LINCOLN, NEBRASKA - Jammal Lord threw his first career touchdown pass and ran for 103 yards in his first start for Nebraska as the No. 10 Cornhuskers beat Arizona State 48-10 on Saturday night in the Black Coaches Association Classic. <br>
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The Cornhuskers blocked two punts and played strong defensively on a night they were trying to forget closing last season with blowout losses to Colorado and Miami. <br>
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Nebraska scored 38 points in the second half as it improved to 6-0 in ``preseason'' games. <br>
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Lord's first start was highly anticipated, largely because Nebraska's offense had been centered around 2001 Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch for the past three years. <br>
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While Lord and the option attack struggled at times, he also showed some promise. <br>
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With three new starters on the offensive line, Lord didn't get a lot of protection and was forced to scramble a lot. He finished with 17 carries with most of his yardage coming on broken pass plays. <br>
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He also completed 5 of 13 passes for 33 yards, including a 9-yard strike to Wilson Thomas that put the Huskers up 17-3 early in the second half. <br>
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Arizona State's Chad Christensen, a redshirt freshman who was starting his first college game, was 6-for-16 for 77 yards, and Mike Williams scored on a 34-yard run. Williams had 12 carries for 77 yards for the Sun Devils (0-1). <br>
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Dahrran Diedrick, Cory Ross and Judd Davies also scored for the Huskers and Fabian Washington, a true freshman who starts his first college classes next week, returned an interception 29 yards for the final TD. <br>
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After yielding 99 points in the final two games of last year, Nebraska's defense wanted a big night and got it. The defense held Arizona State to 258 total yards, 52 of which came on the final drive against Nebraska reserves. <br>
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The defense also set up one score with a sack just outside the goal line, scored one on a blocked punt and set up another TD with the second blocked kick. <br>
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Demoine Adams started it when he sacked Christensen at the ASU 1 on third down, then Tim Parker shanked the punt to the right sideline and Nebraska got the ball on the 20. The Huskers drove to the 9 and Lord hit Thomas for his first touchdown pass. <br>
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On third-and-7 in the next series, Chris Kelsay ran down Christensen and sacked him at the 10. Demorrio Williams blocked Parker's punt and Scott Shanle scooped it up and went 6 yards for the touchdown that put the Huskers up 24-3 with 9:38 left in the third. <br>
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Arizona State cut it to 24-10 when Williams broke away on a run up the middle, but Nebraska countered with Josh Brown's 42-yard field goal and Diedrick's 2-yard dive over the top with 7:12 left. The Huskers opened the touchdown drive on the Arizona State 9 after Williams recovered the second blocked punt. <br>
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Lord quickly showed a knack for scrambling. His 33-yard run on what was supposed to be a pass started Nebraska's first touchdown drive. Lord eluded the initial rush and did a head fake on Mason Unk that spun the linebacker in a circle, then took off down the right sideline to the Arizona State 24. Davies scored on a dive eight plays later. <br>
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Christensen, who lived in Lincoln for five years as a kid and used to go to Nebraska games, showed some early poise for somebody who had never played in a college game. <br>
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With the crowd roaring ``Go Big Red,'' Christensen calmly hit Shaun McDonald on a 14-yard pass on the Sun Devils' second play from scrimmage. Christensen had a 6-yard run later in the series and took off for 9 yards on a play later in the quarter. <br>
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Brown gave Nebraska a 3-0 lead with a 40-yard field goal to end the opening drive of the game. Mike Barth tied it for Arizona State with a 33-yarder with 2:12 left in the first.
