10 things we learned from Nebraska's win over Illinois

Here are 10 of our biggest takeaways following Nebraska's 42-38 win over Illinois on Saturday night...

All of the same problems that had plagued Nebraska during its previous eight consecutive road losses came flooding back in Saturday night’s game at Illinois.

Four lost fumbles, 11 penalties for 116 yards, defensive breakdowns leading to big plays for the opposing offense. It was all amounting to the same recipe that had doomed NU on the road for nearly the past two years.

But this time, it was different.

Rather than let the mental miscues snowball into another blowout road defeat, the Huskers’ composure and belief never wavered. Much of that had to do with head coach Scott Frost’s week-long message to the team about staying calm no matter the situation.

More importantly, though, it was the players translating that through some serious in-game adversity that made the Illinois win so special.

Of all the storylines to come out of Saturday night’s win, the breakout performance of heralded true freshman Wan’Dale Robinson might top them all.

After Maurice Washington left the game with a head injury and Dedrick Mills dinging up his shoulder, Nebraska turned to Robinson as its primary workhorse in both the running and passing game.

The former four-star recruit ended up making the biggest impact of his young college career, racking up 28 total touches for a combined 186 all-purpose yards. Included in that were a team-high eight catches for 79 yards and two touchdowns and 19 rushes for 89 yards and another score.

Robinson was always going to be an immediate factor for the Huskers, but he showed just how valuable he could be this season and beyond.

On the second play of the game, Illinois running back Reggie Corbin broke loose down the right sideline for a 66-yard touchdown run. Two drives later, the Illini connected on a 26-yard touchdown pass to take a 14-0 lead less than seven minutes into the first quarter.

It was a disastrous start in many ways for Nebraska’s defense, but one the Blackshirts found a way to overcome and turn into a highlight night.

The defense gave up two touchdowns and 124 total yards in the first quarter, including 78 rushing yards (albeit 66 on run carry). The most rushing yards NU had given up over the previous three games was 89 at Colorado.

The unit dug its heels in from there on, though, bailing out the offense and its four lost fumbles time and again and holding Illinois to just 175 yards (only 32 passing) over the next three quarters.

Nebraska finished the night with an interception, two sacks, nine tackles for loss, 10 pass breakups, and held the Illini to go just 1-for-11 on third down.

Like most everything else for Nebraska, Adrian Martinez was hardly his best early on against Illinois.

He only completed six of his first 11 passes had three rushes for six yards in the first quarter, including a lost fumble on a botched handoff that led to an Illini touchdown.

But as the grumbling about his play around Husker Nation got even louder, Martinez settled down and turned in one of his best all-around performances of the season.

In the second half alone, Martinez completed 11-of-13 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown and ran the ball 11 times for 99 yards. Nebraska also scored touchdowns on four of its eight full drives in the third and fourth quarters.

This game would likely have been a completely different story had Nebraska not given away the football more times than in any game of the Frost era.

With four lost fumbles on the night, the Huskers matched their highest single-game turnover total since their road loss at Oregon on Sept. 8, 2017. It also marked the seventh time in 16 games under Frost and the third in four games this season that NU had committed three or more turnovers.

Martinez and Mills were again the biggest culprits. Martinez fumbled a handoff in the first quarter and then had the ball knocked loose on a pass in the third, marking his fourth and fifth lost fumbles of the year.

He’s now been charged with 17 fumbles (losing 10) in his college career.

Mills also coughed one up in the second quarter, his third of the season on 46 carries. Receiver JD Spielman had the fourth giveaway after a catch later in the third quarter.

Nebraska has now lost nine turnovers on the season, two more than any other Big Ten team (Michigan is next with seven). The Huskers cannot afford to continue to spot opponents points and possessions at that rate.

Washington has established himself as maybe Nebraska’s most crucial offensive player not named Adrian Martinez.

He was dynamic again on Saturday, rushing 10 times for 89 yards, including a 41-yard scamper. But the sophomore left the game just before halftime with a head injury and did not return the rest of the night.

Washington will have to go through and pass concussion protocol this week to get himself cleared to play in NU’s huge upcoming home game against Ohio State.

The Huskers’ offense isn’t the same when he’s not on the field, and even with Robinson’s breakout performance, this offseason can’t afford to have Washington on the sideline against a dominant Ohio State team.

Nebraska was flagged 11 times for 119 yards against Illinois, including being called for seven penalties in the first half alone.

Illinois, on the other hand, was only penalized four times for 66 yards, and didn’t receive its second flag until late in the third quarter.

The Huskers have now been called for 29 penalties over the first four games, which are only fewer than Illinois (29) and Michigan State (31) in the Big Ten.

While Frost knows his team needs to clean up its play, he also hinted that NU might be getting officiated a little harder than other teams around the league.

After spending all week wondering whether Nebraska would have two of its top players available for Illinois, both left tackle Brenden Jaimes and defensive back Cam Taylor-Britt were back in action on Saturday night.

Taylor-Britt suffered a shoulder injury in the second quarter of last week’s win over Northern Illinois and did not return for the rest of the game. Then Jaimes went down with a leg injury early in the fourth quarter.

Both players were able to practice during the week, as Taylor-Britt wore a green no-contact jersey at one point, while Jaimes appeared to be a full participant. But it wasn’t until the Huskers took the field for pre-game warmups that it became clear that the starters would be good to go.

Jaimes started and played the entire game at left tackle, while Taylor-Britt got the start at safety and made a key interception with NU trailing 21-7 early in the second quarter.

With starter Barret Pickering held out for his fourth straight game due to injury, Nebraska continued its search for an answer at kicker on Saturday.

This time the Huskers turned to walk-on Lane McCallum as the starting placekicker, but the results weren’t much better than previous starters Isaac Armstrong and Dylan Jorgensen.

After coming in last week and converting all three of his extra points, the sophomore from Norfolk - who was a scholarship kicker at Air Force in 2017 – made his first three extra points but had his fourth PAT blocked.

McCallum then had his only field goal attempt – which would have put NU up by seven in the final minutes – bounce off the left upright no good. To be fair, he made his first try, but it was negated by a false start penalty.

Nebraska operated with little trust in its kicking game to begin with, opting to go for a couple of fourth downs in the first half instead of trying field goals.

We’ll see where Pickering is next week for Ohio State, but the Huskers could very well in the same kicking situation once again.

Shortly after Nebraska wrapped up the win over Illinois, ESPN announced that its famous College Game Day show would be coming to Lincoln for next week’s Ohio State game.

That will mark the first time since the 2007 game against USC that Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and the rest of the Game Day gang will be at an NU home game. It will also be the first Husker game – home or away – that the show will attend since Nebraska’s first-ever Big Ten game at Wisconsin in 2011.

While Nebraska’s players tried not to hype up Game Day’s announcement more than necessary, the reaction from the fan base on Saturday night said it all.

It’s been 12 years since the Huskers had the national spotlight on their campus, and next Saturday could be a critical turning point one way or another for the program’s future.