Nebraska Falls To Oklahoma 31-24 As Comeback-Series Flops
First back-to-back home losses in 37 years
By ED HOWARD
October 29, 2005
On a beautiful autumn day at Memorial Stadium, the University of Nebraska polished off its loss to Oklahoma with a series of downs ugly enough to scare an ordinary son-of-a-witch from here to Halloween.
There were good things to be counted among the Huskers’ effort, even though it ended in a 31-24 loss to the Sooners, their longtime Big 12 Conference rivals.
There just weren’t enough good things to keep Nebraska from suffering consecutive at-home losses for the first time since 1968.
Nebraska and Oklahoma are both 5-3 overall. But Oklahoma is 4-1 in the Big 12, while Nebraska is 2-3. The Huskers, 4-0 at one time, have lost three of their last four games.
Those who believe in omens probably heard the old Uhhhh-oh! whispering in those Memorial Stadium winds Saturday. Or, maybe they felt it in their tummies. Omens are like NU football, they can roil your head and your guts.
The whispering might have begun when Oklahoma became at least the third consecutive opponent to score on Nebraska in its opening drive.
If not then, it surely was audible when Nebraska decided to throw a pass with 1:11 left in the second quarter.
Coach Bill Callahan burned a timeout to make sure everyone was on the same page. The score was 14-3. Nebraska was at the OU 42.
Perhaps the Nebraska offense felt confident when it resumed the field. There’s no way of knowing.
What is known is that the Sooner secondary was as eager as a politician at a microphone and as confident as a meter maid on game day in Lincoln.
The ball was snapped. Quarterback Zac Taylor threw a pass. Oklahoma defensive back Chijioke Onyenegecha intercepted it at Oklahoma’s 37. He then beat feet, and any Huskers interested in chasing him, going 63 yards for a touchdown.
Still, NU showed it had the stuff to compete with, and maybe defeat, the Sooners.
Nebraska was down by 21 points at one stage, then pulled to within 7. That was good.
And Nebraska overwhelmingly dominated OU in the third period, sort of. NU claimed 107 offensive yards, held the Sooners scoreless and gave up just six yards. The problem was that the Huskers’ dominance led to just one touchdown in that period.
The ugliness of the end game, as it’s called in chess, included more than just the nine miserable plays by NU as the contest wound down to its final minute.
The ugliest thing in those final minutes, perhaps, was a palpable sense that NU was more likely to throw away a last chance than to come up with a way to save itself.
Why was that, do you suppose?
After all, on its penultimate series, Nebraska put it to the Sooners pretty good. Well, real good.
Nebraska started at its 30 yard line. Taylor completed consecutive passes of 14 yards, 15 yards and 23 yards to Terrence Nunn, Cory Ross and Nate Swift.
The Huskers then rolled out an I-back pass, and Ross connected with Swift for 18 yards and a touchdown. There was 5:56 on the clock.
(Each team gained a score with a bit of trickery. The Sooners scored their only fourth quarter TD when they kept a drive alive via a fake field goal.)
After Nebraska’s final score, OU burned up 3:19 on its next possession, then punted.
Nebraska opened its final series (for reasons soon apparent, it cannot be called a drive) with 2:37 on the fourth quarter clock. The Huskers were at their own 27 yard line. The score: 31-24
It went this way:
Quarterback Zac Taylor hits Grant Mulkey for 9 yards. NU is at its own 36.
Taylor’s next aerial was incomplete.
Third-and-one at the 36. Taylor picks up the first down with a 2-yard rush.
First down at NU’s 38. False start. Penalty.
First-and-14 at the 34. Taylor is sacked. Loss of seven.
Second and 21 at the 27. Taylor is hurried right and left (not an uncommon thing in a game that saw him sacked nine times). Somehow, he finds a place where he gets a full half-second to launch a pass. He overthrows receiver Nate Swift. Had the ball been on target, and if Swift had caught it (a legitimate if for any NU receiver) it was open field to the goal line.
"I think that play will probably haunt me for the rest of my life,” Taylor said. “It's tough. He was open, and just a little too much adrenaline, I guess. I would love to take that play back, but that's football. We'll bounce back."
If that was a heartbreaker, the next play was a backbreaker:
Third and 21 at the NU 27. Taylor completes a 19-yard pass to I-back Cory Ross at the NU 46.
Hoooo-ray! No. Wait. Ineligible guy downfield. Five yard penalty.
Third and 26 at the NU 22.Taylor throws incomplete to Frantz Hardy.
Fourth and 26 at the Husker 22. Taylor is sacked for the ninth and, mercifully, final time. His much-abused body hits the ground at the Nebraska 15 yard line.
That was where NU finished the game, having used four downs to find itself five yards behind where it started, and having collected enough penalties, incompletions and sacks to wind up 37 yards from a first down. The most you could say for that drive was that there were no turnovers.
That is ugly.
Callahan expressed the usual, and unquestionably sincere, pride in the NU effort.
It was one of those days when they put up a terrific fight. It just didn’t work out, he said.
Have faith. There certainly was evidence that the pass-oriented west coast offense continued to become evermore the hallmark of NU’s output.
On Saturday, Taylor threw two touchdown passes and two interceptions, going 25 for 45 to net 249 yards. Throw in the 18-yard scoring pass by Ross and the Huskers netted 267 passing yards.
The running game? Nebraska netted 16 yards rushing on 34 carries.
As for the latest thumping absorbed by Taylor – a guy who gets smacked so often his nickname among Big 12 defensive linemen is reputed to be “Heavy Bag” – Callahan said:
"There's pressure in every game, there's pressure on every quarterback. That's just the nature of the game."
What did Taylor say about getting whacked?
“My offensive line did a great job,” Taylor said. “We all made mistakes, and there were a lot of things I could help them out on …. they played their tails off. I couldn't ask for anything else from them."
Fair enough. But it sure seems like someone should ask a bit more of them.
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Questions have been raised about why Nebraska - leading the nation in sacks - has benefited from virtually no holding calls. NU quarterbacks coach Jay Norvell didn't intend for his criticism of Saturday's refs to go public, but it did. He viewed them as "the worst friggin' officials in the world." Read more.
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Nebraska plays Kansas at Lawrence on November 5th.
Kansas defeated Missouri 13-3 Saturday. For game story click here. Kansas is 1-4 in the Big 12 and 4-4 overall.
Nebraska lost to Missouri, 41-24, last week (October 22nd.) For that story click here.
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To access enough news, views and stats to keep you dizzy until the KU game, check out HuskerPedia.com
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If all you want to do is access all the stats on earth, click here.
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