Cornhuskers outrun Bruins, target defensive shortcomings

SANTA CLARA — There were a lot of doubts surrounding Saturday’s Foster Farms Bowl at Levi’s Stadium.

Was a 5-7 Nebraska team worthy of a bowl bid? Would UCLA redeem its lost season with an emphatic victory? Would fans fill the 68,500-capacity NFL venue?

Sixty minutes passed with only one affirmative conclusion: The Cornhuskers were more than deserving of the trip to Santa Clara. The beleaguered Nebraska team found itself a run offense and managed to defend UCLA’s air-raid attack en route to a 37-29 victory.

The Cornhuskers did their best impression of the Bruins’ most elite foe this season – the Stanford Cardinal – by notching 326 rushing yards and 500 yards of total offense. On Oct. 15, in what was UCLA’s second loss of the season, Stanford steamrolled UCLA for 311 rushing yards and 442 total offense.

“(Running) can be a common denominator for winning a championship,” said Nebraska coach Mike Riley. “That’s what we want to do so, it’s as much of a statement as it is a goal … I’ve always stated that about the running game and all of our players know it. It helps everything.”

Additionally, Nebraska owned the majority of the possession Saturday just as Stanford did in October, forcing a depleted UCLA defense to shoulder much of the responsibility. The resulting fatigue allowed the Cornhuskers to score 30 consecutive points and take a commanding lead.

COLUMN: Assessing the “Bruin Revolution” two years later.

“We just didn’t play right on offense,” said freshman quarterback Josh Rosen. “Putting our defense on the field so many consecutive times, going a long drive, quick three-and-out, a long drive, quick three-and-out. When you play a tough team like that, that holds the ball for elongated periods of time, you just can’t get off the field.”

Again, similarly to the Cardinal matchup, the Bruins failed to limit the Cornhuskers’ most dynamic player. While Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey exploited UCLA’s weak run defense for 243 rushing yards, Nebraska quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. contributed 250 yards – 76 rushing – to the Cornhusker total offense.

Nebraska usually relies on Armstrong but in a different capacity. The junior entered Saturday’s bowl game averaging 238 passing yards and only 27 rushing yards per contest. Armstrong recognized the Bruins’ defensive weaknesses, opting to run for 76 yards on 10 carries, good for one touchdown.

“We watched a lot of film, saw a lot of good things with the running game with certain teams that they’d played,” Armstrong said. “We took advantage of that, we put it in our game plan and we ran it well.”

While UCLA played like its same old self Saturday – racking up penalties, allowing the opposition to exploit defensive holes and failing to maintain composure on offense – Nebraska rose to the occasion, tapping into talent it didn’t know it had and leaving everything on the field for the school’s largest-ever bowl game comeback.