Nebraska Football: After Northwestern OT loss, will Huskers win in 2018?

Nebraska football blew a chance to beat Northwestern on the road, and Scott Frost missed his shot at a first win as the Huskers lost in overtime.

Northwestern and Nebraska played a tight contest on Saturday afternoon at Ryan Field. It looked like the Cornhuskers would on to win their first football game of Scott Frost’s tenure as the head coach at his alma mater. But Pat Fitzgerald’s squad ruined that bid, forcing overtime and claiming a 34-31 win at home on Saturday afternoon.

Through the first three quarters of the game, Northwestern didn’t see a single yellow flag go against them. They ended with only one five-yard penalty all day. The discipline of the Wildcats, though, wasn’t enough to keep Nebraska from opening up a two-touchdown lead early in the fourth quarter and then holding on as the hosts tried to pull back ahead in vain.

The turning point that really let Nebraska begin to pull away came in a sequence at the end of the third quarter. Nebraska held the Wildcats to a field goal attempt in the final minute of the quarter. Drew Luckenbaugh missed his 42-yard attempt, though, as Northwestern walked away from an 11-play drive without any points.

On the first play of Nebraska’s ensuing drive, Devine Ozigbo burst for 37 yards into Northwestern territory. Ozigbo started the fourth quarter off with a 21-yard carry to get into the red zone, and then a pair of Maurice Washington runs sealed the score as the Cornhuskers went up 28-14.

After that, it seemed there was little that Northwestern could do to stop Nebraska. They halved the score, and Pat Fitzgerald’s squad kept chipping away until they managed to close the gap completely. Clayton Thorson threw for an impressive 455 yards on 41-of-64 passing, but he threw two interceptions to go along with three touchdowns in the air.

On the other side, Thorson’s Nebraska counterpart Adrian Martinez was an efficient 25-of-35 for 251 yards, but he also threw two interceptions to go with a touchdown pass. Ozigbo was the star for the Huskers offense, scoring two touchdowns and racking up 159 yards on the ground.

But that was not the end of the story, as Northwestern still had a comeback opportunity that they seized full force. A big punt with two minutes remaining pinned Northwestern in the shadow of their own end zone. They needed to travel the length of the field just to equalize and force overtime.

They pulled off the feat, scoring the tying touchdown in the waning seconds to push things into an extra frame. Then Nebraska fumbled away their shot at victory, quite literally, as Adrian Martinez struggled to field an errant snap and Northwestern finally hit on a game-winning Luckenbaugh field goal.

In the process, Nebraska fell to 0-6 and are in danger of missing a bowl game for a second straight season. The last time that happened to the Cornhuskers was a half-century ago, when they failed to make a postseason appearance in 1967 and 1968.