Defensive gem
gives Huskers
reason to smile
0
By Nick Hytrek
Senior Reporter
It was domination, pure and simple.
Few other words accurately describe
Nebraska’s 55-0 thrashing of Oklahoma State
Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
The No. 14 Comhuskcrs showed no weak
nesses on cither side of the ball as they im
proved their record to 4-1 and 1-0 in the Big
Eight. Oklahoma State dropped to 2-3, 0-1.
“I thought we played well today,” Huskcr
coach Tom Osborne said. “1 ’ m pleased with the
effort.There weren’tany lapses, which isgood.
In a game like that it’s easy to let down and not
play well.”
Nebraska defensive lack Ic John Parrclla said
k-thc win was nice* but the Huskcrs couldn’t
afford to be satisfied with the effort.
“I think we played fair, but we’ve got some
lough teamscoming upand we’re going to have
to play even belter if we want to win the Big
Eight,” he said. “I think today puls a smile on
your face, but we’ve still got a lot of work to
do.”
Throughout the game, the Nebraska defense
went about its work efficiently and set several
season bests. Among them: •
• The first shutout since a 56-0 win over
Minnesota in 1990. It was the first shutout of a
Big Eight opponent since a 7-0 win against
Colorado in 1988.
• I nc dclcnsc held the Cowboys to 155 total
yards and gave up no passing yards.
• Oklahoma State managed only seven first
downs and was able to cross midfield just once.
Nebraska I-back Calvin Jones, who ran for
176 yards on seven carries, had nothing but
praise for the defense.
“The defense played a tremendous game,
the scoreboard shows it for itself,” Jones said.
“Our defense was kind of down about what
happened in the Arizona Stale game late in that
game and they came out and they showed a lot
of people that they’re one of the top defenses in
the Big Eight, if not in the country.”
Against Arizona Slate, the Huskers gave up
514 yards of total offense and saw a 38-10 lead
shrink to 38-24 in the third quarter.
But against the Cowboys, Nebraska wanted
lo make sure that wouldn’t happen again,
Parrclla said.
“This week we didn’t want lo come out and
have the same thing happen,” he said.
And the Cowboy defense? Well, there was
little it could do to stop the Huskers.
Nebraska rolled up 506 yards—366 rushing
and 140 passing. Husker quarterbacks Mike
Grant and Tommie Frazier each threw two
touchdown passes and were a combined 12 of
22. Nebraska also made it through the game
without a turnover.
“I fell that the throwing was generally bet
ter,” Osborne said. ‘‘We recognize the fact that
we need to throw it better than what we have. I
think this was probably one of our better perfor
mances.”
Grant agreed.
“1 guess (the passing) was more effective
this week than in the past,” he said. “We’ve
been working on it a lot and Coach Osborne’s
been stressing consistency a lot in practice.
“With all the work, it’s nice lo see it work in
the games.”
From the beginning, everything the Husker
offense did worked.
The Huskers took the opening kickoff and
marched 81 yards for their first score, a 5-yard
touchdown pass from Grant to William Wash
ington.
Later in the first quarter, aftcr^a Cowboy
punt pinned Nebraska at its 10-yard line, Jones
burst through the middle of the Cowboys’ line,
broke to the outside and outran two defenders
down the left sideline to give Nebraska a 13-0
lead.
Jones gave all the credit on the run to his
team fifties.
— h
Our defense... showed a lot
of people that they’re one of
the top defenses in the Big
Eight, if not in the country.
-Jones
NU l-back
- —
W W
“On thal particular play, the offensive line
did a great job of blocking,” he said. “You have
to give them a lot of credit.”
It only got belter for Nebraska in the second
quarter. Frazier entered the game and engi
neered another scoring drive. He capped it with
the first touchdown pass of his career — a 42
yard strike to Corey Dixon.
Osborne said one of his plans going into the
game was to give Frazier some playing time
while the outcome was still in question.
“We told him we were going to do thal
because we fell like with him being the No. 2
quarterback, it’s important that he — in this
point in the season — gel a little playing time
when the game isn’t decided,” Osborne said.
Nebraska scored two more limes before
halftime. Grant scored on a 15-yard run and
then hit Trumane Bell with a 14-yard pass in the
corner of the end zone with 11 seconds left in
the half to put the Huskers up 34-0.
Thatscorcbcforchalftimchclpcd the Husker
offense do something it hadn’t done yet. Grant
“After the big lead a lot of times our offense
hasn’t had that killer instinct to pul it away after
the big lead,” he said. “We tried to stress that at
half that we’re not going to let up.”
And the Huskers didn’t.
Nebraska scored twice more in the third
quarter to go ahead 48-0. Jones ripped off a 48
yard scoring run and Frazier hit Gerald
Armstrong for an 8-yard touchdown.
After quarterback John McMillcn scored on
an 11 -yard run to make the score 55-0 in the
fourth quarter, the only thing left to wonder
about was how many people would actually
slick around in the stands for the final gun.
Jones said the win eased concerns the coach -
ing stalf had because of the week off the
Huskers had. . -_' _
“I think one of the things the coaches were
worried about was about having the two weeks
of f,” he said. “During the two weeks off you can
either improve or you can basically throw
everything down the drain.”
Now, Jones said, the Huskers must prepare
to take the best shots from the rest of the Big
Eight teams.
“Since we won the Big Eight championship
last year, I think a lot of teams in the Big Eight
arc going to lest us each week and we’re going
to have to perform and improve each week.”
Julia Mikola|cik/DN
I Clockwise from top left: Oklahoma State linebacker Carlos Erving tackles Nebraska wingback Vincent Hawkins.
Cornhusker l-back Calvin Jones runs away from Erving during one of his two touchdown runs.
Nebraska linebackers Troy Branch (54) and Donta Jones (84) tackle Oklahoma State tailback Mark Williams.
Husker wide receiver Trumane Bell is dragged down by Cowboy defensive back Todd Fisher.
1^
■ , 1 &f*i ' .* ■; fS = ^
, * --U
Shaun Sartin/DN
Nebraska-Oklahoma State
Scoring Summary
Nebraska 13 21 14 7 —55
Oklahoma St. 0 0 0 O—O
~f3BEssii-—~
BNU— Washington, 5 pass
from Mike Grant (Bennett kick)
BNU— C. Jones, 90 run
(Bennett kick)
BNU— C. Dixon, 42 pass from
Tommie Frazier (Bennett kick)
RNU— Grant, 15 run (Bennett
kick)
BNU—TrumaneBell, 14 pass
from Grant (Bennett kick)
BNU—Jones, 48 run (Bennett
kick)
n NU—Gerald Armstrong, 8
pass from Frazier (Tom Sieler
kick)
BNU— Jon McMillen, 11 run
(Sieler kick)
HK Daily Nebraskan