Last season featued a heartbreaking home loss to the Cornhuskers. This year can be different. David Blough has already had a few excellent games against Nebraska, and now he has Rondale Moore. As always, you can follow along here, and The Legelnd of Shawn McCarthy might be in attendance.<doc-sep>If you remember last week’s recap (and no offense taken if you don’t), one of my major problems was that I didn’t have the fridge stocked and ended up having to drink warm beer during that terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad game. Today’s beer temperature status check. Cold. I got my crap together, will the Huskers? Pregame Mick Stoltenburg will not play due to injury. If there is one place the Huskers can handle losing a starter, it is the defensive line. Regardless, get well soon Mick! Boe Wilson was announced as starter on the offensive line in place of Tanner Farmer. If Wilson did take over at guard, I sort of expected Farmer to get moved to starting center, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The Huskers won the toss and elected to receive the ball. First Quarter Jaron Woodyard was back to receive the kick instead of JD Spielman. Spielman hasn’t looked confident or comfortable out there this season, so the staff is shaking things up a bit. In another position group that has needed someone else to step up, we saw Kade Warner get the starting nod at wideout. The Huskers went with a great deal of tempo early in the drive. Spielman may not have been the kickoff man, but he was featured early and often on this first drive. Devine Ozigbo finds pay dirt!! Touchdown Nebraska!!! This was confirmed on replay. It was so nice to see the Huskers finish a first quarter drive with points instead of a turnover. Nebraska 7 Purdue 0 You didn’t ask but I’m going to put this here anyway. The SDSU Jackrabbits lead the NDSU Bison 7-0 in the Dakota Marker game (5 min left in the first quarter). The Purdue drive started out near the 30 yard line. They accrued a couple of penalties, but worked their way down the field in short order and DJ Knox found the end zone leaving a lot of whiffed Husker tackles in his wake. Touchdown Purdue. I think we all expected a high-scoring game and early on it is looking like that will be the case. Nebraska 7 Purdue 7 Purdue seems prepared for Adrian Martinez in the run game and has kept him contained fairly well to this point. The Boilermaker defense is doing a good job overall in coverage and getting through blocks to make tackles after they got gashed on Nebraska’s opening drive. The Huskers failed to convert a fourth and one on the Purdue 40 yard line and the Boilers take over on downs. The Boilermakers immediately went for the home run ball after a receiver got behind Lamar Jackson. It it hadn’t been underthrown, that would have gone all the way. They set up at the 11 yard line. Antonio Reed nearly picked off a ball (and would have had an easy pick six), but the ball instead caromed into the receiver’s hands. It was still a loss on the play and the Blackshirts held the Boilers to a field goal. Purdue 10 Nebraska 7 Woodyard made a bad decision after he bobbled the ball in the end zone and brought it out anyway. He made it to the 15 yard line. Devine Ozigbo gave the Huskers some room with a first down. A home run ball to Stanley Morgan fell incomplete when his arm was held (not called). Martinez scampered for a first down on third and ten to keep the drive rolling. The Huskers approached midfield, but Jerald Foster was called for unnecessary roughness and backed Nebraska up. They couldn’t dig out of the hole and brought out Caleb Lightbourn for a punt. Husker nation held their collective breath after giving up a punt return TD in two of the previous three games. It was a poor punt, but at least there was no return. The Boilermakers took over on their own 29 yard line. In the Jackrabbit-Bison tilt, NDSU has evened up the score early in the second quarter and the game is tied 7-7. The Blackshirts had a chance to get off the field on a third and seven, but the completion was made in front of Tre Neal. End of the first quarter. Second Quarter The Huskers had another chance to get off the field with another third and seven, but Blough scrambled past midfield. The NDSU Bison missed a field goal and the Jackrabbits get the ball with 5 1⁄ 2 minutes left in the half with the score still tied at 7-7. The Boilermakers quickly moved into the red zone and set up first and goal at the one yard line. David Blough took the ball in on a quarterback sneak. Touchdown Purdue. The Nebraska defense saw both Antonio Reed and Will Honas go down with injuries on this drive. Purdue 17 Nebraska 7 Bison also score a touchdown and lead the Jackrabbits 14-7 with just under four minutes left in the half. Nebraska goes three and out. Sigh. Lightbourn’s line drive punt was fielded cleanly but the coverage got in place fairly quickly and Purdue starts around their own 30 yard line. The Blackshirts forced their own three-and-out. J.D. Spielman had a nice return, but it was negated by a block in the back. The Husker offense set up shop deep in their own territory (8 yard line). Martinez was sacked at the at the 2 yard line for a third and long. Martinez overthrew Woodyard and Caleb Lightbourn had to punt from the back of his own end zone. Rondale Moore was back to receive the punt. He fair caught the ball near midfield. David Blough has had all day to throw the ball. The Blackshirts have been unable to generate a pass rush. Marquel Dismuke interceped a third down pass, but a penalty flag (Lamar Jackson) negated the turnover and gave the Boilers a first down. Blough is picking apart the secondary. Mohamed Barry made a great stop in the backfield to force a third and long. Lamar Jackson has been taken off the field by Scott Frost. I’m not sure we will see him again today.<doc-sep>Hey! There’s good news! Nebraska scored first, as they marched down the field in commanding fashion on a 10-play, 75 yard drive capped off by an 18-yard run by Devine Ozigbo. It was the first lead of the season for our beloved Huskers. Unfortunately, due to the rules of the game, Purdue got to have the ball on offense. They promptly ripped off big plays, scoring when DJ Knox ran 42 yards to the end zone to tie the game. Nebraska’s offense sputtered, while Purdue continued to rip off yardage. Nebraska held Purdue to a field goal after a 40+ plus yard flea flicker put the Boilermakers on the Husker 11 yard line. Spencer Evan hit a 31-yard field goal. It felt like a big win for the Nebraska defense. Purdue went on a long drive for their third score, going 10 plays for 71 yards. Quarterback David Blough dove the ball in from one yard out for the touchdown to put the Boilermakers up 17-7. Purdue’s fourth score... Blough picked up a third-and-14 while scrambling with the speed of a crusty old man like me. Purdue picked up another third down on a pass interference penalty. Nebraska finally held on a third-and-two to force a Boilermaker field goal. Evans kicked a 24-yard field goal. 20-7 Purdue. It has been an ugly, ugly half for our beloved Huskers. Horrible. But we’re only down by 13 points. That’s not a lot.<doc-sep>Date/Time: September 29, 2018 at 2:30 p.m. CDT Location: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, NE Capacity: 85,458 Surface: Field Turf Opposition Blog: Check out Hammer and Rails for everything Boilermaker. Series Record: Nebraska leads the series 4-2. TV: The game will be televised on BTN with Play-by-Play by Kevin Kugler, Analyst: Matt Millen and Sidelines: Lisa Byington. It can be streamed on BTN2Go with a login from your cable, satellite, or streaming provider. Radio: Look for your local radio station on the Huskers sports radio network. The audio can also be streamed live for free at huskers.com The crew will be: Greg Sharpe, Matt Davison, and Ben MacLaughlin. More streaming options: The official Husker app is available on iTunes as well and Google Play. The game can be streamed on the TuneIn app for free (search for the Husker IMG Sports Network. Weather: At kickoff it will be 52 degrees and cloudy with a slight chance of rain (10-15%) and winds from the southeast at 12 mph. Odds: Purdue is favored by 3.5 points. Trivia Nebraska senior receiver Stanley Morgan Jr. has caught at least three passes in 15 straight games. Morgan needs five receptions on Saturday to move into the top five on the NU career receptions list. If you want to catch up on this week’s game, check out all the articles we have done in the Huskers vs. Purdue 2018 Game Center - Corn Nation GO BIG RED!! !<doc-sep>
Last week Purdue was pretty much in control throughout. Boston College scored on its second drive to tie it, but from there Purdue’s defense put on the clamps and didn’t give up anything until late in the fourth quarter. Today was different. It was about recovery. Purdue had to answer a lot of different challenges throughout. There is no question Nebraska is not the Nebraska of old. This loss marked the first time in their history they have lost eight consecutive games. Still, there is some cachet in winning at Nebraska. They have a passionate fanbase that makes it tough to play. Purdue was able to respond with three straight scoring drives. DJ Knox tied it with a huge 42-yard run, then the defense was able to tee off a bit. Knox nearly had another TD that was poached by David Blough and Spencer Evans sent us into halftime with a pair of field goals. It looked like Purdue was going to be in full control when Brycen Hopkins scored on a nice misdirection play. Instead, that started a stretch where neither team could get a stop. Nebraska practically raced down the field for a JD Spielman TS in just two minutes. Purdue recovered and had a 90-yard TD drive capped twice by Knox as he had the TD and the two-point conversion. Nebraska took 47 seconds to score, but again Purdue recovered. Coming into the game Purdue had given up 10 points total in the third quarters of its games. This was a huge departure from the Hope-Hazell era where we seemed to average 10 third quarter points given up per game. Nebraska had 14 today, but Purdue had an answer. When Markell Jones scored on the first play of the fourth quarter (after a boost from some helpful penalties) it looked like Purdue had it. It was only the beginning of a wild quarter. Nebraska only scored once, but it happened in 1:52 and they had plenty of chances. Purdue was finally stopped and Nebraska had us truly reeling before Simeon Smiley had his first career interception. Nick Holt was masterful in his blitz calling to keep Adrian Martinez off balance. He burned us with his feet a few times and Devine Ozigbo was killing us, but we did just enough. All told, Nebraska had 582 yards of offense, but three failed fourth down conversions, the interception, and 136 yards of penalties undid them. We cannot underestimate this win. After the 0-3 start it looked like any bowl game was impossible. Now we have the “easiest” game left next to get to 3-3 before a home game against Ohio State. It is a great recovery when Purdue could have folded and played for the future. We had several guys that performed well today. Blough was great with 328 yards passing and 38 rushing. Knox had 87 yards and a pair of TDs. Hopkins was over 100 yards receiving with 103 and a score. Rondale Moore had a quiet 85 yards receiving, but a big 40 yard play that shifted things. Even walk-on fullback Alexander Horvath got involved with a pair of catches for 28 yards and two firsts downs. What’s fun is that this was a double-digit road win, but we still have some things to clean up. There were a ton of drops today as Jared Sparks, Isaac Zico, and Terry Wright had some big ones. The defense was gashed in the final 20 minutes. We also had our own fair share of penalties. Those are things to look at in the break, however. Now we get a week off and the program is reenergized. Can we get four more wins to get a bowl? It is possible, but not easy. Things are coming together though. Blough is playing some very good football and this is only the second time under Brohm we have cracked 40 points. Since his Western Kentucky teams usually hit 45 without breaking a sweat we finally got to see a glimpse of it today. The offense was rolling for much of the game, and it really seems to be rounding into form.