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Vince Kuppig
vkuppig@hastingstribune.com
LINCOLN — Go ahead and call it an ugly win. The Huskers don't care.
Led by a stellar defensive performance, Nebraska stunned the No. 20 Sooners 10-3 Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.
"It feels good to win, no matter how ugly it was," NU quarterback Zac Lee said. "We got a win. Who cares what the stats are? We beat Oklahoma."
Nebraska won despite totaling 180 yards and seven first downs.
Nebraska won despite completing just seven passes for only 39 yards.
Nebraska won despite scoring only one touchdown, after an interception gave the offense the ball at the OU 1-yard line.
"This game was about the battle of the defenses," NU senior safety Matt O'Hanlon said. "We were up against their defense, more than their offense. ... Our team needed our defense."
It's Nebraska first win over Oklahoma since 2001, ending a streak of four straight Sooner victories in the series.
It comes one year after the Sooners demolished the Huskers 62-28 in Norman.
"We like to say that last year wasn't on our mind," Lee said. "But after last year, it feels pretty good just to be honest."
With the win, Nebraska improved to 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12 to stay on pace with Big 12 North leader Kansas State, which knocked off Kansas earlier Saturday to improve to 4-2 in the Big 12.
Oklahoma dropped to 5-4 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12 with the loss.
"That's a good football team we played out there tonight," NU coach Bo Pelini said of the Sooners. "Make no mistake, Oklahoma is a hell of a football team. We found a way. That game could have gone a lot of different ways, but we just found a way to hang in there and hang in there. We made enough plays to win the game."
Offensively, there may not have been many plays made by the Huskers.
But defensively, there were plenty.
There was Prine Amukamara interception that gave the Huskers the ball on 1-yard line, setting up the only touchdown of the game.
There were the three fourth-down stops the Husker defenders came up with.
There were O'Hanlon's three interceptions, none bigger than the third one — one play after he let a potential pick slip through his hands — with 27 seconds left in the game that finally sealed the deal for the Huskers.
"I probably should have had the one before that, but luckily I kind of got a mulligan," said O'Hanlon, who also led the Huskers in tackles with 12. "He just kind of tossed it up there. It was hanging up there for awhile. I think it was up there for about 10 seconds. It just fell right there into my hands. I got kind of lucky."
The game was a defensive battle from the get-go.
After the first quarter, the two teams had combined for one first down and 32 total yards.
When Nebraska went up 7-0 at the 13:36 mark in the second quarter, the Huskers had 20 total yards and no first downs.
The Huskers needed just 1 yard offensively to get those seven points, after a 22-yard interception return by Amukamara gave the Huskers the ball at the OU 1. That set up a 1-yard touchdown pass from Lee to Ryan Hill, Lee's first offensive play of the game as Cody Green started at quarterback for the Huskers.
Nebraska had a chance to increase their lead when running back Roy Helu Jr. broke one for 63 yards to give the Huskers first-and-10 at the OU 11. But two plays later, Nebraska turned the ball over on a lost fumble.
Outside of that 63-yard Helu run, the Huskers had just 17 yards and no first downs on 23 plays in the first half. But the Huskers led 7-3 going into the locker room.
The only scoring done in the second half was a 28-yard field goal by Alex Henery.
The Sooners had 191 yards and 13 first downs in the second half, but no points to show for it.
"How about our defense — five turnovers, how many third- and fourth-down stands they had," Lee said. "It's fun to watch when you have a defense like that."
At 3-2 in the Big 12 North, the Huskers are right in the thick of the Big 12 North race. K-State leads at 4-2, followed closely by Nebraska and then Colorado at 2-3.
Up next for the Huskers is a game at Kansas.
"It's just one win," Pelini said of the OU game. "This game means nothing if we don't come back and go to Lawrence and take care of business next week. I told our football team that game is over, enjoy tonight, be careful because I think the town might turned upside down tonight."
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