|
Todd Neeley
sports@hastingstribune.com
LINCOLN — Whoever said Nebraska offensive football needs to be as beautiful as the Mona Lisa would have pulled out the paint brush for a touchup against Oklahoma in Lincoln Saturday.
Nebraska finished with 180 total yards and was one for 14 on third down. Yikes. But the Nebraska defense forced five huge turnovers.
Winning ugly is what this bunch does these days, on the shoulders of what has become a work of art on defense.
Who cares if it's ugly, at this point in the 2009 season every win is huge — Nebraska 10, Oklahoma 3.
Sure, you could make the argument that the Sam Bradford-less Sooners are not even in the same universe as last year's national runner-up.
To that I say — it's still OU.
It wasn't exactly Sooner magic, but in a battle of field position the Husker defense was magical, forcing five turnovers and spending the entire night on the field.
OU ran 87 offensive plays, but on nearly every drive the Nebraska defense refused to give an inch.
They say defense wins championships, and it's safe to say Nebraska is in the driver's seat to win the north title.
In many of these games in this storied rivalry in the '70s and '80s, it's tough to forget the times when Nebraska seemingly had a game in control, only to see Oklahoma come up with a big play to win in the end.
This time it was Nebraska making the big play, this time a Matt O'Hanlon interception with 27 seconds to play to seal the win. O'Hanlon had three picks in the game.
There really is no offensive line that can handle Nebraska's front four, and Ndamukong Suh, Jared Crick, Pierre Allen and Barry Turner nearly single-handedly kept OU off the scoreboard twice early in the first quarter.
And you can thank that front four for the success across the entire defense — the pressure up front never let Jones get comfortable in the pocket.
Nebraska's offense painted the Blackshirts in a corner often, as NU struggled to move past midfield.
The Sooners missed a 46-yard field goal on its first possession, despite setting up shop at the Nebraska 45. Then Suh blocked a 45-yard attempt on OU's next possession.
Then it was the defense that made perhaps the play of the game when Prince Amukamara picked off a Landry Jones pass and returned it to the OU 1 yard line near the start of the second quarter.
Then coming in for a struggling Cody Green, Zac Lee connected with tightend Ryan Hill on a 1-yard touchdown pass to give Nebraska a 7-0 lead in the second quarter. But NU had just 109 total yards to start the fourth quarter, and just four first downs. What' more, 63 of those yards came on one play, a 63-yard run by Roy Helu, who later fumbled on the drive.
If you thought there was a quarterback controversy before, consider this. Nebraska coaches had no patience with Green, pulling him early in the second quarter in favor of Lee. Stay tuned on this one.
For now, Nebraska players and coaches were quick to point out that this one is over — time to get ready for Kansas in Lawrence.
Not easy to do after such an unforgettable game.
|
