Nebraska Beats KU In Big 12 Opener And - Raises A Lot Of Questions

New coach. New system. Some bad years. A better year.

Then, a year that opens with good showings against some not-so-hot competition. Then a respectably close game with a good team – like USC.

Talk begins turning to how the team has regained enough of the ol’ spark to whup some butt in the conference.

And then …

And then Nebraska plays Kansas and comes within a last-second stumble and fall-down by a KU receiver in the endzone of losing its Big 12 opener.

NU beat KU in overtime, and simultaneously raised a lot of questions – make that concerns – about the future.

In the first quarter, it was tempting to begin thinking of possible story ledes, such as:

If you want to score in the lottery, start following Kansas receivers down the street – if they have a winner in their hands, they’ll probably drop it!

That changed noticeably as the game went on, as it looked like NU had every chance of going down to defeat and down in the national polls.

This wasn’t a game where lightly regarded Kansas nearly won because of some good breaks. This is a case where lightly regarded (by pretty much everyone) Kansas nearly won after overcoming some lousy breaks and big mistakes.

Nebraska was the better team Saturday.

However, it was also clear that Nebraska was not as much better than Kansas as the Husker Nation had chosen to believe.

Nebraska's defensive line wasn't so tough.

It didn't appear nearly as tough as NU quarterback Zac Taylor. The Jayhawks slapped him around like a hockey puck but he stood in there and threw those drop-back passes as though he were wearing blinders.

KU fans will argue, not unreasonably, that Nebraska wasn’t necessarily the better team, but that the Jayhawks suffered when Coach Mark Mangino made some crucial errors in play-calling.

Woulda’ coulda’ shudda’ doesn’t mean anything.

Many among us might be thinking: “We woulda’ thought the Huskers coulda’ done better and maybe we shudda’ kept that in mind before we started thinking that winning the Big 12 North was not going to be too much of a mountain to climb.”

Think about Missouri, for one thing. Think about every team on the remainder of the schedule.

Other stuff: HuskerPedia.com

"The race isn't always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong - but that's the way to bet." Damon Runyon.

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