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The Huskers allow
only 122 yards to
pick up their first
shutout of the year.
By Derek Samson
uarterback Tommie Frazier
planted his name in the
Nebraska record book. True
freshman Ahman Green started
at I-back and led the Comhuskers with
90 yards rushing.
But Saturday, the Nebraska defense
was the highlight of the Huskers’ 57-0
shutout of Missouri in front of75,552
fans at Memorial Stadium.
“Defensively, we really did a nice
job,” Coach Tom Osborne said. “It was
really a good performance. Some of the
second- and third-unit guys who don’t
seem to get a lot of practice repetition
seemed to hold up pretty well later in
the ballgame. So overall, defensively, it
was probably our best performance.”
But the offense wasn’t too shabby,
either.
Nebraska totaled 475 yards, compared
to Missouri’s 122 yards.
The Huskers took their first drive 43
yards to the Missouri 3-yard line. The
Tigers, however, denied Nebraska the
score when they stopped Green on a
fourth-down-and-1 run.
That was about the only complaint
coming out of Nebraska’s locker room
after the game.
“That fourth and 1 was bad,”
Osborne said. “Then I started second
guessing myself, thinking, ‘I should have
gone wide,’ or ‘I shouldn’t have done
that. ’ But we did sputter a little bit
offensively at times.”
Missouri’s defensive stand lasted only
two plays on Nebraska’s next posses
sion, as Frazier scored on a 29-yard run
with 7:08 remaining in the first quarter.
After trading punts, the Tigers gained
possession at the Nebraska 35-yard line.
But penalties helped the Tigers move
backwards, and die drive ended when
Tony Veland intercepted a Corby Jones
pass and returned it 43 yards.
But Nebraska couldn’t manage any
points after the interception and again
punted to the Tigers.
Once again, the defense came up
with a big play when Jared Tomich
recovered a Brock Olivo fumble at the
Missouri 27-yard line.
From there, Green and Frazier
combined to rush on all six plays, and
Frazier capped the drive off with a 1 -
yard touchdown run.
On the Huskers’ next possession, Jeff
Makovicka plugged ahead for 28 yards,
and tight end Mark Gilman hauled in a
33-yard pass from Frazier to set up
another 1-yard touchdown run by Fraziei
with 3:00 left in the second quarter.
Osborne said the Tigers’ defense
finally started to wear down late in the
first half.
“Offensively, we were going against
the strongest part of Missouri’s football
team in its defense,” Osborne said.
“Their defense is probably a solid,
respectable defensive unit.”
Nebraska drove the final nail in just
before half time after regaining
possession at the Missouri 38-yard line
with only 25 seconds remaining.
Frazier lofted a pass for Jon Vedral.
The pass was tipped off Vedral and
Missouri defender Clayton Baker and
caught in the comer of the end zone by
split end Brendan Holbein for a
touchdown as time expired. The
touchdown put Nebraska up 284).
“That’s not the way we practiced it,
but I’ll take it,” Frazier said.
The defense came through again at
the start of the second half when junior
Terrell Farley blocked a punt out of the
end zone for a safety and a 30-0 lead
with 9:42 left in the third quarter.
The offense dominated after the
safety, scoring on its next four
possessions.
After the safety, Green finished
Nebraska’s next drive off with a 9-yard
touchdown run, and Frazier followed
with a 6-yard touchdown pass to
Sheldon Jackson the next possession.
The pass gave Frazier five touch
downs on the day (three rushing and
two passing) and 64 for his career,
breaking Steve Taylor’s all-time Husker
record of 62 touchdowns.
Reserve quarterback Matt Turman and
I-back Damon Benning both followed
with touchdown runs to end Nebraska’s
scoring at 57 points.
Missouri didn’t pass the 100-yard
mark in total yards until the fourth
quarter, with a little more than five
minutes left in the game.
Missouri 0
Nebraska 57
