No. 7 Indiana scores 14 straight in fourth-quarter comeback to extend Nebraska's losing streak against ranked opponents to 31

Nebraska's losing streak against ranked opponents has, somehow, reached 31 games.

No. 7 Indiana scored 14 straight points in the fourth quarter to snatch a 20-17 win away from the Cornhuskers. The go-ahead score came when Josh Hoover found a wide-open Nick Marsh for a 44-yard TD on fourth-and-1 with 7:13 to go.

Marsh wasn't the only player open on the play, either. Just look at the coverage bust by the Nebraska secondary.

Nebraska took over with 3:15 to go deep inside its on territory but couldn't get across midfield. Tobi Osunsanmi sacked Anthony Colandrea on fourth down to cap the comeback.

The Cornhuskers got the ball back one final time. But with 13 seconds left and no timeouts, there wasn't much of a chance of a comeback.

Colandrea gave all of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium hope with his 39-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. That run, which included Colandrea crossing most of the width of the field, put Nebraska up 11 with 12:01 to go.

Instead, Indiana killed all of that optimism in less than five minutes as it extended its own win streak to 21 games.

Nebraska's losing streak against ranked opponents goes back more than a decade. The Huskers last beat a team in the AP Top 25 in Week 3 of the 2016 season when they toppled then-No. 22 Oregon 35-32.

The Huskers (5-1) have come plenty close to ending the streak in the past decade. But, like Saturday, they simply haven't closed the deal. In 2025, Nebraska went 0-3 against ranked teams. It lost to Michigan by three and USC by four.

Those games and Saturday's performance mean it's very fair to say that the streak looks closer than it has in years to ending as Oregon, Ohio State and Iowa still loom in the second half of the season.

The signs of a turnaround in Matt Rhule's fourth season are evident. Colandrea has sustained the growth he showed in his lone season at UNLV in 2025, and the team appears to have a genuine star in freshman running back Jamal Rule.

But Indiana is, after all, the defending national champions. While the Hoosiers may not look as dominant as they did in 2025, this is a reloaded roster. Hoover had 263 yards on just 12 completions. Turbo Richard and Lee Beebe are a fantastic running back combination, and Marsh and Charlie Becker are one of the best receiving duos in the country.

And if you didn't think a raucous environment in Lincoln was enough of a test, the Hoosiers host No. 5 Ohio State in Week 7 in a Big Ten title game rematch. Indiana beat the Buckeyes 13-10 in December of 2025 to earn the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff.

The Buckeyes are also the last team to beat Indiana in the regular season, when they took down the Hoosiers in November of 2024.