Nebraska’s 54-35 win over Illinois last weekend was notable for how many points the Cornhuskers scored — the most against a Big Ten opponent since they joined the league. It was notable for breaking a school record with Big Red’s seventh consecutive game with 450 or more total offensive yards.

Most of all, though, it was notable for breakthroughs on several fronts.

The Cornhuskers bucked some major trends, or conventional wisdom, to defeat the Fighting Illini:

A QB as quick as their own

Big Red initially signed quarterback A.J. Bush in the recruiting Class of 2014. But he never played a down for the Cornhuskers, left and embarked on a vagabond career with stops at a junior college, then Virginia Tech before he wound up with Illinois.

Bush presented more problems with his legs than his passing arm last Saturday, running for 187 yards — a single-game program record for an Illini quarterback — and three touchdowns on 25 carries. He’s the most similar quarterback to the one the Nebraska defense faces in practice, Adrian Martinez, than any other quarterback all year. Yet the Cornhuskers still looked lost at times against him.

Turnover margin

To say that Nebraska has struggled with turnovers this season is an understatement. The Cornhuskers entered Saturday’s game with a minus-2 margin, and even that was an improvement on the minus-7 they had after seven games.

But against Illinois, Big Red came up with a season-high five turnovers and only coughed it up twice. Most important, those turnovers led to 24 Nebraska points. The defense (and special teams, more on that later) came up with the goods and the offense made those moments count.

Special teams

We have written ad nauseum about how bad Nebraska’s special teams have been all season. Guess what? That unit was really good against Illinois, bordering on great. That’s quite a turnaround.

Sure, Nebraska got a couple of gifts, namely two fumbles on punt returns. But the Cornhuskers recovered both, one on a tremendous hustle play by long snapper Chase Urbach. And Nebraska also blocked a punt, scoring a safety on the play when the ball bounced out of the back of the end zone. Barret Pickering made all eight of his kicks — seven PATs and a 27-yard field goal. And Isaac Armstrong averaged 43.2 yards on four punts. Forget borderline, it was a great day for Nebraska’s special teams.

Fourth-down success

This was worth an article all to itself but it is worth repeating here. Nebraska was 2-for-11 all season on fourth-down conversions entering the second half.

Then the Cornhuskers exploded for three fourth-down conversions in three straight attempts, all on the same drive. A touchdown capped that epic 17-play, 82-yard possession which gave the defense a much-needed rest. That rest might have contributed to the fact that Nebraska forced three and outs on the next two Illini drives.

Ozigbo’s most explosive plays

Devine Ozigbo hadn’t had a run of 60 yards in his whole career as his senior season neared its end. Then he had two against the Illini. Ozigbo had a 66-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and a 60-yard TD scamper in the fourth on his way to a magnificent 162-yard day.

How much better is the running back than last year? In 2017 Ozigbo gained 493 yards on 129 attempts. That led the team but was far from a strong statistical showing. This year? In two fewer attempts thus far (127) Ozigbo has 958 yards, nearly double last season’s output.

Breaks bounce their way

Ozigbo also had three catches for 36 yards but one was quite the adventure:

That just feels like the type of bounce that would not have gone Nebraska’s way a month ago.

Martinez finds different targets

It’s no secret that wide receivers Stanley Morgan and J.D. Spielman have gotten the majority of the targets this season, and rightly so. But Martinez did a good job of finding others to throw to while facing a very shaky Illinois defense. Kade Warner, who had six catches all season coming in, got four for 20 yards. And tight end Jack Stoll caught just his second touchdown of the season.

The more comfortable Martinez gets in this offense — and it is clearly happening pretty quickly — the more he will move to his third and fourth reads in a progression on a given play, which means more receivers will see action and get chances to make plays.