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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1987)
_ Snorts Missouri chases ghosts dressed in red By Kent Endacott Staff Reporter COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Mis souri defense might just as well have been chasing a ghost. Nebraska quarterback Steve Tay lor completed eight of 13 passes for 139 yards and four touchdowns as the Comhuskcrs defeated Missouri 42-7 on Halloween Saturday at Faurot Field. Missouri football coach Woody Widcnhofcr decided before the game he was going to stop the Nebraska rushing attack. He tried a 9-1 -1, a nine-man defen sive front with the defensive backs in man-to-man coverage. It wasn’t the answer. “We felt that our only chance to win was to stop the running game,” Widenhofer said. “We did slop the run early, but they were able to throw on us.” Nebraska advanced to the Mis souri 14-yard line on its first posses sion before a bad exchange between Taylor and center Jake Young ended the drive. The Huskers’ second pos session also ended with a Taylor fumble. But with the Tigers concentrating on stopping the run, Taylor hit tight end Todd Millikan on a bootleg play action pass for a 54-yard touchdown with 3:55 remaining in the first quar ter. “We didn’t see anybody run the ball consistently on them all year,” Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said. “We ran the ball fairly well, but the play actions kind of again bailed us out, kind of like against UCLA...I think they were trying to support the run with their secondary. They were rolling with it, therefore the bootlegs hurt ‘em some.” who had turned the south end ot raurot Field red. “That was appreciation for the fans. You know, being there,” Brinson said. Taylor threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Banderas to give Nebraska a 28-0 lead with 4:46 left in the half. Missouri answered with a 43-yard pass from Stollcnwerck to fullback Tommie Stowers for a 45-yard pass play to the 9-yard line. Three plays later Robert Dclpino scored to make it 28-7 with 1:56 left in the half. After forcing Nebraska to punt, Tiger defensive back Pat Ray blocked John Kroeker’s punt and the ball rolled out of bounds at the Husker 3 yard line. On the Tigers’ first play, the Ne braska defense stopped halfback Dar rell Wallace for a 1-yard gain. Mis souri called a time-out with 46 sec onds remaining. But on the next play, Nebraska corncrback Charles Fryar forced Stol lenwerck to fumble. Defensive end Broderick Thomas jumped on the loose ball. Osborne said that was a key play. “We’d kind of lost the momentum because it looked like it was going to be 28-14 at the half,” Osborne said. “But obviously their fumbling the ball at that point hurt them very badly. I didn’t think they were going to win the game necessarily, but it would have made it interesting.” Nebraska defensive coordinator Charlie McBride said he was encour aged that the defense was able to shut down Missouri’s wishbone offense. The Tigers were limited to 75 rushing yards and 101 yards of passing. “Overall I was real happy with our effort,” McBride said. “We made the big, big play there when they blocked our punt and that look the steam out of it right there. If they score they go into halftime down 14. But shoot, the way Taylor hurt Missouri again on another bootleg play-action touch down pass to Tom Banderas to give Nebraska a 14-0 lead with 12:47 left in the half. After Nebraska kicked off to Mis souri, comerback Lorenzo Hicks intercepted a John Stollcnwcrck pass and returned the ball to the Tigers’ 42 yard line. Taylor again took control. On the second play of the possession, he was forced to scramble. After breaking a tackle behind the line of scrimmage, Taylor spotted wingback Dana Brin son alone in the end zone for a 29-yard touchdown. “I was determined not to get sacked,” Taylor said. “I got out of it and I saw Dana waving at me and I was able to get the ball to him. For a while I thought I’d overthrown him.” Brinson said he was waiting alone in the end zone long enough that he had time to get nervous and think about dropping the pass. He said he breathed a sigh of relief after catching it and then finished off the touchdown with a deep bow to the Nebraska fans they scored 14 in three minutes, that didn’t look so good.” Taylor scored on a 22-yard touch down run off an option to give Ne braska a 35-7 lead with 7:14 left in the third quarter. That one sparked a mass exodus of Missouri fans. Missouri came into the game 4-3, with all of their losses coming against ranked opponents. Widcnhofcr had assured the fans be fore the game that the Tigers had a chance against No. 2 ranked Ne braska. He was wrong, he said. Cletc Blakeman closed out the scoring on a 4-yard pass to Banderas with 4:48 left in the game. Osborne said he wasalsoexpccting a closer game. “I was really surprised we could win as easily as we did,” he said. “I thought that our defense did a surpris ingly good job of shutting down Missouri’s running game because every film we’d looked at they’d moved the ball quite well.” 1 Dotti Krist/Daily Nebraskan Dotti Krist/Daily Nebraskan Above: Nebraska defensive end Broderick Thomas chases Missouri kicker Tom Whelihan during a fake kick. Nebraska’s Neil Smith (99), Steven Forch (38) and Tim Rother (78) chase Missouri’s Tony VanZant. NU ‘best team’yet for Tigers — coach By Jeff Apel Senior Kdilor COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri football coach Woody Widcnhofcr has faced four nationally ranked op ponents this season, but said he has no trou Me d isti ng u i sh i ng N ebraska as the best team the Tigers have played. Widcnhofcr said the Comhuskers arc “by far the best team” Missouri has laced because of their “superior” passing and running games. He said the Tigers would remember those two dominant elements when analyzing their 42-7 loss to Nebraska Saturday at Faurot Field. "There is no sense in being upset about this one,” Widcnhofcr said. “This will be a test of how well we can bounce back.” Widcnhofer said Nebraska is “acut above” Indiana, Syracuse and Okla homa Stale — the three other ranked teams Missouri has faced this season. The Tigers lost 20-17 to Indiana, 24 13 to Syracuscand 24-20 toOklahoma State. Widcnhofer said the Huskcrs have too much explosiveness to be beaten by any of those teams. “Without a doubt they (Nebraska) arc very good," Widcnhofcr said. “They arc a great football team." Missouri comcrback Adrian Jones agreed. He said if Nebraska faces Syracuse in the 1988 Orange Bowl: the Huskcrs would win because of their depth. Syracuse became a New Year’s Day bowl contender Saturday by de feating Pittsburgh 24-10. The 8-0 Orangemen’s remaining three games are against Navy, Boston College and West Virginia. “Both Syracuse and Nebraska are good,” Jones said. “But 1 would give Nebraska the edge because they can play everybody with their depth.” Missouri quarterback Jeff Hcn ningsen agreed that Nebraska would defeat Syracuse. He said that while the Orangemen rely heavily on quarter back Don McPherson, the Huskcrs arc more balanced because of their mul tiple weapons on offense and defense. “There’s no doubt about it,” Hen ningsen said. “Nebraska is a dominat ing team.” Hcnningsen, from Omaha, said Missouri’s 11-point loss to Syracuse was “misleading” because the Tigers committed six turnovers in the game. He said the score would have been even if Missouri hadn’t repeatedly stopped themselves. “You can’t win a game that way,” Hcnningscn said. He said the key to Nebraska’s vic tory over Missouri was the Huskers’ ability to overcome two early turn overs. Missouri stopped two Nebraska drives in the first quarter by recover ing a pair of snaps tumbled by Husker quarterback Steve Taylor. “Nebraska showed what type of team it is,” Hcnningscn said. “(Ne braska) came back from the fumbles and showed its size and strength ad vantage.” Widenhofcr said he was surprised by Nebraska’s victory because he didn’t think Taylor could repeat the performance he had earlier this season against UCLA. But Taylor, who threw five touch down passes to lead Nebraska to a 42 33 victory over the Bruins, threw four against Missouri to raise Nebraska’s record to 8-0. “They look advantage of our weak nesses in the pass defense,” Widen hofer said. “We were hoping that we could cover them, but they hit some passes down the middle that hurt us.” Widenhofer said Taylor was suc cessful passing because Missouri used an eight- and nine-man defensive line in hopes of stopping the Husker run ning game. He said that while the defense didn’t allow any Nebraska back to gain more than 90 yards, it failed because of Taylor’s success through the air. “We fell that our only chance to win was to stop the running game," Widenhofer said. “Wedid slop the run early, but they were able to throw on us. Their passing game was superior.”