Five defining moments that changed the 2019 season for Nebraska

We look back at five defining on-field moments that changed Nebraska's season in 2019.

There were some red flags in Nebraska's season-opening win over South Alabama, but when the Huskers went up 17-0 early at Colorado, things seemed to be back on track.

However, that all changed after CU quarterback Steven Montez executed a perfect flea-flicker play to wide receiver K.D. Nixon. The result was a 96-yard touchdown that cut the Huskers lead to 17-14. It was the first real gut punch this team took, and the final result ended up being a 34-31 loss in overtime for the Big Red.

Facing a third-and-3 on the Indiana 19 yard line, Nebraska's offense was cruising vs. Indiana in the second quarter. They were in the midst of a 15-play drive where a touchdown would've made the score 21-9.

Instead, what happened next would change the entire game. The Hoosiers Jamar Johnson blew through NU running back Dedrick Mills and forced a sack-fumble on Vedral. The ball was recovered by Allen Stallings and returned 68-yards. That play gave the Indiana defense life and set the stage for the Hoosiers to win the game. They outscored NU 35-17 down the stretch after the Huskers built a 14-3 lead.

Nebraska jumped up 7-0 on Purdue in West Lafayette. With their backs against the wall, Boilermaker quarterback Jack Plummer had a shovel pass picked off by Husker nose tackle Darrion Daniels.

The 6-foot-4, 325 pound Daniels nearly scored, but came up just short of the end zone. At the time, you didn't think that was a big deal, but the NU offense failed to execute near the goal line and was forced to settle for a field goal.

A 14-0 lead in that situation would've felt completely different, but instead, Nebraska gave Purdue life by not scoring a touchdown. This allowed the Boilermakers to put together two long scoring drives in the second quarter to jump up 14-10 at halftime, as they eventually won the game 31-27 late in the fourth quarter after NU reclaimed the lead 27-24.

Plummer was even knocked out of the game at that point, but walk-on quarterback Aidan O'Connell still was able to lead them down the field for the win.

Luke McCaffrey came in the game on Nebraska's final possession. The moment obviously caused some confusion, as players ran on and off the field late for the Huskers.

It was a second-and-9, and McCaffrey picked up 4 yards, but wide receiver Mike Williams was called for an illegal block, which took the ball from the Nebraska 45-yard line back to the 34. Martinez came back into the game facing a second-and-20. If the Huskers run two plays in bounds Iowa could only stop the clock once, and we'd go to overtime.

Instead, Martinez ran out of bounds on second-and-20, giving Iowa a free timeout. It reminded me of what Texas A&M did in 2006, when Aggie running back Mike Goodson ran out of bounds, giving Bill Callahan a free timeout, and a chance for Zac Taylor to have one more possession to win the game in College Station.

Iowa got the ball back with 32 seconds left, drove 44 yards on 6 plays and won the game on a Keith Duncan 44-yard field goal.

You could write a book on the issues Nebraska had with their special teams in 2019. The injury to Barrett Pickering was seemingly one the Huskers would never overcome.

Six different kickers made field goals for NU in 2019. The last time NU even used multiple different starting kickers in a season was in 2003 when Sandro DeAngelis and David Dyches went a combined 15-of-24. From 2004 to 2017 the Huskers had a total of six kickers make field goals. Three of those six went on to make the NFL, and one went on to kick in Canada.

The kick coverage team was also an issue. In Big Ten Conference games this season, there were five kicks ran back for touchdowns. Nebraska allowed two of them and finished dead last in the conference for kick coverage in terms of net yardage (35.0).

The Huskers are going to have to do some serious overhaul to their special teams, as it single-handily played a negative factor just about every week.