Losing is bad. Losing a quarterback for an extended amount of time would be much worse for the Huskers. The good news is true freshman Adrian Martinez walked off the field on his own power late in the fourth quarter after an apparent knee injury, putting weight on both legs. But it was a slow walk, adding to Husker heartbreak in Scott Frost's opener as Nebraska's coach. Frost isn't one to get into details about injuries, and certainly wasn't going to regarding his Husker quarterback immediately after the 33-28 loss to Colorado. He did say he got a "semi-encouraging" initial report about Martinez's situation. "We're going to wait before we talk about it and see what the doctors (say) and everything looks like, but I thought he played great the first time out," Frost said. "There were just some mistakes, the freshman mistakes, the first-game mistakes that we wish we could have got out of our system last week." While Martinez threw an interception and fumbled once, he was a game-changer in the first half, finishing the day with 117 rushing yards and completing 15-of-20 passes for 187 yards, including a 57-yard touchdown strike to JD Spielman in the third quarter. Martinez was injured enough that he couldn't return for the final drive of the game with the Huskers trailing, leaving the job to backup Andrew Bunch. The walk-on QB drove Nebraska to the Colorado 20-yard-line in the final seconds, but three incompletions had the Buffaloes sprinting across the field in celebration. "Andrew came in and did a good job," Frost said. "Obviously he's got to put one of those last two balls in a catchable position for Stanley (Morgan) or somebody else. But every time I thought we've found every way to give the game away, we found more." Despite the Martinez injury, the Huskers appeared on the doorstep of a win, leading 28-27 in the final minutes, with Colorado seemingly about to face a fourth-and-24. But a personal foul penalty on Antonio Reed for a hit on a wide receiver on the third-down incompletion gave CU a first down, breathing life into the Buffs' game-winning drive. "All I saw was the video and it looked like he was going up to play the ball," Frost said of the Reed penalty. "I don't know if that's a penalty or not. Somebody smarter than me will have to decide that." While Nebraska outyarded Colorado 565-395, the Huskers were ultimately undone by three turnovers, two of which spotted CU a 14-0 lead before the game was even nine minutes old. The Huskers battled back to play from ahead for most of the day, but blew chances to deliver the knockout blow, failing twice on fourth-and-shorts on offense, and also giving up some costly third-and-long conversions on defense. Nebraska also committed 11 penalties for 95 yards. It undid a lot of positive work, in which the Huskers gashed Colorado for 329 yards rushing, and got some encouraging play from Martinez prior to his injury. The Husker defense also had seven sacks, which is already half as many as it had all of last season. "I told the team I'm proud of them. I'm broken-hearted for them, but I'm proud of them," Frost said. "Because looking out on that field, the only time we got stopped on offense was when we made mistakes and stopped ourselves. Defense at times looked like the Blackshirts. We had the quarterback on his back and we stopped the run all day. "When you're trying to go from an average team to a great team, you don't beat yourself, and spotting them 14 points is a good way to get beat. Not getting any fourth-and-shorts is a good way to get beat. Giving up third-and-19s and third-and-15s is a good way to get beat. Getting holding calls when you're trying to run out the clock is a good way to beat. Giving up penalties on third-and-25 when they're trying to get the winning score is a good way to get beat. We can't beat ourselves ... If this team didn't beat itself today, we would've won that game."<doc-sep>The University of Nebraska released non-broadcast video of the Adrian Martinez today, and if there were any doubt that Martinez’ injury was intentionally caused... Well, I’ll let you decide. Upon request, Nebraska has released its own video of the play Saturday that led to QB Adrian Martinez's knee injury, showing multiple angles in a 102-second clip. Here is the best look Scott Frost was alluding to in Monday's presser. pic.twitter.com/JYT5YJm5Qb — Evan Bland (@EvanBlandOWH) September 12, 2018 In the video it appears that Colorado linebacker Jacob Callier gives Martinez’ ankle and leg quite a firm twist after Martinez is already on the ground and the play over. Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre announced earlier this week that Callier would not face a suspension. Several Nebraska media outlets, including 247Sports, obtained the video that was released to the PAC-12 and Big Ten Conferences. Meanwhile Colorado fans are absolutely convinced no harm has occurred. This may be the best example of confirmation bias that has ever been recorded. Nebraska fans see what they want, and Colorado fans see what they want. I will make the safe assumption next year’s game will carry over a subliminal sense of vindictiveness.<doc-sep>
Adrian Martinez, Nebraska’s true freshman starting quarterback (the first true freshman Week 1 starter in program history), has dazzled in his debut for the Huskers this afternoon. Martinez, a former four-star recruit, has looked great both through the air and on the ground. Martinez, unfortunately, has just left Nebraska’s game against Colorado with an apparent injury. The dual-threat quarterback got his legs tangled up during a hit late in the fourth quarter. He was down on the field for a couple of minutes. Eventually, Martinez had to be helped off the field by Nebraska’s trainers. He was not able to put much weight on his leg. Nebraska freshman QB Adrian Martinez is heading off the field with a knee injury. pic.twitter.com/fwIff1Q7oF — Sporting News (@sportingnews) September 8, 2018 That’s tough to see. Martinez had been having an incredible game, but he had taken several big hits. Martinez is the only scholarship quarterback on Nebraska’s roster for the 2018 season. The Huskers had to put in a walk-on quarterback with Martinez out. Nebraska and Colorado, meanwhile, have 2:23 left in the game. The Huskers are leading by one point. The Buffaloes just got the ball back. The game is on ABC. Update: Adrian Martinez has not been able to return to this afternoon’s game. He went into the injury tent and was able to walk out of it under his own power. However, Martinez quickly took a seat on the bench and had his knee iced. Scott Frost will likely provide another update on Martinez after the game.