MINNEAPOLIS – There were no back-up quarterback heroics this time for Nebraska.
After it was learned that sophomore quarterback Adrian Martinez had been ruled out for Saturday night’s game at Minnesota an hour before kickoff, sophomore Noah Vedral officially took the reins for his first-career start.
But it was a game where not much of anything went right for the Huskers from the opening kickoff to the final whistle, as the Golden Gophers handed them a 34-7 defeat.
Vedral, who replaced the injured Martinez in the fourth quarter of last week’s walk-off win over Northwestern, ended the night 14-of-23 passing for 135 yards and 15 rushes for 49 yards.
The story was told on the other side of the ball, however, as Minnesota’s offense essentially did as it pleased against the Blackshirts. Led by 139 yards from running back Rodney Smith, the Gophers racked up more than 450 total yards and over 300 on the ground.
Vedral marched Nebraska on a 12-play, 46-yard drive on his opening series, completing four of his first six passes and rushing three times for 11 yards. But after getting down to the Minnesota 29-yard line, the Huskers stalled on a turnover on downs.
The Gophers capitalized right away with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Morgan to Chris Autman-Bell on the ensuing possession. Minnesota averaged 14.2 yards per play on the drive.
Nebraska needed to respond in a hurry, and Vedral connected with JD Spielman for a 51-yard pass down to the UM 26 to provide a spark. But once again the Huskers came away empty handed, as two sacks killed the drive and forced a punt.
Vedral got NU into Minnesota with a 22-yard scramble down to the 33, but a false start on the next play and a block in the back that negated a 31-yard pass to Wan’Dale Robinson again stalled out the drive.
The Gophers then took that and ran the ball five times on a six-play drive for an average of 14.4 yards per rush. Mohamed Ibrahim capped it off with a 15-yard touchdown run by that made it 14-0 with just over 10 minutes left in the second quarter.
That score held into halftime, as Minnesota out-gained Nebraska 257-159 in total offense and held a dominant 220-71 edge in rushing yards.
The second start off just as poorly as the first for NU, as Morgan hit Tyler Johnson on a 45-yard pass on the first play of the third quarter that set up a five-yard touchdown run by Ibrahim.
It quickly got even worse, as Nebraska got stuffed on a fake punt run by tight end Austin Allen and gave the Gophers the ball back at midfield.
The Blackshirts were able to stop Minnesota on the ensuing drive, but the Gophers would push their lead to 28-0 a few minutes later when Rodney Smith scored from a yard out to cap a nine-play, 45-yard march with 3:16 left in the third.
Minnesota struck again with a 45-yard pass to Johnson and a one-yard touchdown run by Ibrahim – his third of the night – that made it 34-0 going into the fourth quarter after a failed extra point.
Finally, with 12:32 left in the game, Nebraska got on the scoreboard with a two-yard touchdown run by running back Dedrick Mills. That punctuated a 14-play, 80-yard drive for the Huskers, which was easily their best series of the night.
Nebraska will be off next week with a bye, and will return to action on Oct. 26 at home against Indiana.
