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| Saturday, October 28 Nebraska still in national title picture Associated Press | |||
| NORMAN, Okla. -- Nebraska's hope for an undefeated season is
history, as is the Cornhuskers' No. 1 ranking.
But their 31-14 loss to No. 3 Oklahoma on Saturday didn't knock
the Cornhuskers out of the running for a conference title or even
national championship.
If the Cornhuskers (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) win their remaining games,
they will win the North Division and play in the Big 12
championship game. A victory there would mean the conference title
and, depending on what happens to teams such as Virginia Tech,
Miami and Florida State, Nebraska could be back in contention for
the big prize.
"No one's out of anything yet," coach Frank Solich said.
"It's still a season that has to be played out. We need to regroup
and get ready to play Kansas. We're not looking at implications as
how to this affects us down the road."
It looked early on as though Nebraska might run Oklahoma out of
its own building. The Cornhuskers scored on their first two
possessions, driving 76 and 91 yards to take a 14-0 lead.
Oklahoma was able to regroup after that, however, and held
Nebraska in check the rest of the way. After gaining 169 yards on
those first two drives, the Cornhuskers finished with 328. The
Sooners were particularly effective against the run, holding
Nebraska to 195 yards on 43 carries.
"It wasn't a game where we got beat up front," quarterback
Eric Crouch said. "They played a great game and deserve to win.
But like the Texas game last year, it's almost a feeling like we
beat ourselves."
Crouch had 103 yards on 24 carries, including a 37-yard
touchdown run. He completed his first five passes, one of them a
39-yarder to Matt Davison for the Cornhuskers' first score.
But he was just 7-of-22 passing the rest of the afternoon and
gave up a costly interception in the third quarter. He underthrew a
receiver, and cornerback Derrick Strait returned it 32 yards for a
touchdown and the 31-14 lead.
"You take a chance sometimes in big games and try to make
plays," Crouch said.
Part of Nebraska's problem was that Crouch didn't get enough
help. He had 53 more rushing yards than any teammate, and other
than Davison's touchdown catch, no receiver had a catch for more
than 12 yards.
Oklahoma's Josh Heupel, on the other hand, benefited from
several big plays by his receivers. Nine players caught passes for
Oklahoma, and each had at least one that went 16 yards or longer.
"To a degree, the first few drives went as we had planned,"
Solich said. "But after that, they started to really stop the
running game. We found ourselves in a lot of long-yardage
situations and it's not what we want our offense to be in."
Oklahoma tied it with touchdown drives of 74 and 80 yards, then
took the lead for good with a field goal set up by a blocked punt.
The Sooners wrapped up a 24-point second quarter with another
touchdown, which included a 37-yard completion to Antwone Savage.
Nebraska really didn't threaten after Strait's interception
return, and now has to hope for some good luck to get the season
back on track.
"We probably need to do a few things better as a football team
and do a few things better as coaches," Solich said. "We'll move
forward with that in mind and go right back to work come Monday."
| ALSO SEE
Sooners make easy work of top-ranked Cornhuskers | ||
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Eric Crouch runs through the Sooner defense for a 37-yard TD.