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The Turning Point: Nebraska at Illinois
The average number of plays in a given college football game is 180. Each snap brings an opportunity, but each one is not held equal. One snap every game creates one play made by one or a slew of players, affecting the rest of the contest. This play is the turning point. The turning point makes or breaks a team's game and sometimes their season.
Friday night's turning point against Illinois was a Nebraska defensive stand that prevented the Huskers from potentially blowing another fourth-quarter lead.
With 11 minutes remaining, NU held a 20-7 lead with the ball on the Illinois 12-yard line. The Huskers, marching downfield, were poised to take a 27-7 lead and put the game out of reach.
Then disaster struck … again.
With Anthony Grant out of the game due to injury, Heinrich Haarberg handed the ball off to redshirt freshman Emmett Johnson. Johnson, who hadn’t carried the ball more than twice in his career before Friday, dropped the exchange. Illinois recovered the ball on its own 12.
All of Husker Nation thought this was deja vu. NU had all the momentum in the world with a chance to close out the contest but instead committed an unforced error. It seemed inevitable that Illinois would score a touchdown, get a stop, and eventually snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
The Blackshirts had none of that.
The defense had played phenomenally all night and refused to let another offensive mistake dictate the game's result. The Blackshirts dominated the possession. The backbone of the team allowed five yards on three plays and recorded two batted balls.
We have seen this movie many times before in the recent history of Nebraska football. The Huskers consistently play three great quarters to put themselves in a prime position to win, only to allow self-induced mistakes to lose them the game. On Friday, through this drive, the Nebraska defense killed that narrative. They did not put their heads down and say to themselves, “Here we go again.” They played with a speed, confidence and determination that would not allow their team to lose another game like that.
Earlier in the week, head coach Matt Rhule said the defense would need to adopt a certain mentality.
“The defense has to learn that we are a defensive football team,” Rhule said.
If Friday proved anything, the defense knows that if Nebraska is to go to a bowl game this year, it will be off the backs of their play.
