CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Nebraska football writer Parker Gabriel offers his extra points from the Husker football team’s 30-22 loss on Saturday afternoon against Illinois.
It was over when: In reality, not until the Huskers turned the ball over on downs deep in their own territory in the waning seconds of the game.
However, the game felt pretty far out of reach when Illinois’ Isaiah Williams punched in a 1-yard touchdown catch with 4:01 remaining in the third quarter to put UI up 30-9.
Nebraska got a long TD run from Adrian Martinez and a 91-yard scoring drive to get back within one score, but the hole was too deep to climb out of in 19:01.
Turning point: This one is clear as day. The double personal foul on Caleb Tannor that turned a Cam Taylor-Britt interception into 30 yards and a first down in the red zone for Illinois breathed new life into the Illini. They reeled off 28 straight points from there – 14 to close the first half and the first two scores of the third quarter – and took control of the game.
Quotable: Nebraska head coach Scott Frost on being surprised that the Illinois defense, led by first-year head coach Bret Bielema and defensive coordinator Ryan Walters, played as much even front as they did.
“I give them a ton of credit. It’s hard to come in as a new staff and get a team ready. They’re a veteran team and so I’m sure that helped them pick it up quicker, but our strategy for this was to rep against a certain look all of camp against our defense and we guessed wrong on what they were going to be in. Their defensive guys have come from a place where they’ve been a lot of odd front. We didn’t get more than four or five snaps of odd, I don’t think. We had a contingency plan for that and we were going to go back to stuff that we’d been running all of camp, and we went through that this week with the kids, but we certainly didn’t get as many reps at it as we normally would.”
Game ball: Bielema. The Illinois native is back in the Big Ten West for the first time since he left Wisconsin after the 2012 regular season.
He didn’t waste any time putting his stamp on the UI program. They’ve got a ways to go still, but possessing the ball for 34:55, committing just three penalties and getting steady quarterback play (15-of-19 for 159 yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers from Brandon Peters and Artur Sitkowski) is a recipe that’s worked for Bielema in the past in this conference.
Game ball: When Sitkowski first came into the game, it looked like Illinois wanted to do anything but throw the ball. However, he settled in, completed 12-of-15 for 124 and two scores, and managed the game really well. On the 14-play, 75-yard scoring drive to open the third quarter, Sitkowski, the former Rutgers quarterback, completed all four of his passes for 32 yards, including a 2-yarder to tight end Luke Ford for a touchdown.
Hat tip: Nebraska’s outside linebacking trio of Tannor, Pheldarius Payne and Garrett Nelson made their presence felt, especially in the first half.
They combined for 51/2 of Nebraska’s nine tackles for loss, and Payne logged two sacks. The defense wore down a little bit in big spots in the second half, but there is a lot to work with going forward, too.
Deep connection: Martinez was hit-and-miss accuracy wise throughout the afternoon, but he put a good ball on Oliver Martin for a 43-yard gain to the post in the first half. Martinez delivered an accurate, arcing ball despite a free runner in his face. Nebraska’s going to need more of that in the coming weeks.
Numbers for the road
11: Tackles for redshirt freshman inside linebacker Nick Henrich, a team-best and tied for the game high.
20:54: Time of possession, out of 30 minutes, for Illinois in the second and third quarters combined.
11: Longest rush by a Nebraska running back on Saturday, from freshman Gabe Ervin in the first quarter.
2.24: Yards per rush on Nebraska’s 38 attempts besides Martinez’s 75-yard touchdown late in the third quarter.
103: Receiving yards for junior Oliver Martin on six catches (and a game-high 11 targets) to go along with his first touchdown at Nebraska.
34.4: Average distance for Daniel Cerni on six punts for the afternoon. That included a 26-yarder on his first effort and a 13-yarder in a critical fourth-quarter spot.
12.2: Advantage in net yards per punt for Illinois, which got 45.2 from Blake Hayes compared to 33 for Nebraska.
4: Touchbacks on six attempts from freshman walk-on kickoff specialist Brendan Franke. Nebraska had just 12 on 40 attempts (30%) in 2020.
11: Yards given away by Nebraska on kick return attempts by Zavier Betts and Rahmir Johnson, who were stopped at the 19 and 20-yard line, respectively.
0: Offensive snaps combined for Betts and freshman running back Sevion Morrison. Both were available to play on Saturday.
