LINCOLN, Neb.- As the ball soared through the air and his team’s fate hung in the balance, Kaylin Moore seemed to be an observer of fate.

The UCLA cornerback appeared to be behind the play as teammate Bryan Addison and Nebraska slot receiver Jacory Barney Jr. jostled for the pass that could put the Cornhuskers on the brink of a stunning comeback.

Once trailing by 20 points, Nebraska pulled away in the final minute on the UCLA side of the field at Memorial Stadium on Saturday evening. A touchdown could tie the score or give the Cornhuskers an improbable win with a two-point conversion.

Moore made sure neither was possible.

After Addison and Barney collided on the way to the pass, the ball bounced off Barney’s knee and hung in the air. Moore leapt to the goal at the Bruins’ 13-yard line, with the ball and the victory in his hands.

Collapse averted. Game over.

Moore sprinted off the court in celebration of his game-saving play with 29 seconds left, giving UCLA an unexpectedly breathless 27-20 win.

“Huge game for Kaylin,” said UCLA coach DeShaun Foster. “That was actually his first interception; it was just good that it ended up in this kind of situation for us. We love him.”

UCLA’s second straight win cemented its flickering bowl hopes and continued the season’s trend of playing better on the road, where the Bruins (3-5 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) have had all their wins.

This came with a huge sigh of relief.

“This team continually shows how resilient they are,” Foster said. “They will keep fighting.”

UCLA defensive back Bryan Addison breaks up a pass intended for Nebraska receiver Jacory Barney Jr., which was then intercepted by Kaylin Moore, not shown, to seal the Bruins’ victory Saturday.

(Rebecca S. Gratz / Associated Press)

No one symbolized that perseverance more than Ethan Garbers, who practically recreated his career-best performance after the Bruins’ win over Rutgers two weeks ago.

The fifth-year continued his bid to end his college career on a roll, completing 17 of 25 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions to go with a career-long 57-yard run.

Garbers told his coach earlier this week that he wanted to be the first to get the ball if UCLA won the toss, he won the toss and completed his first five passes, converting a pair of third downs along the way, to help the Bruins get a first down achieve. and goal on the Nebraska eight. But a short run, an incompletion and a Garbers scramble for one yard on third down forced UCLA to settle for Mateen Bhaghani’s 25-yard field goal.

There would be no compromise the next time the Bruins got the ball, Garbers threw a 10-yard screen pass to running back Jalen Berger for a touchdown that gave their team a 10-0 lead.

“Ethan is a top-level quarterback, if we can keep up with him,” Foster said after his team yielded just two sacks, “and that’s one thing our O-line did is they did a good job of protecting him. “

After linebacker Kain Medrano returned an interception for a 38-yard touchdown and wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer snagged a 48-yard touchdown pass, the Bruins had a 27-7 lead midway through the third quarter. It would have been easy to think about how we would spend the flight home.

The Bruins soon found themselves with much more pressing concerns.

Nebraska freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola, who spent most of the afternoon making poor decisions under pressure, fired an eight-yard touchdown pass.

The Cornhuskers (5-4, 2-4) shrugged off a fourth-down sack by UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger in the red zone and an injury to Raiola to score another touchdown on Dante Dowdell’s leaping one-yard touchdown who cleared their backlog. to seven points.

It was the third straight time Nebraska scored on a drive in which a Bruins defender was called for unsportsmanlike conduct. The offender this time was defensive tackle Sitiveni Havili Kaufusi, after identical penalties from linebackers Ale Kaho and Oluwafemi Oladejo.

“It’s straight up discipline,” Foster said. “Boys have to be disciplined.”

Nebraska got the ball back at its own 19-yard line with 2:22 left and eventually reached UCLA’s 39-yard line.

That’s when backup quarterback Heinrich Haarberg lofted the pass that could have swung things completely in the Cornhuskers’ favor.

The ball went one way, then the other. Moore followed it the entire time and was there to save the day, and maybe a season.

“We didn’t start the way we wanted to,” Garbers said, referring to his team’s 1-5 record at midseason, “but we’re definitely going to finish the way we want.”