Nebraska under Scott Frost has officially reached rock bottom. How much lower they go, though, remains to be seen.
Seemingly well on the way to its first win of the season, Nebraska instead coughed up a fourth-quarter lead and fell to Northwestern 34-31 in overtime in Evanston. With the loss, the Cornhuskers are now 0-6, the worst start to a season in the 129-year history of the storied football program.
They have also lost 10 straight games, extending the longest such streak in the school’s history.
The win improves the Wildcats to 3-3 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play, while the ‘Huskers fell to 0-6 and 0-4.
The Cornhuskers trailed 14-13 at the half, but a Devine Ozigbo one-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter gave them the lead. With the margin eventually stretched to 14 points at 28-14, the Wildcats cut it in half with 12:31 left in the fourth on Clayton Thorson‘s 61-yard touchdown pass. The two teams traded field goals to keep the Cornhuskers’ lead at seven with just over two minutes remaining in the contest.
Northwestern got the ball back with 2:02 left at their own one-yard line -- Isaac Armstrong launched a perfect 44-yard punt to pin the Wildcats close to the goal line -- and armed with no timeouts. A roughing the passer penalty on first down on Nebraska gave them some breathing room, with the Wildcats eventually driving to the Cornhuskers’ five-yard line before another Thorson touchdown pass plus the point after tied the game at 31-all with just :12 left.
On that 99-yard, game-tying drive, Thorson completed 6-of-8 passes for 89 yards. For the game, Thorson passed for a career-high 455 yards; his previous high was 383, set earlier this season.
On Nebraska’s first possession of overtime, true freshman Adrian Martinez threw an interception off of a bad snap. Northwestern then put the game away on a 37-yard Drew Luckenbaugh field goal on the Wildcats’ only possession of overtime.
In a losing effort, Martinez passes for 251 yards but tossed a pair of costly interceptions. Ozigbo ran for a game-high 159 yards and two touchdowns.