Allen snags first career touchdown for Big Red

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The BigRich Sports Report

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  • Photo courtesy UNL athletics// Aurora native Austin Allen celebrates with his teammates after his first career touchdown reception in a 24-17 loss to Minnesota Saturday.
    Photo courtesy UNL athletics// Aurora native Austin Allen celebrates with his teammates after his first career touchdown reception in a 24-17 loss to Minnesota Saturday.
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Watching Saturday’s Nebraska-Minnesota game had my insides feeling like the outside temperature and my personal version of the good, the bad and the ugly. 
Let’s start with the positive, because it’s going to get a lot worse from here.
The good: Austin Allen, pride of Aurora, finally found pay dirt. 
In what was otherwise a maddening experience, Oz finding the end zone for the first time in his Huskers career was exciting stuff. 
Nebraska’s biggest rushing play of the day from Wan’Dale Robinson set up the Huskers in the red zone, where the stars finally lined up for Allen. 
A first and goal from the 8-yard line, Oz found space behind the linebackers and was just painfully open. 
Often, I find myself watching Oz exclusively on the field and have trouble taking note of everything else happening. I always know when he’s open and I’m sure my wife is exhausted by me pointing it out. 
But for some reason in his first 30 games, things never added up. That’s right, Oz played in 30 games before Saturday and hasn’t scored a touchdown. 
If you’re like me, it feels like he should have at least 15 by now, but that doesn’t have much to do with it. 
Adrian Martinez faked the handoff and almost immediately fired a rope to Oz, scoring his first career collegiate touchdown. 
Oz knew it. You could see how special the moment was for him. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning with that little hop step and fist pump as his teammates came over. 
Austin has always been such a selfless teammate, celebrating all of his brothers and their accomplishments. Whether those were touchdowns, field goals or big plays, Oz always looks like he’s having the most fun on the field. 
Here’s your wildest stat not found anywhere else. That 8-yard touchdown reception for Allen was his first receiving touchdown in five years. 
His last score dates back to his junior year of high school that every Aurora and McCook fan will remember. 
A 4th and 1 with a minute left, former Aurora QB Grant Fox hit Allen in stride and the big guy rumbled home at Weiland Field with a similar celebration to Saturday. 
Seriously, that was the last time. 
Oz only played in two games his senior season due to a knee injury --  a pair of playoff games and after that, it was off to the Big Red. 
That’s 33 games in between touchdowns, but who’s counting anyway. 
Austin joked during media availability Monday that he took grief over the years from his buddies in the tight end room that he was cursed and would never score. 
There was the trick play two years ago that Oz was bound to score on, if not under thrown. 
Last year, there were several opportunities that for whatever reason, never lined up. 
Heck, last week he had an easy score if the big fella would have kept his feet and not been taken down by the turf monster. 
“It was a blessing I finally got the job done and had the opportunity to get in the end zone,” Allen said. “Hopefully, there’s many more to come.”
Touchdowns aside, Allen is Nebraska’s most improved player and I don’t think it’s close. It’s unfortunate how Jack Stoll’s injury versus Ohio State limited him throughout the rest of the season, but it’s given Oz a chance to showcase his abilities and improvements. 
He’s a really good edge blocker and if you take most of Nebraska’s big-hitter plays this year, good chance No. 11 was there on the block to spring it open. 
Not only that, but his pass catching is much improved. When it’s not thrown in the dirt, which still happens far too often, he catches everything.
In just seven games in 2020, he’s up to 16 receptions for 214 yards and the touchdown. 
All of those totals are at least doubled what he had in his first 24 games. 
He also has two rushing yards back in 2019. You learn something every day. 
I have no doubt he learned something by scoring that touchdown Saturday. Also, since the media doesn’t tell you this enough, Allen is 6’8.”
The bad: we lost to Minnesota, a team that hadn’t played a football game in 22 days and was missing upwards of 30 players, some reports of 33 in total. 
They came on the road to Nebraska, a team coming off a road victory and what was thought to be a turning-point game, and absolutely dominated the Huskers. 
How? Why? 
The fighting PJ Fleck’s executed the game plan perfectly. Run the ball, control the clock and get out of Lincoln intact. Check. 
Even when it looked like things were going to be fine after Nebraska took a 14-10 lead, they weren’t.
Minnesota with a gashing run before Cam Taylor-Britt was tossed from the game with a targeting call. 
Forget the targeting call, which I’m sure most will agree was the wrong one. Nebraska still could have held Minnesota to a field goal, but instead gave up six. 
Nebraska didn’t look like it took the game very serious in the first quarter, and they paid for it the rest of the day. 
The Huskers had opportunities to get back on the right side of things and whether that was an inability to move the ball on offense or slow down Minnesota, it coupled together for another in the ever-growing series of head-scratchers. 
Austin had an insightful comment during Monday’s press conference that stuck with me. 
When he watches film back on Sunday mornings, there’s a sense of aggravation. He said it’s overstated how close the offense is to really opening things up. 
Why?
“I see the whole play executed perfectly and then there’s one guy that misses his block or runs the wrong way that screws up the whole play,” he explained. “It’s frustrating because we’re so close. This offense is built to execute based on 11 guys doing the right job. We’re so close -- I see that on film every week. That’s on us as leaders to make sure that doesn’t happen in practice and carry over to the game.”
The ugly: When does the nightmare end?
Every time the Huskers play like they did on Saturday, I always say to myself, after the redness leaves my face, “Surely it can’t get any worse than that. Right?”
I’ve yet to be right. 
How long are we condemned to the firey pits of football hell? 
The inconsistency Nebraska plays with is baffling and quite frankly, infuriating. After losing the way it did to Illinois a few weeks ago, surely Big Red wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. 
And yet, here we are. 
RICHARD RHODEN can be reached at sports@hamilton.net.