LINCOLN – The decibel meter needle on the big television screens passed the 100 mark as a red evening sea seethed with noise.
Nebraska’s defenders – crazed, vicious, relentless – chased and harassed the country’s best passer across the width of the field until Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders knelt on the field, exhausted and frustrated, after a second-half drive.
And at the end of NU’s not-so-pretty-but-perfect 28-10 win over Colorado, fans from all corners of Memorial Stadium poured onto the field to laugh, smile and hug the Husker players. Amid the celebrations, a song blared from the speakers: “Revival” by Zach Bryan, which the crowd seemed to know and sang along loudly as the team entered the tunnel.
“We’re having a reiiiiiival all night long!” they sang.
For nearly four hours, the Huskers played like a team awakened from a long slumber, avenging last year’s loss in Boulder and scoring their first non-conference win over a power league team since 2016. NU went into halftime with a 28-0 lead and couldn’t keep up with Sanders and CU in the second half, who were strong enough to take a 2-0 lead.
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“This meant a little more to us,” said quarterback Dylan Raiola. “A rivalry game.”
Nebraska coach Matt Rhule seemed stoic afterward, but he told reporters to ignore it. Inside, he was furious.
“That was a big moment,” Rhule said. “It was really big for us to step up and not back down behind their stars. Because we’re a little different. Our team is our star… our defense is a star.”
In front of 86,906 fans at Memorial Stadium, the Blackshirts certainly were.
>>They recorded six sacks – five of them by Sanders, who left the game late when CU was trailing by 18 points.
“Our goal was to get one more, one more, one more,” said defensive end Ty Robinson, who had the first sack of the game and also blocked a field goal.
>>Cornerback Tommi Hill intercepted a pass from Sanders and scored a point with the intercepted pass.
“I announced it before we went into the game,” Hill said. “I said, ‘There’s going to be a pick six.'”
>>The Buffaloes (1-1) ran all of 16 yards and were stopped twice on fourth down and short attempts. Late in the game, when they had a chance to win, they benched Sanders as a precaution, effectively handing the win to Nebraska.
“We just wanted to make sure he was checked out and we’re taking every precaution because now we’re looking forward to next week,” Deion Sanders said. “That was over. When he came out of the game, it was all over.”
Nebraska (2-0) set the tone with its first defensive sequence – a batted ball, a dropped pass by Buff, a sack – and its first offensive play, a seven-play, 49-yard run for a touchdown. Dante Dowdell capped it off with back-to-back runs of 13 and 12 yards, the last of which led to a touchdown.
“We had like 75 yards,” Rhule said of NU’s running game, which struggled with penalties in the second half.
The Huskers extended their 7-0 lead to 14-0 with Hill’s pick six, which was initiated by a 55-yard punt by Brian Buschini to the 2-yard line.
Raiola’s 36-yard pass to Jaylen Lloyd set up the Huskers’ third touchdown, a short run by Dowdell.
Aided by CU targeting and pass interference penalties, Nebraska got to the CU 18, where Raiola committed his first mistake of the night. He attempted a pass to Johnson, who was covered by Buff linebacker LaVonta Bentley. Somehow, Bentley botched the gift, so Johnson grabbed it, spun toward the end zone, and scored the Huskers’ final touchdown of the first half.
“I guess it was just a miracle,” Johnson said. “It just fell into my hands… he had it and I just tapped it up and the ball flew, I caught it and the rest is history.”
Nebraska’s second-half offense was sluggish, sloppy, and even timid, with Raiola consistently favoring checkdowns rather than throwing intermediate or deep routes.
The penalties piled up as NU’s culture of execution sparked a mini-revolution against itself. Nebraska started a drive at the CU 28 – and marched back to the Buffaloes’ 43 before punter Brian Buschini partially blocked a punt that allowed a one-yard scoring drive.
The Buffaloes turned this chaos into their first touchdown drive of the game, which ended with a five-yard pass from Sanders to LaJohntay Wester. NU lost linebacker Mikai Gbayor to a targeting call.
But Nebraska bought enough time from there to get Deion Sanders to take his son out of the game. CU finished the game with a backup player who was stripped of the ball on his last pass attempt. NU’s offense took the field, made a few perfunctory plays, and got into victory formation.
Rhule said he was pleased and, to be honest, not entirely surprised.
“We expected this result,” Rhule said. “We expected it to turn out this way. We have a good team.”
Someone who celebrated and cheered on the Husker fans on Saturday night.
“I heard the PA man say, ‘No rushing onto the field,'” Raiola said, smiling. “And that didn’t work.”
