Orlando -
No. 16 Nebraska hung tough with No. 7 Georgia for three quarters, but a pair of
Bulldog touchdown passes in the fourth quarter provided the margin in the
Huskers' 45-31 loss in the Capital One Bowl.
Nebraska ended its 2012 campaign with a 10-4 overall
record that included a 7-1 Big Ten mark and a Legends Division title. Georgia,
the SEC runner-up, finished with a 12-2 overall mark.
Senior I-back Rex Burkhead led the Huskers with 140
yards and a touchdown on 25 carries, while adding four receptions for 39 yards
and another score in his final game as a Husker.
Burkhead, who produced his 14th 100-yard rushing
performance, closed his career with 3,329 yards at No. 5 on Nebraska's
all-time rushing list. He also became the 10th player in NU history with 30
career rushing touchdowns. Burkhead's 357 rushing yards on 76 attempts in four
bowl games are both Nebraska records.
Burkhead fueled a Nebraska running attack that rolled
up 239 yards against Georgia's defense. Junior quarterback Taylor Martinez added
46 yards on the ground to push his season rushing total past 1,000 yards. He
finished with 1,019 rushing yards in 2012 as just the fourth Husker quarterback
to produce a 1,000-yard campaign.
Martinez also completed 16-of-27 passes for 204 yards
and two touchdowns, finishing his junior year with 2,871 passing yards for the
third-best total in school history. His 3,890 total yards on the year set a
Nebraska record.
The Huskers ended the day with 443 yards of total
offense against the Bulldogs, but Georgia responded with 589 yards of its own,
including 427 yards and five touchdown passes from quarterback Aaron Murray.
Running back Todd Gurley added 119 yards and a score on the ground to lead a UGA
attack that managed 160 rushing yards.
Murray's pass on the first play of the fourth quarter
went for a 24-yard touchdown to Keith Marshall to give UGA a 38-31 lead with
14:52 left, after the two teams entered the final quarter tied at 31.
Georgia's defense then forced a three-and-out on the
Huskers' first drive of the fourth quarter. UGA started the next drive at its
own 15 and faced a 3rd-and-12 from the 13. But Murray hit Chris Conley on a
short route across the middle and the speedster raced 87 yards untouched down
the middle of the field for the game's final score with 11:03 left. The play was
the longest from scrimmage by a Husker opponent in a bowl game, and the
third-longest touchdown pass ever against Nebraska.
Nebraska had two more chances to answer in the final
quarter, and drove into Georgia territory on both drives before being turned
away.
Georgia's special teams opened the scoring with a
safety on a blocked punt just 3:21 into the game. The Bulldogs added a 29-yard
pass from Murray to Arthur Lynch on the ensuing drive to take a 9-0 lead with
7:54 left in the first quarter.
Martinez and the Huskers answered with a seven-play,
75-yard drive capped by Jamal Turner's 14-yard touchdown catch with 4:42 left.
Turner finished with three receptions for 22 yards on the day.
The Huskers took their first lead of the game on
Georgia's next drive, as senior linebacker Will Compton made an outstanding
interception on a screen pass from Murray. Compton raced 24 yards to the end
zone with his first career interception to put the Huskers up 14-9 with 4:15
left in the opening quarter. Compton added a team-high nine tackles for the
Blackshirts on the day.
Georgia struck quickly to regain the lead on its next
drive, as Murray heaved a 75-yard touchdown pass to Tavarres King on the first
play of the ensuing drive. Husker defensive back Andrew Green was in perfect
position to bat the ball away, but was unable to knock it down as it fell into
King's hands. King closed the day with three catches for 104 yards for the
Bulldogs as one of two UGA receivers to cross the century mark.
Georgia took a 16-14 lead to the second quarter and
pushed the lead back to nine on Gurley's 24-yard touchdown run. Bulldog
defender Damian Swann set up UGA with a short field after pulling down the first
of his two interceptions of Martinez in the game.
The Huskers responded with a 39-yard field goal from
Brett Maher to cut the Georgia lead to 23-17 with 8:48 left in the half. The
field goal also gave Maher NU's single-season scoring record by a kicker. He
added two more extra points in the game to finish his senior year with 119,
eclipsing Kris Brown's previous school mark of 116 points in 1997.
The Blackshirts stopped the Bulldogs on the ensuing
drive and Burkhead took over.
After Burkhead carried three straight times for a
total of 13 yards to open the drive, Martinez found Kenny Bell for a 35-yard
completion down the middle of the field.
After a one-yard dive by Ameer Abdullah and a tack-on
11-yard facemask penalty by the Bulldogs, Martinez found Burkhead wide open down
the middle for the go-ahead touchdown. Maher's extra point sent the Huskers to
halftime with a 24-23 lead.
Nebraska started the second half with the ball and
immediately mounted the game's most sustained drive. Burkhead carried six times
for 18 yards on the march, including a two-yard plunge for paydirt to give NU a
31-23 edge with 9:36 left in the third quarter. Martinez also carried three
times for 16 yards on the drive, while completing two passes for 17 yards to
Bell, who finished with four catches for 60 yards on the day.
Abdullah added the biggest play of the drive with his
nifty 26-yard burst from the middle to the left side. The I-back finished the
game with seven carries for 48 yards, and closed the season with 1,137 rushing
yards - the sixth-most by a sophomore in Husker history.
But Nebraska's lead was short-lived, as Georgia
answered with a five-play, 79-yard drive capped by Murray's 49-yard scoring
strike to Conley. Conley finished with a game-high 136 receiving yards and two
touchdowns on his two catches. Murray's two-point conversion pass to Rhett
McGowan tied the game at 31 with 7:20 left in the quarter.
The two defenses took control for the remainder of
the third quarter, before Georgia produced the game's two decisive touchdown
passes in the final 15 minutes.
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