When their arms had grown tired from throwing laundry and wildly waving for official timeouts, Dylan Raiola and Dante Dowdell had led the Huskers on a 9-play, 70-yard drive that culminated first with a 27-yarder to Jahmal Banks at the 11, then a rainbow to Isaiah Nayor who deftly dragged a toe just inside the chalk line for his second touchdown. After seeing the toe clearly on the replay, Bert still burned his final TO on a challenge with just :16 seconds left and the TD was quickly upheld.

The game went against the odds, with both teams successfully moving the ball in what many expected to be a defensive struggle. The two teams combined for 395 yards of offense and 54 points. The Blackshirts once again gave up a long Illinois drive, this time for a 27-yard TD to Pat Bryant from Luke Altmeyer. After that, however, they went into bend but don’t break mode, giving up a good chunk of yards — a couple of them of the yellow, bailout variety — but limiting the Illini to just a field goal.

Neyor scored his first goal on a 6-yard throw, the result of a fumble by John n Bullock after a pass from Altmeyer, which was picked up by Deshon Singleton.

On to the second half.