By Mitch Sherman
Senior (Reporter
Saturday was a day of firsts for the Nebraska
football team.
Quarterback Brook Berringer made his first
start as a Comhusker, and Nebraska was held
scoreless during the opening quarter for the
first time this year.
The Huskers, who had yet to trail an oppo
nent in 1994, were behind 14-0 in the first
quarter and 21-14 at the half. And for the first
time this season, Nebraska’s monstrous offen
sive line failed to dominate.
But through it all, Nebraska found a way to
win, scraping to a 42-32 victory over 2-3
Wyoming before the 198th consecutive sellout
crowd of 75,333 at Memorial Stadium.
“I can’t say we were flat,” Nebraska coach
Tom Osborne said, “but I don’t think we were
quite as sharp as we should have been. I don’t
think we played terrible football, but we can
play better than that.
“If we don’t play better than that, we will
have a hard time from here on out.”
Second-ranked Nebraska, 5-0, was forced to
punt on five of its first six possessions and
failed to get a first down in the game’s first 12
minutes.
With 8:30 left in the first quarter, Wyoming
freshman quarterback Jeremy Dombek threw a
39-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Harris.
After a Nebraska punt and a fumble by Husker
wingback Abdul Muhammad on Wyoming’s
38-yard line, the Cowboys struck again with a
6-yard touchdown pass from Dombek to tight
end Jeremy Gilstrap.
“When you get down 14-0,” Osborne said,
“you give a team like that tremendous encour
agement. If we had scored first, and things had
gone our way, we might have taken a little
steam out of their sails.”
Two Nebraska punts later, cornerback
Barron Miles intercepted a Dombek pass at the
Wyoming 34-yard line. Then Husker I-back
Lawrence Phillips, who ran for 168 yards on
Saturday, scored from 1 yard out with 5:25 left
in the half.
The Nebraska defense then stopped the
Cowboys, but on the Huskers’ next possession,
Wyoming’s Lee Vaughn intercepted a Berringer
pass at the Nebraska 32-yard line.
A pass interference penalty gave the Cow
boys the ball at the Nebraska 2-yard line.
Wyoming running back Terry Hendricks scored
to give Wyoming a 21 -7 lead with 2:12 to go in
the half.
But then, after Cory Schlesinger’s 16-yard
kickoff return to the Nebraska 36-yard line,
Berringer went to work. The 6-foot-4, 210
pound junior from Goodland, Kan., completed
seven consecutive passes out of the shotgun
and ran the final 5 yards to score before the half
ended.
“We do it every day in practice,” Berringer
said of the hurry-up offense. “We went out, and
pass protection was great, receivers ran great
routes. All I had to do was throw the ball.”
Berringer—who completed 15 of 22 passes
for 131 yards and ran for 74 yards on 12 carries
— said he could detect a shift in momentum.
“When you complete a few passes,” he said,
“and get the defense on their heels, you can
kind of feel the momentum swinging."
He said that in order to keep the momentum,
%
“If we had scored first, and
things had gone our way, we
might have taken a little steam
out of their sails. ”
TOM OSBORNE
Nebraska football coach
it was important for the Huskers to jump on
Wyoming as soon as possible in the second
half.
Berringer took matters into his own hands
on Nebraska’s first drive of the half. He ran for
49 yards on two option keepers, including a 24
yard scoring run to tie the game at 21 with
12:05 to go in the third quarter.
After Miles’ second interception of the game,
a fully extended diving catch at the Cowboy 40
yard line, the Huskers took the lead on the next
play. Phillips ran for 40 yards to give Nebraska
a 28-21 advantage.
Another Nebraska touchdown on a 10-yard
Berringer run gave the Huskers a 14-point lead
with 8:11 left in the third quarter. At that point,
Osborne said, he thought the Huskers had the
game in hand.
1 thought maybe wc wouia take it trom
there,” he said. “Wc didn’t do that, and that
was what bothered me.”
Wyoming wasn’t Finished. Dombck, who
completed 17 of 35 passes for 264 yards and.
two touchdowns, led a Wyoming drive that
ended with Taylor Sorenson’s 40-yard field
goal, closing the Huskers’ lead to 35-24.
Nebraska went three plays and out, giving
the Cowboys the ball with 13:24 to go in the
game. Dombck was injured when Nebraska
linebacker Troy Dumas flattened him, but John
Gustin stepped in to lead the Cowboys on a 13
play, 86-yard scoring drive. A two-point con
version cut Nebraska’s lead to 35-32 with 9:09
to go in the game.
Again, Nebraska couldn’t move the ball.
Then, Wyoming’s Jc’Ney Jackson muffed a
41 -yard Darin Erstad punt, but Damon Benning
recovered the punt at the Nebraska 8-yard line.
Phillips scored on the next play, giving the
Huskers a 42-32 lead and foiling Wyoming’s
upset bid.
“The one thing that was good about today’s
game was that wc had a little pressure on us,”
Osborne said. “Wc had our backs to the wall a
little bit, and if it wasn’t for the fumbled punt
there at the end, it might have been anybody’s
ballgame right down to the wire.”
NOTE:
Nebraska dropped to No. 2 in the CNN/USA
TODAY coaches’ poll. Florida jumped to No.
1 with 34 First-place votes, while the Huskers
had 23. Nebraska remained at No. 2 in the
Associated Press poll.
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Right: Nebraska’s Phil Ellis tackles Ryan
Chrlstopherson. The Wyoming running
back, who came Into the game as the
fifth-leading rusher In the country, was
held to no yards on nine carries Satur
day.
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