Another strange road game ended the same way for Nebraska: with the Huskies walking out of town with a 17-10 win. The offense never looked clean for long, but a late spark from Demond Williams, a huge day from Chris Lawson, and a defense that kept stacking takeaways gave the Huskies just enough to survive.
Lawson was the clear headliner on offense. Over the last three games, he has put up 86, 103 and 155 yards, and he now leads the team with 638 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
On Saturday, two of his 12 catches changed the game. The first came on 4th and 18, when he hauled in a 24-yard grab and somehow kept a knee in bounds, a play that stood after review.
Two snaps later, he turned a short catch into a 25-yard touchdown, spinning free and then racing into the end zone to give the Huskies a 10-7 lead.
That score also depended on Williams, who entered at the start of the fourth quarter for Elijah Brown and immediately gave the offense a different gear. On 3rd and 15, Williams picked up 17 yards on the ground to keep the drive alive.
Fisch explained the move this way: “Elijah earned the right to be the starter. And I’m not sure that he didn’t earn the right to continue the fourth quarter, but I felt we needed a spark”.
Williams delivered that spark, and the Huskies needed every bit of it.
Still, the offense was far from smooth. The Huskies managed only three points through three quarters, and they were outgained on the ground 132 to 32.
Williams showed some of the same issues that have followed him, missing throws and taking sacks while holding the ball too long on both drives. Brown, meanwhile, never really found a rhythm during his three quarters of work.
Even so, Williams’ presence gave the offense a dimension it had been missing, and Lawson gave him the kind of target who can finish the impossible play.
The real backbone of the win was the secondary. Anthony Colandrea, who came in with 1,570 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and four interceptions, was picked off on just the fourth pass of the game by Rylon Dillard Allen. Then, after Hunter Green blasted a 60-yard punt, Colandrea was intercepted again on the first play of the next drive by Emmanuel Karnley.
That kind of disruption has become a pattern. Zaydrius Rainey-Sale led the team with 10 tackles, while the next two tacklers were both defensive backs: Alex McLaughlin with nine and Dillard Allen with seven.
The Huskies also finished with seven pass breakups, coming from both younger players like Gavin Day and veterans like Karnley and McLaughlin. The secondary looked like the best unit on the defense, and it played like one.
McLaughlin may have delivered the biggest swing of the game. He returned an interception 48 yards for a touchdown, a dagger that put the Huskies in control.
With that play and his seven tackles, he turned in the kind of game that shows exactly why he matters so much to this defense. Colandrea still finished with 255 yards and a touchdown, but he needed 44 attempts to get there, and three of those throws went the other way.
The Huskies now have 12 interceptions on the season, tied for fourth nationally with Kentucky and Memphis.
That defensive performance leaves the season looking a lot different than it did after the Iowa game. The Huskies need just one win in their final four games to become bowl eligible, and if the secondary keeps playing this way, that goal suddenly feels reachable.
Green was every bit as important as the defense. His punting has been a weapon all season, and Saturday was another showcase.
He averaged 48.07 yards per punt, which ranks sixth nationally, and on eight punts he placed five inside the 20 and two inside the 5. His 48.1-yard average is currently second in Husky history for a season, behind Race Porter’s 48.5 in 2021.
Fisch pointed to one third-quarter decision as proof of how much Green changes the math. On 4th and 1 at the UW 40, he said, “I wanted to go for that bad, but I told myself ‘wrong conference.’
That was a few years ago. You have to punt it and Hunter Green keeps pinning them back, pinning them back, pinning them back”.
Three incompletions later, Nebraska was starting deep in its own end, and the choice looked pretty smart.
That is the value of an elite punter: he lets a shaky offense play the field-position game and keeps the defense in a better spot to win the night. For a team that once didn’t have that luxury, Green has become a real weapon down the stretch.
In Other News...
Nebraska Is Tweaking Its Offense Right Before Illinois
Nebraska is making a few sideline adjustments as it heads into its matchup with Illinois, but Matt Rhule made clear the bigger picture is staying the same. The head coach said the staff will remain intact despite the recent losses, even as he acknowledged the offense has sputtered and needs to be simplified. Rhule also took responsibility for the way things have gone, a sign that the pressure around the unit is being felt well beyond the play sheet.
The wrinkle now is how the Huskers will handle game-day communication and responsibilities from the coaching box. Dana Holgorsen and offensive line coach Geep Wade are shifting upstairs for play-calling duties, while run game coordinator Lonnie Teasley will see his role adjusted as Nebraska tries to clean up its offensive operation. For a team looking to steady itself quickly, the changes are less about a reset than a recalibration, and the next step will be whether that is enough to get the offense moving in the right direction. [Read more 🡒]