The 38-17 score will mislead most who did not watch.Nebraska may have won by a 21-point margin, but the contest was anything but comfortable until deep into the fourthquarter.North Dakota, an FCS opponent, drove 80 yards in 16 plays to end the first half with a touchdown that tied it at 7-7.The Fighting Hawks also tied Nebraska at 17-17 after an interception and short TD drive with about 19 minutes remaining.If this is how NU performs against a Mi souri Valley Conference opponent, how will they po sibly withstand Big Ten teams with better talent and coaching?Scott Frost answered a halftime question from BTN about how the team was executing with a short response: Its bad.At the break, UND had more yards rushing and pa sing, more first Samuel Morin Women Jersey downs, sacks, and taxed the Blackshirts by running 16 more plays.Its how Nebraska to adversity that Bill Barber Men Jersey should give at least some hope to the hopele s Husker fan.One might have a sumed the mood in the Big Red locker room would have been tense or heated.According to the players, it was anything but.Edge man Garrett Nelson, one of only two active captains on the day, explained his halftime me sage to his teammates.We dont need to panic, just keep doing your job, Nelson said. I was talking to some people last week with Northwestern. They said, You were trying to go out there and win the game yourself. You need to make the plays that you train to do to help win the game. Theres a difference. I wanted people to learn from my mistake, so I was telling our guys not to panic.Wide receiver Trey Palmer echoed that sentiment. It was just calmne s. Just execute. Everybodys got their job to do, do your job and everything else will fall in line.1919 ImagesJavin Wright, who partially blocked a punt, said, We just kept our hearts up. Weve been through this. You gotta keep the faith. The leaders we have kind of calmed them down real quick, and it was easy for us to just click in the locker room and try to get our stuff together.The second half was a much more consistent performance from both sides of the ball.Nebraska outscored North Dakota 31-10, more than doubled their yards rushing and pa sing, and more than doubled their first downs.Scroll to Scott Laughton Women Jersey ContinueNelson produced a sack-fumble that Stephon Wynn recovered. Ochaun Mathis also picked up his first sack as a Husker.They were not impervious to struggle, though. Casey Thompson threw an interception right to a linebacker in underneath zone coverage, setting the Hawks up at NUs 8-yard line. The turnover came just three plays after a UND field goal cut made it a seven-point game at 17-10.Two plays later, North Dakota punched it in to tie it at 17.Again, a positive response from the Huskers.From that point forward, UND managed only 55 total yards on their final four po se sions, never reaching farther Travis Konecny Jersey than Nebraskas 44-yard line.Meanwhile, the offense kept rolling, answering with another quick TD drive to take the lead right back at 24-17.Despite a three-and-out on the next po se sion, the Huskers marched 89 yards on 11 plays the next time they had a chance. Eight of those were run plays, including the last six of the drive.Thats how you close out a game.Halftime was good, positive, tight end Nate Boerkircher said. We were excited to go back out, and we were confident, and I think that it showed. Boerkircher caught a touchdown pa s in the fourthquarter, the first of his career.With the obvious caveat of North Dakotas lower-division status, it was nice to see this edition of Chris Bigras Women Jersey Nebraska football a sert themselves.Concerned about the offensive and defensive lines? So am I.Can the Blackshirts hold up against Big Ten offenses in November? Im skeptical.As for Sept. 3against North Dakota, they were presented with a challenge, and they pa sed the test.In a season where incremental progre s is a must-have, thats something.Related: