OR traveled well by land in front of the sea of red. In rushing, Royce Freeman ran for 207 yards and 2 touchdowns in 21 carries while Kani Benoit added 28 yards in 7 carries.
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But the offense lacked the balance of the big-play air assault that was unleashed against Virginia.
Starter Prukop will be playing in front of close to 70,000 more opposing fans than he faced at away games playing for Montana State previous year.
The Ducks scored on a 41-yard touchdown run right before the end of the third quarter to cut the lead to just two points.
Armstrong also has been given more freedom as a runner, and scored the game-winning touchdown against OR on a 34-yard quarterback draw.
OR had gotten its 32-28 lead on the third TD of the game for Tony Brooks-James. Nebraska had 228 rushing yards, with Armstrong leading the way with 96 rushing yards and a touchdown and Devine Ozigbo almost equaling him with 94 yards and a touchdown. Prukop was a first team FCS All American past year and his 6-0 TD-INT ratio gives me confidence supporting him in a hostile environment in Lincoln on Saturday.
“We’ve definitely found our rhythm”. “A lot of times players end up being defined by the moments where you have to drive the team down and win the game”. However, Armstrong responded with another touchdown pass to Westerkamp in the corner of the end zone with five seconds left in the half.
OREGON: The Ducks’ streak of 82 straight games with a touchdown pass ended. OR was penalized 13 times for 126 yards, while Nebraska was flagged seven times for 55 yards.
OR settled for a 20-14 lead at the intermission after giving up a 45-yard punt return to De’Mornay Pierson-El and a 3-yard touchdown pass from Armstrong to Westerkamp with five seconds remaining.
The defense helped the Cornhuskers move the chains with four pass-interference penalties. First-year defensive coordinator Brady Hoke also needs to come up with a way for his unit to stop the run. “Sometimes those things can go 50-50, but they did a nice job of challenging receivers. Fourth-and-the-ballgame, you’ve got to give somebody a chance”. Jordan Westerkamp (105) and Alonzo Moore (109) each topped 100 yards receiving versus the Cowboys, marking only the third time in school history a pair of Nebraska wideouts accomplished the feat in the same game – Westerkamp has been a part of all three, which have occurred over the past three seasons.
Four-year starting offensive lineman Cameron Hunt, who was a team captain on Saturday, was called for a costly personal foul, one of four by Oregon.
Other than that, Armstrong played the entire game, fighting through the pain. “We said we weren’t going to be beaten like that anymore”. And once more, the Nebraska defense stood tall. “The situation was exactly how we planned it”.
And the Huskers’ offense didn’t waste the field position.
Here’s how to watch OR vs. Nebraska online.
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Freeman and Allen were among the walking wounded in the visiting locker room. “We’ll find out quick what we have”, Washington coach Chris Petersen said. We couldn’t afford to wait there and see what might happen.
