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College Football

3 takeaways from Nebraska’s convincing win over Purdue

Andrew Peters

By Andrew Peters

Published:

Nebraska managed to hold off a late comeback from Purdue on Saturday, beating the Boilermakers 31-14.

Nebraska didn’t give an inch on defense, and the Cornhuskers’ offense did what it needed to do to get their 5th win of the season and 3rd win in a row. Now Nebraska has plenty of momentum and confidence heading into a tough final stretch to close out the season.

Here are a few takeaways from Nebraska’s dominant win over Purdue.

Defense holds strong

Purdue’s offense was completely stagnant on Saturday as Nebraska pounded the Boilermakers over and over again.

The Cornhuskers brought the pressure all night and recorded a sack and 8 tackles for loss in the game. They held Purdue quarterback Hudson Card to just 100 yards on 16-of-31 passing, also forcing 2 interceptions. The run defense limited the Boilermakers to just 96 rushing yards on the game.

Purdue couldn’t find its way into the endzone until the 4th quarter and the Cornhuskers were just shy of completing the shutout. Nebraska also blocked the Boilermakers only field goal attempt, taking it back for a touchdown that felt like the dagger in the 3rd quarter.

Offense has late lapses

Through 3 quarters, Nebraska’s offense played competently enough to give its dominant defense support, but it started to collapse in the 4th quarter.

With a 24-0 lead, Nebraska looked like it was going to coast through the final quarter. Then, Heinrich Haarberg took a hit and gave up a fumble, putting Purdue in great position to score. The Boilermakers did just that, spoiling the shutout. On the next drive, Nebraska faced a 4th and 1 after an offsides penalty on Purdue brought back the punt.

Nebraska would have been better off punting, because Haaberg gave up another fumble, and Purdue took it to the house to make it a 10-point game with just under 6 minutes to play in the game.

Luckily the late fumbles didn’t cost Nebraska the game, but ball security needs to be a major focal point moving forward. The Cornhuskers finished the game with 4 lost fumbles, which was their most since 2020.

Nebraska’s B1G West title hopes looking promising

After notching another B1G win, Nebraska’s hopes of claiming the B1G West title and reaching the B1G Championship game are looking promising.

The Cornhuskers now sit at 3-2 in conference play with the win over Purdue. Wisconsin sits in first place in the B1G West right now, but the Badgers have a tough game against Ohio State Saturday night. Nebraska has to face Michigan State, Maryland, Wisconsin and Iowa to close out the season, and if they can win out and get some help from other teams, the Cornhuskers will claim the B1G West title.

Andrew Peters