Nebraska’s first quarter performance had Nebraska Cornhuskers fans thinking dark thoughts as daring to believe in the 2026 squad appeared to be teetering on the edge of another crushing defeat, this time to a 2-2 Maryland squad coming off a 54-3 beatdown courtesy of UCLA.
Or as super-spy Sterling Archer put it, “I’ll be requiring biblical amounts of alcohol.”
But after an opening frame in which they were outgained 207-38 and trailed 16-7, they calmly righted the ship and outscored the Terrapins 41-7
while running away with a 49-23 victory and pushing their record to 5-0 to set up a clash of undefeateds when defending National Champion Indiana drops into Lincoln next Saturday morning for Big Noon (eastern time), Fox’s attempt to make 11am kickoffs relevant.
For those wanting to get right to acid-reflux inducing thoughts, y’all can imagine what Indiana will do with a first quarter advantage like that, you go ahead. But here we’re going to enjoy the Huskers not panicking and fighting their way first to a halftime lead, which looked like like a big NO until it didn’t, and then, after a scoreless 3rd quarter, putting their foot on the gas to leave no doubt.
But, godsdamn as a Battlestar Galactica XO might say – that 1st quarter.
Nebraska appeared to have gotten off to great start forcing a three & out on the first drive. Then the first of many, many, many flags began to fly. The punt appeared to be partially blocked, especially as several players seemed to be looking for the ball. In addition, the Huskers were flagged for running into the kicker, which seemed a little iffy, but whatever. A review supposedly confirmed there was no block and Maryland followed up with completions of 36 and 20 yards, before the defense stiffened and held them to a field goal.
Both teams failed to move after that, but when Maryland went to punt this time, it WAS blocked by Jeremiah Charles and Jeremiah Jones grabbed it at the 19. One play later, Mekhi Nelson took it in for one of his two touchdowns on the day and the Huskers led 7-3.
Unfortunately, the Blackshirts broke down again when Maryland quarterback Malik Washington hit Chris Durr Jr up the middle and he raced it 43 more yards for 65 yard TD to give the lead back to Maryland.
The Huskers offense couldn’t get untracked. A 15-yard blindside block (a shove in the side) was the main stall in the next possession. Even more ludicrous was reviewing it for targeting which failed. Next, Colandrea threw only his second pick of the year unsuccessfully trying to force a low pass through double coverage. Maryland responded with short field goals and ended the quarter with a 16-7 lead.
The bad news was that the Terps finished it with a 207-38 advantage in total yardage. Yes, the Huskers had basically skipped a possession with the blocked punt and short field, but…yikes. The good news was the defense, while giving up chunk plays, had tightened up when it came to the showdowns and the score WAS only 16-7 instead of potentially 28-7. The Terps came close to that as the field goals were only 26, 36 and 32 yards.
The Huskers were coming out of their funk, however. A 79-yard touchdown drive started in the 1st quarter was finished in the 2nd. A flag helped the Huskers as an 11-yard sack of Colandrea was wiped off the board by a Maryland late hit. He then hit Kwazi Gilmer for 29 yards and Nelson finished things off taking it in from the 5.
16-14.
Then the defense rose again with DE Kade Pietrzak snagging a big-man interception and the Huskers were ready to grab the lead. Except they weren’t because the Kade and company made the egregious error of enjoying the big play to close to a grumpy ol’ referee, who was NOT about to let that slide. Never mind there were no gestures or taunting of any kind. The crew that brought you the Michigan-Western Michigan debacle weren’t gonna put up with that.
What they did put up with was a head-to-head shot on a Gilmer a couple plays later. head contact above the shoulders and the receiver being in a defenseless position when struck, clearly met 2-of-3 targeting criteria as required, but no dice. Maryland, aided by 30 yards of ridiculous and no call yardage held the Huskers to a turnover on downs. DeJuan Williams then tore off on a 56-yard jaunt which led to a 5-yard TD and a 23-14 lead.
The Huskers went three-and-out, Maryland took over and the Dwayne McDougle stepped up with the game-changer.
Maryland began driving again and had marched it to the Huskers 27 when Washington let rip a slant which McDougle grabbed at the 19 and returned 81 yards weaving through Terrapins almost all the way. The 6’5” 227lb Washington had the last best chance to stop him, but did not seem too interested in making a play.
McDougle hit the end zone with the longest Nebraska pick-6 since Bo Ruud brought one back 93 yards against Iowa State in 2007. And while the Huskers still trailed 23-21, the momentum change could be sensed. Maryland had simply let too many chances for more points go by and too many yards gained go wasted.
The defense stood up and got another three-and-out. Then Colandrea and company went to work driving 80 yards with under 2:00 left in the half. Out of timeouts and the ball on the one, the Huskers showed the bigs formation but Anthony faked a handoff to Vince Genatone and lobbed one to Luke Lindenmeyer for a 28-23 lead they would not relinquish.
Following a scoreless 3rd quarter, they would rack up 20 more 4th quarter points to put an exclamation point on the 48-23 win.
In fact, after giving up a ridiculous 300 yards in the first half, the Huskers would settle down and their defense would only give up 95 yards to Maryland in the entire second half, while shutting them out.
The referees would calm down a little in the second half as well but would still throw a mind-boggling 28 flags for a combined 247 yards, the Huskers taking the brunt of this laundry storm with 16 for 132 yards.
The Huskers would keep plugging away offensively eventually finishing with 447 yards to Maryland’s 395 after trailing 300-195 at halftime. Colandrea missed several wide-open targets but still finished 26-39 for 238 yds with 3 TD passes against the one pick. He also led the team in rushing with 9 carries for 118 yards. Gilmer had a game to remember with 11 grabs for 147 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Owen Chambliss and Donovan Jones paced the defense with 8 tackles each and, while they pressured Washington all afternoon, Shavers managed the only sack. And, perhaps most importantly, they would win another turnover battle, this time 2-1.
Though the beginning was hard to watch, perhaps some adversity was just what the doctor ordered before Indiana arrives. This team showed again, under more pressure than last week, the calmness which only comes with experience. Faced with an outmanned team finding big plays, a referee crew up to no good at times and mistakes of their own doing, younger Nebraska teams have again and again come up just short.
This group keeps plugging away, doesn’t compound mistakes with more mistakes and in the end, not only finds a way to win, but starts throwing daggers and wins big.
Can they go toe-to-toe with Indiana in a similar scenario?
Who knows? But for the first time in a while, a Husker nation might not be a scared to find out.
