But still. Chubba Purdy and Logan Smothers combined for just 121 yards. Smothers accounted for 80 yards, while Purdy had 41.

A significant chunk of those came on a fourth-quarter pass from Smothers to Marcus Williams that went for 32 yards.

Purdy was 6-of-12 before he was briefly pulled for Smothers in the third quarter. Then, after returning, Purdy threw an interception, which led to Minnesota going up by 20. Smothers returned to the field after Purdy’s pick. 

At least two of Purdy’s incompletions could have been caught: that would-have-been touchdown to Travis Vokolek and a second-drive pass to Trey Palmer. And a drop from Oliver Martin on a pass from Smothers didn’t help, either.

As a whole, Nebraska’s offense had five straight three-and-outs. 

Coming into Saturday, Nebraska allowed their opponents to average 190.1 yards rushing per game. And Minnesota’s offense has one of the nation’s best rushers in its arsenal, Mo Ibrahim, to power its dominant, 12th-ranked rushing offense.

No matter, at least for the first half anyway. At halftime, Nebraska had held Minnesota to just 31 yards of total offense with minus 7 yards rushing.

And then Minnesota’s offense — regardless of run or pass — woke up, remembered it was playing a football game and thwacked Nebraska in the second half.

Ibrahim finished the game with 128 yards rushing to extend his 100-plus-yard game streak to 18.

Nebraska’s pass defense ran roughshod over Minnesota early. The Huskers recorded three sacks in the first half alone, the last of which sent quarterback Tanner Morgan to the sidelines for the rest of the game. Morgan finished his first half by completing 6 of 8 passes for 38 yards.

Nebraska, though, was woefully unprepared for Athan Kaliakmanis.

The redshirt freshman completed 6 of 12 passes for 137 yards. Four of those pass plays went for more than 15 yards, and two were for 35-plus.

Typical day at the office for Nebraska’s special teams.

Timmy Bleekrode’s 24-yard and 26-yard field goals were good. Brian Buschini had a stellar day, averaging 55.5 yards per punt with a long of 61. No kick or punt returns for Nebraska, but they did allow a couple of sizable returns in coverage.

Nebraska’s opening drive had some gorgeous concepts — relying on the run early with two short passes sprinkled in. The crème de la crème of the drive came on the Purdy’s touchdown run. The personnel: heavy and unbalanced on the right side, while Purdy ran the keeper to the left side — running untouched into the end zone from 2 yards out.

There’s getting away from the run game in the second quarter after it boosted NU to an early lead. Or the five-straight three-and-outs. Or not giving Smothers a chance earlier. Or a designed run play on third-and-11 when the Huskers were down by 10. Or a designed run play on third-and-7. The list continues.

Only two accepted penalties for Nebraska, and they were minor infractions.

A slight downgrade for a delay of game flag to start a drive, though. Can’t do that.

Great start. Embarrassing collapse.