The Southern Miss. Golden Eagles proved a game opponent to the Nebraska Cornhuskers through the first half of their game on Saturday, but quickly fell behind to the No. 17-ranked team.

Nebraska put up three second-half touchdowns en route to a dominating 49-20 victory. Southern Miss. was only able to score once in the second half, on a Corey Acosta 37-yard field goal.

Nebraska jumped out to a 14-0 lead with back-to-back touchdowns in the first quarter. Rex Burkhead broke a 57-yard rushing touchdown to put up the first six points, and Taylor Martinez hit Kenny Bell for a 26-yard touchdown pass for score No. 2. Tracy Lampley responded immediately though, returning a Brett Maher kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown following that second score.

Southern Miss tied the contest with an 11-play, 73-yard drive that ended with a Chris Campbell touchdown pass to Dominique Sullivan for 24 yards. That drive followed a Maher missed field goal for Nebraska. On the next drive, Nebraska answered back with an 11-play drive of their own, ending with another Martinez touchdown pass.

Martinez finished with 349 yards passing, completing 26-of-34 pass attempts. He had a whopping five touchdown passes on the day. Campbell only had one for Southern Miss., along with his 69 yards passing. Along with Burkhead, Braylon Heard had a rushing touchdown for Nebraska.

Box Score Hero: Taylor Martinez and his five touchdowns -- he looked in command the entire game and really made things click. Nebraska would have taken this even without the 200-plus rushing yards.

Rankings Ramifications: Southern Miss. isn't ranked, but a dominating win like this and a performance like that out of its starting quarterback might just push Nebraska up a spot or two from No. 17.

But Did They Cover?: Nebraska opened at 15-point favorites and moved to hover around 20-point favorites, so they covered wherever you got them.

For More On This Game: For more on the Nebraska Cornhuskers, head on over to Corn Nation and don't forget to check out SB Nation's college football hub.

Next Week's Schedule: Nebraska will hit the road to take on UCLA on Saturday, Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m. ET, while Southern Miss. will return home to host East Carolina on Sept. 15 at 3:30 p.m. ET.

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