Nebraska Downs Kansas State
Husker Defense Dominates - Again
by Ed Howard
November 13, 1999
LINCOLN - Eric Crouch gave a record-setting performance Saturday as he ran around and through the heralded Kansas State defense and led Nebraska to a 41-15 victory over the Wildcats in a crucial Big 12 Conference game.
Crouch set a school record for quarterbacks with 158 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 27 carries. Meanwhile, the NU offense combined for another school record of the ignominious variety. It coughed up 10 fumbles and lost three of them. The previous record was nine fumbles against Penn State in 1983 (NU won that game, too.)
The win was convincing, though not particularly artistic. Importantly, it was good enough to boost Nebraska two spots in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll released Sunday, to the No. 4 ranking in the nation. The AP poll of writers and broadcasters was scheduled for release later.
It also gave fans, and everyone connected with the NU football program, very good reason to hope that nothing untoward happens to young Mr. Crouch between now and whatever bowl game the Huskers attend.
The win lifted Nebraska, previously ranked Nos. 7 and 6 in the AP and coaches polls, to a 9-1 record, 6-1 in the conference. Kansas State is now 9-1 and 6-1 in the conference.
Whatever the vaunted K-State defense was concentrating on, during a game that saw most of the 77,744 fans stick to their seats until the last second ticked off the clock, it wasn't Crouch. Or, if the Wildcats were concentrating on him, they are likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.
Crouch set the tone for his day on the Huskers first scoring drive. That is, he was the drive. Nu took over the ball at the K-State 44. Crouch had runs of 5 and 9 yards and two incomplete passes. Then he ran 30 yards for the TD.
It was a contest reflecting what arguably has become typical Nebraska football - it started ugly, depended a lot on defense, featured too many fumbles, but wound up being effective.
The victory was particularly sweet for the Huskers and the NU seniors who made their last appearance Saturday at Memorial Stadium Saturday.
Kansas State beat Nebraska last year, 40-30, ending a 29-game NU winning streak. KSU was undefeated coming into Saturday's game, and a win would have locked up the North Division title for the Wildcats.
Nebraska gets a week off and then takes on Colorado in Boulder. If the Huskers have a successful Buffalo hunt, they can likely look forward to a shot at Texas in the Big 12 Championship game. The latter tilt would have special meaning for this Husker squad. NU suffered its only defeat at Texas last month, 24-17.
But that is all down the road. At home on Saturday, things were good but by no means perfect.
The NU offense could have been billed as "The Eric Crouch Show! Co-starring the Consistent Blockers and featuring the Too-Frequent Fumblers!"
Husker Coach Frank Solich said coming into the K-State game that it would be important to "take care of the ball," and control NU's disturbing habit of fumbling too often, and too close to the goal line.
The Husker win showed why coaches always say that: "If you have a lot of fumbles it will usually cost you the game." Usually, 10 fumbles will cost you the game. Saturday, it didn't.
Things began for NU this week the way they did last week - on the first play from scrimmage, Nebraska fumbled and lost the ball. This time the fumble came from Dan Alexander.
KSU got the ball on the Husker 28, ran three plays and then (drum roll and trumpet clarion, please) Kyle Vanden Bosch blocked a Wildcat field goal attempt.
On its third possesion NU rolled, or Crouch did, on that 44-yard Crouch series.
Another drum roll, please. On the ensuing kickoff, K-State fumbled the ball and Ralph Brown, that record-setting cornerback (who upset some coaches by promising NU wouldn't lose two in a row to KSU) recovered a fumble and ran it down to the Wildcat 1-yard-line. A great effort, but Ralph should have done something to go the extra 36 inches.
Enter the offense. Buckhalter fumbled on the 1 and KSU recovered. And ran three plays, and punted.
If the drummer would give us one more rappity, rappity, rappity on the snare, please. Enter the NU defense and, BINGO, Randy Stella blocks the punt through the endzone. NU was up, 9-0.
Crouch scored his second TD on an 18-yard run as the first quarter ended.
Kansas State got on the board when quarterback Jonathan Beasley scored from the 1-yard line early in the second period. NU answered with its own drive, culminated by a 4-yard Willie Miller scoring jaunt. Jamie Rheen booted a 35-yard field goal for KSU with 25 seconds left in the half.
The third period was scoreless.
In the final stanza, Josh Brown kicked a 30-yard field goal for Nebraska and freshman Dahrran Diedrick settled the contest on a 46-yard scoring run with 11:21 left in the game.
With reserves getting into the action, Adam Helm capped a 40-yard KSU drive with a 1-yard run.
The Huskers have an open week before facing Colorado at Boulder.
Nebraska Downs Kansas State
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