The Turning Point: Nebraska Football vs. Akron

The average number of plays in a given college football game is 180. Each snap brings an opportunity, but each one is not held equal. One snap every game creates one play made by one or a slew of players, affecting the rest of the contest. This play is the turning point. The turning point makes or breaks a team's game and sometimes their season.

The turning point of this contest could have been the kickoff, considering the apparent talent disparity between the two sides, but the Huskers' home opener got off to a very interesting start. 

Emmett Johnson started the NU home opener off with a bang. The redshirt junior burst through the Akron defense for a 47-yard rushing touchdown. After an eruption from the Husker faithful, the Blackshirts handed the ball right back to the offense.

But then, the game took a turn for the… strange.

The Big Red pushed their way down the field just minutes later, holding the ball at Akron’s three-yard line. Johnson seemed poised to slide into the endzone until coughing up the ball at the one. Akron recovered the fumble, but then the Zips failed to get out of their own end zone, surrendering a safety and making the score 9-0. 

After another offensive drive that stalled at the one-yard line and a field goal on the preceding drive, the score stood at 12-0. 

Nebraska was winning, but the score was nowhere near reflective of how dominant they’d been. It was hard to be mad but hard to be elated after the offense's first three drives. 

But then, the early dagger came. 

Sitting on the 39-yard line, the red sea parted for Johnson, who burst through the hole created by perfect inside zone blocks. Johnson skirted through two defenders until he was eventually brought down at the three-yard line. He then played pitch and catch with Dylan Raiola for a 3-yard receiving touchdown. 

Even though the result was never in question, Johnson’s score eliminated any potential irregularities. Johnson's touchdown made the score reflective of Nebraska’s dominant performance and made the rest of the contest a three-quarter party that ended in a Nebraska 68-0 victory.