LINCOLN — Fireworks boomed above North Stadium as Nyziah Hunter streaked into the south end zone. A sweat-soaked crowd roared as the Blackshirts swarmed the quarterback for an early drive-ending incompletion.
Neither sequence counted as ill-timed Nebraska penalties kept Saturday’s outcome in doubt longer than necessary.
The Hunter second-quarter screen play that appeared to be a 57-yard house call? Wiped out by a questionable blindside block from receiver Jacory Barney well behind the action. The early defensive stop from a collapsed Ohio pocket? Altered by a facemask personal foul from D-lineman Williams Nwaneri on QB Nick Poulos.
Nebraska by halftime had been flagged six times, matching last year’s season high. It finished with nine for 65 yards. The Huskers last season were a top-25 program in limiting both penalties and penalty yardage but won’t be after one uneven game in the heat.
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All three phases chipped in as Ohio hung around well into the second half. Rex Guthrie and Larry Tarver were both offsides on separate kickoffs. An early offsides call from D-lineman Jahsear Whittington — followed immediately by him vomiting on the field in a moment captured on the FS1 broadcast — set up a Bobcats field goal.
Two false starts in three plays by right guard Brendan Black undercut NU’s second possession and led to a punt.
“The penalties get you so off track,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said.
The Nwaneri facemask gave Ohio life on third and eight, extending the drive for an eventual field goal. The Hunter callback ended with Nebraska fizzling on a fourth-down try near midfield before halftime.
NU’s seventh infraction came on its opening chance out of intermission when quarterback Anthony Colandrea committed intentional grounding — a scrambling throwaway didn’t get back to the line of scrimmage — credited as an 18-yard sack. The hosts punted two plays later.
Hunter added a holding flag on what would have been a chunk gain from running back Jamal Rule midway through the third quarter. Nebraska shook off that miscue as its ground game began to roll, ending with a Colandrea scamper into the end zone.
“We’ll have to really, really focus on the penalties this week,” Rhule said.
