LINCOLN, NEB. — Quarterback Wes Lunt was never ruled out, but it wouldn’t matter because he didn’t play a single snap and Illinois couldn’t match the Cornhuskers. Lunt watched in full pads from the sidelines as senior Reilly O’Toole started the game and the Illini fell to Nebraska, 45-14, on Saturday in front of a crowd of 91,255 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

Nebraska running back Ameer Abdullah had an impressive day, rushing for 208 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries. He opened up the scoring on Nebraska’s first drive with a 12-yard touchdown run.

Then O’Toole took the field and completed a pair of passes, one a 36-yard completion to Geronimo Allison, before handing the ball off to Josh Ferguson for a 41-yard touchdown run to even things up, 7-7.

Nebraska quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. traded interceptions with O’Toole on the next two possessions. Illini linebacker T.J. Neal picked off Armstrong, giving Illinois the ball at the 50. After driving downfield, O’Toole was picked off by Huskers cornerback Daniel Davie in the end zone on a third-and-goal situation.

“The interception was the same thing that happened to us in Washington,” head coach Tim Beckman said. “You just can’t do those types of things when you’re playing a top-25 football team.”

Nebraska (5-0, 1-0) drove 58 yards, but lost momentum when Abdullah’s backup Imani Cross was stripped by Illinois’ Mason Monheim and the fumble was recovered by the Illini. Despite the turnover, Illinois (3-2, 0-1) was unable to capitalize on the opportunity.

Abdullah added another score at the 13:21 mark of the second quarter, this time an 8-yard run to give the Huskers a 14-7 lead.

“He’s a good player, we knew that going in,” defensive coordinator Tim Banks said. “We knew what we needed to do to stop him. Unfortunately we didn’t do that tonight.”

O’Toole threw another interception on the ensuing Illinois possession. He floated a pass that was picked off by Huskers safety Nate Gerry and returned 54 yards. A clipping penalty on Illini receiver Martize Barr during the return gave the Huskers the ball inside the Illinois 3-yard line.

Abdullah capitalized with his third touchdown of the half at the 9:52 mark on a 2-yard score.

“We need to stop the run a lot better than we did tonight,” Monheim said. “They won tonight. It’s as simple as that. They pounded it down our throats.”

Not until the 8:43 mark of the second quarter did Armstrong complete his first pass of the game. But it was a big one: a 63-yard touchdown to receiver Kenny Bell.

The No. 21-ranked Huskers added a field goal before the half and went into the break up 31-14.

Illinois wouldn’t fare much better in the second half. The Huskers would score twice more on runs from Cross and Terrell Newby.

O’Toole never got into much of a rhythm, completing just 17 passes on 38 attempts for 261 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. Illinois was forced to punt eight times in the game.

Nebraska finished with 624 total yards of offense, 481 on the ground, compared with Illinois’ 339 total yards.

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @sean_hammond.