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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 1994)
By Perak Samson Senior Reporter Nebraska faced extreme adversity for the second straight week. And for the second straight week, the Comhuskers passed the test, improving to 6-0 with a 32-3 win over Oklahoma State on Sat urday. Brook Berringer, making his second straight start for Nebraska in the absence of Tommie Frazier, quarterbacked the Buskers to a 9-3 halftime lead. But Berringer, who went to the hospital af ter suffering a partially collapsed lung in last week's 42-32 win over Wyoming, suffered the same injury during the first half and left the game at intermission. Walk-on sophomore Matt Turman took over for Nebraska in the second half and led the team to a conference-opening win in front of 75,453 fans at Memorial Stadium. Busker coach Tom Osborne said he was pleased with the way his team came out in the second half, especially under the direction of its third-string quarterback. “I thought Matt Turman went in and did a good job under the circumstances," Osborne said. “I thought our offensive line did a nice job and picked up the pace, and our running backs ran well. I think Matt did well with the things he does.” Nebraska racked up 475 total yards, 372 on the ground. l-back Lawrence Phillips exceeded the 1,000-yard mark for the season with a 221 yard performance Saturday. Phillips also scored three touchdowns in the game. But the 32-3 score didn’t reflect Nebraska's offensive performance in the first half. For the second consecutive game, the Husk ers were held scoreless in the first quarter as Oklahoma State took a 3-0 lead — even though Nebraska outgained the Cowboys 120-49 in yardage. Two turnovers kept Nebraska out of scor ing position in the first quarter. The first hap pened on the game’s first drive, when Berringer made a bad pitch to Phillips after the Buskers drove 47 yards to the Cowboy 33-yard line. After the fumble recovery. Cowboy quar terback Tone’ Jones hit Rafael Denson for a 34-yard completion to the Nebraska 13-yard line The Nebraska defense held and forced a 27 yard field goal by Cowboy kicker Lawson Vaughn. On Nebraska’s next possession, Reggie Baul fumbled at the Nebraska 32-yard line after catching a 3-yard pass from Berringer. But Nebraska’s defense forced the Cowboys to punt after setting them back 12 yards with two sacks. “I thought the defense played well,” Osborne said. “I thought particularly defen sively we stepped it up a notch today, and I was pleased to see that happen.” “Everybody on the team knows Matt can get the job done. When we heard he was going in, we started to get more pu mped up.'' m ABDUL MUHAMMAD NU wingback Nebraska’s opening drive of the second quarter resulted in a 2-yard Phillips touchdown run, but Tom Sieler’s extra-point attempt sailed wide left, and the Huskers led 6-3. Despite gaining more than twice as many second-quarter yards as the Cowboys did, Ne braska managed only three more points in the quarter. They came on the final drive of the half to put Nebraska up 9-3. The Huskers drove 51 yards on eight plays in only 1:13 to set up Darin Erstad’s 48-yard field goal with four seconds left in the half. “Any time you turn the ball over like that, it’s disappointing,” Berringer said. “We just need to take care of the ball and keep the of fense going. (The last drive) was important, because any time you’re in that situation, you just try to get the ball down the field, get into field goal range and get points on the board.” Behind the offensive line, Phillips led a Nebraska running attack that began to domi nate the Cowboys in the second half. In its first possession, Nebraska drove down to the Oklahoma State 22-yard line, but Sieler missed a 39-yard field goal to end the drive. The Huskers took their next possession 59 yards in 10 plays, and Phillips' 2-yard run gave Nebraska a 15-3 lead. Turman then connected with tight end Eric Alford in the end zone for a successful two point conversion and a 17-3 lead. After Berringer went out, the Huskers ral lied around Turman, and the sophomore from Wahoo responded. “Everybody on the team knows Matt can get the job done,” wingback Abdul Muhammad said of his teammate. “When we heard he was going in, we started to get more pumped up. He kept his head and made some good passes and ran the option well.” On the Huskers' third possession of the sec ond half, Phillips again finished off the drive with a 7-yard touchdown run to give Nebraska a 23-3 lead. On the extra-point attempt, holder Jon Vedral took a low, mishandled snap and scrambled around before a Cowboy defender wrapped him up. As he was headed toward the turf, Vedral See WIN on 8 Scott Bruhn/DN iw»S»B6ffJKB»AS5ri-r Garik Parmala/DN Left: Nebraska linebacker Clint Brown rounds up Cowboy running back David Thompson as Leonard Alexander rushes up to help. Above: Priscilla Frazier, the mother of Tommie Frazier, watches the halftime show on Saturday. Tommie Frazier Is In the hospital wK5i a blood clot and may be out for Oie season.