The forecast on Saturday in Lincoln, Neb., called for wind gusts of up to 30 mph for the Nebraska-Minnesota game.

That was before the weather folks knew about the really big wind which would come out of Memorial Stadium — the one after the game, where the entire Nebraska football program and all of its fans exhaled its biggest sigh of relief in about a year.

The Cornhuskers snapped their nightmarish 10-game losing streak by defeating Minnesota 53-28. The victory was the first in Big Ten play, or against anybody, since a 25-24 triumph over Purdue on Oct. 28, 2017.

The first 0-6 start in school history was bad enough, but Big Red won’t have to worry about 0-7 and can gain some confidence going forward. More important, it was a legit win over a conference rival and a bowl hopeful. That means this losing streak wasn’t snapped because Nebraska scrambled to schedule a cheesy game against FCS school Bethune-Cookman after the opener against Akron was canceled (more on that B-CC “matchup” later in the week).

The important takeaway from Saturday’s game was not just that Nebraska won, but how the Cornhuskers did it. They finally put in a total team performance, with numerous players making key plays and showing maturity that, frankly, this squad often lacked in the first six weeks.

First, the line play. Minnesota owned the line of scrimmage frequently the previous week against Ohio State — of course, Saturday’s events at Purdue confirmed that OSU is simply not playing well on either line right now.

Still, the Golden Gophers came into Lincoln with what seemed to be the better offensive and defensive lines compared to Nebraska. Nope. Not Saturday, anyway. The Cornhuskers held running back Mohamed Ibrahim to 49 yards on 18 carries. And though Minnesota had 349 passing yards — too many for Nebraska to allow — a fair bit of that came after the game was in hand.

More important, Nebraska came up with a huge stop on a fourth-and-2 play late in the second quarter with Minnesota driving. The Cornhuskers broke up seven pass attempts in the game, three by cornerback Dicaprio Bootle. His tip near the goal line led to Dedrick Young’s interception in the fourth quarter to kill a Minnesota drive.

On offense, Nebraska rolled up 383 yards rushing and 659 yards total. That was Nebraska’s most yards in a conference game since it joined the Big Ten in 2012 and most in a league game since 2007, when Big Red was in the Big 12. That year Nebraska gained 702 yards against Kansas State.

How special was Nebraska’s offense? Devine Ozigbo had a 40-yard touchdown in the first quarter, the team’s longest run of the season — until the second quarter, when he had a 59-yard TD run. That play was the longest on offense all season for the Cornhuskers. At least it was until Stanley Morgan’s 67-yard TD reception from Adrian Martinez in the fourth quarter.

It was that kind of day on offense for Nebraska, which had three 100-yard rushers for the first time since 2010 against Washington. Golden Gophers defensive end Carter Coughlin collected his eighth sack this season to extend his Big Ten lead, but for the most part Nebraska did a decent job in protection, allowing two sacks and five tackles for loss.

Then there were penalties. Or a relative lack thereof. Nebraska finally had the advantage in this category, committing just six penalties for 43 yards while Minnesota was whistled eight times for 80 yards. One of those penalties on the Golden Gophers was for offensive holding, wiping out a touchdown and leading the Big Ten Network to share an amazing stat: A Nebraska opponent had not been called for holding on a pass play in 21 games, or nearly two years.

So many little things went right for the Cornhuskers and new coach Scott Frost, leading to a big victory.