Nebraska falls to Northwestern in another one-score loss

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The Huskers’ first game of the season looked a lot like last season, with Nebraska coming up short in the final minutes.

Northwestern defeated Nebraska 31-28 in Ireland on Saturday after intercepting the ball with 1:27 left.

Last year, the Huskers lost eight one-possession games.

In the 1st quarter, quarterback Casey Thompson in his first start as a Husker, looked solid and confident.  His first touchdown of the game was a 32-yard pass to Isaiah Garcia-Castenada on the opening drive of the season.

Thompson added a rushing touchdown in the second quarter finishing  17-of-24 passes for 223 yards in the first half.

Thompson’s strong showing continued for awhile into the second half.

He had an impressive scramble around the field before launching a 57-yard pass to Garcia-Castenada, quickly set up an Anthony Grant touchdown run.

Later, on the Wildcats’ first play of the ensuing drive, a Northwestern turnover led to an explosive 46-yard touchdown run by Grant to extend the Huskers lead 28-17.

From there, things took a dismal turn. Northwestern recovered an on-side kick attempt from the Huskers, giving the Wildcats a short field.

A few plays later, Northwestern scored to cut the Husker lead back to 28-24 with 7:53 left in the third quarter.

Thompson lost his spark going just 8 of 18 passing with 132 yards in the second half.

Overall Thompson finished the game 25-of-42 with 355 passing yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, but his two interceptions wiped out much of those gains.

It was the type of close game that is typical of the series, but the Wildcats outgained the Huskers 527 to 466 yards.

“At the end of the day we have to win the turnover battle, we have to be able to run the ball and stop the run,” Thompson said. “That’s the name of football, especially in the Big Ten, so I’m going to look myself in the mirror and we all have to get better from players to coaches to support staff.”

“We’ve just lost too many close games and y’know these guys just need something to believe in, and we need to believe in ourselves as a team, I think they do,” head coach Scott Frost said.  “I don’t think there’s a guy in our locker room that didn’t think that we were gonna come win this game today and I’m sure they’ll think the same thing next week.”

Senior tight end Travis Vokolek tried to put things in perspective after the game when asked about his message to the offense.

“The world’s not over, the world isn’t burning down,” Vokolek said. “Y’know it’s one game, unfortunately it didn’t turn out how we wanted to do, or wanted it to be, so we gotta move on from this one and y’know focus on next week.”

Nebraska returns to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln next Saturday to take on North Dakota. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted on the big ten network.