EUGENE, Ore. – In a beautiful edition of Autzen after dark, the Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-1) traveled to Eugene to face the Oregon Ducks (3-2). Both teams suffered similar fates last week, with losses.
The Duck offense looked nothing like it did against USC with Dylan Raiola under center. Seven turnovers defined Oregon’s day, and for the first time since 2004, UCLA took the win on the road in Autzen. Nebraska on the other hand, fought valiantly against the reigning national champions, No.5 ranked Indiana in a shootout in Lincoln. Despite leading late in this one, the Huskers ultimately fell 20-17. But the play of UNLV transfer QB Anthony Colandrea has left this Cornhusker team with visions of a possible win in extremely hostile territory.
The last time these programs met was in 2017 at Autzen Stadium where Justin Herbert led the Ducks to a 42-35 win, throwing for 365 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.
The first half saw the same struggles afflict the Oregon Offense and it was the same story for the Cornhusker offense as well. Both teams were not able to find anything that really worked. Both defenses were stout in getting off the field quickly, with both offenses ending only one of their drives in opponent territory.
Edge rusher Teitum Tuioti spoke on the defense’s mentality and development.
“Yeah, I think we’ve done a great job of embracing it man. You know, looking at game one to now, man our defense has done a great job, of you know, playing together.” he said
Junior cornerback Ify Obidegwu forced an interception that set the Ducks up with the ball in the red zone, but a Jordon Davison fumble on the very next play left a very valuable opportunity unfulfilled. The Oregon offense was unable to break over 100 total yards of offense in the first half for the second week in a row.
Nebraska found their most success on their final drive of the half, with Colandrea leading the Huskers 65 yards down the field and capping it off with a 17 yard touchdown pass to Kwazi Gilmer.
This was the first time the Ducks were held scoreless in a first half since October 5th, 2019 against California.
Nebraska’s first drive of the second half ended with an untimely mistake on the part of the long snapper and punter Archie Wilson. A low snap forced Wilson to take a knee as he caught the ball. But, again the Oregon offense was not able to make the most of the short field. Settling for a field goal.
After another quick defensive stop put the Ducks back on offense, a few positive plays, including a nice pitch and catch to a wide open Dakorian Moore. Oregon found themselves in prime position to get that first touchdown of the day but once again could not find a push up front, leading to another field goal.
Quarterback Brock Thomas threw his first interception of the day after once again the Duck defense held strong and forced a punt. This turnover would be capitalized on by a 6-yard Anthony Colandrea touchdown run.
In an inverse of the quarterback situation from last week, Brock Thomas was pulled from the game after taking a rough, blindsided block on his interception. Dylan Raiola replaced him at the beginning of the 4th.
Raiola led the squad 69 yards and moved the offense into the red zone, but yet again Oregon was unable to find the goal line, and instead kicker Greg Hurych found the uprights for another field goal. Cutting the lead down to four for the Huskers.
With about eight minutes remaining in the game, the Oregon defense once again came up with a huge three-and-out, allowing Raiola to lead a game-winning drive.
And winning the game is exactly what he did.
A 20-play, 82-yard drive ate up five minutes and three seconds of the remaining five minutes and thirty-one seconds left on the game clock. Jordan Davison converted a crucial fourth down in the red zone which led Raiola to find tight-end Jamari Johnson on a crosser in the back of the end zone. A two-point conversion was then completed to Hudson Lewis, giving Oregon their first lead at the absolute best possible moment.
Raiola gave some insight into the moments leading up to his game-winning throw.
“Yeah, well, it worked out for us that DK’s (Dakorien Moore) catch was out of bounds. It allowed us to run some more time off the clock. Our play calling, our play calling was elite in that situation,” he said.
Kwazi Gilmer led the game in receiving stats with six catches for 74 yards and one touchdown. Colandrea led the game in passing yards with 164 and one touchdown. In Raiola’s lone drive of the game, he went 11 for 18 with 59 yards and one touchdown.
That touchdown was the x-factor to a gritty win tonight for Dan Lanning’s squad, a squad that moves to 4-2 and will travel to Illinois in a week. Nebraska takes back-to-back losses and falls to 5-2. They will enter the bye week having faced some adversity and will host Demond Williams and the Washington Huskies on October 31st.