It wasn’t pretty. It had the vibe of all the one loss heartbreakers of seasons past. Clogging the roads of four states was almost all for naught.
Malcolm Hartzog, flagged for pass interference the play before had the redemption play to seal Nebraska’s win over the Cincinnati Bearcats at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, 20-17.
“That’s what Malcolm Hartzog does,” Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule said. “He doesn’t talk a lot. He just makes plays.”
After the opening drive for both teams stalled in part to penalties, both teams traded field goals. Stephen Rusnak would start off with a 45 yard field goal, only to be bested by a 52 yarder from Kyle Cunanan. The Huskers would take the lead when they settled for a chip shot field goal in the middle of the second quarter, with an opportunity for a goal line push wiped out by a Elijah Pritchett false start call.
The Bearcats had a perfect opportunity to take the lead on a Dylan Raiola fumble went through the hands of Montay Weeden, allowing for Raiola to recover his fumble. The Huskers would score their first touchdown of the season in the final minute of the half, as Raiola found Nyziah Hunter in the end zone three plays after Williams Nwaneri recovered a fumble at the Cincinnati 19.
Nebraska’s offense stalled out, with a play calling gamble on 4th and 2 allowing for Bearcat QB Brendan Sorsby cutting the lead to 13-10 after a 7 yard rushing touchdown with seven minutes to go. The next drive started to build some momentum, but the Huskers started going backwards after reaching the Cincinnati 45, with a backwards pass to Jacory Barney and a Raiola sack putting Nebraska back on their half of the field.
Cincinnati and Sorsby would start to cut through the field with two plays over 10 yards. The deep shot with 0:37 left was intended for Caleb Goodie, but the 50-50 ball ended up in the hands of Hartzog to seal the deal.
Nebraska had 243 yards through the air, with Raiola going 33-42 with touchdowns to Hunter and Dane Key. Hunter led the team with 65 yards receiving, Key had 51, and Luke Lindenmeyer impressed with 5 catches for 47 yards. Emmett Johnson led the rushing attack with 108 of the teams 110 yards on the ground. Defensively, DeShon Singleton had 7 tackles to lead the team, while only allowing 271 yards from Cincinnati. The Bearcats would only muster 69 yards through the air.
Next week both teams kick off the home slate. Cincinnati has Bowling Green with a 2:30PM kickoff, while Nebraska has Akron with a 6:30PM kickoff. Coverage on KGFW starts at 2:30, with HITS106 coverage starting at 5:45.
Hammer’s Thoughts:
Finally, Nebraska sees a one score game go their way! It eventually needed to happen.
This was a “Cincinnati home game” but it felt nothing like that. I diverted from the original route to Kansas three times to get to the game today, and I had a Nebraska car ahead of me and a Nebraska car behind me the whole time.
After Cincinnati’s opening drive was stifled on a penalty, Nebraska felt like it had the momentum. That all disappeared with a Henry Lutovsky shove that sent the Huskers back 13 yards. That shove doesn’t happen and the Huskers start out with an opening touchdown drive.
Outside of the Lutovsky shove and Pritchett’s false start with the Huskers just mere inches away, this was a lot cleaner on the penalty side than what we saw last season.
Archie Wilson was as good as advertised, pinning the Bearcats inside the 10 yard line twice. The news crews from Australia (Channels 7 and 9 for those who enjoy outback telly) went home pleased.
